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Younger Members

Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 11:13 am
by Original Smith
For years there have been discussions on how our members are getting old, and how to get younger people to get interested in our hobby. That is true, but it sure didn't apply to the OCF! There were plenty of younger drivers everywhere. So, possibly these younger people are not joining the clubs?

Re: Younger Members

Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 11:43 am
by Dallas Landers
Right you are Larry. Lots of them. Young moms driving cars also. It was great to see.

Re: Younger Members

Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 11:56 am
by Walter Higgins
How do you know that they don't belong to a club(s)? Has any club ever published the demographics of its membership?

Re: Younger Members

Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 12:20 pm
by Steve Jelf
There have been occasional forum posts where members confess their ages, but I believe that tends to skew old. Many of the younger guys go to the Model T Facebook pages which a lot of elderly persons avoid. Larry is correct that there were a lot of young folks driving at OCF.


71013844_10212387107986256_7931759350996008960_n.jpg
Here's Michael Kuczinsky driving my car. He's eighteen and has a couple of projects, including a Model T speedster. This was his second time driving a T.

Re: Younger Members

Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 12:52 pm
by Michaelkuczynski
Thanks again, Mr Steve! It was a fun time! Thanks for explaining everything as I was driving!

Re: Younger Members

Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 1:25 pm
by TRDxB2
Need to careful in collecting demographics for identity theft reasons. Having said that - given just a name, city and state, Its possible to find loads of information about a person on the internet. I just did an internet search on a name, city & state. I did not get any of this as a MTFCA member. I know this is scary but its available for us all. DO NOT COMMENT ON THE ACCURACY OF THESE RESULTS or CONNECT TO ANY NAME.
We don't need to know.......................
I have masked out information that was available with xxx. A photo of the individual shows up on a Google search under images
Age x4 - x6 Middle name Mxxxx (310) 3xx-x1xx land line with xxx others? (213) 326-**** (805) 483-****
Locations xx49 2xx th St, Lxxxxa, xA,x07xx-1xxx (built in 1924) previous locations Carson, Torrance.
Relatives Mxxxxx, Bxxx, Nxxx, Kxxxx Cxxxxx, Jxxxx, Exxxxx, Axxx, Jxxxx, Mxxqxxxx
Coors-light

Re: Younger Members

Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 1:41 pm
by Walter Higgins
It would be possible for a club to ascertain in general clumps what age brackets their membership falls without requiring people supply their Social Security Number or divulge the PIN for their debit card.

Re: Younger Members

Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 2:46 pm
by ewdysar
In a recent for sale post, a person with a possible interest in getting into the hobby stated that he thought that this group might not be a good fit for him. Since then, I’ve been thinking about the first impressions that people may get about our members.

Based on nothing but my personal, subjective opinion, I would guess that at least 80% of T owners are 60 years old or older, more than 80% are non-latino white, and more than 90% are male. Even to me, the hobby seems like it is mostly older white guys, and therefore people outside the group will lay their own personal opinions about older white guys onto the hobby.

I’m not saying that this is a problem or that anything should change, just saying what our hobby looks like to me and maybe people outside our hobby. But this also hold true with other car groups that I belong to, except maybe the age thing. The ocean-sailing hobby people look a lot like the model T owner demographics. Sailing as a hobby is also in decline.

Just food for thought.

Re: Younger Members

Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 3:31 pm
by Derek Kiefer
I'm 36, bought my first T at 17, and have been attending T events since I was 10. I'm married and have 3 young boys of my own now.
I am also into 50s classics, 60s musclecars, and modern performance cars as well. I build, drive, race, and enjoy cars of all types.

T club events are the most kid-friendly of any car events I have ever attended. Especially the big MTFCI tours, where there are more kids, more kid activities, and more participants that appreciate having kids around than any other car events we have attended. The T group isn't really much older than the musclecar group, but from my observations there are MORE young people involved with Ts.

Re: Younger Members

Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 3:55 pm
by Steve Jelf
Thanks for explaining everything as I was driving!

