February 2024 – TEAE Board of Directors

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

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

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

Membership Report

1^st Slide showed net loss of 8 members to 521

2^nd 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

1^st 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

2^nd Slide showed Facebook facts. Active participation.

3^rd 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

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

2^nd Slide showed the Board approved recommendations for action

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

4^th 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.

5^th & 6^th 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.

7^th 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.

8^th 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

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

United 41 Update

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

2^nd Slide showed planned activities during the United

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

New Business

1^st 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

2^nd 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?

3^rd 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

4^th 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-2024 Download

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:

Summary of Changes to the Bylaws. (This is easier to digest)
Revised Bylaws
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 3-7-24 Download

bylaws proposed 3-7-24 Download

procedures v14 Download

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-F2 Download

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	+ markup	margin	retail price*	Red bubble fee**	Red bubble fee***	Net to TEAE
t shirt	$18.00	25%	$4.50	$22.50	$1.90	11.6%	$2.60
mug	$14.75	20%	$2.95	$17.77	$1.30	9.3%	$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

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.