Talk:American Automobile Association

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Contents

[edit] Article name

The organization changed its official name to simply the initials in 1997.

Curious: Is there a reason, then, that this article should not be renamed to simply "AAA"?

--guru 22:05, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Criticism Paragraph is Soapbox Material

Paragraph should be deleted or rewritten entirely. While AAA could certainly warrant criticism, it needs to be factual and NPOV.

"AAA still lobbies the American federal government and state governments for increased spending on roads and automobile safety, and against gas taxes and emissions regulations." Sweeping generalization & unsourced.

"For example, AAA lobbied against the 1990 Clean Air Act and various California emissions laws" Statement is not correct (AAA did and does support the Clean Air Act but not all facets of the proposed legislation), and citation does not contain verifiable source. Various emissions laws? Which ones?

"Their opponents argue that the AAA does not tell prospective members that it is a lobby group, and that the members join in order to have emergency towing privileges, not because they agree with the political positions of the organization, and that the AAA exploits their members' ignorance." Unsourced, inaccurate & inflammatory rhetoric

The pargraph is basically an unsourced soapbox rant with an advert to an alternate auto club.24.27.202.53 20:57, 23 May 2006 (UTC)


Amen. There are no sources whatsoever, and it's an ad for this "Better World" organization.Meersman 06:21, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

There are sources now. I added a 4th source in the place where a "citation needed" tag was placed and removed the "sources needed" tag. There are now more sources in that section than in the whole rest of the article. It's possible the article as a whole needs a "sources needed" tag but it seemes inappropriate to me to leave the sources needed tag on the one section with the MOST sources in the article. Plymouths 21:03, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
Also I'm totally confused at your criticism - I checked the history and as of Dec 19th (the day before your comment is dated) there were already THREE references in the criticism section. That's a far cry from "no sources whatsoever". If you're going to criticise the article could you maybe actually READ it before criticising? Plymouths 21:09, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Current AAA clubs and territories

Is this quote actually accureate? "Mississippi -- AAA Missouri, St. Louis, MO has jurisdiction over the state of Mississippi" Mississippi and Missouri don't even share a border, so I doubt very much that this is true. --Srwm4 14:11, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, it is correct, according to their website. Several AAA clubs are connected even though they do not share borders -- like AAA Southern California and AAA Texas.— WordsmithCommunications 13:58, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Also, the California State Automobile Association (northern California), which operates in Nevada, too, a few years ago bought AAA Utah. So CSAA operates as such in California, as the CSAA Nevada Division, and as AAA Utah, even though Utah shares no border with California. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.104.254.34 (talk) 01:35, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Do we really need this giant list? It's confusing, isn't useful or encyclopedic content and would have to updated often as clubs merger. It doesn't matter if you are a AAA member and travel to Maine or Florida or Utah you can get the same AAA services across the country. So why would it matter to the general public which clubs control which areas? I sure whoever put that exhaustive list together is AAA employee.

Why do you claim it is not encyclopedic content? It would not have to be updated very often as AAA clubs do not often merge. Wikipedia is updated often anyway.
75.33.71.242 06:05, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Give a sentence?

Mantill Williams, Director of Washington Public Affairs, 202-942-2050, < http://aaanewsroom.net >, has been a major, the major, representative, for some ten years, possibly more. I am, personally, not exactly pleased with this agency. As a matter of fact, when I had been a member, I found their service to be less than advertized. However, Mr. Williams has presented a large amount of fascinating info., in a variety of interviews.

Thank You.

