Running a Car Club Newsletter and Classifieds Board

This piece is about that job: choosing a format, staying inside the email rules, running a classifieds board people trust, and handling the money that ads and links can bring in. If the club itself is still on the drawing board, start with starting a car club and come back when there are members to write to.

Choosing a format for the car club newsletter

The big national clubs show the range. AACA publishes its magazine, "Antique Automobile," six times a year and sends a monthly e-newsletter, "The Speedster," alongside online buy and sell forums. NCRS, the Corvette restorers' society, mails its newsletter "Driveline" every other month. Print for the keeper, email for the news. A small regional club rarely needs both, but it helps to know why the big ones do it.

Print is slow and costs money for every copy, but it sits on a workbench for weeks. Email is close to free and lands the same day, which matters when a cruise night moves or a member's car turns up for sale. Most clubs end up with email as the working channel and a printed issue once or twice a year, if at all.

The tools are cheap at club scale. Mailchimp's free plan, as shown on its pricing page on 2026-10-19, covers 250 contacts and a maximum of 500 sends a month. That fits a small club sending twice a month. Ghost(Pro) lists a Starter plan at $18 a month for up to 1,000 members, billed yearly, and its Publisher plan at $29 a month is the first tier that takes paid subscriptions. A few clubs consider charging outsiders for the newsletter. That is a creator's business model more than a club's, and the economics are their own subject (read more here).

Whatever you choose, pick one person to own the deadline. A newsletter with three editors goes out late.

The email rules your newsletter has to follow

The federal CAN-SPAM Act applies to commercial email, and the FTC's business guide lists what it requires:

• Accurate header and routing information, and a subject line that does not mislead.
• A clear statement that the message is an ad, where it is one.
• A valid physical postal address: a street address, a USPS-registered PO box, or a registered private mailbox.
• A clear way to opt out, which must keep working for at least 30 days after you send, and opt-outs honored within 10 business days.
• Responsibility for any mail someone else sends on your behalf.

The penalty is up to $53,088 per violating email, so the rules are worth taking seriously even at a small club. CAN-SPAM does not require opt-in consent, and a membership list still has to be able to opt out of promotional mail. Whether a free club newsletter with no commercial content falls outside the law entirely is a question the FTC wording we read did not settle. The safe course is simple: put the club's mailing address in the footer and an unsubscribe link in every issue. Email rules can also vary by state, so confirm anything unusual with an attorney. This is not legal advice.

Running a classifieds board members trust

A classifieds page is a small marketplace, and its value is the trust between members. The clubs that do it well write the rules down.

NCRS sorts its ads into Cars For Sale, Parts For Sale, Cars & Parts Wanted, Information Wanted, and Services & Miscellaneous, and sets a fixed deadline for each issue: November 30 for the January and February issue, mailed by January 15. Borrow both habits. Categories make a crowded page readable, and a hard deadline keeps the editor sane.

Selling to fellow members has its own etiquette and its own advantages, and there is more on that side of it in selling through club classifieds.

Ads, links and the club's tax status

Classifieds and newsletters can earn a little money. Non-member ad fees, a sponsor's banner, a referral link. That is welcome, and it comes with two sets of rules.

The first is tax. If the club is a 501(c)(7) social club, the IRS allows up to 35% of gross receipts from nonmember sources, investment income included, and within that no more than 15% from nonmember use of club facilities and services. Going over does not automatically cost the exemption; the IRS weighs all the facts and circumstances. Income from nonmembers is generally taxable to the club. Non-member classified fees and referral commissions may count here, so keep them in their own line of the books. The treasurer should check how the club's income is classified with an accountant, because the answer depends on the club's own numbers.

The second is disclosure. A newsletter is a natural place for a referral link, and our partner program names "a club newsletter" as a place to share one. Through the CCA partner program a club earns 25% of every listing package or upgrade a referred member buys, and 20% of a dealer's subscription payments for their first 12 months. The cookie lasts 60 days, each commission is confirmed 30 days after the sale, and payouts are by PayPal once the confirmed balance reaches $50. Whatever the program, the FTC expects the link to be disclosed clearly and close to the recommendation. A line such as "the club gets a commission for purchases made through this link" next to it does the job.

Read each program's rules before a link goes into print. Some allow it, some do not, and the club's name is on the page either way. The details of choosing programs and splitting the money are in how clubs earn from referrals.

"People keep the issue with their name in it. A tour photo, a for-sale ad, a thank-you to whoever brought the coffee. Write for them, and the rest of the club reads along."

Nora Beckett

Keeping it going after the first year

The hard part of a club newsletter is not the first issue. It is the ninth. Enthusiasm fades, the editor's car needs a clutch, and the deadline slides. Clubs that keep a newsletter alive tend to lean on structure rather than willpower: a fixed schedule, standing sections that fill themselves, and the classifieds carrying part of the load.

Give the president a column. Give the events chair the calendar. Give the classifieds a fixed space at the back where members know to look. Then the editor's job shrinks to collecting, trimming and sending. And somebody, some evening, finds the hubcaps they have been hunting for three years.

Sources and notes

• NCRS: Driveline publications and classified ad rules (read 2026-10-19)
• Falcon Club of America: newsletter classifieds FAQ (undated page, read 2026-10-19; fees may have changed)
• FTC: CAN-SPAM Act compliance guide for business (read 2026-10-19)
• Mailchimp: marketing plan pricing, free plan limits (read 2026-10-19)
• IRS: social clubs, 501(c)(7) nonmember income limits
• Classic Cars Arena partner program: rates and payout terms (as of 2026-10-19)