I've been a member of the AHCA for 35 years, a delegate for some of those
years, and a founder of the AHCA's Southern Ontario chapter.
I've seen these unification proposals come and go, and if I'm not mistaken,
the last go around had the AHCA delegates discussing at length, basically
agreeing it might be a good thing to unify, but the president at the time of
the AHCUSA want no part of it, and that flattened it once more. I could be
mistaken on those details but that's how it was handed down to me.
The two clubs have definitely different "flavours" though both have
excellent magazines, even some of the editors have served for both magazines
at different times. If anybody dare generalize as to differences in content,
it's that the AHCA with all it's individual local chapters focuses more on
the social aspect, and activities held in (and inviting others to) their
respective areas. The AHCUSA is more of a magazine subscription based
membership, and the content is often more technical based articles.
In the majority of the cases, memberships have been taken on in both clubs,
simply because most folks want the strengths of each as outlined above.
Personally I think that if both can remain healthy as they are, by joining
both we're getting the best of both. However, if they were to unify, I would
NOT wish to see the AHCA type of chapter structure with delegate
representation change or disappear.
Rich Chrysler
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