Has any chapter ever combined with a Model A chapter?

[DHort]

As some chapter's get smaller due to members dying off, has any chapter ever considered joining up with a Model A chapter? You could have a joint newsletter. Combine costs of meetings. Have bigger tours. Have more people available to work on cars. etc.

Would it even be allowed? Ins issues, etc. Just sitting here thinking outloud.

[Daisy Mae]

I have a T & A, and would love that....problem being there's not a local chapter for either of those two.... odd...given FL being retirement land...you'd think there would be a bunch of cars and interest....but no...
And the only A I know in the area is a Shay!

[VinTin23]

Probably just a matter of time. Although not on an official level, I’ve seen combined tours and events with some of the smaller chapters.

[signsup]

It's gotta happen some day. One of my other groups is military vehicles and I own a Packard as well. The T affiliate in GA is not only very small, but has members from nearby states, so travel is involved to keep the hobby going. The Packard group combines meetings and tours with Nash, DeSoto and other small groups. And my MVPA group will hold a joint meeting with another military group, The Mighty 8th in Atlanta where we will have a joint presentation, a shared meal and then split off to hold our seperate meeting. Shared expenses and shared interests.
And as far as events, we have joined forces with gun shows, flea markets and VFW car shows or other veteran related events. Our numbers are just too small to justify the expense and effort to do things just on our own.

As far as T's are concerned, I can see the day where "pre war" or Ford Only groups are created to join forces.

It's an aging hobby as are most. Quilt guilds, car collectors, antique dealers, etc. are facing challenges. Just look at your church membership roles.

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Dave, respectfully playing Devil's Advocate in this, what would you feel would be the value or reasoning? Is the reason for a merge to save money on paying two club's dues? I would think that most national clubs would want to require the majority of the local chapter's members to also be a member of the national clubs too for the insurance. So what is the financial gain there? Most local clubs allow guests to attend their meetings without being a member, -and most even allow a limited participation with their club without being a member. I'm definitely not suggesting your idea is a bad one, ...but just trying to understand some reasons why the two clubs would need to merge.

Let me leave you with this perspective. For ones of us who have been around the old car hobby for many years, we have seen many hobbyist get old and age-out. There generally has always been someone younger to buy the aged-out member's Model-T and enjoy it. So is the real reason of declining local club membership because of the lack of perceived value? Maybe also a lack of hosting or promoting family events for club participants?? My son is involved with several others in starting the MTFCI 'Fordy & under' chapter. They are having a tremendous responses to this which shows there is a huge interest in younger folks getting involved in the clubs. Hobbyists will join as new club members providing there is a perceived value for them or their family.

[Norman Kling]

One of our former members from San Diego has moved to Kerrville Texas. They have a club with both Model T's and Model A's. They also have both kinds of cars. I don't know whether their club recognizes other makes and years. It is an independent club not affiliated with the MAFCA. Here the Horseless carriage club admits the older T's. Sometimes we have joint tours with that club. Main thing is to realize our cars are not as fast as some others so we avoid the freeway s and expressways and tour the back roads. So any joint tours need to be on roads where we can go slower and space ourselves so that faster cars can pass.
Norm

[Jerry VanOoteghem]

To answer the original question, "Yes".

https://countryroadscarclub.com/

[1925 Touring]

Probably just a matter of time. Although not on an official level, I’ve seen combined tours and events with some of the smaller chapters.

This is what we do with our clubs. We tour together sometimes, but still have separate clubs and meetings etc.. works well for us. For the sake of the future of the hobby, it may become more common. I like it, i get to meet new people and see new cars.

[varmint]

Our local AACA was hosting a car show some years ago and the local Model A club showed up. There being no Model T club in New Orleans, I asked if I could hang out with them. They said, "Yes".

