Why isn’t this a TLCA Club (2 Viewers)

[MOadventures]

Why isn’t this an official chapter? Going on the eclipse trip that I previously posted about and I’ve had someone else ask me that question. I didn’t know the answer. I’d guess because there isn’t enough local support for it. But I don’t know everyone so maybe I’m wrong. Considering no one even responded at all to the eclipse post maybe this group is dying.
Help fill me in with what I don’t know.

Thanks
Dan

 

[71fj40cruiser]

That is a difficult question to answer. It has always been more of a group of guys getting together to wheel/overland or whatever. Never any official meetings, dues or such. Maybe someone else with more insight will chime in.

As far as the eclipse trip, I actually will be at Hot Springs park the weekend of March 30. Its a little to far to make consecutive trips. It is a great park. I really enjoy it.

 

[REKCUT]

I started this club along with @Marty Moose . At the time I was an officer with the Greene country cruisers and their TLCA rep. There were many discussion about what is required to be an official TLCA club and what we were willing to do. TLCA was having money issues at that time but were not willing to enforce the required membership of club members to also be paid TLCA members. My side of the discussion was that you either need to enforce the rules or remove them. Either require official TLCA club members to be paid TLCA members or remove the requirement from the by-laws. The latter being the route I would have gone. Toyota chapter bylaws state that all Toyota 4x4 owner members must become TLCA members for the club to become a chapter. At the time of this many, if not most of the chapters were not enforcing this requirement.

Long story short, I did not see any advantage or benefit in being an official TLCA chapter and I personally felt it was hypocritical to have an active requirement that was not being followed by TLCA management.

We also were not interested in having a pizza and beer club that meet every 3rd Thursday at a local bar.

We set this up as a group of Land Cruiser enthusiasts that actually went out an used the trucks. I think there are less than 20 members since inception and 10 families or less that are active. We use to use this form more but now it's mostly group text among the most active. If you were on the group text and you had to listen to how many times my phone will chime with notifications then you would know we are active. We do 15 or more weekend trips each year and several long distance trips. We used to go to several TLCA events each year but I personally enjoy getting out and exploring more than big group meetups. We require someone to actually trail run with at least 2 members 2 or more time to be considered a member.

In the end we are just a group of friends that enjoy our trucks and each other. @MOadventures feel free to message me on any other questions or keep posting here.

 

[REKCUT]

As far as the eclipse trip id say 2 things. #1 I think myself are @71fj40cruiser along with @PACK MULE are the only semi regular posters on this forum along with a couple of others that are not "official " members. #2. I personally don't enjoy offroad parks anymore. I have done all the local ones and have really gotten past my rock crawling days. We live an an area with so many off-road trail areas that you can come close to running all of them from the Current river and jacks fork river areas to northern Arkansa and the buffalo river area. It keep going south down below I40 and over into Oklahoma. That's what the majority of us enjoy although Jim an Jason do love the park challanges

 

[MOadventures]

As far as the eclipse trip id say 2 things. #1 I think myself are @71fj40cruiser along with @PACK MULE are the only semi regular posters on this forum along with a couple of others that are not "official " members. #2. I personally don't enjoy offroad parks anymore. I have done all the local ones and have really gotten past my rock crawling days. We live an an area with so many off-road trail areas that you can come close to running all of them from the Current river and jacks fork river areas to northern Arkansa and the buffalo river area. It keep going south down below I40 and over into Oklahoma. That's what the majority of us enjoy although Jim an Jason do love the park challanges

As far as the eclipse trip id say 2 things. #1 I think myself are @71fj40cruiser along with @PACK MULE are the only semi regular posters on this forum along with a couple of others that are not "official " members. #2. I personally don't enjoy offroad parks anymore. I have done all the local ones and have really gotten past my rock crawling days. We live an an area with so many off-road trail areas that you can come close to running all of them from the Current river and jacks fork river areas to northern Arkansa and the buffalo river area. It keep going south down below I40 and over into Oklahoma. That's what the majority of us enjoy although Jim an Jason do love the park challanges

Yeah I have zero interest in parks. This will be my first one. Craig Stauber speaks highly of it from AR Razorbacks. But I’m taking my family on this trip with me and I don’t want to be stuck out on a crowded trail without a good campsite or viewing spot for the eclipse. With the influx of people they’re expecting for the event in the state, I want to do what I can to make sure my wife and daughters have a good time on the trip and a good camp spot. So Hot Springs ORP with a group of Yotas seems like a good way to do it. I know there’s lots of trails and lots of places to go, hopefully we’ll hear some good stories from other people about their eclipse trip.

 

[MOadventures]

I totally get not wanting to go out with large groups. I’ve gone out with the Mark Twain Mafia a few times and that’s enough for me. I was all set to go out with Marty and you or whoever else a couple years ago but then we had a snow day and I had to work Saturday. Thanks Glazier (my employer at the time). I already had the pin for the first nights camp and everything. Anyways. Good to get the low down on the club here. I wasn’t entirely sure what the deal was and Craig told me I should start a TLCA club. Which I know I’m definitely not the guy for and figured there was a reason why you or someone else didn’t already.

 

[REKCUT]

If you want to start a TLCA chapter. more power to you. From what I can see in the surrounding areas it doesn't have much traction. If you check out the boards all the surrounding states are fairly inactive on the forum. KC has a steady amount but the others are fairly unused like OK, STL, AR, Iowa. Texas and Mississippi have very active use and so does the western US.

My personal feeling is the people in this part of the county enjoy the folks they hang with but not really active outside of that. Doesn't mean you can't change that. Also board use does not always translate to real life usage