TEAE Board of Directors

On January 24, 2016 the officers, board of directors and regional representatives held the club’s semi-annual meeting, via conference call. The minutes from that meeting follow.

Tigers East/Alpines East
Semi-Annual Board of Director’s Meeting
January 24, 2016

Opening Matters

President Jeffers called the meeting to order at 2:07 PM EST.

Roll Call: Participants in the meeting, conducted via conference call, included Tom Earhart, Joe Parlanti, Steve Towle, John Logan Jr, Joe McConlogue, Kerch McConlogue, Tod Brown, Bill Bulpitt, Tom Hillmann, Eric Gibeaut, Judy Sharkey, Pam Jeffers, Barb Geschke, Robert Jaarsma, Curt Bowland, David Reina, and Mike Schreiner.

Secretary’s Report: Minutes from the last meeting were emailed to everyone in advance. Tom Earhart made a motion to accept the minutes as emailed. The motion was seconded by Curt Bowland and was passed.

Treasurer’s Report was emailed to all participants in advance. Tom Earhart made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report. The motion was seconded by David Reina and was passed.

Membership Report was emailed to all participants in advance. Curt Bowland made a motion to accept the Membership Report. The motion was seconded by Eric Gibeaut and was passed. Membership Chairperson Joe McConlogue asked that the complimentary memberships we send out be reviewed and updated. That item will be put on the agenda for the United.

Website Report was emailed to all participants in advance. Tom Earhart made a motion to accept the report. The motion was seconded by Curt Bowland and was passed.

Forum Report: No report received.

Editor’s Report: If enough information is received, the February edition of the Rootes Review will be out mid February. Otherwise February and March will be a combined edition.

Publicity Report: Robert Jaarsma sent out United information to most of the addresses he had. The possibility of placing an ad for the United in Classic Motorsports magazine was discussed. While everyone likes to support that magazine all felt it was not cost effective.

Regalia Report: Eric reported that he owes Tod Brown an article on how to use the regalia web site http://www.fourth-gear-ltd.com/
Old Business:

Rootes Review article to thank Jennifer & Kenneth Arters. President Jeffers asked for the current status of this action. Tom Earhart reported that Fred Baum will be writing an article for the Rootes Review. It has been delayed due to Fred’s health and trying to contact the Arters for information. Tom said he will birddog this item.

Sunbeam Survivor Manual – is this project complete?
This project is still ongoing. Tom Earhart, Joe McConlogue and 10 – 15 volunteers have put much work into this effort. There were 136 tech tips in the original manual. The manual now has 273 and more coming. Tod Brown stated it is valuable work and he would like a description of the work being done for a newsletter article. Tod also suggested that he would like someone to create a tech tip of the month article for the Rootes Review. Kerch mentioned that if you sign up for the “RSS feed” of TE/AE.org you will be notified when a new tech tip has been added.

Future Uniteds

• 2016 South- United XXXIV in Atlanta – Bill Bulpitt gave a detailed update for the plans on the upcoming United. Rooms at the Hilton Atlanta NE will be $89 per night. Car show will be in Old Norcross Square. The Autocross will be at Chicopee Woods Agricultural Center and set up by the Jag Club. A tour of the Panoz Factory is also scheduled. The budget is still being finalized. The Registration form will be published once the budget is finalized. Joe Parlanti asked about a speaker and a discussion followed. Key points included limiting the speaker to 20 minutes and keeping the topic Rootes related rather than just Tiger related.

• 2017 Mid Atlantic – Will the Virginias Region host? John Logan Jr reported that Russ Eshelman is looking at possible location in the Virginia area.

• 2018 North – Recommendations were solicited.

• 2019 Midwest – SUNI VII – Recommendations were solicited.

It was recommended that President Jeffers request the membership to consider possible locations and hosts for future Uniteds in her monthly President’s letter.

Regional Representatives

All Regions are now represented:
New England – Rande Bellman
New Jersey – Tom Hillmann has replaced Jim Sauer

Tom Hillmann, Mike Schreiber and Curt Bowland all reported on events they hope to promote in their regions. Curt commented that the boundaries of his region are vague. He is only able to promote the greater Chicago area.

