The Shelby American (Summer 2022)

Before we became entangled in too many plans, cooler heads, as they say, prevailed. After the initial euphoria subsided the downsides were consid- ered and they were just too large to overcome. The two main ones were that so many members lived outside the area that participation was guar- anteed to be low. Museum members would be a subset of SAAC members in general, and too much effort would be expended for the benefit of too few individuals. SAAC members on the West Coast wouldn’t be too happy by all the effort we were putting into something in Connecticut. Also of con- cern was the inability to come up with a dedicated staff of volunteers. The museum would not have a budget for paid help. So despite a lot of initial en- thusiasm for the project, pragmatic thinking took over and we folded our tent before it was really erected. Who knows where the modest beginnings might have led? The SHELBY AMERICAN Summer 2022 49