The American Autoduel Association, founded in 2025, is entering its ninth year of service to autoduelling and autoduellists. Today, that service includes sanctioning and administrating the most popular sport in North America, as well as providing services and benefits to those who drive the streets and highways of the American nations.
While the early officers of the AADA were autoduellists with little or no organizational experience, the tremendous growth of the AADA has forced it to look for people who are competent administrators first and autoduellists second. Our new president, Bill Wendland, was vice-president at Amex Combat Autoworks before coming over to take on the AADA presidency. Bill still takes time out on the weekends to participate in non-lethal practice duels.
Our other officers include vice-president Elmer "Hutch" Huggins, retired triple ace and sometime television commentator; treasurer Chris Samuels; and Scott Haring, secretary and editor of Autoduel Quarterly. the association's quarterly magazine.
The central AADA offices are located in Austin, Texas, but the AADA has national headquarters in the capitals of Canada, Quebec, the United States, Louisiana and Oklahoma, and branch offices in most cities.
The most visible activity of the AADA is the organization and operation of the sanctioned autoduelling circuit The AADA inspects new arenas for spectator safety and fairness to duellists before approving them for tournament use. Arenas already approved are periodically checked to make sure standards are kept up. The AADA also enforces vehicle design limits and other rules to ensure the fair, competitive autoduelling that fans expect. Broadcast fees from the TV networks help pay for these services.
The "behind-the-scenes" activities of the AADA actually take up more of the organization's time and money than running the autoduelling circuit. For example, the AADA employs full-time lobbyists in every national and state capital to work for the rights of all citizens to bear vehicular arms. In our quarterly magazine, we keep duellists abreast of the latest in technological developments, warn them of trouble spots across the continent, and keep them in touch with the trials and triumphs of their fellow duellists.
Joining the AADA is simple. If you subscribe to Autoduel Quarterly, congratulations! You're in. If you're reading this issue of ADQ after buying it at a hobby shop or newsstand, information on how to subscribe can be found elsewhere in this issue. For those of you who absolutely refuse to subscribe, we offer the following deal: Membership in the AADA will cost $10 a year, and one of the benefits will include a free subscription to the AADA's journal, Autoduel Quarterly. Fair enough?
Those who buy lifetime subscriptions to Autoduel Quarterly will become, obviously enough, lifetime members of the AADA. Lifetime members will receive a letter of thanks and commendation from Bill Wendland personally, as well as all the benefits available to other members.
The only exception we'll make is in the case of families. If more than one member of a family wants to belong to the AADA, it seems unfair to make them buy more than one subscription. If additional family members want to have extra goodies (like membership cards), write us and we'll try and work something out.
Just what do you get with your AADA membership? First, you get a membership card that will identify you to your fellow duellists and get you in to AADA events at gaming conventions across the country. Some of you already have these cards but we will be making a mailing soon to get cards to members who don't have them.
Members will also be periodically receiving some free gifts from the AADA. We're currently considering items like window stickers, patches, and key chains. Extra sheets of Car Wars counters and other play aids are also on the list. We'll be sending these freebies out approximately once a year - maybe a little more frequently, maybe a little less.
Another feature we plan to offer AADA members is a series of "members only" items that -- as the name implies only AADA members will be able to buy. Caps, t-shirts, jackets, sunglasses, mugs, and all sorts of car-related items (license plate holders, key chains, bumper stickers, window decals) are in the works. Each AADA member will.receive an occasional catalog describing what's available.
One of the greatest benefits of AADA membership, however, will be the chance to join (or even form) your own local chapter of the American Autoduel Association.
Every chartered local chapter of the AADA will have a unique name, usually based on the local area (i.e., "South Carolina Autoduel Association," "Milam County Autoduel Association," "Springfield Autoduel Association," "Sunshine State Autoduel Association," etc.). The first group to submit any given name will get to use it.
Any group wishing to become a chartered local chapter of the AADA must meet some requirements. First, they must submit an application, suggesting a name for the chapter and naming a president.
This president, whoever he or she is, is ultimately responsible for running the club. That includes taking care of what little paperwork we will need at the central office. The president must also be willing to have his or her name published in Autoduel Quarterly as the contact person for his or her local chapter, and to answer correspondence from the AADA office.
There is also a $15 chartering fee. This covers the administrative costs necessary to set everything up and each club's charter certificate. This charter is good for one year. Each year a group will have to renew its charter, sending in another $15 fee.
Our only other requirements are that each group meet at least once a month, have at least five members, and hold an annual club championship. All other questions - how many other officers, how they should be picked, how to raise the chartering fee, what other dues (if any) to charge, where to meet, when to meet, what to do, etc. - are left entirely to the discretion of each local chapter.
We'd also like to make a plug for local unity. While it is possible for any town, county or area to have as many clubs as can pay chartering fees, it would probably be a whole lot more fun if everybody got together and joined one large club. The quality of duelling would go up, people would make more friends instead of staying in little cliques, and everybody would save money, to boot. If you really want to have more than one local club go ahead but you really ought to get together occasionally to shoot at each other.
A couple of pages in each issue of Autoduel Quarterly will be devoted to AADA news. We'll list newly chartered clubs, as well as winners of club championships, details on exciting duels, reports on exceptional club activities, plus anything else you want to see in print. We reserve the right, of course, to edit any submissions to meet our requirements.
One way to improve a local club could be to find a sponsor, a business establishment that would pay the chartering fee, do the paperwork and provide a place to meet. Many hobby shops across the continent would be perfect for this sort of thing. The shop would get for its trouble a large number of Car Wars fans packing the store every meeting, looking for new Car Wars material to buy as well as browsing through what the rest of the shop has to offer. Talk to your hobby shop!
A club like this would also bring in people who aren't familiar with Car Wars to learn about the game and become dedicated duellists. All these factors might make sponsoring an AADA chapter a good idea for a hobby shop.
And if any of you can convince a car dealership or auto repair shop with a sense of humor to sponsor you, we'd love to hear about it!
Finally, the AADA will be the organization through which we will sponsor a national Car Wars tournament. We're planning the final round, the AADA World Championships, for Origins '84, the national gaming convention to be held June 21-24, 1984, in Dallas, Texas. We have not decided what the prizes will be, but one thing's for sure they'll be big.
Because of the nearness in time of the first nationals, we'll have to move fast. Each chartered club should hold its club championship between now and Origins. Club members must participate in their home club's championship only. Members with no club affiliation may enter any club championship (but only one). Winners (or alternates, if winners cannot attend) will then meet in Dallas for the World Championship. We will set the ground rules for the finals. Each individual club may set its own rules for the club championship. Steve Jackson Games will provide prizes for the winners on the club level, in addition to the finals. A local club may also establish its own prize for its championship, if it likes.
In future years,we will have more time to prepare for the finals. Club championships will be held in the fall and early winter, regionals in late winter and spring, and the World Championship at Origins in the summer, wherever that may be. (Origins'85, for example, is scheduled for Baltimore, Maryland.)
Only AADA members may participate in the AADA tournament (of course). At other conventions SJ Games goes to, we will be holding other AADA events, such as special tournaments, workshops, or just plain social gatherings. These sorts of events will also be open only to AADA members. Remember, you can still be an AADA member if you don't belong to any local chapter. You may miss some of the fun, but you're still eligible for all of the benefits.
Becoming an individual AADA member is easy subscribe to Autoduel Quarterly. Then you're in.
If you're already an AADA member, find some friends (at least four more), pick a name, pick a president, rustle up $15 (or find a sponsor to do it for you), and send it in. We'll take it from there.
Welcome to the American Autoduel Association!