If you run a nonprofit group such as an automotive classic car club then you need to be in touch with all of your members and fans. You need a very good website with a forum and a blogging network, and this can be done using perhaps the Ning Blog Network (you can Google that) and a decent "php forum" in conjunction with your website. You will also need to engage your members using social networks such as Twitter, and perhaps Facebook.
Now I understand that many people that own classic cars are of the baby boomer crowd, and they are perhaps the least likely to participate on social networks, but I guarantee you they will be interested if it involves their first love, their classic car. Further, it is recommended that you download one of the classic car apps from The Apple Store, or from the Android App website, perhaps both. There are several good ones. They will alert all your members when you are having a meeting, as well as several apps which alert them to classic car auctions, blue book values, and available parts.
Classic car clubs need to be thinking in the future, even though they are driving in the past. It is amazing when you merge the two how much you can do, things which you could have never done before. I can remember rebuilding my first classic car (1954 Chevy Truck) and there was no Internet, and chasing parts meant rummaging through hundreds and hundreds of acres in various junkyards. Trying to accumulate the parts I needed using a pair of vise grips, channel locks, small crowbar, and WD-40 to get the rust off. Things just aren't that way anymore, as you can order parts online on eBay, and through classic car online networks.
My advice to you is not to be shy when it comes to harnessing this technology, and it doesn't mean that you need to have your members put additional holes in the center console to hold an iPad with a GPS app. You can still leave the eight track player in the center console of your 1959 Stingray, but everything else about your car club should keep up with our information age, and you should take advantage of all the social networking tools to help your car club prosper and grow.
Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it. If you have any other great suggestions for future articles, please shoot me an e-mail, let's talk.
