Old issues of Camaro Enthusiast

[LS6 RAT]

BillD.

I think the Mooreheads may have sold the club membership to the now Worldwide Camaro Association. The reason why, did not hear. I have all my issues since becoming a member and I refer to them quite often, they were GREAT!!!

[ProdigyCustoms]

Have not been on the board for a while, but it seems I am best qualified to answer the question. Long story short, As hard as we tried on the marketing side to build membership, USCC just could not maintain more then 6000 to 7000 members. We did some killer promos, like giving away a Z28 just for joining, did it through a huge vendor and got 10,000 new members, but very few renewed, and back to the 6000 to 7000 number. We did a direct mailer in 1993 to every buyer of a new 93 Camaro, about 90,000 mailers, got 10,000 members and fell back to the same 6000. Interesting enough, you mention NCOA, we tried to buy NCOA, which was also stuck at 5000 members. At the time Mark wanted a fortune, but Doug was willing to make the investment if we could have got over just a couple tiny details, hoping to combine the two club memberships. Then we could produce a Camaro / Chevelle magazine and get enough members so Doug would not have to write checks every month to keep USCC open. Which he did. I scares me to think how much Doug spent trying to keep USCC alive!
Combine all these financial woes with the editorial staffs inability to produce the magazine on time, and some other internal problems, and the club was Given away, for free, for nothing more then a promise to fulfill the membership. By this time I had been off the payroll for a year or so and running my other business, and had been consulting for Ken as needed. I have no first hand knowledge of went down after the giveaway of the club, but it is rumored it that a year or so later, the club was again given away, this time to Classic Chevy, which was later bought by Ecklers.
It was a damn shame the club couldn't grow. We really did some fantastic research. I personally am very proud of some of things I was able to do. We busted a lot of codes, dating sequences and VINs, restoration details, inspection markings, tags, finishes, and brought judging to new levels. But in reality, the club was probably domed anyway as the Internet boom was just around the corner. Excellent boards like Yenko.net and others like it, have taken things to new levels of public awareness, for free!

[68TopStock]

Frank,

Thanks for sharing the imput about the club. I was a member for several years, and learned a whole lot by reading those Camaro Corrals. At the time I was in my mid thirty's, starting a family, and when I started reading about the '67 Z28 that was found out in CA, and eventually ended up in HI, it planted a seed for the desire to have one. Was Jerry M. involved somewhat also? It was a time when a lot of reference books were also being written, so alot happened, interest wise, because of all the hard work by the club leadership. What became of the Doug and Ken?

[BillD]

Frank, Thanks for the info. Magazines are still a great reference and nobody has ever done a better job than you guys describing component finishes. Did a car in the mid to late nineties and absolutely drove the paint shop crazy with all the different gloss levels on black painted parts under hood and chassis.

[ProdigyCustoms]

Jerry was a valued advisor for the club, but never a priciple of the club. After the sale of Classic Chevy International, Doug was semi retired before Camaro Club and is I guess what you would call semi retired again. I saw him a few days ago as his LS6 needed a little attention. He tells me he is going back to school to finished his masters. Ken is working and enjoying raising his son.

On another note, it looks like Doug may sell his beloved LS6. He has not had it out in a few years. It will be interesting to see if he actually parts with it, he has had it since 83 or so. In the meantime, I have it for a while playing with it, making sure shake the cob webs off and keep it cleaned out!

Thanks for the magazine compliments, I am in the process of scaning that stuff and posting it on our site.

[Belair62]

Frank...invite them to come on over to Yenko.net and they can help out a lot more people once again..

[ProdigyCustoms]

Ya know, funny enough, Doug never was a very technical guy, he was the business side. And Ken really has no heart for the hobby anymore, and has probably forgotton anything he learned. Quite honestly, with the inernet, we all learn form you guy's now.

[70 copo]

[ QUOTE ]
Frank...invite them to come on over to Yenko.net and they can help out a lot more people once again..

[/ QUOTE ]

Belair,

Many of us have been here since 2000. In 97-99 I was the USCC 2nd generation technical guy and in charge of certified original class for judging. As I recall Brian Henderson and the SCW guys were doing first generation Diamond Class judging also at that time.

Phil

[Belair62]

I had no idea ! I didn't really know what a Camaro was ! I only knew it would fit in the trunk of one of my cars !