Category: Board Minutes

Board Meeting: July 31, 2015

Tigers East/Alpines East Board of Director’s Meeting
Holiday Inn—Fairborn
Dayton, OH
Friday July 31, 2015

Attendees:
Present: Pam Jeffers, John Logan Jr., James Lindner, Tom Calvert, Dave Reina, Eric Gibeaut, Tom Ehrhart, Judy Sharkey, Joe McConlogue, Kerch McConlogue, Barb Geshcke, Jim Sauer, Robert Jaarsma, Eric Smyder, Bill Bulpitt, Russ Eshelman, Mike Schreiner, Curt Bowland, and Tod Brown.

The meeting was called to order at 3:10 PM by President Pam Jeffers.

Secretary’s Report: President Jeffers asked for any changes to the minutes from the Feb 2014 Semi-Annual Meeting (Conference Call) provided to the attendees in advance. No changes or corrections were noted. Tom Ehrhart moved that the Feb 2014 minutes be approved as read and seconded by Eric Gibeaut. The motion to approve the minutes was carried.

Treasurer’s Report: Barb Geschke reported as of July 31, 2015 the club’s balance was $29,788.49. The Treasures Report as of July 31, 2014 was emailed earlier to all officers and members of the Board of Directors. It should be noted totals reflect income for this United. United expenses will be posted at conclusion of United. Treasurer Geschke reported this United is running favorably from a financial standpoint. Treasurer Geschke has acquired copies of the club’s past financial records and will prepare a report on the club’s financial trends over the past 5-7 years. Treasurer Geschke did report the year-end balance has grown by about $2,000.00 over the past two years. Judy Sharkey made a motion to accept the Treasurer’s Report, which was seconded by Tom Ehrhart. The motion to approve the Treasurer’s report was carried.

Membership Report: Chairman Joe McConlogue presented the Membership Report (all data as of 1 July 2015):

  • • Current Members: 518
    • o Sixteen (16) expirations in June—most will renew
  • • Member Web Access
    • o Electronic newsletter delivery 134/26% (up 3% from 2014)
    • o Valid email address on file 455/86%
    • o No email/electronic newsletter 3
    • o No email/print newsletter/paid with Paypal 1
    • o Minimum of membership with web access 88% (down 8% from 2014)
  • • Breakdown of 2014 Dues Payments
    • o Paypal 263/51%
    • o Checks 245/47%
    • o Money Order 4/1%
    • o Cash 6/1% (5 @ United/1 @ Bash)
  • • Renewals (Same as Last Year)
    • o One Year 45%
    • o Two Year 55%

The map on the website showing geographic dispersion of the members is updated monthly. The locations for six members who requested non-inclusion are not shown. New Membership cards and window decals have been printed and are now included with new member packages. Sixty (60) copies of the 2013 Roster remain. Approximately 12% (62) of the membership have joined since the last roster was printed. A similar number have lapsed membership during the same timeframe and continue to be listed as members. President Jeffers advised Chairman McConlogue can provide a list of members by region.

Website Report: Kerch McConlogue reported the following:

Progress made during the past year:
• Sunbeam Survivor articles were converted to OCR and uploaded to the website.
• First two articles that volunteers worked on were added to the website under the Sunbeam Survivor.
• All archived Rootes Reviews have been added to the website.
• The Rootes Archive Center newsletter has been added to the website under the Members Only
• The revised United Manual was uploaded to the website. It is password protected. Information on how to gain access is found within the Board Section of the forum.

General Website Statistics
• Average number of hits per day: 100
• How visitors find the website
o Organic Search: 50%
o Direct Links: 30%
o Referrals: 20%
• Landing Pages % of Visitors # of Visitors
o Home 45.6% 11,971
o Carburetor-ID 5.5% 1,431
o Paint Color Codes 4.2% 1,105
o Cooling the Tiger 3.65% 960
o United XXXIV 3.4% 885
o Vendors 1.3% 330
• Devices Used
o Desktop 77%
o Mobile 12%
♣ ipad 39%
♣ iphone 20%
o Tablet 11%
• Miscellaneous
o United Registrations completed online: 2014-18/2015-61
o RSS Subscribers: 2014-77/2015-85
 
Forum Report: Eric Smyder was not present. President Jeffers reported the use of the forum is limited and varies greatly. President Jeffers pointed out that the difficulty in posting photos is a limiting factor.

