TEAE Annual General Meeting: 2024

15 August 2024

President Jim Lindner called the meeting to order at 6:45pm.
Approximately 55 members were present.

Minutes of Last Meeting

Minutes of Annual General Membership meeting held 23 September 2023 were approved.

Treasurer’s Report 

In summary the club is in a good position financially with a profit for each of the past few years. The membership dues only cover the cost of publishing and distributing the newsletter, so it is important that the yearly United generates additional income.

Membership Report 

The Club currently has 525 memberships. The payment processing service Stripe is now being used instead of PayPal – their rates are better.

Webmaster Report

To reduce the mailing costs for the Rootes Review newsletter there was some consideration given to mailing the printed version only every two months, but the Board ultimately decided not to do this.

Kerch is looking for members to provide unique content for future newsletters. ‘How I Got Involved in Rootes Cars’, ‘Rootes on The Road’, and ‘My Other Classic Car(s)’ are topics of interest. She thanked the Regional Representatives for their regular articles.

Jim noted the posts and responses on the website Forum have recently increased, and expressed his appreciation for member’s participation.

Facebook Report

The Club Facebook page has almost 2,000 members worldwide, and Club members contributions are greatly appreciated. Many users are not club members although Jim regularly requests people join the Club. The August 2024 Rootes Review will be posted there to provide more insight into Club activities. 

OLD BUSINESS 

3 Year Plan

Only three items remain to be completed on the 3 Year Plan initiative. 

  • The first item is Bylaw revisions – to create two more Director positions for a total of nine, and to create a Procedures Manual on ‘how to do things’ which will be separate from the Club Bylaws which will define ‘what needs to be done’. A motion made and seconded to accept the revised bylaws. It was unanimously approved.
  • The second item is revisions to management of the TAC Program – this remains to be done.
  • The third item is Club Regalia and finding a service provider to manage it for the Club. Kerch has investigated Redbubble with whom she has had some good experiences, and will continue to pursue this initiative.

2024 Elections 

There have been numerous nominations for the Director positions and there are nominations for the Treasurer position, but there are none for the President nor Vice President positions. Jim called for nominations from the floor but none were made. Nominations will remain open until 1 November 2024.

Jim reiterated to the audience of the importance of the President position, and stated how much he enjoyed being President and being the face of the Club. It also provides an opportunity to set the strategic direction of the Club and start new initiatives in support of that direction. He highly encouraged someone to take it on, supported by five other past presidents who were in attendance.

United 42

The Board has approved Charlotte, North Carolina as the location for United 42, to take place 18-21 September 2025. The Embassy Suites hotel will be the venue, and there are lots of interesting local attractions to visit. Planning is underway.

SUNI VIII

Planning continues for the next SUNI event in 2026.

Rootes Archive Donation 

Donations will be solicited at the banquet and a check sent to The Rootes Archive from TEAE.

Banners 

The Board is looking into purchasing banners incorporating the new Club logo.

Adjournment 

The meeting adjourned at 7:35pm.

Respectfully submitted
Gary Corbett
TEAE Secretary 

Board Meeting Minutes and Supporting Documentation: July 25, 2024

Download the slides here Or view them on line below

Meeting was called to order by President Jim Lindner at 7:00pm.

In Attendance:

Jim Lindner – President, Steve Murphy – Treasurer, Gary Corbett – Secretary

Board of Directors: Tom Calvert, Tom Erhart, Barb Geschke, Eric Gibeaut, Joe McConlogue, Joe Parlanti, Dave Reina

Others: Bill Bulpitt , David Kellogg , Kerch McConlogue , Joe Montecalvo

Minutes of Previous BoD Meeting 2 March 2024 – Approved.

Treasurer’s Report (Slide 5)

 Income includes income from registration fees received for United 41 but only some expenses. Report approved.

Membership Report (Slide 7) 

Membership is steady at 521. Incorrect e-mail addresses for some members need to be investigated.

Action Item – David Kellogg to assist Joe McConlogue in resolving issue of incorrect email addresses for some members.

Website/Editor’s Report

Rootes Review – Mailing costs summarized (Slide 9). In support of voting for Board positions candidate’s biographies will be published in a Rootes Review later this Fall. Kerch will provide a link where candidates can provide their information, which will be limited to 50 words.

Action Item – Kerch to provide a link to potential Board candidates to provide their biographical information.

