DEVELOP INTEREST
The first step in forming a four wheel drive club is to develop interest.
The best place to begin is with yourself and a few friends who are equally
interested in four wheel drive vehicles. Excellent possibilities for
new members are persons who have an interest that can best be served
by four wheel drive. Among these are hunters, fishermen, camera enthusiasts,
and rock hounds, just to name a few.
THE FIRST GROUP
But before you start securing members, get your club going with a small
group of interested and dedicated people. It is far more important that
the club have enthusiasm for its beginning than a large membership.
If the initial group is right, the club will grow on its own inertia.
ESTABLISH A PURPOSE
Your first formal meeting will be long and technical. But nothing you
do that night will be more important than the reasons you determine
are the purposes for your club. These will be written in your constitution
and will establish the character of your club. A sample of a few of
the purposes might go like this:
- To promote the sport and past time of four wheel drive travel
in all phases.
- To enjoy and protect the natural resources and support the Multiple
Use Principal as applied to public land.
- To promote interest in the ownership and driving of four wheel
drive vehicles.
- To promote, organize and hold outings, meetings, runs, excursions,
reliability trails, hill climbs, cross country trips and similar
events.
These purposes are included in the constitution of
many 4WD clubs and cover most of the basic reasons for forming a club.
But most clubs will find that their own special area will offer the
opportunity to include other purposes designed to fill a localized need.
From the very first your club should strongly consider
legally incorporating under the laws of your state. One reason is that
all clubs in the CoA4WDCi are required to incorporate. Another reason
is that any incorporated club or association formed for the purposes
of social or recreational activities, even though non profit in character,
is considered in the eyes of the law as a partnership wherein each member
has unlimited liability for the actions of the organization.
A corporation, on the other hand, is considered by
law as an individual or unity having rights and liabilities distinct
from those of the persons composing it. In addition, as a non profit
corporation, the club can claim exemption from state and federal taxes
and should apply to the Internal Revenue Service for an official exempt
status. Therefore, the advantages to an organized group, such as a 4WD
club, in becoming incorporated is that it affords protection for each
member from a financial and legal standpoint.
Contact the Colorado Secretary of State (1560 Broadway, Suite 200, Denver,
(303)894-2251) for the necessary paperwork.
CLUB BY LAWS OR CONSTITUTION
The incorporation documents will call for the club to be run by its
By-Laws which must be established by the members of Board of Directors.
Even un-incorporated clubs should establish By-Laws to properly organize
their club. A small committee should meet and prepare a proposed set
of By-Laws to present to the Board of Directors or the club as a whole.
They will in turn recommend changes or ratify each item in turn. This
will, of necessity, be a long and technical meeting. But again this
will be a most important meeting as all the future roles governing your
club and its activities will be established in your By-Laws.
YOUR FIRST OFFICERS
Now that your paperwork is done, the next step is to choose a slate
of officers who will make your club grow. No one can tell you who to
pick, but there are several qualifications which all officers in a 4WD
club should have.
First of all, they should own, drive and be particularly
devoted to their four wheel drive rig. Secondly, they should enjoy driving
off-highway and camping in primitive areas. The third, and most important
qualification in your first year, is time. The officers should have
enough time to be able to do the many jobs they are going to find necessary.
There are meetings to conduct, trips to plan, membership to be increased,
and dozens of other things. The most sincere officer, whose work or
business requires too much of his time, is liable to be more of a liability
than an asset to a new club. So choose those first officers with care.
A FAMILY AFFAIR
Perhaps the most important single reason for the current upsurge of
interest in four wheel drive clubs is that it is a family affair. For
this reason many 4WD clubs count only vehicles not individuals as their
members. Some clubs which have 50 members (vehicles) may be composed
of as many as 400 persons. Therefore, it is a good idea to consider
this fact when drawing up your By-Laws for such items as dues, voting
privileges, etc.
And remember also, that the success and continued growth
of your club will depend largely on the ability of individual members
to promote the family side of four wheeling.
PLANNING ACTIVITIES
Perhaps the thing you will need the least advice on is planning your
outings. In fact, if you have half a dozen or more persons interested
in forming a club, you have probably been on several trips together.
The thing to remember now is that one of the reasons you are forming
a club is to organize and discipline these trips.
First of all they should invariably be a family affair.
Make plans to take wives and children along on each back country run.
Incidentally, once you begin making your trips a family affair you'll
find that attendance is better and the growth of your club much more
rapid.
4WD runs are usually set up along lines which strongly
resemble the old wagon trains that journeyed west a hundred years ago.
