It's all good everyone. I was being a little bitchy in post #71. Couldn't you hear a baby crying? Waaaaa. I
can when I read it now!
I did my part to get this off topic, see post #42, so what the heck, why don't we keep going on what is on our minds? No sarcasm intended. It's what we do best here, write what is on our minds.
So here goes...
Personally, don't see these as non-public events. In fact one of the things I wanted to do but didn't was to spread the word among the locals that we were coming to town and to come out and see what we're up to. I regret not acting on the thought. Maybe I'll mention it to the Illinois crowd.
It has always bothered me that we don't see more locals at the shows. A nice lady drove up to my trailer at about noon today and said "When's the show" it hurt when I had to say that she'd missed it. She said something funny about telling her husband to get over there earlier in the week after she'd seen some cars, and him saying he never heard her say it!
One of the best times I've had a V8 meet was the town square event that was held at the Central meet in Auburn, where we filled an admittedly small downtown, with flat motors! It had a vibe that was great. I even hitched a ride,
really with my thumb out, to a CVS to get batteries for my camera. The folks who picked me up took me to the store and back to the square. Epic! (Now I keep at least 8 AA's in the glove box, learn't my lesson.)
Also, for the thought that having the shows during the week discourages participation, it is a valid point. But keep in mind that we will never be a huge show like the NSRA Street Rod Nationals that I attended a few weeks ago that _was_ on a weekend, even though I had the most fun on a Thursday and less fun on the show day Saturday.
As for the thoughts that the V8 club is in trouble with their demographic, that too is valid. Also valid is that they are slow to change direction. Some people interpret the V8 club as a dictatorial organization because
they care what color your nuts are.

But their charter says they're about 'as Henry mad it'. Even though a goodly portion of members don't have their cars point judged (me among them), and some that do swear they will never do it again (as one of our local club members said to me this morning, at a previous show he had over 950 points, this show less than 800 and the judges spent an hour on his car according to the owner).
The National President said in his meeting this week that he thinks about both of those problems and encouraged members to act by encouraging change by contacting their Regional Directors with their opinions (allowing dropped axles for example, and electric fuel pumps are always a hot topic for the Judging Standards Committee), and to encourage members to help recruit new blood. (I'm almost 55 and considered a teenager by this crowd! It's actually an ego boost for a semi-old fart.)
A strategy a member pointed out that worked well for their Regional Group which grew their membership from the 60's to the 120's by passing out old issues of the V8 Times with a local and national membership form tucked inside, when they were approached by people admiring their vehicles.
And another effort that the President mentioned was to drop V8 Times issues at Doctor's offices. After all, the V8 club's demographic likely spends more time in waiting rooms than the NSRA's, or even the AACA's.
As for time off, I don't expect everyone to do this, but, are you ready... I have to request time off 6 months in advance. I can get all the unpaid time off I want as long as I let my supervisor know with enough lead time. I don't think everyone can do this, but it's what I do.
Ok, sh_t, I've spent enough time on this already, I want to get to posting some more shots.