Facebook – Activity is steady, and ‘Reactions’ are positive (Slide 11).

Website Visits – Activity summarized (Slide 12).

OLD BUSINESS

3 Year Business Plan

Bylaw Amendments (Slide 16) – Require approval by general membership at Annual General Meeting.

TAC Program Improvements (Slide 16) – No recent activity. Tom Calvert is organizing TAC inspections at United this year.

Action Item – Kerch to identify to Tom people who have requested in their event registration a TAC inspection at United.

Regalia Supplier (Slide 17) – Kerch is continuing to investigate. Eric suggested a potential source, someone who will be at United this year.

2024 Elections (Slide 24)

The following summarizes the positions up for election and potential candidates:

OFFICERS

President and Vice President – No candidates identified although Jim has been discussing the opportunities with several people.

Treasurer – Steve Murphy (Incumbent), Todd Reid (identified by Tiger Tom).

Secretary – Gary Corbett (Incumbent), Barbara Blue (identified by Joe McConlogue).

Directors

  • Incumbents: Tom Calvert, Tom Erhart, Eric Gibeaut
  • Additional: Gord Foss and Gilles Boudrias (identified by Jim Lindner), Clyde McLaughlin and David Hall (identified by Joe McConlogue), Rick McCurdy (identified by David Kellog), Rod Patriquin (identified by Gary Corbett), Jim Lindner (self-identified)

A motion was made and seconded to nominate all nominees – carried.

United 41 (Slide 19)

The availability of the ‘Tiger 60’ documentary has been confirmed. The Saturday evening speaker has backed out due to a medical issue, but Jim feels screening the film will require the whole evening.

United 42 (Slides 20&21)

Jim has scouted out a location in Charlotte, NC for United 42 in 2025 and highly recommends it be pursued. Draft budget reviewed. A motion was made and carried to approve this location for United 42. Jim has draft contract documents and will finalize them with the hotel.

Action Item – Jim to finalize contracts for United 42.

Car Donation (Slide 22)

Preliminary investigations into the potential legal issues of the Club accepting a car as a donation have not highlighted any significant roadblocks. Tom Erhart warned there might be issues at a detail level – for example Pennsylvania has specific rules about financial transactions related to gambling-type activities that other states might have too. This could affect us if we attempted to auction or raffle the car to reap the financial benefit. David Kellogg is continuing to investigate.

SUNI VIII Update (Slide 23)

– No recent progress. Location is likely to be in Missouri.

NEW BUSINESS

Rootes Archive Donation (Slide 24)

After a short discussion it was decided to wait until after United 41 to make a decision on a donation for 2024.

Lord Rootes Individual Awards (Slide 24)

Jim organized the production of keeper plaques and badges for the awards for the recipients for the past 2 years. A motion was made and carried to pay Jim for his out-of-pocket expenses of $212 to accomplish this.

There was some discussion about how to manage the engraving of keeper plaques and producing and installing the yearly plates on the main trophies (recently the recipients have done this themselves). No approach was chosen, but Joe McConlogue suggested whatever procedure was implemented should be documented in the Procedures Manual.

New Banners (Slide 25)

There was some discussion about acquiring new banners with the new TEAE International logo, but it was ultimately decided to keep this in mind for action sometime in the future. Tom Erhart has a couple prototype banners that were made – he will send them to Robert Jaarsma for use at United 41.

Action Item – Tom Erhart to forward TEAE International banners to Robert Jaarsma.

Hilton Rewards

Jim stated the United 42 hotel will be offering reward points for the rooms booked and paid for by the Club, and asked if he could personally accept these points. All agreed he could.

Special Appreciation

Bill Bulpitt stated how appreciative he was of all of Jim’s efforts in support of the Club over the past several years, in particular the work involved in organizing recent Uniteds. Everyone was in agreement – thanks very much Jim!

Meeting Adjournment – 8:30pm.

Respectfully Submitted,
Gary Corbett
TEAE Secretary

BOD Meeting July 2024Download

Board Meeting Minutes and Supporting Documentation: March 2, 2024

Download the slides here or view the pdf below.
Supporting documentation
AI: Action Item

Agenda: Welcome, Roll Call, Reports, Old Business, New Business, Adjourn

Mtg started @ 1:06 EST

In Attendance: All Board members except Eric Gibeaut, he joined a few minutes later.

