Although I had been the owner of 1964- 65 Rivieras since the late ’60s, I had not known of the existence of any of the previous clubs. It wasn’t until the early ’80s, after I moved from New Jersey to Colorado. I bought a ’65 Gran Sport, and found old newsletters from “The 1965 Buick Riviera Club” in the trunk. Eager to join, I wrote to Evans Clagett, the founder, at his address in New Jersey, but the letter was returned as undeliverable. Unknown to me, he had moved to Arizona years before. Being persistent, I then wrote to every address I could find in the old newsletters. I finally received a reply from John Hirsch in Florida, who told me that the club was no longer in existence. I called John, and we spoke about the possibility of starting a new club. John was not supportive of the idea, because several other clubs had failed. According to John, it would be a waste of time and people were skeptical of sending money to another new club. I was devastated.
I had waited so long to find other people who shared my love for the  Riviera that I wasn’t ready to give up the idea of a Riviera club. So, in 1984, I sent a small classified ad to the Buick Club of America. The ad, which appeared in the Buick Bugle, requested that people with a similar interest in the 1963-65 Riviera contact me. I limited the years to the three I was most familiar and had collected literature. My original thought was just to maintain a registry so that owners could share tips and part sources. To my surprise, responses arrived immediately and I began to communicate with a growing number of people. In October of 1984, I compiled the information from my individual correspondence into a short newsletter (Vol. 1, No. 1). Remembering what John Hirsch had told me about people being skeptical about investing money into a new club, I did not require any dues to join. |
Shortly after sending out the first couple of bi-monthly newsletters, I learned that another Riviera club had just started in Marietta, GA. It was named the “Classic Riviera Owners Club of America” (CROCA) and run by Richard Malinowski. I contacted Malinowski to inform him about ROA and asked for information on CROCA. I joined for $30 and received his first newsletter, which, like ROA’s was photocopied with articles, classifieds and a reprint of an old road test article. The initial membership was to include a 1/3 2 scale Riviera model by Lionel and a copy of a recent Car Exchange magazine, neither of which ever arrived.
Having no prior experience running a club or editing a newsletter, I suggested to Malinowski that I would be willing to turn over my list of Riviera owners if he could tell me more about himself and CROCA. During the next couple of months, I discovered that he owned a used car lot and was in the parts business. Several members told me that when they sent him ads for the classified, he offered to buy their cars or parts, rather than listing them in the newsletter. On another occasion, he also listed an owner’s car for sale in a national publication at twice the asking price without the owner’s knowledge.
Based on this information, I decided he was more interested in using the club as a business, and I did not turn over my list of interested owners. After about five months, he sent out a letter apologizing for having failed to get out the next newsletter. During the next year, he published two newsletters and listed 78 members. That was the last we ever heard of him. Many members, who later joined ROA, told me that he was not reliable in returning letters or phone calls. As you may recall, we didn’t have email at that time. Unfortunately, for the next year, many people in the hobby thought the ROA was associated with the “Georgia Club” and refused to join ROA. It was only after we were able to establish our credibility that we recovered from the failure of still another Riviera club, and were able to ask for $20 annual dues, beginning July l, 1985.
I learned a lot from the earlier clubs, which I believe led to the success of ROA. Evans Clagett demonstrated the importance of producing a very professional newsletter with interesting and informative articles. The newsletters from the Chicago club showed me how important it is to be positive and not complain about the lack of support. However, I learned the most from Mr. Malinowski. I learned how important it is to be reliable, punctual, deliver what you promise, be responsive to your members, and do not go into business competing with them.
The history of the ROA continues in the next issue. |
