Quartzsite 2017

January 19-22, 2017

Note: The Southwest Trek Fun Club (SWTFC) has officially disbanded, but many members of the Northwest Trek Fun Club spend their winters in the southwest and have been members of the SWTFC. At this year’s no host rally in Quartzsite, Arizona, the attendees discussed the future of the SWTFC. The following are notes taken at that meeting, a note from one of the attendees and some pictures:

On Saturday, January 21, we had a very good meeting about the future of the Southwest Trek Fun Club. My guess is that 30 to 40 people attended the meeting, half of which were SWTFC members. During the meeting we discussed whether the SWTFC should continue to exist or be abandoned. There was a good discussion, and I think a consensus that SWTFC should continue to operate and function as a Trek fun club, but for now it should limit its scope to organizing the Quartzsite rally every year. In particular, we formed a group of individuals that were willing to take on various responsibilities in regards to the 2018 Quartzsite rally as follows:

Al Glick, (Solar Al), will directly arrange the rally, setting up the dates and contacting Redlands Truck and RV.

Harry Salit and Fran Zaft will take the easel and PA system back to their home, and arrange to have them transported to Liana for safekeeping. Harry will also arrange to make sure the PA and easel make it back to Quartzsite for the 2018 rally.

Cathy Haight and Ken Harmon will take over communications within related Trek and Safari publications, such as Safari Trails. Cathy will communicate directly with Clark Skeane for updates on SWTFC happenings, especially for the 2018 Quartzsite rally.

Wayne Vandergriff will communicate with Liana and get the assistance of Mary Carlson to try and set up a group email account so that next year’s Quartzsite rally information can be broadcast to all the existing SWTFC members. Wayne will coordinate and handle the email so that Liana does not have to do so.

Finally some notes on the rally:

1. I believe the final count was 32 Treks and 8 non Treks.
2. Consensus was that we should no longer use the term SOB for Some Other Brand. Instead we will try to make sure that everyone knows that Trek owners, former Trek owners, and anyone who ever thought of a Trek or knows someone who has ever mentioned the word Trek whether in reference to a motorhome, a bicycle or a vacation anywhere, would be invited and welcome to attend.
3. Discussions with Northwest Trek Fun Club officers and former officers indicated that NWTFC will try and discuss with their current board assisting the SWTFC in any way, including mention on TrekTracks and references to the annual Quartzsite rally. They were also very helpful in framing the discussion of the future of the SWTFC and attended the discussion. They felt SWTFC should not be abandoned and suggested that the scope of the club should begin small, focusing on the Quartzsite rally solely, and later branching into more outings if and when more people get involved and volunteer for other rallies.
4. The BarBQ at Redlands’ tent was well attended, and personally I really liked the food.

Wayne Vandergriff

Wonderful synopsis Wayne. I think a couple of pats on the back are in order, first to those mentioned that have volunteered to carry the banner of the SWTFC and to you Wayne for running such a nicely organized and successful meeting, but also to Cathy Haight. Cathy offered a wonderful history of the SWTFC and I know my thoughts, and I will bet most in attendance had a similar reaction to her history talk, went directly to “with a wonderful history like that, this cannot be allowed to die”. What I am trying to say is, I am not sure the outcome of the meeting would have been as positive as it was without Cathy’s wonderful history and tribute to the major contributors to the SWTFC.

Bret Medbury