Also in attendance: Robert Jaarsma, Tom Hillman, Tom Calvert, Tom Ehrhart, Joe McConlogue, Kerch McConlogue, Robert Harter, Jim Lindner, David Reina, Steve Murphy, Bill Pulpitt, Joe Parlanti, Joe Montecalvo, Ron Stein, Barb Geschke, David Kellogg

Treasurer’s Report

1st Slide showed correction of 5 year summary numbers – concurred

2nd Slide showed balance sheet for CY23 – $7K from United offset newsletter costs, hard to track pennies due to fees

Membership Report

1st Slide showed net loss of 8 members to 521

2nd Slide Joe getting help from Mike Hartman; intervention still required to get funds

Question: How much time spent?  Full day at end of month plus hour per day

Website/Editor’s Report

1st Slide showed monthly cost per issue per page. Discussion on frequency from monthly to every other month. Kerch stated that it was more work to publish every other month. Tangible vs. Untangible – Keep the content, higher percentage still prefer printed, monthly for people that don’t attend the events

Motion: Leave newsletter at frequency of Monthly – Approved

2nd Slide showed Facebook facts. Active participation.

3rd Slide showed Website facts. Key take away was that new people need to be infused into the process.

Old Business

3 Yr Business Plan Committee

1st Slide showed approval of the formulation of the 3YBP including: Mission, Objectives, & Process

2nd Slide showed the Board approved recommendations for action

3rd Slide discussed the 1st recommendation: Forum/Facebook. Action complete with continued maintenance as the follow-on

4th Slide discussed the next recommendations: Revision of legacy award criteria, Revision of bylaws, and TAC program improvements.

The Swift and Porter awards apply to AutoX for Tigers & Alpines only due to the intent of the people that originated them. Other driving events makes it vague enough to include rallies, etc

Motion: Accept changes to “other competitive driving event” based on if no AutoXs are available – Approved

There was much discussion about the bylaws and procedures

AI: Review Draft Procedures Manual during next 60 days and send comments to Joe McConlogue

Motion: Accept draft changes to bylaws, including the increase the number of Board members to 9 – Approved

There was much discussion on the TAC vs. Tiger sales and what TAC has become.  Any updates to the program must be brought before the TAC Coordinator by the senior inspectors – Tom C. and Bill P.

5th & 6th Slide discussed Regalia and Kerch looked into a few sites and found Redbubble.com to match most of the needs and there is a kickback to the club.  Only disadvantage was no embroidery.  There were comments that a few sources were already obtained to get embroidered items separately from other United vendors.

7th Slide discussed: Production of technical videos – closed due to no volunteers, Expansion & promotion of BASH concept by regions – continue to promote BASH, and Expansion of membership west of the MS river – continue western participation.

8th Slide showed revision of club logo that introduces the whole Rootes family concept.

Motion: Approve the new club logo and fees for graphic designer – Approved

9th Slide showed status of action to investigate qualifying for 501c(3) status – recommend close

United 41 Update

1st Slide showed United location and dates including hotel and registration fees

2nd Slide showed planned activities during the United

3rd Slide showed current budget estimates with expected profit of approx. $4K

New Business

1st Slide brought up the topic of 2024 elections and how are behind with candidates.

AI: David Kellogg to compile the names that members pulled together from the roster within the next 30 days and within 90 days get answers from all positions and all reps of any elected position

2nd Slide brought up car donation to TEAE.

AI: David Kellogg to check with lawyer automotive enthusiast friend: Can we as 501c7 club own it? How do we own car legally?

3rd Slide brought up United 42 (2025) and to try an event west of the MS river. Discussion led to try to get a volunteer from TX or CO, need to do soonest

4th Slide brought up SUNI (2026) and main discussion was the details surrounding the account that is banking the SUNIs.  CAT runs it, we reap the profits

Motion: Do we join w/CAT? Same participation as last time – Approved

Additional Reports as Required

Motion: Adjourn – Approved

Mtg ended @ 3:57, elapsed time of 2 hrs 51 mins

Submitted by Rob Harter, Vice President

Additional supporting documentation

Bylaws and Procedures

Regalia updates

New Logos

TEAE-Board-Mtg-March-2024Download

Bylaw and Procedures 2024 drafts

These changes were approved by the Membership at the Annual Meeting on August 16, 2024

One of the action items from the 3-Year Planning Committee was to update the club bylaws and to extract items which could be better handled in a Policies and Procedures manual. 

