To Whom do you Belong?

[9ersgirl]

Ladies,

Being that we now have our own "garage" to talk in. I'm curious what organizations you all support.

Let me introduce myself. I am Amanda A. Cottrell, Secretary for Twin City Bushwackers (WI), Newsletter Editor of Wisconsin Four Wheel Drive Association , and Administrative Officer for United Four Wheel Drive Association.

As a rule of thumb I try to support my local organizations as well as my state ones. One that I have found to very rewarding is the support to United Four Wheel Drive Association (UFWDA). I became involved with them in 2007 (although a member since 2000) as the Elected Secretary. I then applied for a position they were making available as their Administrative Officer. As you can see I was chosen to fill that position.

The reason I am asking what you all support, is I find it interesting that in general women in this sport are/may be involved in wheeling, they do not many times step up into leader positions.

I am curious who of you are involved in organizations, what those organizations are and what you are involved in. I am also working with Carla Boucher, Legislative advocate for UFWDA to find women in this sport that are working to help support and promote the 4x4 sport professionally. We are looking to "toot" your horn a-bit and are interested possibly including your story in the publication of "The Voice" magazine that is distributed to UFWDA members.

So Lets here it ladies... "toot" your horns....

 

[CandyPants]

Hey Amanda. I am on the Board of Directors of the Georgia Cruisers here in Atlanta. I am the delegate to Southern Four Wheel Drive Association. My profession is environmental consulting and I am currently working with UFWDA and BlueRibbon Coalition on land use issues at the Upper Tellico OHV Area in Tennessee and North Carolina. I am a member of SFWDA and thus UFWDA too. I am also a member of the Upstate Cruisers, which I think is currently the largest TLCA chapter.

I know Carla and think highly of her, so please pass on that I say hello!

 

[9ersgirl]

Thanks much Heather for your post. I will pass it on to Carla. Keep up the Great work!!! I also got to meet Dave L and Bob Y. both from Southern at the UFWDA Convention This week. Wishing you luck with Tellico!

Keep on Truckin!!

Amanda

 

[sirenmoses]

umm, 4wd only orgs? just wondering if you want all affiliations...


I lurk around TLCA (paid dues one year, loved the mag, but was unemployed when renewal time came around & just haven't paid up since) and High Desert Cruisers (work w/the pres.)

Assistant Area Director (AAD) for the (Kawasaki) Concours Owners Group. President of now defunct Atlanta Sirens M/C club, inheirited same title for NM Sirens when I moved back.

Member of Sandia Dog Obediance Club, kinda holding over from when I was active w/agility training and competition.

Also a member of an international fire organization and...






I belong to my doberboys Logan & Will.

 

[DSRTRDR]

member of Copper State Cruisers

I follow Land Use debates with great interest but have not become involved in leadership

honestly, because I have a leadership position and travel a great deal in my professional life and held leadership positions in community organizations for the past 6 years, I enjoy some R&R in my free time and just want to go wheeling

 

[nuclearlemon]

x

i'm ige, i'm vice commander of rising sun and the central distrist vp of the colorado association of 4wd clubs . i'm also incharge of the raffle vehicle build for the coa4wdci,, i run the coa4wdci store, and i'm one of two organizers of rising suns second largest event, the rising sun rally. oh and i'm rising suns delegate to tlca.

the president of our state association is also a woman and more women are getting involved with setting up cruise moab, which definitely helps out mary mcloed, the woman who's kept cruise moab so incredibly oranized for so many years.

i may step down from officer positions next year to try to get work done on my own stuff. i'll still be involved though...if you're not out there fighting for our rights we will lose them...let''s start a revolution.

 

[ginericLC]

I think it is great that you ladies are stepping up and holding leadership positions. I've served with Ige before and she is wonderful to work with. She's a genuine worker! I check in her occasionally just to see what you all are up to. I think that the gals that end up on Mud or Pirates are already more active in their local 4wd community before they show up on the web. And the ones that show up on the web are like superheros. They do it all. I appreciate all of your efforts.

I am also a member of the Upstate Cruisers, which I think is currently the largest TLCA chapter.

Unless things changed radically in the last 10 months there are a ton of clubs ahead of Upstate. Last fall there were only 7 members of Upstate in TLCA whereas a big clubs like PMC had 84 and LSLC had 53 TLCA members in their clubs.

