Third/Fourth Quarter 2015
What’s New!!!
A lot has happened since we last talked!! We had the most successful Chapter Contact meeting in Frankenmuth that we have ever seen. We had all Board Members in attendance as well 28 others representing many of the Chapters and Interest Groups in our club. Thank you so much for attending.
We had a full agenda covering many topics. Our Chair, Carol Shamonsky, addressed issues concerning our insurance coverage by Hagerty. But the star of the show was Tabetha Hammer from Hagerty Insurance who enlightened us on their initiative to involve younger people into the classic car family. If you or your chapter would like more information on this great Hagerty initiative, please contact Tabetha directly.
We have been trying to develop new criteria to select our yearly Chapter Recognition Award. This has not proceeded as quickly as we would like. We hope to have something in your email box shortly, so stay tuned.
As you can see, we are combining our third quarter and fourth quarter newsletter. Hopefully we will be back on track for the first quarter 2016.
Chapter and Interest Group Responsibilities
This is hugely important so we need to hear from each of you about this. One the responsibilities of the Chapter & Interest Group Coordinators is to monitor the health of the local chapters and interest groups. To do this we need some help from you and we need it pretty quickly as we have to submit this information to the NAMGAR Board in January. It is very important that we get the following information from you:
- Review the Contacts Information found in the latest edition of MGA! Please do this very carefully and let us know if all of the contact information is correct for your Chapter. If anything needs to be changed please email us, as well as the Editor of MGA! and the Internet Coordinators.
- Next we need to know something about the makeup of your club members. We need a count of the total number of club members and the number of members that are members of NAMGAR. Please submit those numbers directly to us.
- Finally, we need to make sure that we are getting copies of your newsletter or other publication that is sent out to your membership. Copies need to be sent to both the Communications Manager (i.e. editor Michael Tooke) and us, the Chapter and Interest Group Coordinators. Please DOUBLE CHECK this. You may have a new newsletter editor. Make sure that your newsletter is getting to us. If you only have a printed format, email me to get my correct physical address. Please check with the person in your club that sends out your publications and make sure that both parties are included in your distribution.
Please try to send us this information by the beginning of December. I need this for our upcoming Board Meeting in January. Thanks!!
Please review the responsibilities of the Chapters in Article VII of the NAMGAR By-Laws on pages 5 & 6.
Welcome our Newest NAMGAR Chapters!
NAMGAR has been very, very busy approving new chapter applications this year. We have two new chapters that bring our total up to 53 North American chapters and one International chapter. We have chapters in 27 states, 3 Canadian Province’s, and Norway.
The NAMGAR Board has approved the application of the following Chapters:
- British Sports Cars Alaska
- Illinois Flat Land British Car Club
The British Sports Cars of Alaska chapter is in our most northern, eastern and western state (look it up)! I had the opportunity to meet up with club chapter president Debi Wilson and club members when vacationing this summer in Alaska. See the September/October of MGA! for details. You can learn more about their club and activities by going to the chapter’s website.
Our newest chapter and the second in Illinois is the Illinois Flat Land British Car Club located in the central area of Illinois. The chapter is an all British car club and lies about 120 miles from the Chicagoland, Hosier As, and MG Club of St Louis chapters. The club is the sponsor of the Champagne British Car Festival and co-hosted NAMGBRs MG 2014 in French Lick Indiana. Find out more about our newest chapter’s website.
Upcoming NAMGAR Events
June 13 – 17, 2016 GT – 40 Louisville, KY -Annual Chapter & Interest Group Contacts Meeting
We are in the process of finalizing a date and time as we write this. More than likely it will be in the evening so as not to conflict with some of the great driving events at this “once every 5 year” All MG Get Together. More on this next newsletter.
Chapter and Interest Group Contacts please make arrangements to attend this meeting. It’s your chance to meet and interact with NAMGAR Board and Staff members and also to share common issues and successes with other Chapter and Interest group contacts. Refreshments and snacks will be provided. If you are unable to attend please appoint an attending Chapter or Interest group member to attend in your place. Please forward any items that you would like added to the meeting agenda to us at chapters@namgar.com. We would like to see a full house next year!