Revisions to the bylaws must be approved by vote of the membership.

But Procedures, such as how late membership renewals and other housekeeping activities are handled, do not require membership vote, only approval of the board. It is intended that this written document will help in transition of new leadership.

In support of this project and in preparation for the meeting, please review the three documents below:

  1. Summary of Changes to the Bylaws. (This is easier to digest)
  2. Revised Bylaws
  3.  Draft Procedures Manual. This is very much a work in progress and will require input from several others in the leadership of the club. 
Bylaws summary of changes 3-7-24Download

Procedures Manual

bylaws proposed 3-7-24Download
procedures v14Download

Proposed new TEAE logos

Taking into consideration the conversation at the last board meeting about the TEAE logo, Kerch met with the designer and was able to put together the two most popular options into two different layouts.

The horizontal view can be used on the RootesReview,  mailings, and other appropriate places. The vertical one will be excellent for hats or T-shirts or whatever else we choose to make available as part of the Regalia.

As it seems there was consensus around these two concepts, these designs are offered for approval by the board and to be put into use there upon.

The designer has submitted a bill for $500.

2024TEAE Logo Vector outline-H-V-F2Download

Regalia Update

Proposed: Print on demand companies that will produce and ship items with our artwork and pay the club a percentage.

Kerch looked into:

  • Printful.com and Teelaunch.com: These both require a store to be set up on our website. But production and fulfillment is handled by the company
  • Amazon is just too expensive with ~$40 a month plus a per product sale fee
  • Redbubble.com provides the best match for our needs.
  • Society6.com: Similar setup to RedBubble.com but more artsy and no car products

Advantages of RedBubble.com

  • Large number of products available Including: Mugs, coasters, T-shirts, sweatshirts, mouse pads, phone cases, aprons, duffle bags, tote bags
  • They do total fulfillment of the products
  • Large audience base (not just our club members)
  • No “store” is required on our site
  • Reasonable retail prices  ( tend to be between a couple of bucks and $35 or $40)
  • Proceeds are paid on schedule, paid out monthly as long as they owe you more than $20. Otherwise, they keep it until they owe you $20

See process below

Disadvantages:

  • All Redbubble products are screen printed not embroidered
  • If we want to provide higher quality embroidered jackets and hats, we would use a different company (perhaps Land’s End)
base cost + markupmarginretail price*Red bubble fee**Red bubble fee***Net to TEAE
t shirt$18.0025%$4.50$22.50$1.9011.6%$2.60
mug$14.7520%$2.95$17.77$1.309.3%$1.65

* Plus shipping/tax            
** From chart         
*** Calculated% of margin                  

Fee table: https://help.redbubble.com/hc/en-us/articles/202270799-How-is-my-payment-calculated

Sample product retail costs including sample markup: https://www.redbubble.com/account/pricing

Process

We would upload artwork and members (or other visitors) could decide upon what items the artwork would be printed, not just T-shirts and hats, but also sweatshirts and stickers mugs backpacks, duffel bags, buttons, zipper bags, etc.

 Redbubble requires 5 designs in each “store.” Obviously, each of our new logos would be represented but also we could add logos of the Rootes vehicles like Talbot and Hillman etc. These products would appeal to more than our own members.

TEAE is not a 501 (c) 3 organization

We are a 501 (c) 7: A social club … organized for pleasure, recreation, and other similar purposes.

Please may we put to bed the conversation about making TEAE into a 501 (C) 3.

We do not qualify according to the IRS rules.

The exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3) are charitable, religious, educational, scientific, literary, testing for public safety, fostering national or international amateur sports competition, and preventing cruelty to children or animals.

IRS: Exempt organization type

Further

To be tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, an organization must be organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3), 

IRS: Exemption trequirements

We are none of these things.

Any other car club that is a 501(c)3 is so most likely because they have members able to support approved purposes, most likely educational – e.g. volunteering to teach British car maintenance at a local high school —  or because of some fund raising for a different cause.

Support for a local entity is not likely given  our widely dispersed group.

Most importantly, we are putting the cart before the horse!

If we are looking into this  so people can give us money, we are missing the purpose of a charitable organization.

Instead of looking for ways to make it easy for people to give us money, we need to look for ways to support charitable causes, or at the very least support young people getting into old cars. Then if we find that we are doing some good things, we can reconsider whether reclassifying our tax status makes sense.

