I’m beginning to have a greater appreciation for the folks in our club who started Scenic City Volks Folks. I say that because I am in the middle of starting a VW club here in Burlington, NC.
When I left Chattanooga late last summer I immediately felt the burden of a loss. I had lost the fellowship with other VW enthusiasts. Oh, I still maintain a relationship via our web forums and through email and putting together this newsletter, but somehow it just isn’t the same as getting together once a month with like-minded individuals and talking, joking and planning events over a meal then hanging out in the parking lot afterwards.
Upon my arrival in the Tar-heel state I discovered that the closest VW club was 45 minutes away in Greensboro - the Good Ole Volks club. I joined and went one time. The people I met were great people but the club meetings is nothing more than a cruise-in which is fine, but for the drive I wanted more bang per gallon.
After a couple of months I met a few local VW enthusiasts and the idea was born to start our own club here in Burlington. In January we had our first meeting -five of us (counting a 9-year-old and a baby). We agreed to get together monthly as well as have a monthly cruise-in at the local Sonic.
We also decided on a name for the club - the Carolina VolksFolks.
Our meeting this month more than doubled the participation because we’ve had a couple of responses off of flyers we left on VW’s around town. We ended up with seven adults. We also got our meeting listed in the papers community calendar.
All the ingredients seem to be there for the formation of a formidable VW club - local interest (North Carolina has a whole lot more air-cooled daily driver VW’s than the Chattanooga area does), a local VW dealership with at least two employees who are vintage VW buffs and plenty of community opportunities for a VW club to become involved in. We’re even discussing caravanning to Bug-A-Palüza and hosting our own show next year.
The whole idea of putting together a VW club seems pretty daunting at times, especially because I can’t help but to look to the Scenic City Volks Folks as a model to build and aspire to.