Month: September 2022

Minutes from the last meeting were approved as posted.

Treasurer’s report was accepted as posted.

Membership Report

• 39.6% of members choose the electronic version of the Newsletter.
  Therefore, 60.4% choose printed version
• 36% pay by check
• 64% pay by credit card (cose of about $575 annually ~ 3% of theoreitcal income)
• 34% use auto-renewal
• 21 members (4%) have no email address

These numbers won’t tie to Robs accounting because they are just a snapshot of how the dues and payment choices breakdowns work.

It does give you a datapoint to work with though: our annual dues income should be around $20,000.

RootesReview/Web Presence

Kerch suggested that we consider publishing the newsletter monthly but only printing it every other month. All members would get notification when the issue was available online. Jim pointe out that the newsletter is pretty much the flag ship of the club and reducing the number of issues would be unfortunate. However, overall, there was only slight disagreement with the option. After discussion it was decided to table the discussion and move it to the 3-year business plan discussed later in the meeting.

No progress on advertising, one invitation was sent.  Connection between Google analytics and the website was broken, so there is no web statistics provided.

FaceBook presence has crested 1000 members  (1038 as of July 19)

Old Business

United 39

An update of current registration number is included in the slides.

Eric Gibeaut asked about trailer parking at the event. While details are being confirmed, the hotel has a large parking lot with twice as many spaces as there are hotel rooms. Additional trailer parking is being confirmed for near by parking lots.

There was discussion about the TAC process at the United. Tom Calvert would like to train new inspectors on Tuesday before the United, then have the new inspectors follow existing inspectors looking over the cars presented for TAC on Wednesday.  This would avoid the inspectors missing the event itself.

Donation to RootesArchive Centre

At the last meeting we discussed deferring the club’s donation until the end of the year. That was approved again. We expect Roger Plaskett (a representative of the Archive Centre) to tell us how much money he collects during the “pass the hat” at the United and let that count towards our donaition.

Other reports

There were a few updates about events in the regions. Kerch reminded the group to fill out the form online to get a full listing on the club calendar.

New Business

2022 Elections

It was moved and seconded that the following people will agree to run for office:

• Jim Lindner, President
• Rob Harter, VP
• Gary Corbet, Secretary
• Steve Murphy (from VA), Treasurer
• Sy Block, Barb Geschke, and Dave Reina agreed to run again for board positions.  Sy suggested he’d be willing to have someone to run again.

 Requests for nominations from the Membership will be included in the August, September, and October RootesReviews as well as at the general membership meeting to be held at the United.

Joe McConlogue brought up the complications of changing banks with every new treasurer and the need to have mobile check deposits. Jim said they’ll look into that when the new treasurer takes office.

United 40 (2023)

Jim thanked Gary Holman for the work he did trying to find a location in Florida.

In the end Joe Parlanti and Jim worked out details for the 40th United to be held in Bowling Green, KY.  Details of the program and budget are included in the slides.  Budget numbers presented make the event appear viable.  Other suggestions were made for side trips to the Lane Museum which is about an hour from the Bowling Green location and a tour of the Corvette factory.

Auto cross appears to be a sticking point. If we can’t piggyback with a group providing the event, we would have to rent our own lot which could cost around $3000.    There was discussion about the small number of autocross participants. Perhaps the event should not be included or replaced with a gymkhana. 

Jim reminded the group that many of our major awards require participation in the autocross. Many details to be worked out, however, it was moved and seconded and approved that Jim and Joe go ahead with contracting the hotel in Bowling Green for United 40.

Looking Forward

Robert Jaarsma suggested an event in West Lebanon, New Hampshire in 2024. In 2025 perhaps Poconos, Pittsburgh area, Greensboro, Coastal Carolinas. Currently there is no one actively pursuing those locations.

Someone asked Buck Trippel about a SUNI in 2026. Buck asked Jim if TEAE might be interested in taking the lead on that evet. The board decided to make no commitment at this time.

Business Plan

Tom Ehrhart suggested a 3-year business plan committee. It was so moved, seconded and passed.

The objective is to identify practices and procedures to better serve the club and the marque. Plans should be financially and functionally executable.

Recommendations should be made to the BOD/Officers for acceptance and implementation.

There should be a small committee of perhaps five or seven members and should include representative from Board Member, Officer, Regional rep and from general membership. Joe McConlogue, Kerch McConlogue, Bill Bulpitt and Eric Gibeaut volunteered which filled the board requirements. Tom Ehrhart will lead the committee. Tom suggests the first meeting be at the United followed by ZOOM meetings. He expects a report by the end of the year and another one in about six months.

Additional comments

Our newest concours judging guidelines prescribe three judges per team.  However, Jim says not enough people have volunteered to serve as judges. So there will only be two judges per team  and they would probably have to judge several categories.

There was a question about COVID requirements for traveling to Canada. Because the requirements can change on a daily basis, participants will be sent an email with ArriveCan link in the first week in September

The meeting was adjourned at 2:47 pm

Respectfully Submitted,
Kerch McConlogue
Secretary