Posted by Kerch McConlogue
2/7/2024

Please add comments below

Putting on a BASH

rootes-bash logo

TL;DR
Where ever two or more Rootes fanatics are gathered in the TEAE name, it counts as a BASH!

This is Appendix B supplied to Regional Reps about a BASH

Any gathering of Sunbeams/Rare Rootes can be termed a BASH in your promotions, and you should use this term.  Some events are limited to gathering of two or three cars at a meeting place, where the entertainment is limited to conversation; some can be more extensive including a prepared drive or rallye, meals, tech sessions like a carb rebuild, fix-ins where a member’s car in need is addressed.

Consider partnering with an already established event like a British Car or other type show. Ask their organization to promote the BASH concept. Ask them to promote the BASH, a gathering of Rootes vehicles. Giveaways like TEAE magnets, or water bottles, etc. are available at a nominal cost.  Each region has a TEAE banner to put on display. Updated brochures to hand out to prospective members will be distributed.  Contact the membership chairman.

The key to a successful event is in the planning.  Leave yourself enough time to get organized. For anything more ambitious than a cars and coffee, consider enlisting an accomplice. For planning purposes, you can use the roster sorted by region available on the website here: https://www.teae.org/downloadable-rosters/.  You can get an up-to-date list of members and their contact information for your region and contiguous regions by requesting it from the membership chairman.  Until your region has coalesced into a community, you may find that people ignore email communications. We encourage phone contact to establish a rapport.

You will be busy during the day of the event so enlisting help for some tasks is a good idea for a larger event:

  • Organizing parking
  • Registration (when participants pay a fee to enter)
  • Photographer (need not be a pro; your event report will be better with photos of people & cars – preferably action or candid shots, not portraits, and in)
  • Organizing food and drink (coffee for early arrivals – lunch later)

Connecting with a larger car show is a good way to get exposure for the Marque and an easy way to put on event.  For the more informal shows, just meeting together at the show will probably allow you to park together. For larger shows where cars are organized by Marque, you should contact the show promoter to ensure that there is an area designated for your group. And don’t forget the club banner.

Some of the more active car clubs sponsor events on a weekly or monthly basis, often a cars and coffee. During the off-season when our cars may be hibernating, a social get together for a meal or conversation at a member’s home or local restaurant.  For example, the UK Hillman group sponsors a monthly pub night.  This is another way to build community.

Newsletter Editor Duties

  • Ensure information contained in the newsletter is not objectionable to the general membership.
  • Takes care that the general theme and image projected supports the goals of the organization.
  • Style for RootesReview is one word and in italics
  • Generally, success as a newsletter editor is based on relationships built with the regional reps and editors of other publications (British Marque magazine and other Rootes based publications)
  • It is helpful to contact Regional Reps in mid month to request updates on activities.  Club events are encouraged. But interesting personal stories are welcome.
  • The newsletter is published monthly, or as set forth by the Board. Periodic bi-monthly issues may be required if there is inadequate content to justify publication.
  • Currently the RootesReview is built on Microsoft Publisher, always in a page number to be a multiple of four.
  • Article lengths should not in general be longer than about 750 words. If it’s supplied longer, then consider publishing in parts over two or more issues.
  • Regular features have been:
  • Member Spotlight,
  • Tom Patton’s racing reports,
  • President’s report,
  • For Sale,
  • Wanted.

The United registration form is published in one issue. Bios of people standing for election are included in one issue as well as a paper ballot for people who choose to do it. Bios should really not be longer than about 25 words!

  • Images should be supplied to the newsletter editor as full size images, 300 dpi is best.
  • Provide final pdf (standard view) file to Webmaster to upload to the website.
  • Distribute electronic versions to other clubs.  A current list of those are include on line t https://www.board.teae.org/2023/02/newsletter-editor/.
  • Compiles the newsletter  and sends to the printer (currently DRSPrinting) the press quality PDF file and a spreadsheet provided by the membership chairman (or managed by Newsletter Editor)  listing the names and addresses of appropriate members.
  • If the publication is longer than 12 pages, it is recommended that the file be uploaded to DropBox. Send the .csv file of members in an separate email and tell the Printer that the file has been uploaded.
  • The printer prepares the Post Office requirements and sends ten copies to the Membership Chair for distribution to new members or to people who have paid for extra copies.