Just to correct another misapprehension -- at least as I recollect the
events, having been one of the parties at the table. The attempt at merger of
the two clubs began when Bonnie Ayer and I came up with a joint proposal at
Healey International in Breckinridge in 2002. It died when it became clear
that the "old guard" in both clubs, folks who had founded the original two
clubs, made clear that they would oppose any effort at merger, except in the
unlikely case that the other club was willing to cede its name, magazine, and
governing structure and simply turn over its mailing list.
Most of this resistance came not only from a desire of each group to
protect what it had created, but also because of a Hatfield-McCoy feud that had
smoldered in the ten years between Snowmass and Breckinridge, during which
time the AHCPC leaders accused AHCA of "stealing" the seed money left over from
Snowmass and then squandering it on an ill-advised "joint" meet in Oklahoma
in 1997. In the meantime, AHCA leaders were accusing the president of AHCPC
of "stealing" the AHCA mailing list to do a solicitation of membership.
in order to make sure that the merger never happened, both Bonnie and I
were pushed out of office the following year. As I remember the facts, the
merger didn't occur because of equal resistance on the part of old-line leaders
in both clubs.
Of course, to get the whole story , a real historian would also want to
interview Bonnie Ayer, Hank Leach, Paul Schwartz, Walt Blanc, and Chuck and
Edie Anderson, all of whom sat with me around the table at a AHCA delegates
meeting in the fall of 2002 to discuss the structure of a possible merger.
Cheers
Gary Anderson
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