Should I be a chapter member?

[Larry Boden]

Living in British Columbia were there are no NCRS chapters I have been satisfied with just belonging to the NCRS. However, now the my 60 is finished and ready for judging my closest chapter is the Northwest chapter. Now my question is, do I need to be a chapter member in order to participate in their events? For instance, they have a meet coming up sometime in March that I would like to be part of but I don't see a posted in Driveline, and yet I know that there is a chapter publication that I don't get which has more details. Is the NCRS structured in multiple levels? And what does this imply when competing in other regions. IE: regionals and nationals.


Regards Larry Boden

[Michael W.]

Re: Should I be a chapter member?

Larry,


As membership director for the Quebec Chapter my immediate answer to your question is to encourage you to join a chapter. We'd be glad to have you as our left coast correspondant :-) Personally, I get just as much enjoyment out of Chapter activities as I do out of National stuff. The advantage of course is that my chapter is right on my doorstep and most other members are within a 50 km radius.


To answer your question about multi-level organisation, I guess yes, that is true. The chapters each organise and hold their own chapter meets, with seemingly unlimited offers of support from the national level. Generally you try not to have a date conflict with neighbouring chapters and also try to go their events to help out.


The regional meets are applied for a few years in advance, and national chooses which chapter(s) get to hold a regional on their home turf. We are hoping to hold our first regional in June 2001. It is considered an honour to be chosen to hold a regional, we have our fingers crossed.


National meets are the ultimate step, we're not ready to go for that yet!


As far as I know, you do not have to be a chapter member to attend or have your car judged in a chapter meet.


You bring up some very valid points and I hope others will add their thoughts. First, how come the Northwest Chapter is not advertising their event? Geez, it's free in Driveline! Second, I know there are a lot of Vettes in BC. When are you guys going to organise a chapter? Next, have you contacted the Northwest Chapter? Go to the contacts page look them up!


Mike

[Terry M.]

Re: Should I be a chapter member?

Larry,


As Mike indicated you do NOT have to be a chapter member to attend and participate in chapter events. Unfortunately many chapters do not take advantage of their free advertising space in The Driveline, so unless one is a chapter member you will not know of the event.


There is a great network of support to be had at the chapter level. In most cases that support is dependent on proximity to the chapter, but there can be exceptions. I know a number of USA folks have gone far out of their way to help people in far-flung locations.


The chapter support usually consists of technical/how to seminars, tool loan and opportunity to contact folks who have been there and done that, and paid their dues along the way. The latter, in today's electronic age, is NOT dependent on proximity.


Yes NCRS is multi layered. I don't know geography (that was not one of my better classes) well enough to know how far you are from the hub of activities in the North West chapter, but contact them and ask. You have nothing to loose and everything to gain.


Terry

[Greg Anderson]

Re: Should I be a chapter member?

Larry, The NW Chapter meet is July 7-9 in Winthrop, WA at the Sun Mountain Lodge. I assume it has not been in the Driveline yet because it is still quite a few months away. There will also be a Chapter meeting Saturday, Feb 12 after the Corvette/High Performance Swap Meet in Puyallup, WA. For more info, contact Carl Davidson (pres.) at DAVCARL@aol.com.


Greg #30666.