Miata Mailing List: January 1994, Message #58
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   From: Jeff Maurer 
Subject: National/local MCA
   Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 12:02:58 -0500

> I would be curious to hear people's opinions of the club.  I suppose many of
> you folks out there in net.land are members?  Is the club worth it to you?
> Again, I inquire because as of a year and a half ago, it didn't seem
> worth that much to me.  Especially with all the net.wisdom available at my
> keyboard.  What will I get out of re-upping?  Will I have to join the
> national club to participate in regional club activities and get on
> mailing lists?  Does membership make a difference to you in terms of your
> enjoyment of the car?
National MCA is worth it to me for the valuable, albeit infrequent, notes
on recalls, fixes, customizations and coming changes.  I'm also ashamed 
to admit that it's probably worth it to me just for the ads.  There is also 
the lure of discounts with vendors and dealers, although you could 
probably fake your way into a discount anyway, and it doesn't sound like
you go for Miata gewgaws and gimcracks.

Back in '89/90 my wife and I helped form our local chapter.  We wrote the
newsletter, and were pretty active for two years.  Things have tapered since
the arrival of an heir for the Miata, but we've had some enjoyable club trips
and events.  The MCA requires that local chapter members also be national 
members, but again, enforcement of this is difficult, and I doubt that many
local chapters are rigorous about this.

Some local chapters put together track days, rallys and autocross events.
These events are probably the most compelling reason to keep an active
membership.
            _
            /        Jeff Maurer, Staff Analyst
     _  ___/ _ __   Service & Quality Apps, Sequent Computer Systems, Inc.
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