Category: Supporting Documentation

Webmaster, Kerch McConlogue has been requesting a club card to process website charges.  She have been paying out of pocket and submitting receipts which is a pretty big pain!  Treasurer Todd Reid will facilitate this with M&T Bank.   

The Board approved this request in an email vote on April 29, 2025

Submitted

Barbara Blue
Secretary

I have successfully registered TEAE International as a DBA for Tigers East / Alpines East.  Supporting documentation attached below.

Todd Reid, Treasurer, TEAE

Fictious name registrationDownload

Supporting information regarding becoming or adding a 501(c)3 organization:

From the report available below

Note also that audit costs generally begin at around $5,000 annually for small organizations.
This would be in addition to the $15,000 compliance costs referenced above.

It is my recommendation that if you’re not looking at a minimum of $100,000 in real dollars contributed annually, this will not pay off appropriately for the organization.

Additional information about requirements for compliance with the rules for 501(c)3 organizations from Lawyers for NonProfits.

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

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.