[s-cars] RE: [urq] Q Club in TX?

[Jimmy Pribble, UrS4.com]

.


>     Looking at the web site, it would seem that this part of the Q Club or
> ACoA has all but shut down.

Colin,

The Lone Star Region of the ACoA was never really "up".

Why?

1. FEWER AUDIS IN TEXAS.  Until the release of the '96 A4, only thirty or
forty people in all of Texas had ever bought an Audi.  ;-)  This was for
many of the reasons that you mention (rare inclimate weather down here, few
or poor dealers back in the day, Baby Harp Seal skinned boots seem to go
better with MB, etc.).  So, any Texas Audi club is drawing from a much
smaller pool for its membership.  This also means that we have a much
smaller pool of old-school Audi owners, which I have found make for more
committed club members.  That isn't a slam to new-school owners, but the
club as an information (and parts) exchange to keep older cars running, is
an important dimension to a club that promotes commitment (more on this in a
moment).

2. NO Q-CLUB TRACK EVENTS IN TEXAS.  Uh-oh.  This is a big one.  There are
lots of folks running their Audis at the track down here, but we do it with
different organizations.  We still probably don't have the numbers (see
above) to get a bona fide ACoA track event down here.  If we began to have
them, I think membership might grow, but there is a catch-22, as you can
see.

3. NO REAL MEMBERSHIP.  Since there are no Q-Club track events in Texas,
there isn't much sense in ACoA membership, unless you really like their
magazine.  Without a membership body demanding action (uh, track or other
events), nothing really gets done.

4. COMMITMENT PROBLEMS.  Since their are few actual ACoA members scattered
about Texas, without much hope or incentive to organize, the Lone Star
Region has really just been an official region in name only, but in reality,
it is just the local Houston club, where there is no requirement for ACoA
membership.  I know that the leadership for the Lone Star region had their
heart in the right place, but they soon found that locals weren't terribly
committed to events, and regionally, there wasn't much interest in
developing the Q-Club, because we were busy building our local clubs and the
track-heads had already found a workaround to track time.

5. TEXAS IS A BIG DAMNED STATE.  It is no small thing that the major cities
in Texas are spread out.  This is also a barrier to doing group events.

6. IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T BREAK IT.  To be honest, it is very unlikely
there will ever be a major ACoA region in Texas.  Everyone is happy with
discrete local clubs (free) and using other organizations for track events.
ACoA is a hard sell here.

HTH,

Jimmy Pribble
El Jefe, Austin Audi Club
www.austinaudiclub.org

'00 A6 2.7t
'90 CQ
'83 UrQ