Rootes America

Project status update on the follow up letter to other Rootes clubs and contact with Tigers United about future of their website (See items 2 & 3 from the July 2015 BOD Meeting minutes?) Dave Reina reported that there was no response to the initial emails and nothing new has been done since the United.

Tom Ehrhart made the motion to discontinue pursuing the Rootes America initiative until the board decides to revisit it at some future date; but retain branding on the Web site and Club banners. Joe Parlanti seconded the motion. The motion was approved unanimously.

Rootes Archive Center Trust – http://www.rootesarchivecentre.org/

The club received a thank you letter for last year’s donation of $250. At each United the BOD will review and vote to make an annual donation.

Possible New Award:

Judy Sharkey had previously brought up the possibility of a new award for those who have not restored their cars. What is the status of this initiative? Judy said she still would like to keep this as an option. But it has gone beyond her original intent. She will put something together and get it to the BOD in the next few months.

Roster

Tom Ehrhart provided the following update: Feb 29th is the deadline for members to request a paper copy of the roster in the January Rootes Review. So far seven have requested one. Tom Calvert commented that he had not seen the roster notice in the newsletter on page 7. Several others commented that they had not seen it either. Much discussion followed. In was discussed that the roster should include emails and be printable in booklet form. It was decided to desktop publish enough rosters for those requesting a paper copy and those for new members. If he can, Tom will put them in booklet form. A printable pdf version of the roster will be worked on so it is available on the members’ only web page.

Bylaws Update

Kerch McConlogue reported that the Articles of Incorporation should be separate from the bylaws. The Articles of Incorporation need to be updated. This should be completed by the United so the membership can vote to approve the update. Jim Morrison set up the bylaws. Tom Ehrhart will contact Jim for his advice.

Elections

President Jeffers thanked Kerch McConlogue for setting up the online voting for this year’s elections and noted voter participation was the best she could remember.

A discussion of potential nominees for the 2016 officer/BOD elections ensued.

President – Joe Parlanti (He would accept)
Vice-President – James Lindner (Joe Parlanti will ask Jim)
Secretary – (Joe Parlanti will ask Jackie Parlanti)
Treasurer – Barb Geschke (She would accept)

Board of Directors – terms ending this year
Joe Parlanti (Not eligible if elected president)
Dave Reina (He would accept)
Judy Sharkey (She would accept)

New Business:

Eric Gibeaut emailed to all a request from the Rootes Archive Trust Building Fund. They want to build a permanent building to house the Rootes Archives. They are looking for a one time pledge of $750. Eric made a motion for a onetime payment to the Rootes Archive Trust Building Fund in the amount of $750. John Logan Jr. seconded the motion and the board approved it unanimously. It was discussed that the BOD might consider the possibility of making an additional donation at some future time if funds permit.

Judy stated that only one (1) set of Lord Rootes Badges are left. Two (2) badges are given to each Lord Rootes recipient and more are needed. Judy stated that in the past 10 badges cost $1000. Joe Parlanti suggested shopping around. He will look at vendors the Clustered Spires club used in the past and get back to Judy. Tom Earhart made the motion to spend $1000 for at least 10 badges. Joe Parlanti seconded the motion and the board approved it unanimously.

Robert brought up the idea of creating a list of vendors and repair shops that cater to British cars where members have had good experiences. It was discussed that the vendors list on our web page needs updating. It may be possible to create a repair shop list of shops that are recommended by TE/AE members. Nothing was decided at this time. This item will stay on the agenda.

Barb Geschke requested the BOD’s opinion on the build-up of excess funds. Since excess funds are not a tax problem nothing will be done.

Robert Jaarsma brought up the idea of encouraging members, if they so chose, to donate in their estate, cars or car parts for the clubs benefit. It was brought up that our incorporation status would not allow any donations to be tax deductible by the donor. Nothing was decided at this time.

A motion to adjourn was made by David Reina at 4:20 EST. Tom Calvert seconded the motion. The motion to adjourn passed.

Thanks,

Jim

It has been proposed that we give $250 to the Rootes Archive Center and give $500 to the Rootes Archive Building Fund.

Eric Gibeaut agreed to make this proposal as presented by Barb Geshke.

Tom Ehrhart then seconded it.

Motion passed

January 24, 2016

Opening Matters

President Jeffers called the meeting to order at 2:07 PM EST.

Continue reading “Board Meeting: January 2016”

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.