Fred Fox articles and growing the club

[Scott]

When I first entered the club (1989) and got my Turning Wheels I quickly learned a lot about Studebakers from the Fred Fox articles. I was naive in thinking that ALL car clubs had such informative articles in their publications. I was wrong, wrong, wrong.

It has come up a number of times how old some of Fred's articles are now and how much they can be updated and even improved with new insights, data and TW publishing quality.

I don't know Fred personally, though I have met him. I'm asking members here to give their opinions about whether we should coax Fred into redoing more articles. The recent 1966 article was a great improvement over the 1986 article (partly because the printing and photo quality). I'm greedy - I want more!

There are a lot of his articles that came out even well before my time in 1989 that I wish I had. It's no understatement to say that much of my enthusiasm for the club was maintained by looking forward to his informative articles. If we want the club to spark more interest, can't we use the "tools" like Fred's articles to do the same thing again? New Studebaker owners deserve to learn more about the models they have or would like to get. That's really hard to do when the TW with the relevant article is 25, 30 or more years old. Old copies are out there, but they are not always easy to find and some are actually almost impossible to find.

So, what do other people think?

[Welcome]

When I first entered the club (1989) and got my Turning Wheels I quickly learned a lot about Studebakers from the Fred Fox articles. I was naive in thinking that ALL car clubs had such informative articles in their publications. I was wrong, wrong, wrong.

It has come up a number of times how old some of Fred's articles are now and how much they can be updated and even improved with new insights, data and TW publishing quality.

I don't know Fred personally, though I have met him. I'm asking members here to give their opinions about whether we should coax Fred into redoing more articles. The recent 1966 article was a great improvement over the 1986 article (partly because the printing and photo quality). I'm greedy - I want more!

There are a lot of his articles that came out even well before my time in 1989 that I wish I had. It's no understatement to say that much of my enthusiasm for the club was maintained by looking forward to his informative articles. If we want the club to spark more interest, can't we use the "tools" like Fred's articles to do the same thing again? New Studebaker owners deserve to learn more about the models they have or would like to get. That's really hard to do when the TW with the relevant article is 25, 30 or more years old. Old copies are out there, but they are not always easy to find and some are actually almost impossible to find.

So, what do other people think?

Scott, that is a wonderful idea ...openly discussing such important Club matters ...BUT ...they will NOT ...can NOT allow it to happen here on this Forum!!! Just watch how quickly my post disappears or your entire thread gets locked and/or moved way down to where almost no one will read it.

[mbstude]

Without being pessimistic...

I too think that having Mr. Fox redo/update some of his older articles for today's publication would be a great idea. I'm lucky in that I have TW's going back to the 70's, but not many people do. The SDC has gained and lost a lot of members over the past 20-30 years and it's not a bad thing to re-cover a certain topic that was written about 2 decades ago.

The fact that TW has printed the '66 and Scotsman truck articles lately does tell me that they are already on board with this. Everyone would of course love to have a TW covering their specific Stude, but it's nice to have a little of everything covered. Our club's magazine is likely one of the best out there and the fact that it does cover specific models is something we should be thankful for.

[Corvanti]

when i read the other thread yesterday, i had a couple of thoughts:

a "Blast From the Past" monthly article in TW. not necessarily from only Mr. Fox. edited or unedited. perhaps limited to articles written at least 20 years ago.

internet publishing is relatively cheap now. perhaps a compilation of articles in "soft cover" books. maybe in volumes by decade. SDC might "help" with compilation of post-war years, ASC for pre-war...

just throwing it "out there". no reason to throw bombs or saying it just can't be done.

[avantilover]

I recall once being told that unlike most of TW Fred Fox retains copyright to his articles and wouldn't give permission for them to be reprinted. I had thought TW could be put onto cd but apparently you'd need to remove Fred's articles. Perhaps things have changed and it would be possible?