Editor’s Report: Editor Tod Brown reported on the difficulty of the publication process, especially the setting of deadlines for the submission of articles/photos. Usually, enough information is on hand to publish each month and this is known by mid-month. In Feb 2015 there was insufficient material to publish an issue so a consolidated Feb/Mar issue was published in March. Editor Brown asked that material be submitted as early in the month as possible or at a minimum send him an email that material will be forthcoming soon. Submissions should be in Microsoft format, as PDF documents are extremely difficult to manage. President Jeffers requested all present to make submissions. Regarding the length of the newsletter, Editor Brown explained the newsletter is printed in four (4) page increments. Twelve (12) pages per issue seems about right, since eight (8) might be too short and getting material for a sixteen (16) page edition could prove difficult. Editor Brown solicited guidance on how long to run the classified advertisements submitted by members. The BOD concurred on his recommendation of three months.

Publicity Report: Robert Jaarsma reported the completion of the United Manual update and posting it to the website. President Jeffers urged all present to look for opportunities to publicize the TEAE name. Website Manager Kerch McConlogue reminded all about the event form available on the website. When the form is completed and submitted the event is automatically posted to the club calendar on the website and it also goes to Editor Brown for inclusion in the Rootes Review.

Regalia Report: Eric Gibeaut reported the online site (http://www.fourth-gear-ltd.com) for regalia sales is now operational. Chairman Gibeaut explained that by using a third party for regalia sales the club does not have any overhead. Examples of the logos are available in the hospitality room. An article about the online sales will be forthcoming in the Rootes Review. Items and links are available online at TEAE.org/regalia

Old Business:

Update on Rootes Review article to thank Jennifer and Kenneth Arters for their work on the archived newsletters: Tom Ehrhart, action officer for this project, reported he had contacted Fred Baum who said he knew Jennifer and Kenneth well enough to provide information for the article, but has had no response from Fred since the initial contact. Tom Ehrhart said he will get an update.

Sunbeam Survivor Manual: The project to update the Sunbeam Survivor Manual is nearing completion. All tech articles from Sunbeam Survivor have been posted to the online Survivor Manual. In addition, volunteers identified additional articles from the old Rootes Reviews and another set of volunteers are editing the articles to clean up format readability. They will be posted online as they are completed. Individual Articles are in searchable format

Rootes America Award: President Jeffers reported that on March 9th she posted on the forum the revised criteria for the award, but to date there has been no discussion or proposals made regarding the revisions. Judy Sharkey pointed out that in view of the club’s efforts to be more inclusive of “Rare Rootes” cars, the purpose of the award is to recognize cars which might otherwise be ineligible for the Wally Swift (WSA) or Keith Porter Awards (KPA). It was suggested that the revised verbiage regarding a “non-competitive driving event” was not consistent with the objectives of the existing awards. Moreover, Eric Gibeaut pointed out no “Rare Rootes” cars compete in the Autocross. Tom Ehrhart suggested a revaluation of this proposed award and its objectives. Tom Calvert made a motion to cancel all further discussion about the creation of this award. The motion was seconded by Tom Ehrhart and the motion was approved.

Future Uniteds:

United XXXV: Bill Bulpitt reported next year’s United will be in Atlanta and tentatively scheduled for mid-September. Similar to this year, consideration is being given to holding the
United in conjunction with an existing show. Bill reported the following regarding ongoing planning.

• Hotels: Contact has been made with NE Hilton and NW Marriott. Marriott caters to car clubs but is less convenient to events east of the city. Preliminary discussions about United requirements (parts/hospitality room) have started but details still need to be worked out. Other options are plentiful if pricing at these hotels is not satisfactory.
• Car Show: Contact has been made with the organizers of the “Atlanta British Car Fayre” scheduled for Norcross, GA on September 10, 2016. They are interested in TE/AE participating in their event and would provide a designated area for our cars.
• Autocross: Former SCCA race driver, Rich Combs, will handle this event. Rich is well connected with the Atlanta road racing activities and its venues.
• Other activities: Visits to Car collections, the Porsche Experience at the new Porsche NA headquarters, Panoz Factory Tour, Stone Mountain, Georgia Aquarium, College Football Hall of Fame and Duluth Railway Museum.
• Core Planning Committee: Bill Bulpitt, Geoff Bulpitt, John Keneally, Allan Ballard, Rich Combs, and Pat Deschner.

Bill advised he will submit a formal proposal to the BOD sometime during the September-November 2015 timeframe.

