I am holding a Father's Day Car show here in Marietta, GA. I am using the occasion to start a new classic car club. I have an idea about the events that a car club has like drives, shows, tours, and education. What about the monthly meetings? What goes on in terms of regular activities? What do you guys do? I have until June to come up with an agenda for monthly meetings. Otherwise there is no sense to having monthly meetings. One idea I had was to feature one of the members restored rides and have them tell the story of their restoration. I would appreciate the benefit of your experience.

When I was in our local Corvette club,we drank beer and complained about the other members.:D

We talk about shows we've attended, upcoming events, our Annual Show in June and open the floor to anyone who might have something interesting to tell us. Good luck.

I've been involved in 2 start-ups and neither has survived. One fizzled because of personality conflicts that were obvious to everyone else who stopped coming to things because of not wanting to be subject to it and meeting after meeting were spent arguing about bylaws and who had the authority to make what decisions, rather than sharing a common interest in the hobby. The other fizzled because we tried to take in too much geography, making it a royal pain to have meetings, attend events, etc. This was compounded by the treasurer admitting he used club funds to buy himself some rare coins - then had the 'nads to wonder why no one wanted to be around him!

Both lasted 2-3 years before dying.

Good luck with starting yours and recognize going in that there will only be a handful of people who will take an active interest in it and the responsibility for planning and getting people out to the events, etc will reside with that small group. But then that's the way all volunteer groups, clubs, etc work, regardless of the focal point.

Thanks for the feedback guys. It is not only important to find out what works, but also what doesn't. Sounds like a formal process to have a charter is a real bummer and not needed. Sounds like ACTIVE activities work best. I am not a fan of meetings without purpose. I would rather gather for an activity that would be of interest to others, like, how did you restore your car or where did you find it.