It was my pleasure. Tell your friend he can drive too next time if he wants. :D

Re: Younger Members

Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2019 7:19 pm
by VowellArt
I get a lot of younger folks and some not so young ones too, just driving around the towns out here in the North Eastern end of the SFV. Sylmar, Santa Clarita, Tujunga, San Fernando, Mission Hills, etc...the thing is that these cars are not as prevalent as they once were, so they generate interest in the younger folks because it is something out of their norm that they've never seen nor heard about from their parents unless they've seen a Laurel and Hardy or Harold Lloyd or Buster Keyton film, which chances of are pretty slim. Even their parents probably haven't seen or heard of these cars in most cases. What really gets them is those big wood wheels and large 30 inch tires, followed by no seat belts and then how fast it can't go and an even bigger surprise at how fast it can go, and that we like driving that slow, lol. But everywhere I go I'm a one vehicle car show, and I always get those who really want to know if you can actually start the car on the crank or not, so after a little instruction, I let them, and they're always thrilled that they started an old car on it's hand crank...this usually goes on for about 20 minutes or so, because everybody wants a crack at starting this old car by the crank. I also Offer them a ride round the block or a chance to sit in it (I've given lots of rides by doing just that and explaining as I drive about the car and how it operates). And what's really nice is if you can get your chapter to do a breakfast someplace on a Saturday or something bringing their cars, then it really does turn into an impromptu car show out in the parking lot.

Thing is, this is the way to generate interest in our hobby, by letting the public at large see them as often as possible and participating with you and the car is something so bloody easy as just starting the car by hand cranking...it is something they'll remember and when they do come across one of these old darlings, remembering the one you had and how it looked, drove and started might more than likely start them in on a project themselves...which is what we all hope for, right? ;)

Re: Younger Members

Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2019 10:16 pm
by George N Lake Ozark
:D

Re: Younger Members

Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2019 10:56 pm
by TRDxB2
I totally agree with Martynn. If you want to sell something you need to go to the people, you can't wait for the people to come to you. Showing up at the local "Cruze-in" would get a T more attention then the Vet's that everyone there has seen 100 times. As they say: know your audience. Park in near the local high school when school lets out and see what happens. You can't expect kids to get into a hobby who don't have the cash or the knowledge. Unfortunately social interaction with people of different ages requires group supervision.

Re: Younger Members

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 10:09 am
by Loftfield
Not to worry. After many years working for and with numerous museums, national trusts, etc. its as always a commonality to bemoan the ageing of the membership, with concomitant worry over how to get the younger set involved. Here are the facts: young people are only interested in sex. That sex gives rise to babies and children (fairly important for continuation of the specie). Sex and babies pretty much dictate that the younger set doesn't have a lot of time or money to invest in old cars, or clubs, or anything much else. When those children finally finish college the budget loosens and folks begin to indulge fancies, join clubs, buy a boat, or an old car, or whatever. These things usually happen about 50 years of age. I had my first Model T at 16 (when living at home on someone else's budget), went through a few, sold the last one to buy an antique sailboat, sold that to buy furniture when wife and house appeared. Got back into Model T's at 50 and haven't looked back since.

Re: Younger Members

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 10:13 am
by rosenkranswa
Just my observation mind you, but the Model T hobby seems to have less of a problem with younger people getting interested than many of the other groups. Look at the pictures in both of the national club magazines, Facebook pages, even just driving around. I first noticed it at the Centennial celebration, seemed to be lots of young folks driving cars around, especially speedsters, which got my daughter all jazzed. My comparison groups are the Model A's and Early V8's which seem to have fewer young people evident.

I've thought for some time that overall the availability of information and interaction available from the internet, online forums and the like, has made club membership less of a desirability than previously. Sort of the equivalent of online shopping displacing malls and brick-and-mortar stores.

So why would the Model T hobby seem to have less of a problem? We take several of our cars, Model T, Model A, and an Early V8 to the local middle school each Fall as part of their program on industrialization. We talk about Henry Ford, the rise of the automobile industry and the highway system to about 100 5th graders. The kids are always great, but for some reason, they just seem more drawn to the Model T's than the other cars.

Re: Younger Members

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 11:12 am
by Rich in Colorado
All,

It wasn't mentioned in this tread so I'll bring up the new "Model T Explorer". In the current issue, July-August, of the Vintage Ford magazine they have an application for the young people, ages 7 to 17 to get involved with the hobby. Their own newsletter, name badge, membership card. Look it up.

I entered my grandson, who by the way, really made me want a Model T due to his interest. He will be a "charter member" because I entered now. $15 a year.

Why not enter your kids?

