BCA Board of Directors Election - 2014

John: you and I have known each other long enough , that I feel that we can disagree in a spirit of good will, and on this issue, that certainly is the case. After having run two National Meets and served as Meet Head Judge on two others, I feel that a great deal of the strength of a well run meet is in the desire of a local Chapter to want to show the membership at large, their area of the Country.

You mentioned a Military flavor to running a meet and, I could not agree more with you in that context. I also feel that the success of a military operation lies in knowing the terrain and having "men on the ground". I feel that both aspects of the "operation" can not be adequately run by volunteers, most of whom may not know each other, or the meet director right up until the meet actually starts. The success of both Danvers meets came in the form of "dry runs" at the actual Meet location. a local knowledge of the area also is a great advantage, when things go wrong, and things always do go wrong. The success of having a successful National Meet is in having things be so seamless, that for the most part, Meet attendees do not ever notice that something has gone wrong. I strongly feel that the importance of having the Meet Director actually live in the area, where the Meet is being conducted cannot be over emphasized. The critical details cannot be left to a convention bureau or an event planing company. We have very special requirements for our shows and a takes someone with a real feel for what we do to get it done properly.

We also have a National Meet Committee and their expertise should center around helping to provide the assets that the Chapter may lack. This may be assistance in contract negotiation with the host hotel, writing a business plan, risk management, etc. Every Chapter is different, and the amount, and type of assistance they would require will differ as well.

Years ago, the real stumbling block to running a National Meet was registration. WE had to handle that ourselves for the first Danvers meet. By the time we did the second meet, the Faries were handling registration and the difference was staggering. It is so much easier now, with them doing it. I guess that in itself is a part of the NMC, and probably its most important asset.

Sorry for rambling, let the discussion begin John!!!!

A point of further clarification: When I talk about "men on the ground" I am speaking of species Homo Sapien" , and not limiting my thoughts to the male gender. None of our events would run well without the help of our female members, wives, etc.

Jack

Bill - I agree you have a strong voice from people attending South Bend. I've indicated numerous times that I support the wishes of the members. Your poll, e-mail, and letters to the editor make the case for parking by era. There has been some correspondence with other opinions, but you have a majority. As I indicated a few days ago, I support the voice of the members.

Jerry Courson, Chairman

National Meet Committee

Candidate for Board of Directors

John - I'm sorry for the delay in responding to your lessons learned question. I am not a frequent Forum user, and I will start checking more frequently and even look at page 2. The lessons learned were contributed by board members, NMC members, judges, volunteers and interested members. I combined all comments and we held a NMC conference call to discuss needed changes. Parking was a big issue followed by weaknesses in the overflow hotel (lack of staff with answers), a too small hospitality room that was not restocked on a frequent basis, insufficient signage, the lack of a volunteer to give directions to the car wash, to the show field, etc. We had an insufficient number of volunteers, and some members who volunteered could not find a task.

The items related to weaknesses in the facility were noted for inspections of future hotels. Most of the other items involve proper management of volunteers. To improve the volunteer issue, a member of the NMC is responsible for each major area of the meet and that person knows how to get the help needed. Mike Book has visited Portland in preparation for the meet. Mike met with the local chapter and has a volunteer list. Finally, we are prepared to hire help if sufficient volunteers are not available. There will be lessons learned from every meet, and adjustments will be needed.

I hope someone noted this issue at South Bend. There was no onsite food vendor during the day. I was told both hotels had no kitchen staff and the food preparations were contracted out. So there was no place to get a lunch on Wednesday or Thursday, and then the host hotel opened a grill between the hotels and served only hot dogs and chips etc. I hope that does not happen again.

John - So noted. Sometimes in the price range we seek, hotels do not have food preparation facilities. But, we can note that in our preparation and arrange for an outside vendor. Keep in mind, this can compete for space. - Jerry

Jerry,

First welcome to the forum and hope you continue checking in. I for one am encouraged by the positive attitude and the willingness to listen to what I hope is considered constructive criticism. Some of the main reasons of problems have been explained away and it sounds like the board is moving in a positive direction.

Carl

Thanks Jerry. That,, of course is only as needed. In SB there were area restaurants one could drive to. It's probably not that big a deal to most attendees and I probably should not have even mentioned it.

MrEarl - I appreciate efforts in your recent post to encourage candidates to discuss the various issues facing the BCA at this time. You are correct, parking at National Meets is not the only issue. National Meet issues are being addressed, and we are moving forward.

In my opinion, one of our biggest issues is the lack of long-term planning coupled with the declining membership. Thus far in this fiscal year (7/1/13 - present), the BCA's membership has slipped from about 7,500 to 7,342 which includes 224 e-members. As we know, this is a trend in many car clubs, and it impacts the BCA from local chapter participation to the national budget. We have taken token steps to improve the trend, and we must look for other avenues. But, more importantly, we must project into the future to estimate the impact of declining membership on our club. Will the tend continue even with our best efforts? Will the trend level out at some point in the future, and if so, at what level? Can the BCA operate at that level, and if so, what will the club look like? In summary, we must start thinking ahead and planning. If our assumptions of the future are not correct, we must be prepared to adjust our planning and continue to move forward.