United XXXVI: The Virginias Region is being considered as the host for this United. Regional Representative Russ Eshelman will evaluate options and provide feedback soon.

United XXXVII: The North

United XXXVIII: Midwest or possibly SUNI VII.

Regional Representatives: Randy Bellman has accepted the offer to become the Regional Representative for New England. Tom Ehrhart formally nominated Randy Bellman as the New England Regional Representative and the nomination was seconded by Eric Gibeaut. The BOD approved the appointment of Randy Bellman as the New England Regional Representative.

Rootes America: President Jeffers reported that Dave Reina had drafted a letter to other North American Rootes clubs suggesting ways to better communicate and mutually support each other. The letter, signed by President Jeffers, suggested the Rootes America website as a potential platform for improved communication and information sharing. President Jeffers asked about the response to the letter and what is the plan going forward. Dave Reina stated that no responses have been received. To keep the initiative moving forward a three phased plan was discussed.

1. As stated in the letter sent out, post the Sunbeam Survivor Manual online and make it available to all clubs. Kerch McConlogue explained that this was already done as it is on the TEAE website.
2. Send out a follow up letter.
3. Contact Tigers United to open a dialog about the future of their website. (The site manager of the Tigers United website had recently discussed on the Tiger List the cost of maintaining the site and its value to the Tiger community.)

In addition Editor Tod Brown stated he will reach out to the editors of other club newsletters to discuss how they can better link to each other.

Rootes Archive Center: President Jeffers asked if the club should continue to make an annual donation to the Center. Tom Ehrhart made a motion to continue the annual donation, not to exceed $250.00 and this should be budgeted annually. Tom Calvert seconded the motion and it was approved by the BOD.

Possible New Award for Unrestored Cars: Judy Sharkey has drafted the proposed guidelines for a Concours award for unrestored cars. This draft was sent to committee members March 5, 2015; it is now posted on the Official Forum under “Rootes Historical Preservation Award”.  President Jeffers requested all attendees to provide comments to Judy Sharkey or post a comment on the Official Forum.

United Manual Update: The update has been completed and the manual is posted on the website under United Organizer Files. It is password protected.

Roster: Tom Ehrhart, who had previously volunteered to determine the cost of an individual copy of the roster, stated he will get the information needed within the month so a new roster cab be published and disseminated in early 2016.

Bylaws Update: Do we need to change the club’s bylaws and if so exactly what needs changing. Volunteers were solicited to research updating the bylaws. Kerch McConlogue volunteered.
New Business:

2015 Elections:  
President Jeffers informed the BOD that all current Officers have agreed to run again for another term, but stressed that this will be the last term for herself, Vice-President Logan and Secretary Lindner. Treasurer Geschke has 2 years left.  The terms of three (3) BOD members are also due to expire, but all 3 are willing to run again. They are Tom Calvert, Tom Earhart and Eric Gibeaut. 

Charging Vendors to Advertise on Website:
Kerch McConlogue recommended a charge of $25.00 per advertisement for commercial vendors to advertise on the club website and made a motion to adopt this policy. The motion was seconded by Robert Jaarsma and approved by the Board.

A motion to adjourn was made by Tom Ehrhart, seconded by Judy Sharkey and approved by the BOD. The meeting was adjourned at 5:54 PM.

Board Meeting: February 2014

February 15, 2014

Attendees: Joe Parlanti, Tom Calvert, Steve Towle Judy Sharkey, Eric Gibeaut, David Reina, Pam Jeffers, John Logan Jr, Barb Geschke, Jim Lindner, Joe McConlogue, Kerch McConlogue, Russ Eshelman.

The meeting was called to order by President Pam Jeffers at 1:05PM.

The minutes from Board of Director’s (BOD) and General Membership Meetings held at the United in October 2013 were previously emailed to all attendees.  No corrections were noted and the minutes were approved.

Former Treasurer Gary Moss’s 2013 year-end report, previously sent via email to everyone, was approved.  Current Treasurer Barb Geschke reported her current balance as $10,885.75.  Gary Moss still has some money in the old checking account waiting for the last checks to clear.

Barb will look into opening a second PayPal account for United registration as a non-profit.

Old Business:

Joe McConlogue was welcomed as new Membership Chairman.

Pam Jeffers submitted Tod and Merrilee Brown to be the new Editors.  Motion made by Tom Calvert to approve Tod and Merrilee Brown as new Editors of the Rootes Review and to allow purchase of Publisher software.  David Reina seconded the motion.  Motion passed unanimously.  It was suggested to research if the software was available in the cloud. 