The leader (who should have made the run before) heads the line and
breaks trail, so to speak. At the end of the line is the "drag
rider", "tail end Charlie", or "tail gunner"
whose job is to see that there are no stragglers and that no one is
left behind due to breakdowns. Many clubs now have citizen band radios
for at least the leader and tail end rig so that constant voice contact
can be kept. In this way the leader knows if someone in the rear is
broken down and can plan his speed accordingly.
Most clubs have rules about staying together on the
4WD roads. Usually there is a central meeting place for the trip. This
might be club headquarters if the trip is not too distant. If the trip
involves a hundred or more miles of highway travel the central camp
is used. This merely means an area where members can camp is selected
and the trip starts from there. Each member drives individually to the
central camp in time to make the trip.
A MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
One of the best ways to keep interest up in your club is to print a
monthly newsletter. Most clubs do and they range from simple, one-page
mimeographed sheets to elaborate printed newsletters. Run little items
about members and their rigs. Write detailed accounts of each trip and
make those so interesting that anyone who missed the run wishes he hadn't.
Devote a special section to the minutes and decisions of the last regular
meeting. Be sure to print enough copies so that the secretary can keep
a few on file. These will be valuable as mailings to interested potential
new members. Incidentally, be sure to include the CoA4WDCi Editor and
Officers on your mailing list for your newsletter.
WHEN YOU GET GOING
After your club has been organized you'll find you want to keep in touch
with other clubs in nearby areas. Joining the Colorado Association of
4 Wheel Drive Clubs, Inc. is the single best way to communicate your
clubs needs and activities, and help protect this form of recreation.
All club members will receive the Colorado 4 Wheeling News, and other
information about the sport.
FORMAT FOR FIRST 2 MEETINGS
FIRST MEETING; Before the first full meeting is held, the group
who planned and called it should get together, go over all the proposals
and plans, and select an acting chairman or spokesman and an acting
secretary. The prospective members must be assumed to be unorganized
and uncertain. Therefore at the beginning an acting chairman is needed
to get things going.
The first meeting can make or break the club. The organizers
must have a definite plan and purpose to show the prospective members.
Otherwise, they will lose interest and will seldom show up a second
time. Have a short trip planned and have the By-Laws ready for discussion
and action.
As soon as the majority of the prospective members
arrive, the meeting should be called to order by the acting chairman,
who introduces himself, the acting secretary, others of the founding
group, and all the people attending. He then should give a resume of
the aims and purposes of the proposed club, the advantages and rewards
and then should present the proposed By-Laws and regulations for discussion.
Sufficient copies of the proposed club By-Laws should be available so
that each prospective member may have one to study. Access to a mimeograph
or other multicopy machine is almost an absolute necessity for any club,
and typing facilities are a must.
After an open discussion, the meeting should be called
to order by the acting chairman and the attending persons polled for
their viewpoints on forming a club. Assuming an affirmative reaction,
the acting chairman will then ask for volunteers for various duties
as follows:
- A parliamentary committee to study the proposed By-Laws, and
make recommendations.
- An election committee to recommend a slate of permanent officers.
- A trip committee to recommend trips and nominate a trail boss.
As soon as the committees are formed, the acting secretary
(who should be taking minutes of the meeting) will obtain the name,
address, and phone number of all prospective members. The acting chairman
will then discuss an early meeting date for holding a second meeting,
at which the By-Laws may be approved, and the officers will be elected
and dues collected. This second meeting will actually be the first club
meeting.
It is possible, if the early formalities are short,
that some of the second meeting procedure (particularly relative to
dues) may be accomplished during the first. Dues would be the first
consideration, if possible, and collection at the first meeting will
assure the organization's existence.
SECOND MEETING; The second meeting should
be held shortly after the first. The acting chairman should call the
meeting to order, and as the first order of business, he should call
for the by-laws committee report, and present the by-laws to the members
for acceptance. Upon ratification of the by-laws, the acting chairman
should ask for the report of the election committee, proposing the club
officers with their consent to run for office.
As soon as the names are given, the acting chairman
should call for a vote on the election of a president. As soon as the
vote is tabulated, the acting chairman should turn the meeting over
to the new president.
The new president should call for the election of the
other officers, in turn, who shall take their places as soon as selected.
Upon election of a secretary, the acting secretary shall turn the club
records over to the elected officer but should assist until the meeting
is over. After the election of officers, the president should call for
a report of the trip committee, and the members should select a trip.
The president should then call for any new business
or discussion to be brought before the members. A regular meeting time
and place should be selected. The meeting can then be held by regular
parliamentary practice until it is adjourned. Changes in operations
and by-laws should be expected as club operations show need for change.