[Steve Jelf]

When I escaped a metropolitan area of over eight million people and came to a rural county in Kansas, population under 30,000 at the time, the only choice of a local car club for real antiques was a region of AACA, open to all makes. I later learned that there were only two Model T clubs in the entire state, and attending functions of either required a drive across several counties. Our local AACA group included Fords, Buicks, Oldsmobiles, even a Brush. We drove in the annual fall parade, went on a few short tours, and even staged an annual swap meet. But time marches on. Eventually all the old timers reached their limit. Some died and the heirs sold their antique cars. Many had been club officers several times over the years. Finally those old timers who remained had had enough, and they quit. There just weren't enough younger people to keep it going. Today we have the Flatland T's mostly in the Wichita area and points north, and the Southeast Kansas T's, covering the southeast part of the state. The Kansas City group, mostly across the state line in Missouri, is simply too far away for me to get involved.

I expect the situation here is found in a lot of other rural areas across the country. To establish a club and keep it going requires those few people who are willing and able to get up and do what needs to be done. Without those few key people, I believe consolidation will increasingly become the only option for local clubs.

[CatGuy]

Just curious as to how far most of you travel to attend a club. I've thought about joining a Model A or Model T club, but with my schedule I couldn't be very involved since the clubs are all an hour or more away.

[kmatt2]

Here in the Fresno California area there is a Horseless Carriage Club, a Model A Ford and Early V8 Ford Club, but no Model T Club. Over the years I tried several times to form a T club, but there was no interest. The club that worked in Fresno for post brass Model T’s was called, Roaring Twenties Car Club, which was actually a misnomer. The members of Roaring Twenties Car Club had all different makes of cars from the late teens to the early thirties. Like others my age that have been around Model T’s going back to the mid 1970’s , some health issues and other interests have kept me from local car club membership at this time, but I still enjoy using my old cars from model years spanning from the nineteen teens to the late nineteen sixties .

[signsup]

I joined a club one time that advertised T and A's, but it wasn't what I thought.

Just a bunch of old cars.

[Craig Leach]

Ok since the wife was cleaning & left my soap box in plain sight. First all antique & vintage car clubs a are suffering from age related issues
as we are all getting older & the up coming generations will only be interested in old cars if they are a App on the phone. If you find a young
person that shows interest do everything you can to mentor them. If not for the hobby's sake it will maybe very rewarding for you.
As far as combining clubs we tend to be the most divided bunch of hobbyists there is. If you go to a Saturday night cruise you will find most gather
in segregated groups & don't inter communicate with our own people if they are not into the same $h!t that we are. Muscle cars over here &
tuners over there. Have any of you been to a lowrider event? Ya I'm not into that either but we could all learn from them they bring out 3 or 4
generations of family & enjoy the times.
One of the clubs I belong to just had a speedster run & we have a other class to include as many as possible, this year we had a hand full of model
A's & a Bugatti
Some of the issues now days are less people willing & able to plan & execute an event and the rising costs of putting on a event ( Hotel, gas, &
food ) Also the issue of combining different driving speeds. A's cruise at a faster speed than most T's do. Let the faster folks go ahead & meet at
the next stop. You will be surprised @ how close the arrival times are. Cost wise finding Hotels that discount rates during the week to boost
occupancy will help both parties & most of us are retired or have lots of vacations days saved up. Finding a restaurant that is looking for patrons
in the middle of the week and @ less busy times will save on having to plan expensive banquets. The down side of during the week events is not
getting tied up in rush hour traffic so you may have to start latter & end earlier. Thanks for letting me through ideas out there.
Craig.

[varmint]

Speaking of Model T membership...I just renewed mine for another year today.
If you never have, I recommend it.

[DHort]

Brent, thanks for being the Devil's advocate.

I was thinking in terms of locations where there are not enuf owners to establish a T club or an A club. Say there are 3 T owners and 2 A owners that live relatively close to each other. They could form a chapter that includes T and A owners. They are both Fords. They could have one newsletter that has articles about both cars. One website. The T owners join MTFCA or MTFCI and the A owners join MAFCA, and the chapter is considered a 'Combined T's and A's' chapter. Would one of the national chapters be willing to look into whether or not they could have insurance as a combined chapter. Maybe that would require a small charge. I do not know.