July 29 – 31, 2016 Clarkston, MI – MG Vintage Racers’ Focus Event
The MG will be the featured marque at this spectator friendly course. The course has 12 turns and is only 1.42 miles in length making track viewing very easy for everyone. I hear the food is also not to be missed at this track!
September 30 – October 2, 2016 Sonoma, CA – Classic Sports Racing Group Charity Challenge
We older folks remember this as Sears Point or Infineon Raceway. The west coaster will also have a great three day weekend which combines great cars with great wine. Remember this is Sonoma!
June 19 – 23, 2017 GT-42 Solvang, CA
After a six year hiatus the GT will once again by on the West Coast!! This is a great area of California to explore. Make your plans now!!
NAMGAR GT Chapter Recognition Award
The NAMGAR Board of Directors created an award to recognize the NAMGAR Chapter that is best represented at an annual GT. The award is based on chapter attendance as a percentage of chapter membership rather than the total number of members attending the GT.
This years’ Chapter Recognition Award went to the Ohio State BuckAyes. The Chapter was recognized this year at our national meeting in Frankenmuth, MI. Congratulations!
Beginning in 2016 the award criteria will be changed. We were hoping to have something for you by the time we sent this newsletter, but not so. Make sure you track your clubs organized events and who attended what. This type of information will be compiled, sent in, and evaluated to choose our Recognition Award for next year. This is intended to give smaller chapters an opportunity to be acknowledged as well as recognizing chapters for more than just attending the GT. Be watching future newsletters and MGA! for more details.
NAMGAR Regional GT’s – Something your Chapter might want to consider!
Are there any events on your club’s calendar such as a weekend trip or a car show that could be expanded to become a NAMGAR Regional? It is something that you might want to consider. What the heck, the more the merrier. If you’ve already done the planning for an event then you’re more than half way there. Having a regional just might fill up that motel or enhance your car show field. Contact NAMGAR Vice Chairman Jeff Becker or details and advice on hosting a NAMGAR Regional.
Chapter Newsletters
We enjoy reading your club newsletters. Please let us know when a new one has been posted to your website or include us on your e-mail list. Those using the British Marque News as your newsletter vehicle, please let us know when you’ve submitted one to the Marque News so we know to look for it.
Chapter Events
Post yours on the namgar.com Events Page
NAMGAR Web Coordinators Peter and Anne Tilbury provide a service on the NAMGAR web site to post your upcoming club sponsored events which might interest other NAMGAR members convenient to your area. Please use this FREE service to promote your MG or British car hobbyist event.
You may add your club events to the Calendar of Events by visiting the Events page at namgar.com.
Renkenberger Spirit Award
This award is presented by the NAMGAR Board of Directors to a member of a Chapter or Interest group upon request of the local Chapter. The member does not have to be a member of NAMGAR. Each NAMGAR Chapter or NAMGAR Interest Group is eligible to nominate one of their members every three (3) years. As most Chapters have their annual planning meetings coming up this would be an appropriate time to suggest that your Chapter’s Board consider nominating a member for this award. Also our Interest groups can think about nominating one of their members. All Chapters and Interest groups have individuals that spend vast amounts of time and energy making the organization successful and this award is a very appropriate way of recognizing them. The guidelines are attached.
The award is prepared and sent to the Chapter Contact by NAMGAR upon receipt of the Chapter’s 300-400 word nomination submission to the Chapter Coordinators, along with a photograph of the awardee. These will be published in MGA! and also posted on the NAMGAR website. It should be noted there is no cost to the Chapter for the award, which is provided by NAMGAR, and we do encourage each Chapter to use this award to recognize an outstanding member.
For more information on how to submit a nomination please contact the Chapter Coordinators.
Lastly, please share this newsletter with your Chapter and Interest Group members. We look forward to your response to our requests and hope you are able to attend the national GT or a Regional GT local to you. We also encourage each Chapter Contact to reach out to a neighboring Chapter to see if there are club activities that would be enhanced by including a larger pool of British vehicles.
Happy Motoring!
Ed Sass & Colleen Quinn, NAMGAR Chapter Coordinators
