Past Communications

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Shay Owners Annual Meeting and Convention 2026

The 2026 Shay Owners Club, International Annual Meeting and Convention is now ready for you to sign up! Save the dates now... In Springfield, MO, from September 15 to September 19, 2026. Once you're pretty sure you're going to make it to the Convention, you can register with us online at this link (opens in a new tab). See the links at the bottom of this page for lodging, convention registration, and other helpful info.

You do not have to own or bring a Shay or Camelot car. You do not have to be a member to attend.

Springfield, MO is the official Birthplace of Route 66, beginning with a historic meeting in, and a historic telegram sent from Springfield on April 30, 2026 designating Route 66 (here's a video). Our presence there will roughly coincide with the 100th anniversary of the designation of this historic highway as Route 66, and the City of Springfield will still be abuzz with the excitement. Our local guide, SOCI member Don Smith, has lots of stuff planned for us, including a cruise on the original Route 66, and plenty to do in Springfield.

September 15 will be the travel and arrival date. Book your first night for that evening. As attendees arrive, we can all meet in the hotel restaurant and get informally acquainted. You'll likely have had a long day's drive, and will want to settle in for a good night's rest.

September 16, 17 and 18 will be the Convention days. Events will include a cruise to Route 66 historic places along some of the remaining, original elevation of Route 66, followed by a day of local touring to The History Museum on the Square (rated the Best New Attraction by USA Today) and a visit to the World Headquarters of Bass Pro Shops, including the outstanding Wonders of Wildlife Aquarium located there. A third day will be a free touring day, on your own or with other Convention attendees, and can include a selection of local and wild west history sites, automotive or wildlife museums, the Wilson's Creek National (Civil War) Battlefield site, Fantastic Caverns, the Ralph Foster Museum, shopping or music shows in Branson, great dining in Springfield, and too much more to mention here. On the last day, we'll gather for a final dinner at or near the hotel.

September 19 is the day we'll head for home. After a group breakfast at the hotel, we head out with new friends made and a great time to remember. If you'd like to stretch your stay, we'll have a long list of other places to go and things to do in and around this great, historic city.

MANY THANKS!! To SOCI member Don Smith, a proud Springfield resident, and our local tour guide.

Drop in to this site now and then for links to the most recent updates.

Helpful Links (opens in a new tab):

Book your hotel, Oasis Hotel and Convention Center, Springfield.

Description of event on the SOCI Forum pages.

Meeting general information posted on Shaymodelaclub.com.

Sign-up and Registration form to attend the SOCI Convention.

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The year 2026 beckons! (Jan 25, 2026)

It's cold here in Michigan -- well below zero -- and my Shay is sitting in a heavily-insulated, but unheated garage in Northern Michigan. I like to imagine that she's daydreaming of the coming summer, same as me.

The Shay Owners Club is putting the final touches on this summer's annual meeting and convention in Springfield, MO., an important and historic town and the official Birthplace of Route 66. We've got plans to make the best of that history in the few days we're there. The plan will be flexible, so that we can deal with whatever the weather is, and we'll provide you with the information you'll need to book a hotel, with a place to park your truck and trailer. In the meantime, save the dates: September 15 to 19; An arrival day, three convention days, and a departure day, a historic cruise route, and some museum days.

In the six months since the last Annual Meeting and Convention, The SOCI has added about two dozen new, paid members, including several Life Members (Thank You!). What we'd really like to see the Shay enthusiast community help us with, is the formation of local groups of Shay enthusiasts. Not everyone can make it to a given place on a given day. If you can help us out by being a local contact for new events, by informing us of events we might not know about, or by helping to resurrect past events that have gone dormant (Florida Shay Day, for example), we'll take any help we can get.

If you can help out, or if you're looking for more information, drop us a note at Shayoci.info@gmail.com.

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SHAY/CAMELOT WALL CALENDARS FOR 2026
The SOCI board has created and made available a 13-photo, month-per-page wall calendar, and a couple of poster-style one-sheet calendars. Thirteen great shots of Shay and Camelot cars, some of which you might not even know Shay or Camelot ever made! They were available until late February 2026.

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NEW NEWS FROM the SOCI board (Sept 19, 2025)

Per our recent email, the SOCI board is considering the offering of a 2026 full-page calendar, if there's interest enough in it, and if we can pull it off in the limited time this year; it would have to go for about $28, including shipping. So, if you haven't already, tell us you're interested by dropping an email to ShayOCI.info@gmail.com, with the subject line "Calendar". When we see what the interest is, we'll take it from there.

Update: Response on the calendar was good; it's complete, we're just waiting for a proof copy to confirm we like the quality before we release it to the marketplace.

Also, the Nathan Shay page has been reinstalled. This is a college term paper written by the grandson of Harry Shay, regarding Harry Shay and the Company he founded to build our unique cars. It also features a photo of Nathan Shay with a Shay Thunderbird owned by SOCI member Steve Clemens.

We're also working on a Winter Storage advisory page for the Technical Information section. Send your thoughts to ShayOCI.info@gmail.com and tell us what's worked for you, and what hasn't.

You can find a running log of previous communications from this page at this link.

UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT: (2025-06-27)

At the 2025 SOCI Annual Meeting and Convention in Clinton, IA, a new slate of officers was elected, replacing the long-serving President, Vice President and Treasurer. The new officers will be looking to freshen-up the website, update a few things, to make connections with current, past, and hopefully, future members of SOCI, and to establish productive, mutually beneficial relationships with other Shay enthusiast groups. It is our intent to sustain the existing Annual Meeting, to promote local groups, and to establish long-term sustainability of this informational site, for the wealth of information it provides to current and future Shay, Camelot and Glassic owners. We hope you'll pop-in from time to time to see what's up, and to put in your two-cents'-worth to grow and sustain the community of people who own these quirky, wonderful old cars.

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