RIch

Re: Younger Members

Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2019 10:37 am
by Original Smith
I have two close friends who have T's, and neither one of their sons have any interest in the cars. Their standard answer is, well, they didn't show any interest in them. I disagree. It's up to the parents to instill the interest in their children by taking them on tours, going to swap meets, and helping out in the garage. Only then will the children be able to determine if the hobby is right for them.

Re: Younger Members

Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2019 12:27 pm
by deismangarage
I'm 18 and my dad and I browse this forum with this account, but we don't have any affiliation to the club. We are members of MAFCA, however.
We sold our last Model T which we've had since my dad was 21, I'm looking to get more involved in brass era T's perhaps.
I think the reason we haven't joined the Model T Club is that it isn't as active as the horseless carriage club and Model A club in my area, in fact I think they combined with the horseless carriage club.

I agree that it's up to parents to instill interest but I also believe it's up to us as hobbyists.
Let that kid take a picture with your Model T, sit in the drivers seat, drive them around the block, tell them about the car and it's history, I think that's just important as well.
Just being friendly and inviting to our hobby, I've found that sometimes when I talk to other older gentleman with T's that they can sometimes come off rather cold or think I don't know what I'm talking about and that can be somewhat discouraging.

Re: Younger Members

Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2019 12:45 pm
by Scott_Conger
Jason and Jay
sometimes when I talk to other older gentleman with T's that they can sometimes come off rather cold or think I don't know what I'm talking about and that can be somewhat discouraging.
Having come up in the hobby as a teenager and now an old fart, I understand exactly what you mean. In defense of old farts, let me suggest the following: I used to take our '13 to local shows...After hearing for the umteenth time that "there were no cars in 1913" (and that I must be some idiot) by teens, 20 and 30 somethings (actually true), the older generation (of which I am becoming) often concludes that their school tax has been spent elsewhere and that young people either don't know a thing about mechanics and history, or don't care, or both. It is a shortcoming on our part, but when it is reinforced thousands of times for every "diamond" that shows up, it is easy to fall into that bias. Keep at it and I expect eventually since you are that diamond, you will be "adopted" by a well meaning mentor who will love that someone is interested in their passion. Trust me, it will happen.

Welcome!

Re: Younger Members

Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2019 11:12 am
by John Dow
My optimism fades and then something happens that restores my faith. Recently "Gracie" and I were stopped at a traffic light when a couple of late teen or early twenties youths pulled up next to me in a pick up truck. The driver asked what year my T was. When I replied "1923", he immediately turned to his passenger and said "see, I told you". I was amazed and asked how he knew my car was a '23. "Because I'm restoring my granddad's 1921" and I know the difference. Yours is an early '23, right?" I was blown away. Stay positive, my friends.

Re: Younger Members

Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2019 11:33 am
by Tom Hicks
Them young people are easy to run off. Just be the quintessential curmudgeonly geezer who is cranky. No problem. They ask a question like, "What year is it?" just to start a friendly conversation and then you have 'em! Say, "What the hell year do you think it is?" Or start some lie to see if you can fool them like, "well, I'm the original owner." All young people like to be played the fool. Or just give them a hateful stare and mumble something low so they can't understand it. Make being a jerk part of your persona, they will leave you alone and the image of T owners being cranky old curmudgeons will continue!

Or, I was recently at a car show where four of the people showing vehicles were sitting together discussing politics. Hatful politics might be something most elderly, white, T owners share, but when they are sitting around sharing it while spectators walk by it is going to hurt interest with many younger people who are a little more tolerant of others beliefs.

And don't listen to them, use whatever they ask to get off on a harangue about how things were better in the good old days and the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Keep talking until they leave. And if you can work in some fundamentalist religion that always helps to send them on their way.

Sometimes it seems that older T owners don't want to involve younger people unless those younger people agree with them on religion and politics. Keep that image up! As the demographic of T owners gets older and more curmudgeonly it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

We can do this, you can help. Practice your glare, learn to snarl, and don't give the young guys any respect. They know where they are not wanted and they will move on.

Re: Younger Members

Posted: Tue Sep 17, 2019 2:44 am
by Duey_C
I'm with Larry and Richard C. If I got a couple of memberships for a couple of grandkids, the others'll scramble to get their own, young as they may be and later on, we might grab a couple of 'em for life too. :)