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