The MVPA celebrated its 30th year in conjunction with the 31st annual convention in 2006 at Dayton Ohio. Confusing? Yes, but when you examine the history of the MVPA it makes sense. The founding members of what was then the Military Vehicle Collectors Club (MVCC) started recruiting MV enthusiasts at the National Military Vehicle Collectors Association's (NMVCA) 1975 convention. The MVCC had the ball rolling at its first convention the following year in Kansas City, Missouri, which made it the unofficial start of the MVCC. So in 1977 we celebrated our first year at our second convention.
Differences between the leadership of the NMVCA and many of its members fueled the "breakaway" of the MVCC, whose members wanted officers elected by the membership at large and publication of a directory. Thanks to a determined group with a vision for a better club and 97 "Charter Members" who donated additional funds above the $10 membership dues, the MVCC was operational by 1976. Merrill Madsen served as the first President along with directors Al Mc Adoo, Dennis Spence and Jim Herrick; John Vetter edited Army Motors, the MVCC's magazine; the first membership directory was published with about 470 listings. Rapidly moving forward, the MVCC elected officers in 1977 and Sondra McCoy was hired as Business Manager in 1978. Also in 1978 Supply Line - edited by Oliver Kenen - was spun off from the Army Motors' "Supply Room" classified advertising feature. In 1983 Jerry Cleveland became Supply Line Editor and production manager, updating the look and making it more user friendly and informative. What had begun at about 24 pages has exploded into today's Supply Line at over 100 pages, a direct correlation to the growth of the organization and MV hobby. Many of the companies, such as Army Jeep Parts, Beachwood Canvas, David Uhrig, Portrayal Press, Surplus City and White Owl, supported the very early MVCC publications with their advertising dollars and are still doing so today. In late 1997 the production of Supply Line was transferred to Kay Willard and Tracey Metcalf at MVPA Headquarters. Jerry continued, as Editor until 1999 and after 16 years of avid dedication he passed the editorship to Bill Keen. Bill worked with Kay and Tracey to spruce up Supply Line with new paper stock and departmentalization, until mid-2004 when his health dictated he lighten his workload.
John Vetter developed and edited Army Motors for over 10-years before passing it on to Reg Hodgson in 1985, who had been serving as Directory Editor. For 20 years Reg has nurtured his labor of love, Army Motors, with countless hours of hard work and help from many devoted contributors and contacts. Reg took Army Motors from 34 black & white pages to 64 pages of quality articles and color photographs while infusing style and organization into an award-winning publication. Reg passed the Directory Editor position to Lloyd White, "Mr Jeep", who took on the 1992 "D-5 Directory" which turned out to be a 2-year project. At 400 pages the D-5 was the size of a telephone book, containing 10,072 vehicles submitted by 4777 members. Quite a jump compared to the 1979 D-3 with 1773 members submitting 4441 vehicles. While the wishes of the founding members to have a directory are still being fulfilled, it is no longer done in-house. With first-year D-5 sales at just 700 copies the project lost money but the D-5 remained popular for several years due to its comprehensive vehicle information. The 2000 directory had over 8700 listings and was produced by Harris Publishing at no cost to the MVPA, as is the 2005 issue you are holding that contains over 10,000 listings and an enhanced vehicle section.
Change continued in the mid-1980's including the club name from MVCC to International Military Vehicles Collectors Club (IMVCC) and then to the current MVPA. New bylaws were written and adopted with the Board of Directors undergoing a complete restructuring. In 1991 Headquarters moved from Colorado to Missouri. Approaching 5000 members, the MVPA had outgrown the office in Sondra McCoy's home. In the 13 years Sondra was Business Manager membership tripled from 1500 in 1978 to 4500 in 1991. She worked tirelessly with several different officers and directors to guide the club through the many obstacles a growing organization faces.
With re-location of Headquarters to Independence, Missouri, complete in June 1991, Association Manager, Kay Willard began to fine-tune current projects and develop new programs to spur growth and participation such as the "Recruit a Member Get a Gift" campaign. Administrative Assistant, Tracey Metcalf came on board in 1995 to help Kay manage the growing membership, larger conventions, the details of daily operation, the website, e-mails and eventually the production of Supply Line. Highly motivated, Tracey enjoys developing projects such as the "Junior Membership Program" which she co-developed with MVPA Director, Lee Holland.
In 1996 Jerry Cleveland launched MVPA OnLine at www.mvpa.org introducing the MVPA to the "Information Super Highway". In 2000 Lee Holland and the Headquarters staff worked with a web design company to completely revamp and update the site. In 2003 the Headquarters staff was instrumental in a second revamping of the site, and again in late 2004. Our favorite green machines may be comfortable traveling at 45 mph but the HQ staff must move quickly to keep the MVPA on the fast-paced information highway, for it is key to our continued growth and increased "Supply Room" sales.
If the early days of the MVPA can be characterized as the days of formation, foundation and growth, the late 1980's and early 1990's were the days of reorganization, refining, and the beginning of a new level of professional operations that continues to this day. John Flake, Orie Nelson, Bob Jenkins, Lou Moore and others supplied valuable management skills that put the MVPA on a new, more stable financial course. Although John passed away in 2000 and Bob in 2003 their legacy will live on, in part, through the new national office where Kay, Tracey and the rest of the staff continue to provide members and advertisers with a heightened level of customer relations and proficiency.
