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 Erlich, 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

Bylaw and Procedures 2024 drafts

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. 

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.

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!

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.

Membership Meeting 2023

The TEAE Annual General Meeting for 2023 was held on 15 September 2023 during United 40, with approximately 100 Club members attending. The meeting was chaired by President Jim Lindner and commenced at 6:30pm.

The following notes summarize the main highlights and provide some additional information.

Tiger 60th Anniversary Video Production

A trailer for a video production being undertaken on the Tiger in celebration of its 60th anniversary​‌. Filming was shown. The production team is looking for additional funding of $31k to complete the editing and packaging of the film. The fundraising is being done on Kickstarter. TEAE members were urged to donate.

Rootes Archive Center

Roger Plaskett provided an update on RAC activities and solicited donations from TEAE members. He noted that the RAC has been rebranded at Rootes Heritage.

Treasurer’s Report (Slide 5)

Treasurer Steve Murphy prepared a 5 year summary of the Club finances, demonstrating the Club’s finances are healthy. The main point to note is the membership fees still continue to only cover the mailing costs of the monthly newsletter – any operating profit is generated by the United gathering. (Slide 5 shows the current balance held by the club under 2023 Ending balance. This does not include the majority of the United 40 expenses which still need to be paid).

Membership Report (Slide 6)

Club membership remains steady at slightly over 500 members. Jim stated he had tried to recruit into TEAE the couple dozen members of the Colorado Association of Tiger Owners, to have them form the nucleus of the TEAE Rocky Mountain Region. They considered the proposal but ultimately declined it.

Members are reminded to ensure their e-mail address is current in the Club database.

Webmaster Report (Slide 12)

As part of the Webmaster report Kerch McConlogue stated the Club will now charge a small fee for fulfilling requests for newsletter back issues.

Facebook Report (Slide 13)

The Club’s Facebook presence continues to grow with over 1,000 active users – it is giving good, worldwide exposure to the Club. One disadvantage of the platform is that information and answers to questions become difficult to find after 24 hours.

Three Year Business Plan Committee (Slides 15-21)

A committee entitled the Three Year Business Plan Committee has been created to study and implement new procedures and activities for the Club to better support the Rootes marque in North America. The following updates were provided on several initiatives that have already been started:

Forums and Facebook – The Forum has been cleaned up, and Facebook has had additional administrators appointed. The Club leadership has been more active in monitoring both platforms to ensure any postings requiring a response are answered in a timely fashion.

Legacy Awards – Two of the three annual legacy awards require autocross participation. As autocross no longer appears to be a widely popular activity, the qualification criteria of these awards will be reviewed and potentially amended.

Bylaw Revisions and Procedures Manual – The intent of this initiative is to streamline the Bylaws to remove procedural/transactional – type information for Club operations and embody it in a procedures manual. This will streamline the management of transacting Club business as official deliberation and voting by the Club Board will not be required to change ‘how’ our business is transacted.

TAC Program Improvements – There are now several new qualified TAC inspectors in the Eastern US and Canada, but there are still improvements that could be made to the TAC program.

Club Regalia – Rather than stocking inventory of Club regalia (hats, t-shirts, etc), a vendor is being sought who can create and provide these items as they are ordered.

BASH (Bring A Sunbeam Here) Promotion – Regional reps will organize local events around the theme of ‘Bring A Sunbeam Here’. The intent is to bring a better focus to Rootes owners and what they are doing.

2024 Board Elections (Slide 22)

A new slate of officers needs to be elected for 2024. All the current incumbents have volunteered to continue in their positions and were nominated at the annual board meeting, but the position of President will require a new nominee, in accordance with the Club bylaws, since Jim has reached his term limit. A call for nominations was made for all officer positions and one board position. There was one nomination from the floor for a Board Director, Richard Fritz nominating Brian Baum. No nominations were received for any of the officer positions.

Jim reviewed the timeline for nominations and the election and advised that anyone wanting to run can still do so by contacting him or the Membership Chairperson.

United 41 (Slides 23-26) 

The next United is now set for West Lebanon, New Hampshire August 15-18, 2024. The main organizer is Robert Jaarsma and much has already been organized, including the host hotel, the concours site, the driving tour, and the autocross.

Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 7:30pm.

Submitted
Gary Corbett
Secretary

Club President Extended Term

TEAE Board Record of Discussion – Nominees for Club President for 2024

The situation of nominees for Club President for 2024 was raised by current President Jim Lindner, and was discussed through a series of e-mails between the TEAE Leadership. This Record of Discussion summarizes those discussions and decisions taken.

Jim Lindner initiated the discussion by stating that despite his best efforts he was unable to secure a nominee for the role of President for the forthcoming elections for the Club Board for 2024. These efforts included a call for nominations at the Club’s Annual General Meeting at United 40 attended by over 100 Club members, via the Rootes Review and directly approaching several individuals. Jim stated he would be willing to run and if successful serve for another year, but to do so would require approval by the board.

Eric Gibeaut made a motion for a ONE TIME extension of one year to the term limit for President, and the motion was seconded by Tom Calvert. This motion was approved unanimously by the Board.

Barbara Geschke then nominated Jim Lindner as a candidate for TEAE President, and it was seconded by Joe Parlanti. Jim accepted the nomination and his name will be added to the ballot for the elections for 2024.

Submitted
Gary Corbett
TEAE Cub Secretary