The scene is 1919. Horses, buggies and the invention that’s all the rage — the automobile — share the nation’s roads. In Washington, an early iteration of our club was helping to form a community around motoring.
Core to that was a new magazine, Motorist. Launched in 1919, Motorist was a megaphone for the club and its members as they pursued a mission to “wage an incessant fight for the betterment of motoring conditions” and “preserve the natural beauty of roadside timber and scenery.”
In his first letter to the membership, club President R.M. Dyer of Seattle emphasized that “service, not profit nor individual gain is the watchword of the Automobile Club” and that “Washington state must not be caught napping in its road building program.”
Fast forward to today and swap “electric vehicle infrastructure” for “road building program” and it’s clear that, more than 100 years later, the themes that he championed still hold true. As Dyer wrote then, AAA Washington is a not-for-profit that exists not to serve shareholders or venture capital firms, but our members.
Over the years, Motorist evolved into Journey magazine, and now it’s time for us to evolve once again. After much careful consideration, we are sunsetting the print publication of Journey after this issue and expanding upon the robust content we offer online. We have been considering this for some time, keeping pace with trends of other publications. Recent supply chain and postage issues have resulted in our expediting this decision.
While the print version of Journey will no longer exist, you can find unique content from AAA Washington by subscribing to our emails or visiting our website. I also encourage you to reach out to me with your thoughts, feedback and ideas. I love to hear from members. It’s how we make our club better.
I, personally, will miss connecting with you all through my quarterly letter. There will be more to come on how that too might evolve to serve members more broadly.
– Heather Snavely, President and CEO, AAA Washington
– This article appears in the Summer 2022 edition of AAA Washington’s member magazine, Journey.