In 1999 due to on-going government legislation that could affect our hobby a "Government Liaison Committee" was formed. Chaired by Lee Holland, the committee keeps an eye on legislative activity in Washington, D.C. and coordinates lobbying efforts with MVPA member Alan Cors in an effort to prevent any restrictions to the private ownership of military vehicles. As the MVPA ushered in the 21st Century, more milestones were achieved. The MVPA Archives was established and a large donation was accepted; a building was purchased; a new MV rally was launched; annual conventions began breaking attendance records; and membership reached 10,000.
The Board asked Lou Moore to establish the MVPA Historical Archives and in March of 2000 the mission was completed. Needing space to house donations and having out-grown the current office space the Board felt it would be a more efficient use of MVPA funds to own a building, so in August of 2000 a 2000 square-foot building was purchased in Independence, Missouri. After nearly 25 years of operation the MVPA finally had an "Official Headquarters", conveniently located in the center of the United States.
With plenty of space in the MVPA Historical Archives, the Board, through Lee Holland, accepted a donation of 50,000 drawings and blueprints of military vehicles from the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Command in Warren, Michigan. These original drawings from the 1940s through the 1970s took up more space than expected so in 2003 they were moved to The WWII Victory Museum in Auburn, Indiana as part of a cooperative venture between the MVPA and Dean V. Kruse Foundation (DVKF). In 2004, Director Art Pope, with the help of several MVPA volunteers started the process of unrolling and sorted the 50,000 drawings. In 2006 they began logging the drawings into a database to produce a list of the drawing available to and eventually offer copies of the drawings to MVPA members.
In the spirit of our mission to preserve and restore military transport, the MVPA teamed up with the DVKF in 2003 and launched the "Salute To Victory Expo & Auction", an annual fall rally in Auburn, Indiana. Proceeds go to the WWII Victory Museum for the restoration of vehicles and re-building of dioramas, all part of a vast WWII collection formerly located at the Victory Memorial Museum in Belgium. Sighting limited resources the DVKF hosted the last STV Expo in 2005. Good New! The Expo is to be brought back in the fall of 2007, hosted by the Tri-State MVPA affiliate, which was established in 2006 and is based at the WWII Victory Museum in Auburn. Good Luck!
The MVPA started in 1976 with a convention and has held one every year since. That inaugural event was in Kansas City, Missouri hosted by the Kansas City Area Chapter "Hell on Wheels" and has returned to Kansas City a record, three more times, in 1982, 1993 and again in 2000. This annual event would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of the MVPA Affiliates and several have taken on the challenge of hosting a second time: The MVCC of Oregon at Portland in 1988 and 1996; Pennsylvania's Red Ball Military Transport hosted at Fort Indiantown Gap in 1994 and the Tobyhanna Army Depot in 1998; our Texas affiliate, Arrowhead, at Arlington in 1995 and Dallas in 2002; California's MVCC at San Jose in 1999 and Alameda in 2003. As the membership has grown so has the convention attendance. Starting in 1997 at Memphis, TN sales records were being set in various categories from swap meet tables to BBQ ticket sales and continued through 2001 in Fort Lee, VA. Attendance slowed in 2002 and 2003 due in part to the aftermath of the 9-11 tragedy in the United States. Attendance and sales began to bounce back in 2004 at Mobile, Alabama, equaled in Duluth Minnesota the following year. As anticipated the 2006 convention in Dayton, Ohio broke many records previous set by our larges events. Plans have been made to hold the 2007 convention in Little Rock, Arkansas followed by Portland, Oregon and tentatively Evansville, Indiana in 2009.
Vehicle displays have always been the focal point of each convention and along with that comes judging, which began at the 1978 convention in Denver, Colorado. In 1980 Jim Herrick and Oliver Kenen proposed a "National Judging Program" be established and implemented within 5 years. The new process would involve a point system (similar to other car clubs) where vehicles would be judged against a standard instead of other vehicles. The "MVPA National Judging Program" was put into effect in 1984 at Charlotte, North Carolina where Oliver Kenen served as Judging Chairman. Lou Moore held the position from 1991 through 2002 when he passed the honor on to Jim Gilmore. In 2007 Jim Lurba take his place a Judging Chairman in Little Rock Arkansas. The Judging Chairman is an honor that requires a lot time and hard work along with the knowledge and dedication of countless volunteer judges. Since 1995 an average of 150 vehicles have been registered per convention with an average of 67 of those being judged. Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania in 1998 holds the record at 275 registered vehicles of which 136 were judged.
It has been nearly 30 years and we are still honoring the wishes of our founding members. Officers are elected, a directory is published periodically plus we have grown beyond their expectations reaching 10,000 members. The MVPA is financially sound, Supply Line and Army Motors have tripled in size and are well-respected publications. Even the Los Angeles and New York City public libraries purchase copies for their reference departments.
From our founding members to the entire membership; it is through your devotion to the military vehicle hobby, recruiting efforts, membership dues, advertising dollars, volunteer spirit, hard work and dedication that the MVPA was established and has grown and prospered. If the MVPA Headquarters is the engine, the staff the mechanics, and Directors the drivers then the members are the fuel. Without the fuel the engine doesn't run. YOU, the members, are the MVPA, which will need your fuel to continue toward a bright future down the information highway focused on our mission: To provide an international organization for military vehicle enthusiasts, historians, preservationists and collectors interested in the acquisition, restoration, preservation, safe operation, public education and display of historic military transport.
By Kay Willard, MVPA Association Manager