Charlie Carter

[exeric]

Charlie Carter was the editor of the "Antique Motorcycle" from the early 1970's to the mid 1980's. That was a non-paying, volunteer position that consumed a great amount of his time and energy. He was in the printing business and knew all of the right people in Orlando, Florida that could do production printing and binding and got the AMCA a good deal on those services. In those days, it was a real struggle to gather enough content to fill a magazine and Charlie often had to beg members for pictures and stories. Ted Hogden helped Charlie with brochures from his vast collection and arm twisted members to contribute, however, it was always a race to get a magazine finished by the dead-line. By the mid 80's Charlie was burned out on editing the magazine. I've heard both sides of this story and I believe the truth lies somewhere in the middle but Charlie left abruptly and left Bob McLean holding the bag (i.e. getting out a magazine). This certainly was not the way to leave a job and if you don't know Charlie Carter, it's easy to see him as the bad guy in this soap opera. If you do know Charlie Carter, you would know that he gave the board plenty of warning, which was not taken seriously because they took his labors for granted.

Charlie Carter has been largely ignored by the AMCA historians and bestowers of the "Honorary Membership". Obviously there was a lot of animosity between the concerned parties that were active in the AMCA board in those days. Many of those members are no longer active or alive and the raw nerves should be soothed by now. Charlie Carter was a major component in making this club what it is today. Many of our prominent members joined when Charlie was producing the magazine and remember the fruits of his efforts. The magazine is the face of the AMCA.

I believe the AMCA owes Charlie Carter an "Honorary Membership" and I think it would be most honorable for a board member to bring his name forward at the AMCA national board meeting in Eustis this year.

Charlie is still with us, and giving him this honor would gratify him and his many friends. It's the right thing to do.

[Chuck#1848]

Eric,
I personaly don't know the man, I joined in the early 90's ,but being a board member on another mc orginazation I know first hand what an editor goes through in order to pull together a magazine for it's membership.........let alone to get it out in time.

I only know you from discussions on this site ,you strike me as a person that put's a lot of thought and time in to a topic or a restoration so I would only hope that one of the board members that do visit the site will take your suggestion to the board at the meeting in Eustis and they in turn will do the right thing in regards to what Charlie did to keep the club alive in the early years of the AMCA.

[exeric]

Thank you Chuck. I'm hoping this will go "viral" as they say nowdays. If anyone does carry animosity for Charlie, I hope they will bury the hatchet and honor a man who worked very hard for our club in it's formative years. None of us are going to live forever and it would mean the world to Charlie if the AMCA would give him this nod of recognition.

[Barry Brown]

If they'll give out honourary memberships to someone who did squat for the club then why not this guy who worked his tail off? as it has been said here before this club is as far from democratic as Vladimir Putin.

[Ross]

In February 1978 a young married couple pulled a 1943 Harley behind a 1963 chevy handivan all the way to Daytona to ride a motorcycle in winter on the beaches. They lived in Winnipeg and were members of the AMCA and the only people they knew in Florida were Ted Hodson and Charles Carter. The only reason they knew these 2 was thru the magazine. They visited both Ted and Charles and Charles opened up his home for a visit. I think you are on the right track here. I don't have the handivan anymore but I have the same wife and Harley.The magazines for a volunteer effort were great then, and my only source of info for many years.

[chicagohen]

Eric, I strongly concur with you about Charlie.

I will mention this to BOD members when I see them but hopefully they will read this thread and consider it this year.

Steve Ciccalone

[big jesus 151]

Sounds good !

Hello all, sounds like the correct thing to do ! Thumbs up !! Carl Estes

[Slojo]

Kids, all in favor raise your hands. For me I have already heard enough. Anybody publishing our early mag. for free has earned my vote no matter what the closing argument was on his tenure.
Joe

[micmac]

What was that old saying on the ABATE cards? "When we do right, no one remembers, when we do wrong, no one forgets?" I'm just an FNG here, but Eric seems like a straight shooter in my short tenure here, why not set stuff right and award the man a lifetime membership? Just my 02 cents.

[Tom Lovejoy]

Yep, I agree - Charlie was very helpful to me when I was trying to get my Henderson together, he sent me photo's of his deluxe. So I could see what mine was supposed to look like and gave me helpful advice on the effort. As did Chicagohen, both good folks. Good job Eric for bringing this up, Charlie is well deserv'ing of the recognition.

[redfred84]

Honorary Membership

Eric & all,
Thanks to Cory who alerted me of this snowballing topic. Amazing how this stuff festers and can suddenly erupt into ugliness.
I'm not sure how Honorary Memberships began, but it seems to be an on-going award carried out, and voted on by the Board. I believe, all one has to do, is nominate said person to Trudi, or National Secretary. ANYONE, can drop Trudi a line, and it well run across the Board.
I'm not sure if there has to be a certain amount of signatures, or what, but this is a start. I will ask Trudi if there are any formal pre-requiresits for consideration to Honorable Status, and report back to this thread.
I do know that we have voted down some individuals in the past though, but they were more currently involved with the club.
Rest assured that the current Board is very progressive, and has no axes to grind (at least that I'm aware of).
Thanks again to Cory for alerting me to this. Sorry for not being on top of the Forum, as I've been on the road for a stretch.
More as it happens, RF.

[LouieMCman]

Having done more than my share of newsletters I agree it's a thankless job that nobody wants to do. I never met Charlie but I've read his magazine and they were top notch. Isn't there a procedure to nominate a person for Honorary Membership? I'm sure someone needs to write it up and maybe get some other signatures?

[c.o.]

Now that was fast! I think we're lucky to have Red Fred around to get answers from. It just appeared that Eric's post was worth pursuing.

[Barry Brown]

I vote for making Red Fred president. He is the only one who gives a hoot about our forums

[redfred84]

Honorary Membership

Hi Gang,
Our National Secretary, Trudi (who really is our Queen, and mean that in all the best ways) has responded to me in regards to the Honorary Membership procedure. It is very simple. All that needs to be done is to submit a nomination in writing, stating the Honorees AMCA # and info. The person nominating must be an AMCA member, and needs to do the same, and be accompanied with two (2) additional AMCA members signatures & info. Of course, the nomination must state why they feel the person should be considered.
Trudi emailed me the forms and info for this as an attachment, so who ever wants to do the deed, please just email me pesonally at , and I'll forward you the attachment. I'm to rusty on posting attachments myself, so I'll just forward the email to who ever wants to start the process. It really is a simple procedure.
Once the nomination forms are received, it gets reviewed by the Honorary Committee (who just verify the info really), and passed before the board for approval. The Board only meets twice a year however, early in the year at Florida, then mid year, at Davenport. So we may be looking at a Davenport vote on this if all goes well?
Your Board members are regular guys & gals who are motorcyclists, just like you & me. We are trying to do what's best for the club at all times. The back of the magazine has us all listed, and the various duties we do. Just email, or contact any one of them for any inquiraries, or issues you see. Or, if you're more comfortable just asking me, then please do so. We're motorcyclists, not politicians.
Looking forward to seeing everybody in Florida, especially Eric, and his cooler!
All the best, RF.