[64V-K7]

I recall once being told that unlike most of TW Fred Fox retains copyright to his articles and wouldn't give permission for them to be reprinted. I had thought TW could be put onto cd but apparently you'd need to remove Fred's articles. Perhaps things have changed and it would be possible?

I didn't know this, but Fred has the right to do exactly that. I always wondered why SDC never put the TW archive on CD. The AOAI Group has a CD with their quarterly's back to day one!, Pretty nice..

[Garywala]

Is there a Master Directory somewhere for all of the articles that have appeared in TW?

[Corvanti]

Is there a Master Directory somewhere for all of the articles that have appeared in TW?

did a quick search, 1st thing i found:

http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/showthread.php?59623-Turning-Wheels-Index-29-OFF-Leap-Year-Sale&highlight=index

[8E45E]

It has come up a number of times how old some of Fred's articles are now and how much they can be updated and even improved with new insights, data and TW publishing quality.

Yes, as per my post in your previous thread on this here: http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.c...highlight=fred

Craig

[Bill Pressler]

Fred's articles are the best! Wish he did more of them these days, too.

[55 56 PREZ 4D]

I agree that reprinting past articles would be a great tool for new and recent members.
Although I've been in love with 1956 President Classics for 46 or 47 years, I didn't get "into" Studebakers till about 3 years ago.
I was fortunate to be given 16 years of Turning Wheels around that time. I filled in the remaining years since then, from the "Bulletins" of the early 70s to the present [only need 2009 and part of 2010]
I've had the chance to read them all. Totally fascinating. I received a complete Studebaker education.
I have noticed recently that there are far fewer references to the old issues of Turning Wheels in recent discussions on the board. Used to be that members would routinely reference an article [year, month, page, author, content] until it was brought up repeatedly that a lot of people don't have access to reading it.
So much valuable, interesting information LOST to new members. Open the doors to that information, someway.

[stall]

Let us not forget the last FOUR words in the title of this post

"GROWING THE CLUB"

If we want new, younger members we have to tell them a story. We can assume that the vast majority of new members that are just now considering coming aboard have no real memory of Studebaker, the company. Mr. Fox had the gift of making the history of different car models "come alive". The last new Studebaker rolled out almost a half century ago. The repeating of these articles would be a great recruiting tool IMHO.
Murray

[Milaca]

Fred Fox is one of our clubs greatest assets. His articles are always a must read and I hope he doesnt retire anytime soon. Keep up the good work Mr. Fox!

[64V19816]

If you can't find it through Google and the Internet most information is not accessible to current humanity. Back issues of magazines are Jurassic relics . A whole new wave of information must be generated. When I first joined the club in 1973 I was an 18 year old and the club was dominated by old farts. Now I an old fart and have seen enthusiastic young kids driving up if a rusty lark complete with smile~~~been there done that. Some day decades from now that kid will be an old fart too

[Welcome]

>>>So, what do other people think?

Scott, why do you think so many keep overlooking the obvious???

Obviously ...the photographs, documents, corporate records and other specifications used as the primary source for those past TURNING WHEELS articles put together by a few historians/professional writers largely ...IF NOT ENTIRELYNOT given to those few individuals by the Studebaker Corporation back in 1966 ...NO, they were given to a public entity ...the City of South Bend ...for the common good!

I for one enjoy reading "new" articles in TURNING WHEELSTURNING WHEELS magazine for perhaps the next 300 years!!! I for one also want my SDC membership dues money spent for "fresh new" TW articles that will also help support another very important non-profit organization ...the Studebaker National Museum/Archives ...where the Studebaker legend continues to live on ...rather than go into the pockets of an extremely few individuals. What are your thoughts???

Hopefully, the new & younger leaders of our Studebaker Drivers Club ...AND ...the new & younger South Bend City administration (therefore, the Studebaker National Museum & Archives) will continue to work together in new ways as they did this year to "CO-HOST" the 2012 International Meet. Maybe, just maybe this IS the new beginning and the way for the future of the Studebaker hobby. Who is willing to work together to help open a "new chapter" for those inheriting our Club over the next 50 years? Who???