The GTO Association of America (GTOAA) is working with interested members-at-large in northern California, as well as with not-yet-members, towards the formation of a Northern California Chapter. We've got a January 2006 launch in mind, and in the meantime are passing the word around.

Right now there are two GTOAA chapters in California - both in the southern/greater Los Angeles area.

There are at least two non-GTOAA clubs in the north: Golden Gate Goats in the Bay Area and a Northern California GTO Club in the Sacramento area. Both of these appear to be focused on the Classic-era GTO.

In keeping with the climate of the national GTOAA, this new Chapter will intentionally welcome and honor both Classic and New GTOs equally. It will also be a GTOAA-affiliate, which means that every Chapter member will need to be a national GTOAA member as well. For membership information, please see the national site at:

http://www.gtoaa.org/

If you are a GTO enthusiast in northern California (in this case roughly from Fresno-Monterey upward) and are interested in exploring this new Chapter idea, drop on over to the YahooGroup which has been created to discuss it:

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/GTOAA-NorCal/

... and we'll see what happens! :)

Happy Holidays!
Michael Aquino

Hi, Mike, I signed up as a member of the YAHOO group, is this all trhe info you need?

Hi, Mike, I signed up as a member of the YAHOO group, is this all trhe info you need?
That should do it for the moment. We'll use that YG to coordinate further. Right now waiting for northern California to climb out from under the present soggy rains mess before we try driving anywhere!

[Here's a copy of my latest post to the GTOAA NorCal Chapter YahooGroup. If you're interested and are not yet on that YGroup, come on over to:

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/GTOAA-NorCal/

and get on board! ]

Last December John Johnson (GTOAA National chapters guru) sent me a mailing list of all the GTOAA members in California. Using Monterey-to-Fresno as a rough southern boundary, I came up with 88 names. Each one of these received a postcard invite to this YahooGroup (or other response if no Internet access).

As of 1/29/06 we have 27 YGroup members (+JJ) and 7 postal-mail responses, for a total of 34 "interested".

Here's how it looks geographically:
("*" = no Internet)

SAN FRANCISCO/NORTH PENINSULA (3)
San Francisco - 1 + 1*
South San Francisco - 1*

SAN JOSE/SOUTH PENINSULA (5)
San Jose - 2 + 1*
Los Gatos - 1
Morgan Hill - 1

MARIN/"WINE COUNTRY" (4)
Greenbrae - 1
Novato - 1 + 1*
Santa Rosa - 1

EAST BAY/CENTRAL VALLEY (5)
Danville - 1
Concord - 2
Stockton - 1
Castro Valley - 1*

FRESNO/EASTERN (1)
Oakhurst - 1

SACRAMENTO/NORTHERN (3)
Yreka - 1*
Redding - 1*
Cedar Ridge - 1

As you can see, we're all over the map, with no principal concentration. This suggests that we would have a difficult travel time with physical Chapter meetings, even if the closest members attended (which is not always the case).

Alternatives:

(1) Cancel the idea of a NorCal Chapter for now; it's just not workable.

(2) Set up something primarily for the Peninsula, with others welcome to attend. (But realistically travel-time would be practically prohibitive for "furtherees".)

(3) Try an Internet-based chapter. This would be possible for the YGroup members but would exclude the 7 nonInternets except for postal-mailed newsletters.

None of these is perfect, but I'm inclined to propose #3. It would utilize the YGroup and develop something like this:

a. Normal YGroup message posting among members.
b. Local car show/driving/social/racing/tech events posted by anyone via YGroup message. Thus anyone interested could physically attend.
c. Chapter calendar maintained on the YGroup website. This feature supplements event-announcements in #b above.
d. A chapter meeting via "Chat" on the YGroup website once a month. Specified date/time; you can attend, speak, announce, discuss, vote, etc. from the comfort of your keyboard, so to speak.
e. Build up the "Links" feature of the YGroupsite to include URLs of general interest - members, GTO sites, sports/racing events announced on the calendar, etc.
f. Build up the "Files" feature with member photos, documents, etc.

The $-cost of a-f is $0, of course. If the Chapter starts mailing summary/calendar supplemental newsletters to nonInternets, that would become a $-subscription function accordingly, and would require someone to volunteer to do it.

Yes, this would be a weird way to form a car club chapter, but it would work within its obvious limitations for our far-flung situation. As membership grows, attendance at the announced physical events should approach more "customary" levels.

Well, YGroupees, what do you think? Like to try it? Please post your thoughts to the YGroup ...

All for now,
Michael Aquino