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That's true. A lot of people do not have local chapters, and some of the "local" chapters like ours in the Chesapeake region encompass easily over 6 hours of driving time side to side. Generally your "chapter" membership is determined by what the chapter coordinator sends you as your email list of members, mine is usually DC, MD and WV, though I haven't seen a WV list in a while.
I also invite people who are not part of the VCOA to chapter events. Our events are free, and I like to think it spurs membership.
The $30 is easily paid for with the discount at the Volvo dealer in a year.
The magazine is very good, however, I have often heard criticism that it does not focus on the 7/9 series enough, and mostly on the super-new Volvos or the round fenders. I have noticed internally, also, there seems to be a divide between the RWD and alternatively-driven vehicle owners. This speaks for the changing demographic of Volvo, however, and is nothing that Volvo couldn't solve with a new RWD performance chassis with the modern styling.
A lot of folks do not realize the time commitment of VCOA if you have any responsibility. Everyone is a volunteer, and my hat goes off especially to those who layout and edit Rolling. I briefly helped Jan edit the magazine to relieve some overloaded schedules, and some of those stories needed easily three hours of solid editing - not just for the spelling or grammer or style, but also to check the technical aspects as well.
Not only that, we don't get any budget for postage, etc (at least that I am aware of), so that's all funded by the individual chapters, too. But I think that's something that helps the character of the organization, and emphasized what a really grass-roots group it is. I've had lots of good experiences with other chapters, and two summers back the SoCal Chapter didn't even care I showed up in a Toyota truck (hey, it at least had the prancing moose decal) to meet the Dutch that day.
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