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I never go to the AROSC, ARA, or national Alfa site unless I see something here to send me there. I simply missed seeing the notice of Charlie's death.
I was on the board of AROSC for more than 10 years, and knew Charlie pretty well. We got along OK, in spite of the fact we were always on opposite sides when it came to how the club's money should be spent. He felt that since time trials brought in most of the money, then that's where it should be spent. I constantly pointed out that the time trials people only represented 10% of the membership, and it was the club's money.
I decided to have nothing to do with the local club after Gary Patitz left LA and moved to Seattle, and Phyllis Gaylard became newsletter editor. I was doing a lot of writing for the newsletter, but she wouldn't use any of it. I'll admit it; I simply detest the woman, and know a WHOLE BUNCH of ex-club members (both local and national) that feel the same way.
I didn't renew my membership in the national club after Pat Braden went to be the main speaker at the national convention, and half the people didn't even know who he was. There was also the "problem" of a whole lot of money being spent by various national board members on things the members themselves didn't want.
I am FAR from the only one who wants nothing to do with the national club, due to politics...in fact Tina and others wanted the local club to seperate from national almost as much as I did. The majority of the board at that time disagreed.
My interest has always been much more in the history of the cars than any other aspect. More and more over the last 30 years, very few care about the history.
Quite frankly, a substantial part of the Alfa community has become almost as trendy and pretentious as the vast majority of Ferrari owners....the Ferrari owners that can afford them but know absolutely nothing about them. As such, I keep my involvement limited to this BB and various Alfa model registers.
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