 

[CandyPants]

Unless things changed radically in the last 10 months there are a ton of clubs ahead of Upstate. Last fall there were only 7 members of Upstate in TLCA whereas a big clubs like PMC had 84 and LSLC had 53 TLCA members in their clubs.

Interesting. UC has grown from about 20 people when I joined to over 100 now (closing in on 120 I think). Our president mentioned that we were the largest chapter now. <shrug>

 

[Green Lantern]

Lone Star is in a slump right now. I figure we can count on 60-70 active folks. We are trying to concentrate on new members, their needs and expectations. FWIW, I work very hard to encourage members to bring their families along. Anything we can do to make our club family friendly pays off in a big way.

Congratulations to Upstate Cruisers and keep up the good work!
Happy Trails! N

Interesting. UC has grown from about 20 people when I joined to over 100 now (closing in on 120 I think). Our president mentioned that we were the largest chapter now. <shrug>

 

[ginericLC]

Interesting. UC has grown from about 20 people when I joined to over 100 now (closing in on 120 I think). Our president mentioned that we were the largest chapter now. <shrug>

Wow that is phenominal growth. Are all your members TLCA members too? What caused the growth? I'm curious as the trend for most clubs in the last few years has been waning membership numbers. Maybe it is active females that make clubs grow? I'm serious. Did your grown come from new Cruiserheads, FJ Cruisers, or ??? I'm really interested if you are interested in sharing.

 

[CandyPants]

I am going to find out what the real growth numbers are for you. I know that we are up over 100 now, but the 20 is a guess. Still, you are right, it's amazing growth. And while I'd love to take credit for some of that growth, I think the credit belongs to our current and past Officers and members. It's a good group of folks that are active. We have club related activities every month and people come and enjoy themselves.

I do think that UC has done a really good job reaching out to the new FJ Cruiser folks. Because I have one of those little ugly beauties, I guess I have helped some. Spreading the work over at that other forum has brought a number of people to UC and to MUD.

I am going to ask Marshall, our president, to chime in here too. He knows the demographics we are seeing now and I think he could add some valuable information here.

 

[Trollhole]

Thanks Heather bringing my attention to this thread. I don't get into the Girls Garage much but I think is a great idea.

I'll try to answer some of the questions above. Lots of things going on in UC right now. Membership is growing at a steady rate. Currently we have about 122 current UC members. They are all not members of TLCA. We don't require that you be. Never will as long as I'm president. I would probably guess that half of that number are. Personally I have more things to worry about than keeping up with how many TLCA members we have. We registered 7 just so we could keep our TLCA status. Does it really matter that we have more?

Growth is due to a lot of things. The fact that we unconditionally accepted the FJC into our ranks was one, that we do so many different events and the . We currently have around 25-30 members who own FJC's. They have been a fresh breath of air into the club. Yes, I do go over to the other forum but it is not easy. Mud has been my home for the past 2.5 years. Mud has been one of the reasons we have grown as a club. But one of it's flaws was with some people who could not get over the realization that the FJC was going to be a driving force in it's growth and continually poked and proded them. A lot of people decided that Mud was not the place for them and started going to the other place. This not only hurt MUD but TLCA. It will all eventually come around full circle. But it will take it a while. Until then I will keep posting in the other forum and drawing potential MUD and TLCA members to this forum.

On the ovents side. This is a cut and paste from a post I did on LSLC when they were talking about membership decline.
"My thoughts.
It's very hard to have the something for everyone attitude. But we try. I'm always trying something new. Some stick and some don't. All clubs have issues in my book. Nobody is perfect. But I do try to have events for every type of vehicle. I consider there are 5 classes of club member. They can be any part of the 5 or all of them.

1. Classic club member. Restoring, collecting, talking about anything OEM.
2. Social club members. Willing to go to meeting as well as events.
3. Mild wheelers. Willing to go on mild trails and not interested in tearing up their junk.
4. Hard core. Extreme. Wanting to push the limits. Damage usually happens.
5. Love to camp.

Monthly meetings take care of 1&2
Help a member of the month 1,2,3,4
Expedition trips 2,3,5
Day wheeling trips 2,3,4
weekend wheeling trips 2,3,4,5
non cruiser events 1,2,3,4 (adopt a highway, golf, etc...)

52 weeks in a year

12 monthly meetings Including the annual event.
6 Help a member of the months
3 expedition trips
4 day trips
6 weekend trips
5 non cruiser events.

