Potential Goals for Active Grease Monkey Group

Potential seems like a pretty strong idea because it’s got the word “Potent” imbedded inside it, but what is the strength of a small group of already, very busy, mechanics spread all over the country who are about 70-years-old on average? How will meetings, parties, and service events take place? If we develop a FROGMEN handshake, will two members meet each other to physically try it?

There’s three directions to look for GM potential: is there an organizational norm we’d need to follow to be legal; is there a need for us to fill; and, is there something we want to do that we can’t do on our own.

* I think we can run this however it works, I imagine the need for a figurehead president and then a bunch of committees with committee chairs, such as a publicity committee, a financial committee, and a membership committee. Individual officers will become out of touch with such distances.

* A large number of people now live in gated "Planned Communities" with HOAs, and HOA’s have rules against working on rusty cars. At the same time, high school shop programs are being phased out, meaning kids can’t serendipitously have a friend or neighbor who is a mechanic, so we could provide a shop and a restoration program with MAYRA helping some of the kids we apprentice to go farther with their own cars. We'd be that friend.

*To answer that third question: is there something we can't do on our own; can you hang around a high school before and after class approaching kids to ask them to your house to work on your car without having an organization?  No, just don’t. There is an Automotive Maintenance Badge offered by the Boy Scouts, one lone mechanic could seek out a troop leader to participate, but with an organization of mechanics, those leaders might seek you out. Does helping a young person learn to be a mechanic sound like something you would enjoy doing when you’re not with your car buddies? If it is, that is the potential for the Grease Monkeys.

 

 

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