President Jeffers requested an update on the completion of the job description for the club Web Master and Forum Administrator. Kerch McConlogue (Web Master) advised she has finished the description of duties and responsibilities for her position (Webmaster.) A status from Eric Smyder (Forum Administrator) is pending. It was recommended that upon receipt of these descriptions they be filed/posted in a central location.

President Jeffers asked how many printed rosters were mailed during the recent printing/mailing and what percentage of the member ship requested printed copies? Initially not available, Membership Chairman Joe McConlogue has reported that the database shows fifty-nine (59) members requested a hard copy.

President Jeffers reported that volunteer Jennifer Arters continues to make progress on the disposition of Archival Newsletters in PDF. She was able to proceed with the donation of software by Tom Earhart and reports approximately 40% of the articles have been OCR’d. April 2014 remains the targeted completion date.

Judy Sharkey prepared draft wording for the changes to the Keith Porter (KP) and Wally J Swift (WJS) Awards. Judy explained that her proposed changes reflect the current thinking within the club to become an all-Rootes club. She advised her proposed wording is, therefore, intended to be more inclusive of all Rootes makes. In the ensuing discussion, it was pointed out that these awards were created to honor certain people who had specific interests and passions. The current awards reflect these and the memory of the individuals for whom they are named and should not be diluted in an attempt to embrace the new, more inclusive philosophy of the club. It was suggested that a new trophy for other Rootes vehicles would reflect the more inclusive philosophy of the club and at the same time allow the original purpose of the KP and WSJ awards to remain intact.

The criteria for the KP and WSJ awards will therefore remain as is. Eric Gibeaut volunteered to conduct/manage the research into a new, more inclusive award. Results of the research and discussion of a possible new award will occur at the annual meeting in September.

In discussing the duties of regional representatives and the difficulties in conducting regional activities, it was recommended that in an effort to stimulate reporting on regional activities the club should send emails to the regional representatives each month reminding them about the newsletter deadlines. It was further recommended that these emails should include the entire membership. Membership Chairman Joe McConlogue advised he will work on an automated email to the membership. He added that this effort had limitations since the club does not have on file an email address for every member.

Forum moderators are currently out of date. President Jeffers will contact Forum Administrator Eric Smyder to update them. Eric Gibeaut advised he will contact Eric with some suggestions for moderators.

The status of the search for a Publicity Chairman was discussed. In addition to a call for possible candidates, the possibility of seeking Robert Jaarsma to fill the position was discussed. Steve Towle will ask Robert regarding his desire to fill this position.

United XXXIII Update: The registration forms will be available soon. A United XXXIII TAC session was discussed. John Logan advised the plan is to have a TAC session during the United and that several inquires have already been received. Currently, attendance of specific TAC inspectors is not yet confirmed. The greater the demand (number of TAC inspections required); the more likely arrangements can be made to ensure inspections are conducted, even if it requires flying in an inspector. It was noted that there now is a $50.00 charge for TAC inspections. Making a note about this on the registration flyer was recommended as was a recommendation to include a check block on the registration form if a TAC inspection is required. This will enable event managers to monitor demand.

Venues for Future Uniteds: Ohio Members are discussing plans to host the 2015 United and Steve Halbrook and Nick Kintner are considering serving as hosts in Florida for the 2016 United.

New Business:  

President Jeffers called for any suggestions to replace Bill Evans as the Deep South Regional Representative. Eric Gibeaut advised he believes Bill Bulpitt is willing to serve and he will contact Bill to determine if he is willing to serve.

The Tiger 50 International Rally has asked for photographs, regalia and/or a sign board for a club display. Tom Calvert is attending and is willing to set things up but the club needs to ship it ahead of time. He cannot transport it since his baggage is limited. President Jeffers requested ideas. The consensus was that the club should make available to the Tiger 50 attendees a tri-fold handout and club sticker. The handout would include an appropriate graphic or photo, a history of the club, membership info, regalia info and contact info. A scan icon could provide direct link to the club website. Tom Calvert will put together ideas and work with Judy Sharkey and Fred Baum. Judy Sharkey motioned that a maximum budget of $125.00 be allotted to this effort with any excess returned to the club treasury. This motion was seconded by Dave Reina. The motion was unanimously carried.