Hopiakuta 14:30, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sounds like an ad

The Better World Club (yes, a competitor) notes in a recent newsletter that AAA has had a PR firm doing a lot of edits and adding material to this article. While the material is apparently factual, it still sounds like a great big AAA advertisement to me, what with listing all the offices and all the member services, etc. And it's getting pretty long, too. Anyone else get this impression? Z Wylld 14:40, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

I did a major re-word on the member benefits section to try to make it less advertising-speak. It could probably still use a little work. Plymouths 21:08, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
I'd delete the list of benefits for 3 reasons:

1. It is basically an ad. 2. The "benefits" listed are more of a benefit to AAA than the member. Take the example of "info on auto loans" cited, or the AAA credit card programs. AAA refers members to a bank for these services and receives a kickback when their members borrow or use the credit card. Gullible members believe that these offers are somehow unique or better for members; in fact, they are chosen solely on the size of the kickback going to AAA, both at the national and club level. 3. These "benefits" vary from club to club. Some clubs have programs unique to them, while other clubs reject programs offered by national to cut deals locally.

AAA is basically a direct marketing organization that works for the enrichment of its national management and the old-white-man boards of the constituent clubs. The roadside assistance is the carrot that gets the rubes in to be sold credit cards, overpriced car warranties, and batteries they probably don't need whenever they receive a jump.

I will try to edit this in the future, but will need to find 3rd party reliable sources to cite while describing the structure I've seen first-hand.Meersman 06:37, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

I think there does need to be a benefits section to give a general overview but I agree that some of the listings can be removed. People should be able to go to the article and learn "oh, ok, they'll tow my car or do my travel arrangements" but they don't need a lot of detail beyond that. Plymouths 17:38, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ok to remove tag?

I've done a bunch of editing to the benefits section, including taking out a LOT of the listed benefits (leaving what I think are the basics), turning it into sentence form, and taking out all of the hyperbole. Do people think it is now sufficiently neutral to remove the "sounds like an ad" tag? Plymouths

Well if I don't get a response in a few days I'm going to go ahead and remove it. If someone disagrees they can put the tag back. Plymouths 22:37, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
Since I got no comments I went ahead and removed the tag. Plymouths 01:04, 29 January 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Criticism

"besides opposing environmental restrictions on automobiles, often supports widening highways as a way to reduce pollution when smart growth would be a more effective strategy" i deleted that because it gives off the idea that all road widening could be prevented by "smart growth" there are too many factors involved in widening a road to say they could all be avoided by "smart growth"

[edit] Added Criticism

I came to this page for the sole purpose of reading the criticism section. (I had heard there was an environmentally friendly AAA alternative, and was looking for its name.) I was disappointed to find the section missing, and was only able to find the information I wanted in this discussion page.

I've added a short, well-referenced criticism section using neutral language. Jim 04:32, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Someone removed the criticism section, so I added a new one. My first substantial contribution to Wikipedia, so apologies if I made any mistakes. ThisIsMyWikipediaName (talk) 16:27, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Incidentally, wikiscanner says that it's AAA's South Central Rhode Island (Providence) branch that has been removing the criticism section. They also added the line "We got the best hookers around ;-)" and, more on topic, This position should also be commended and much of the american population is ignorant to the actual facts of polution. We should trust a company like AAA to make these major decisions. ThisIsMyWikipediaName (talk) 16:37, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

The latest round of blanking the criticism section appears to be courtesy of the Portland, Oregon branch of AAA. ThisIsMyWikipediaName (talk) 20:34, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "We" and "Our"?

From American Automobile Association#Maintaining Safe & Efficient Mobility in the 21st century:

“ ..and we maintain a constant commitment to ensuring adequate funding for a safe and reliable transportation network. Our challenge for the 21st century is to develop a new transportation vision and funding sources that will meet the nation’s future transportation needs. AAA will play an active role in the debate on the future of our transportation system to ensure that the interests of motorists—those who pay for and benefit from the system—are protected. ”