I am just thinking of areas where there are not enough owners to create a chapter with one club.

If you have a tour you can all meet at the same place for the start. Then the A's go one way for a 60 mile tour and the T's go another direction for a 30 mile tour and you meet for lunch. Then you all go to a museum or place of interest together. Maybe 2 places. Then you reverse and drive back to the start separately so both groups get a good drive. When you follow township lines it is really easy to have a long and short run at the same time.

We have a few members in our club that no one has ever seen, but they send in dues. All they get is a newsletter.

The clubs are always looking for new members and this might be one way to get someone to join who wasn't interested before because they are so isolated. What is the chance that someone on the board would even bring this up?

[signsup]

With five members, under the 20/80 rule, one members is President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Newsletter Editor, Social Media Editor, Sargent at Arms, Chaplan, Membership Chair, plus doing all the Secretary of State filings, IRS filings, ordering club shirts, orgainizing tours and events and just plain old answering the phone calls and emails.

Don't ask me how I know. My wife is an angel.

[jsaylor]

The Mother Lode Mode T Club in Auburn California has members who own both T''s and A's and other brands like Dodge & Buick and some who only have Model A's. They pay dues like everyone else. On local tours the T's go first and A's and other brands go last unless the A is the tour leader. Its never been a problem.

[OilyBill]

The Ford V-8 club members, the Model T club Members, and the Model A Club members in Tucson all have their meeting on the same night, the first Tuesday of each month, and run the meetings one after the other, all in the same place. Since many members belong to all three groups, a lot of people just show up at the start and sit through all 3 meetings, especially since a lot of the activities are joint club activities with all three clubs participating.

I suppose we could shuffle our seats around in between meetings, but that sounds like a lot of work. But I DO get up to go to the refreshment table for the snacks!



Seriously though, I was in the Old Pueblo Regional Group of the HCCA since it's founding in the early 80's. At one time, we had about 70 members. We even hosted a HCCA National Convention one year, and some of our members were either VP in the HCCA or served terms as HCCA President. We had several members who also served on the HCCA board. We toured in our brass cars about every other month. Time and age decimated the club, and I think there are now only 6 surviving members left alive, and the group disbanded years ago, due to not enough members to even keep the minimum staffing required by the HCCA to keep the group viable. Many of the members cars are still in Tucson, but they have only been stored and have not been driven on the road in years.

It is fortunate that the local (and NATIONAL) Model A and Model T clubs still have vitality, and still generate new memberships with enthusiastic members. The Model T and Model A clubs are probably some of the select clubs that can actually keep going in an increasingly aversive environment. Both of them are extremely popular cars, still today.

[Mark Osterman]

In regards to younger people interested in model T Fords here is a 21 year old who lives in the 1920s. All his clothes are actually 100 years old. He is a jazz music major at Eastman School of Music. I regularly give him driving lessons in our large Mount Hope Cemetery here in Rochester, New York. He is not the only one too … get out and show younger people how much fun these old cars ate to drive and maintain. The picture shows Gavin and his girlfriend Anna in my 1923 runabout.

[babychadwick]

It's easy to have a variety of cars and one could find themselves members of many clubs without even coming across a local club. Your T might put you in MTFCA, MTFCI, AACA, HCCA, and others. When there is a tour or event frequently other makes or years might be allowed in.

2023 we participated in a "motorcamp" where there was a cutoff year of '35 more due to cars becoming more modern. There was an A, a Studebaker, Ts ranging from 12-26, and our Buick. In our opinion events like this are the future. There is a little show, driving/touring, and camping. Overall an opportunity to enjoy the cars on something like a tour without the cost of a hotel.