The need for new club banners was discussed. The original club banners are held by Tom Ehrhart and are in very poor condition. Banners made and used for the 2008 United were never retrieved after the event. Joe Parlanti advised he knows of a company—Half Price Banners—that has very reasonable prices. Ensuing discussion determined the cost from this company was worthy of further consideration. Joe Parlanti will check with the company in the next 2 weeks and will get prices for various size banners. Once obtained, additional action can be taken.

Treasurer Barb Greshke recommended the club authorize an additional individual(s) to sign on club accounts in case of an emergency.

Tom Calvert made a motion to adjourn which was seconded by Joe Parlanti. The motion was unanimously carried and the meeting was adjourned at 4:07 PM.

Submitted by Jim Lindner, Secretary

Date posted here does not necessarily match the date minutes were submitted.

Curt Hoffman steps down as Membership Chair

Everyone should know by now that Curt Hoffman is stepping down as Membership Chairman.

The Board of Directors have approved Joe McCononlogue as the new Membership Chairman. This change will occur as of 1-1-2014

.What we didn’t know until today is that our Editor, Fred Baum will be stepping down as Editor of the Rootes Review after the February 2014 issue of the Rootes Review.

I know everyone will join me in thanking both Curt and Fred for their dedication and service to TEAE.So now I will put out an appeal for a volunteer willing to take on the duties of Editor of the Rootes Review. The following is an explanation of duties Fred put together:

Editor of the Rootes Review

1. Collect information suitable for printing in the newsletter that I feel would benefit the membership. Such information includes articles from members, tech tips and historical information.

A. Member articles can be anything pertaining to Rootes vehicles. This includes but is not limited to: car shows, rallyes, racing, technical tips, coming events notices, information about other members (such as health issues, death, etc.) and info and other types of car gatherings, whether Rootes sponsored or not.

B. Tech tips can be anything the member feels is important to other members related to the maintenance upkeep or improvements to the vehicles..

C. Reply to the members sending information so they know it was received and ask any necessary questions to clarify what was sent. Wait for a reply if clarification is needed.

2. Design the layout of the newsletter each month, including any changes to officer and BOD info, the cover and all the pages in the newsletter to make sure the information is complete and in a readable order.

A. The articles and information are selected on a time basis; that is, the timeliness of the information determines when it will be published if there is not enough room for everything to be included in one issue

.B. Anything not published in a particular month is archived for future use.

3. Write and editorial. Subject matter is at the discretion of the editor but should contain Rootes related information

.4. Solicit the President’s Message and the New Member information for inclusion in the newsletter.

5. Proof read the newsletter for spelling and grammatical accuracy.

6. Send the newsletter to the printer using the Drop Box system.

7. Wait for proof from the printer (emails a PDF), review the proof and make any necessary changes

.8. Contact the printer to relay any changes. If no changes or small changes then give the printer the O.K. to print once the changes have been made.

9. Answer any questions posed by members that relate to the newsletter. Refer members to the proper source for questions not related to the newsletter. For example, refer a member to the Membership Chair for additional copies of the newsletter.

10. Develop the ballot for the Election of Officers and BOD; place the ballot in the November issue of the newsletter along with the candidate profiles submitted by candidates. Remind candidates of their responsibility to give the editor a profile in a timely manner.

11. Develop and design the Membership Roster, including the layout of any photos, the cover photo and any changes to the various sections of the roster such as the Lord Rootes Trophy Award, Wally J. Swift Award, Keith Porter Award, Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws.

Word and Publisher are the two programs used at this time for development of the newsletter. I currently use older versions of each but they seem to work well with the printer’s programming.

December 20, 2013 at 4:48

Tom and Pam Jeffers

We are still looking for an Editor for the Rootes Review. Please let me know if you are interested or have someone you think might make a good editor.Do you have any suggestions or comments about the Rootes Review?

I would appreciate any and all comments.

Thanks,Pam

May 13, 2014 at 9:52

Tom and Pam Jeffers

I would like to thank Joe McConlogue for volunteering to be our new Membership Chairman. He took over the responsibilities from Curt Hoffman as of January 1, 2014. Help Joe out by updating your information when you renew your membership. That not only means addresses and phone numbers, but email addresses and current cars you own.

Then I would like to thank Tod and Merrilee Brown for volunteering to be our new Newsletter Editors. They took over for Fred Baum starting with the April 2014 issue of the Rootes Review. Help Tod and Merrilee out by sending in articles, pictures, tech tips or anything else you think our membership would appreciate.

Pam J
President