Officers for 2005-7 are as follows:

Founder and Club Kahuna: Don Iglesias

President: Ken Francis- kfrancis@jps.net

Vice President: Rod Kleman- bkman@sbcglobal.net

Secretary: Pat Benfield - scwoodie@ix.netcom.com

Treasurer: Patty Ferdinand - jferd@aol.com

Membership: Warren & Katie Atwood - slwoodie@msn.com

Events: Ken Francis -kfrancis@jps.net

The idea for a woodie club, rooted in the surfing culture of Santa Cruz, was the brainchild of Don Iglesias. He contacted a few folks to kick the idea around about forming a woodie club. Upon hearing their willingness to help get something like this off the ground, he set about forming the club. Word got out to all known woodie owners in Santa Cruz about a meeting Don was having at his house. To the best of our records, there were 13 people at the first meeting; Rowland and Dorma Baker, Bob and Robbie Barbour, Pat and Howard Benefield, Barbra and Steve Giosso, Don and Cathy Iglesias, Jim and Patty Lucas and Michael Riley.

There was quite a bit of discussion at the first few meetings about how organized we wanted to get this thing. As long as we could have cool t-shirts and jackets...what else did we need? Don had done his homework and brought to the group some of the benefits of being an official chapter of the National Woodie Club. We decided to look into it a bit more, and invited the then Vice President of the NWC, Lee Kidwell, up to our next meeting, and to our surprise, he came (Lee is still considered our unofficial GodFather).

Lee informed us how we could benefit from the NWC, and it was decided to apply to become an official chapter. Many of us were dubious that they would accept us, since many purest hate the surf community that basically butchered up many woodies in the 60's to accommodate surfboards. So Don began correspondence and let the National know what we were up to in California. At this time there were not any chapters in the NWC, so I'm not sure they knew what to do with our request to be a chapter. We drew up some by-laws, and by this time had the required 14 members, so in October of 1993, we became an official chapter of the National Woodie Club (we used to think we were the first chapter of the NWC, but it turns out the Yankee Wood Chapter was approved a month or two before we got the nod, or so they say).

The purpose of the club was clear in everyone's mind from the start, and was recorded in our original by-laws. It is as follows:

"The primary purpose of the Santa Cruz Woodies Chapter is to encourage and promote interest in wooden cars. We will gather as a group to cruise to shows, events, celebrations, touring, etc. The historical significance of woodies in the sport of surfing is an area of focus for this chapter."

The first slate of officers for the chapter was:
President: (and forever club Kahuna) Don Iglesias
Vice President: Rowland Baker
Secretary: Pat Benefield
Treasurer: Barb Giosso
Historian: Bob Barbour

Yes...you guess it. Just about every member in the club had an office. Don served as president until January of 1995. At the January meeting, Don turned over the gavel to Rowland. He also proposed that we should have a woodie meet that year, with the new president serving as the meet director. Despite the objections of Rowland, the club, now around 25 members strong, cheered wildly, and the concept for the first official woodie meet in Santa Cruz was laid. Over the next few months, we all began looking for a location for our meet. We knew we wanted somewhere near the ocean. We looked into State Parks and private businesses, but no one seemed interested. Bob Barbour suggested he might talk to a few of his connections, and see if the wharf would be interested in hosting us. Despite their original reluctance to host a car show, the wharf merchants agreed to allow us to use the wharf, as long as we were off the wharf in enough time for their "paying customers" to have dinner. Woodies on the Wharf was born! The first event, held on the 24th of June 1995 had a grand total of 57 woodies, one wooden bike and a pedal car. To read more about that first event as recorded in the early Termite Times, go to First Woodies on the Wharf.

Over the years the event has continued grow, and is fast becoming one of the premiere woodie events in the world. The Santa Cruz Woodie Club works hard to make sure it is not only a great car show, but also a fun 3-day event for club all members. Check out our Woodies on the Wharf page to find out more about this year's event.