Rover Owners Assocation of North America
The Rover Owners Assocation of North America was formed likely in 1972 as a branch club of
the factory suppored HQ club. The HQ club was located the Rover Company Ltd. in the UK. At the time there were clubs in the UK and in Australia. The group needed to find just 10 people to form a club. To the end the first newsletter was printed. Issue 1 was not dated, but issue 2 was dated October 1972. Issue 2 mentiones a delay between issue 1 and issue 2 combined to an intent to publish 6 issues per year. Hence the best guess for a founding date is early 1972.
Volume II, Number 4 (Sept 1973) mentions that there a California-based club was in existance ("the other 'Rover' club" and that a great many members of the current club were likely members of the other club. ROA North America pointed out that the other club was not recognized by the Headquarters club and that Rover considered the other club to be infringing on their name. The newsletter also mentions that this club was created because the other club was not meeting the members' needs.
| 1972: |
Volume 1, Number 1 Spring?
Volume 1, Number 2 October
Volume 1, Number 3 December
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| 1973: |
Volume 2, Number 1 February
Volume 2, Number 2 April
Volume 2, Number 3 June
Volume 2, Number 4 September
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| 1974: |
Volume 3, Number 1 January
Volume 3, Number 2 March
Volume 3, Number 3 April
Volume 3, Number 4 September
Volume 3, Number 5 is missing. (But not listed in index published in vol 6, number 3)
Volume 3, Number 6 December
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| 1975: |
Volume 4, Number 1 January
Volume 4, Number 2 March
Volume 4, Number 3 May
Volume 4, Number 4 July
Volume 4, Number 5 September
Volume 4, Number 6 December
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| 1976: |
Volume 5, Number 1 February
Volume 5, Number 2 April
Volume 5, Number 3 August
Volume 5, Number 4 November
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| 1977: |
Volume 6, Number 1 February
Volume 6, Number 2 September
Volume 6, Number 3 December
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| 1978: |
Volume 7, Number 1 May
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In 1978 Rover withdrew support of the Rover Owners Association. In the UK the Assocation of Rover Clubs was formed. It is not known how much longer ROA North America existed after 1978. That the schedule of 6 newsletters per year was missed in 1976 with only 4, then only 3 in 1977. We have only found the first issue in 1978 didn't come out until May 1978. This indicates decreasing organziation. The loss of the global ROA support could have signalled the end. But they could have continued on their own. By 1987 the club was not mentioned in the ARC annual publication while other clubs in the US and Canada were mentioned.
If anyone finds any more of these newsletters, please submit them to this site via that links below.
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