Joe Goss, age 53

Wife, Boni and two grown children Amy and Patrick. Both children have antique cars and each a daughter ( yep I'm a grandpa).

I have lived in North Central Indiana, Lafayette, all my life and grew up believing a 1939 Chevrolet of a neighbors would be my car some day, and it was. My daughter still owns that car, which took us on many local non- AACA activities. My wife has had the misfortune of me having the car 'sickness' since before I knew her, so the hobby has been a large part of our lives. My children grew up with many 'extra' uncles with our car friends. They grew up with older people being a part of their lives and I believe benefited from the association. I joined AACA around 1973 ( I'm not really sure) and at some point let my membership lapse. I later started going annually to Hershey in 1982 and rejoined AACA and soon became a life member. I have had many different cars through the years and in the last decade have moved towards touring with brass era cars. I still have newer antiques to go with the local clubs. Here is the present list. 1907 Cartercar roadster ( a long ago AACA 1st), another 1907 Cartercar, this time a touring under restoration, A 1911 Empire sporty roadster, a 1930 Model A  Ford hillbilly pickup, 1930 Ford Briggs fordoor ( Boni's car), 1923 Franklin sedan, 1967 Mustang convertible. We are mostly active with the non-AACA associated Lafayette, IN Historic Auto Club, and tour with the various brass car groups. We also belong to many other clubs and regional groups and often move in and out of activity with these as time and friendships allow. I also was very active in the Boy Scouts of America and am a Council Commissioner. I recently have upgraded a long time restoration skill, by buying 'Woodgrain by Estes" and moving the equipment to Indiana. I now have less time for other things and have started concentrating on the business and I hope to learn to lessen my projects.

We have a group of couples that we go to Hershey with every year and make it a social event. I enjoy the club magazine, but an occasional regional meeting or Snappers tour is all I have ever done with AACA other than Hershey.

Perspective of Joe Goss

Jay,

I perused your efforts, and either you must be enjoying getting out and talking to folks or getting discouraged, I'm not sure which..

I find that in any club the key is having some people that either are or can be made to be friends interested in doing similar things.

I don't care much for shows, but I love touring and swap meets. Hence I go to swap meets and on tours with local folks for the generic car events and with more long distance friends for the brass era or single mark events.

I think a key connection to get more members is through those members that we already have and their families. I have started getting my kids to not live vicariously through me for their club connections, but rather to start belonging on their own. They will better develop their own liking of clubs, but still attend and do things with the family. I suppose it is sort of a pushing them out of the nest, but I'll show up any time my kids want to work on a car or need a car brought to an event at work or church. Family members are a key element to continuation of the hobby.

Back to doing things with friends. We need to have the program that they like to attend. This may mean making it easy for freelance events that sort of just come together. The key here is communication, so that the most people possible have the option of attending without creating a burden on those putting it together.

Also there are many clubs that have no affiliation with a national club.

Many such as the Lafayette Indiana Historic Auto Club, Inc. that I belong to, are very strong. I would guess that 95 % are AACA eligible and only 10 % belong. I think having a sub group within these clubs that belong to a national club might work. If you bring your national club magazine and some applications along that might spur interest. So maybe distributing applications along with a sample magazine to meetings of other clubs could work, especially if presented by a member. These are just some ramblings to get started. Joe Goss