That is quite obviously copied directly from AAA material. I don't even know what to do with it. In fact, there are quite a few things in the article that look like they were copied from AAA promotional stuff. I'm going to tag the article. --Kedalfax 00:49, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Editors with no other contributions have been periodically adding AAA promotional material. I reverted this last time it happened, and put a warning on User_talk:Freeleeday. This seems to have been happening for quite a while (see the History). I tried to rewrite the first half of the article in August to remove the advertisement tone (there used to be a subsection entitled "The AAA Today, A Mouse Click Away"), but it's hard when all of the information was provided by the AAA itself. The second half of the article (especially the "Safety and Legislative Programs") is so one-sided that changing to a NPOV would probably require a considerable amount of research. Jim 05:11, 16 September 2007 (UTC)
After doing some research into the Wikipedia guidelines, it appears to be against Wikipedia copyright policy for the material on this page to include any portion of AAA promotional material. (See Wikipedia:Copyright problems and also the last section of Wikipedia:Business' FAQ.) In its current form, the section on publications appears to have been copied directly from this copyrighted document, most of the material in the "Safety and Legislative Programs" section has been copied directly from this copyrighted document, and the material on the Ford competition has mostly been copied directly from this copyrighted document. Per the guidelines in Wikipedia:Copyright problems, I have reverted to the last clean version of the page, from June 25, 2006 (before the first edit by User:WordsmithCommunications).
Unfortunately, this leaves the page with much less information than before. I have re-inserted the material I originally added on the Car Talk dispute and the Better World Club, and added a request for expansion at the top of the page. Other editors could try to go through the page history and find other deleted non-copyrighted material to reinsert. Jim 06:34, 16 September 2007 (UTC)
Please be careful when removing POV material! It looks like you took out my photo of the Car Care Center by accident. I'm putting it back in. --Coolcaesar 22:47, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

I work for AAA and found some inaccurate links in the article. Under External links

[1] -- this link goes to AAA Minneapolis site -- not sure why this club was chosen, but the previous link in the list (AAA.com/stop) will take users to a page from which they can find their local club site. This link [1] should be deleted.

AAA's Five Diamond Restaurants (Word File) -- this info is from 2005, but the list is updated annually. The current list is at [1]

AAA's Five Diamond Hotels (Word File)-- this info is from 2005 as well, and the current info is at [2]

Jgraziani (talk) 20:20, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Request for expansion

This article was recently reverted to a version from June 2006 per the guidelines in Wikipedia:Copyright problems (see talk above). This has likely resulted in the deletion of some legitimate content. If you have previously contributed non-copyrighted content into this article, feel free to retrieve it from the page history and re-insert it. Jim 04:31, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Who owns AAA state clubs? Is AAA a true nonprofit?

The article says that the AAA is a nonprofit but that the state clubs own the master AAA organization.

That makes little sense. The Texas AAA club is organized as an LLC, which as far as I understand is a for-profit business type. Would it make sense for for-profit state organizations to own a nonprofit master organization? Or does the master organization own the state ones?

Nova SS (talk) 03:25, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

I work for the AAA national office in Heathrow, FL, and I know you don't like employees to comment, but there is a factual error in the first paragraph under "History" -- AAA was established when nine individual small auto clubs banded together on March 4, 1902, in Chicago (not Cleveland); and the total membership at that time was approximately 1,500. For confirmation, see http://www.aaanewsroom.net/Main/Default.asp?CategoryID=5&SubCategoryID=13&ContentID=83&SubContentID=2.

Also, I'm working to get a more complete answer for Novasource regarding the structure and non-profit status of AAA. But the short answer is that AAA is a non-profit federation of auto clubs. The purpose of the national office is to serve the local clubs, and the local clubs in turn serve their members. Jgraziani (talk) 16:21, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

OK -- here's the scoop on the nonprofit status. The American Automobile Association, Inc. (AAA) is a Connecticut nonstock corporation. Like other nonprofits, the corporation does not issue shares of stock or pay any dividends. Therefore, any profits AAA generates remain in the corporation and are not distributed to any individual or company. So no one "owns" or has any financial interest in AAA. If AAA would ever be dissolved, its assets would be distributed to charity. AAA is not a charity and it is not tax-exempt. It pays taxes on its income just like any business corporation. Hope this info helps. 143.61.249.29 (talk) 15:52, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] AAA and the FIA

What is the relationship between the AAA and the FIA?129.173.208.252 (talk) 17:27, 14 April 2008 (UTC)


Come on AAA needs some more love —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.107.101.80 (talk) 01:53, 18 April 2008 (UTC)