Good discussion everyone. I'd like to answer the question above with some more detail and I'll try my best not to be too long-winded.
We do have to file some paperwork (Chapter in Good Standing Form) and abide by the TLCA rules that Mike laid out in his first post. Regarding Rudy's question, we are allowed to have up to 30% of the members of the club be non-TLCA members and still retain the chapter status as a TLCA chapter. But, as Mike pointed out above, these would be non-Toyota owners, as the TLCA rules require every chapter member that's eligible to be a TLCA member to join TLCA. However, our current HDC bylaws require every HDC member to also be a TLCA member.
In my opinion, the biggest potential downside to remaining an affiliated TLCA chapter is the fact that we must have a delegate (and an alternate for when the delegate can't make it to a meeting). Having done this for the last couple of years, I will admit defeat and declare total burnout.
The chapter delegate must participate in monthly telephone conference calls and get signed up on the "bodreps" e-mail list (Board of Directors representatives list). Up until the last six months or so, this was not a big deal. The monthly calls were typically short, maybe an hour or so, and the e-mails were not that big a deal. Most of the month would be quiet for e-mail traffic, and then a flurry of e-mails as we got closer to the monthly meeting.
More recently, the monthly phone calls have gotten much longer (two hours or more). The e-mail traffic has become totally out of hand. Most days all month long, there may be 50 - 100 or even 200 e-mails a day. Shawn can attest to this, since he is also signed up on the list since he's the President of our club. He told me that his e-mail account has been maxed out to the point where it won't accept any more incoming e-mails.
And it's not just the quantity of the e-mails. There is a lot of bad blood. Several people have gotten mad and quit, just to return a couple weeks later and jump right into the fray again. E-mails about the financial situation of TLCA, e-mails about the raffle truck, e-mails about everything under the sun. People are bad-mouthing each other, and back and forth it goes. I don't want to get into the details here, but I'd be willing to discuss it at the next meeting if anyone is interested.
Ron has served as the alternate delegate this past year, and he told me recently that he has had enough and is planning to step down. He has been a big help participating in conference calls when I have been unable to attend, but I think he is also tired of the bickering and the insane volume of e-mails lately.
Part of the reason that Mike initiated this thread is that he had mentioned an interest in becoming the delegate for next year. I did not want to let him take over this duty without going into it with both eyes open. I have shared a few example e-mail threads with Mike and given him some background, just so he would know what he's getting into. I think it's safe to say that Mike is having second thoughts about being the chpater delegate.
Having said all that, I'm not sure what the answer is. I like some attributes of being a TLCA chapter. Probably the biggest reason is that we are shown in Trails as a NM chapter. That may help new folks find us to join up. Regarding the event insurance, I don't see us taking advantage of that anytime soon, if ever. I totally support HDC members being individual members of TLCA, if they want to. I imagine most of us would continue that, even if we decided not to be a TLCA chapter. I know that I would.
If someone wants to be the chapter delegate going forward, then I would propose no changes to our chapter status. However, I can't imagine who would want to step forward if they understand the background and the current situation.
One possible answer to this quandary: one of the representatives from another chapter proposed the idea of an inactive or "quiet" chapter. This would be a TLCA chapter who is not required to participate in the conference calls or e-mail list, but could remain as a TLCA chapter in the list in Trails, for example. Unfortunately, the current president of TLCA shot down this idea, but it may be worth pursuing further.
If we remain a TLCA chapter, but just don't participate in the phone calls, we run the risk of getting kicked out of TLCA. The TLCA bylaws require a certain percentage of active chapters to be participating in every conference call, otherwise there is no quorum and nothing can be voted on. This has been a problem the last few months and some clubs may be asked to leave for non-participation in the calls.
Personally, I'm glad I've been able to represent our chapter, but I'm ready to drop out of the business of being a TLCA administrator and get back to doing some wheeling - probably the reason that most of us are members of this club.
So much for not being long-winded as I had hoped at the beginning of this message, but I hope this will help our club members understand the current situation. I look forward to more good discussion at the January meeting.
Evan
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