Howdy guys,
I just thought I'd chime in a bit too.
When I joined TLCA back in 1996, it was one of the only sources of information I could find about my new-to-me FJ40. Maintenance and repair articles in TT, plus the ads, made the cost of membership a bargain. Plus I ended up finding out about Windy City Land Cruisers (RIP) because of TLCA, and made a bunch of friends. Times have changed. Now you can get all of the things I got when I originally joined TLCA from a web site.
Many people in UC are very connected with UC, but hardly connected at all with TLCA. I would say the same is true of Rising Sun, the club I have been proud to serve as president the last 3 years. The people you connect with are the folks with whom you wheel, wrench, drink beer, go camping, etc. Those are going to be your best friends, naturally.
One thing I have found is that when you do go to another TLCA event in a part of the country that ain't your home turf, the TLCA connection makes for some fast friendships. I went to Flat Nasty in Missouri last year, and it was great. Met a bunch of cool people.
But back to local vs. national: in our case Rising Sun vs. TLCA. We have about 60 members, and I bet 59 of them would tell you their loyalty would lie with Rising Sun first, then TLCA. That's the way it is. Hell, that's the way it should be.
We still value being connected to the greater Toyota 4WD community through TLCA. We host a couple of yearly events, Cruise Moab and our Rally in August. We often get TLCA members from distant locations to attend, and we make certain they have a great time. We've made great friends from all over the world through TLCA.
Personally, I think there is some prestige that goes with being a TLCA chapter. And I think it's a matter of loyalty as well, but that's just the way I'm wired (and I've been a member for a long time).
It may not be entirely evident what UC gets from being a part of TLCA. But all of us is better than some of us, and we'd sure miss you if you left.
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FYI, it's been a while since TLCA was a west coast deal. If you look at the BOD and contractors, you have quite a few people from Missouri, Colorado, and Texas. Our treasurer is in Iowa. Our admin is in Kentucky. We're all over the place these days.
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Another FYI: Sorry about the broken Land Use link. The TLCA banner on the ih8mud forums needs to be updated (by me, cough cough). The latest Land Use column can be found here:
http://www.tlca.org/trails/2007/0708/opengate.shtml