36 events total. And something for everyone and about 1000 less hairs in my head a month. Events and event planning is what has grown our club. Half of those events we usually don't have a huge participation. But added up monthly for all the events we have a good participation record. Something for everyone."

And to sum it all up we are a club that is not set in stone. Our members do what they want to do. We want you to be happy, comfortable and most of all worry free. A lot of hard work goes in behind the scenes keeping members informed and involved in UC.


I hope this answers some of your questions. If not feel free to PM me or E-mail me.

 

[Green Lantern]

Well written and very practical. I've noticed since I began serving in TLCA that our chapters tend to adjust according to their members. This is as it should be. I'm overwhelmed that Upstate Cruisers is working so hard to provide activities for everybody you have identified. It takes a lot of commitment and work to keep everyone involved. Big thanks and a hearty pat on the back for all that y'all are doing.

To quote our former leader Tony Twiddy, "We don't bird dog folks about all Toyota owners being members of TLCA". We will always encourage everyone to join TLCA and we hope Toyota Trails justifies the cost of membership.
Thanks Marshall!
Happy Trails! N

Something for everyone.

And to sum it all up we are a club that is not set in stone. Our members do what they want to do. We want you to be happy, comfortable and most of all worry free. A lot of hard work goes in behind the scenes keeping members informed and involved in UC.


I hope this answers some of your questions. If not feel free to PM me or E-mail me.

 

[ginericLC]

Sounds like your club has their ducks in a row. I really like how you laid out your 1-5 and have planned events to cater to the needs of each type of member.

What do you do on the Help a Member events?

Thanks for the overview!

I keep inviting the FJ Cruiser folks out on trailrides but they never show up. To be honest, I think they look at my battered truck and are scared. And I've been inviting them on easy runs. The last invitation run we had a stock LX450 with running boards and the only damage he received was soiled floor mats. We still don't have huge amounts of FJs out on the road out west. There are getting to be quite a few stacked up on dealerships lots out here. I was just by a dealer in Powell, Wyoming two days ago that had 4800 off sticker on an FJ plus a rebate from Toyota. A much bigger change than a year ago when you paid a premium. I wheeled with the Trail Team at Rubithon. They were slow on the trail, but I was impressed. There were no other stock rigs out there. Other than that, I have zero experience with them. Any suggestions on how to encourage them without scaring them off?

 

[9ersgirl]

I just wanted to bring the question's back to the top...

Ladies,

Being that we now have our own "garage" to talk in. I'm curious what organizations you all support.

Let me introduce myself. I am Amanda A. Cottrell, Secretary for Twin City Bushwackers (WI), Newsletter Editor of Wisconsin Four Wheel Drive Association , and Administrative Officer for United Four Wheel Drive Association.

As a rule of thumb I try to support my local organizations as well as my state ones. One that I have found to very rewarding is the support to United Four Wheel Drive Association (UFWDA). I became involved with them in 2007 (although a member since 2000) as the Elected Secretary. I then applied for a position they were making available as their Administrative Officer. As you can see I was chosen to fill that position.

The reason I am asking what you all support, is I find it interesting that in general women in this sport are/may be involved in wheeling, they do not many times step up into leader positions.

I am curious who of you are involved in organizations, what those organizations are and what you are involved in. I am also working with Carla Boucher, Legislative advocate for UFWDA to find women in this sport that are working to help support and promote the 4x4 sport professionally. We are looking to "toot" your horn a-bit and are interested possibly including your story in the publication of "The Voice" magazine that is distributed to UFWDA members.

So Lets here it ladies... "toot" your horns....

 

[LandCruisers4Life]

Let me introduce myself. I am Amanda A. Cottrell, Secretary for Twin City Bushwackers (WI), Newsletter Editor of Wisconsin Four Wheel Drive Association , and Administrative Officer for United Four Wheel Drive Association.

You have an unspeakable for an avatar.... a JEEP.

Save us all.

 

[9ersgirl]

Sorry, Yes I know...

We do have land Cruiser(s) that I probably should have as my avatar, but this one was actually all mine. It's currently for sale so that we can restore our '71FJ40 back to Road worthy wheeling condition. Right now it is only Wheeling worthy, and doesn't handle well on the road.

Amanda

 

[ISOLATR]

We at GCC are having our annual club BBQ and I would like to extend an invitation to any IH8MUD members in the area to join us this coming Saturday in Ventura, Ca.

here is the link to our web page flyer.

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