HUMBUGS Air Cooled VW Club is for the Volkswagen enthusiast, offering social events, technical support, cruises, campouts, parts swap. newsletter and much, much more.   Meetings are usually on the second Wednesday of each month, at 7 p.m.  Current meetings are in Arcata at Bill's Clubhouse near Bill's home in Arcata. Single click above on Club Business for information and picture of past meeting or news about future meeting and events.

Steering Committee Members:
Co-founder and Vice President, Bill Taylor (Bugdoc), owner of Bill's VW Repair  - 443.2441; Co-founder, Ron McBride (Recycle 1), Bill's lead mechanic - 445.9198; Co-founder and President, Philip Hooker (MANBUG) - 845.0981; Secretary, Debbie Brantley; Treasure, Miles Smith (839-5879); and Joseph Marsh, Volkswagen Expert. All Humbugs members are invited to attend Steering Committee meetings. Bill usually provides hot dogs and chili for those who show up - bring your own beverage - Fridays at Bill's VW Repair - call first to see if we're having a meeting.

The club itself was started spontaneously during one of the Friday Hot Dog Roasts at Bill's Volkswagen Repair, which occurs every Friday at 5 p.m..  Bill and a few of his friends, customers, and fellow enthusiasts were sitting around and talking over VW stuff as usual when the subject of getting a club together came up. Well my friend, that was all it took. It was unanimous... we all wanted a VW group of some sort. We started calling friends and customers and the next thing we knew, we had a list of over a hundred possible members. Over thirty showed up at the first meeting. We grew to over sixty members by the forth meeting. The word has moved fast and as you know, Volkswagen folks are enthusiastic about their vehicles.

If the truth be know, we really didn't know what to expect from this group so we decided to leave it up to the members. Fortunately we have several very experienced members who also belong to other groups, like the Model "T" club, the Model "A" Club, Terd Heads, and other classic and rare car clubs. They were eager to lend advice. So were many others who were like me, joining a car club for the first time.  Everyone gets to help us determin what our club is and what we do. Here is what we have come up with so far:

• Everyone is here for the social aspects of the club as well as support aspects (so we're trying to make it fun above all)
• Members do not have to actually own a VW - all members need, is to be interested in VW's
• Annual dues of $20 per membership - students get a discount membership ($10) as long as they remain in school - additional $1 per meeting that goes to a 50/50 drawing each month - winner gets 50%
  
• Membership can be a couple (married or not), father and son, mother and daughter, basically a family unit
  
• Air Cooled VW's only - no water pumpers or other manufacturers of air cooled vehicles
  
• Everyone wants driving events (cruises, rallies, car shows, etc.)
  
• We all want to do community projects - We're big donars with Make-A-Wish Foundations, Cruizin' Eureka
  
• There will be a club listing of parts needed and parts for sale or give aways
• The website will be a resource center for VW enthusiasts
• The club will put on workshops - how to keep your VW alive, revitalize that paint, valve adjust, etc.

We are still a club in the making and are anxious to become more, so if anyone, member or not, has suggestions, please email them to us at: manbug@suddenlink.net. 

Picture from Labor Day Run with the off road group in southern Humboldt on 9/05/04