Is parking at the National Meet important - Yes. Is parking our only issue - you decide.

Jerry L. Courson, Candidate

Board of Directors

John - Thanks for your comments regarding a food vender. I will make a note for the National Meet Committee files. When we encounter a hotel that does not serve food, and nothing is within walking distance, we could consider a food vender if there's space. The members could eat and be happy, the vender could make money and be happy, and the BCA could charge the vender a haircut and be happy. Thanks for the idea - Jerry

Mr. Earl,

Once the elections are over, I hope that you'll consider keeping this forum open or create a similar forum as a means by which the membership can voice their concerns. If this can be agreed upon, I would then encourage the editor of the Bugle to publish the electronic address so that all members know that such a site exists; with a clear statement that the site is to be used for constructive comments regarding the club and not for commercial purposes.

Thanks for your efforts on this forum. I know that you've been keep busy mediating what's being posted.

ed

Ed, good idea, but first we gotta get this thread through the elections. I'll keep that in mind as a possible new thread. Thanks

I would love to see more participation from the general membership on here. There was a short period of time when Pete would include a paragraph or two in each issue of the Bugle about an interesting thread that was running on here. That also included the website address. I have been wanting to bring back that practice by sending him monthly items he could use. I think one problem with that is the time span between when a thread may be running on here and when the Bugle would "report" it. Another thing I would like to see happen at all the nationals banquets is when all the chapters are being recognized, that the forum be recognized and all the forum members in the audience and in particular the person who received that years Buick Man Award asked to stand and be recognized. Can I get an OORAH on that and possibly a current or running board member to support it.

Lamar,

Excellent ideas, and I will do my best to get the recognition. Not sure why people are reluctant to use the forum, or even read it. I wish it were more widely used, and we need to find some way to get it widely used. I would be in favor of a "member only" section, much as we have for Chapter and Regional Directors as well as the BOD now, so we can share some ideas for paid members only. However, we also need to maintain open to communications with all people and entities interested in Buick.

This ties in with one of my points if elected. I would like to see much stronger communication between the BOD and members. The Bugle is good, but by nature of the printed press, it is slow for this day and age, where things move more quickly. We need to communicate the BOD actions to all and more promptly. For example the BOD minutes of October or the last and only communication to the members since South Bend, as well as the survey. Yet we find comments from members on the forum recently that there has been action. Better financial information should also be part of this. This could be done by separate mailing to members an money be set aside to print and mail that information on a regular basis.

John Scheib

Jerry. I don't think you will get any argument about the need for long range planning for the BCA. You have some advantage in knowing the specifics of how bad the situation may be as a sitting Board member over those of us, just running for the Board now. The need for better communications has been mentioned, and part of those communications would be the health of the Club, in terms of member retention, and financial situation.

It is common knowledge how the Club was losing money in large amounts until a prior Board (some of those members are still on the Board, I believe) rolled up their sleeves and dealt with the problem, at least in the short term.

You are correct about declining membership in most Clubs. There are a lot of reasons for that , including the aging of the automobile hobbyists. I believe one of the reasons for the growth of the hobby was the constant stream of interesting cars coming of age, so to speak. We had enthusiasts for cars ranging from the brass era to the muscle car era. That stream of interesting cars, especially Buicks has come to an end. Any of the future generation of old cars are just going to be old. With a very few exceptions, they will not be desirable cars. Most of the newer people in the hobby are buying a project car, that someone else has already finished.

A lot of the younger members have never actually worked on cars. They outsource all but the most simple tasks.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is changing the dynamic of the hobby.

Demands on younger couples are very different than they were in the younger days of our mature members. There is not much disposable time left, and because of that younger people tend not to be joiners.

You run in to a lot of car people these days, that do not belong to a Club.

All of this is going to mean that membership in the BCA and other Clubs will continue to drop. The BOD will have to really focus on retaining membership and keeping a strong financial position if the BCA is to stay healthy.

I believe the time may not be far away, when car clubs will have to consider merging with other like minded clubs to survive. They may at least have to go to "shared services" to lessen overhead, without losing quality of product. The day may come when the BCA, ROA, GS Club, et al may have to unite to survive.

What ever the future is, it will take an energetic BOD to guide the Club. THe BCA is a great Club and it will continue to be , because we have always had people willing to step up and get things done.

I can forsee, a BOD with an entrepreneurial spirit instead of business as usual. That is my reason for my position on BOD term limits. The term limits position is not directed at any current BOD member, but I think that it is too easy to stay too long and get stale.

A changing BOD keeps up enthusiasm and brings in fresh ideas.

Jack

Mr Earl: I agree totally with you on that , i hardly ever used this forum before running for the BOD, mostly from ignorance on the value of information it contains. Those of us using it now for election purposes would never be able to fully get our stance on issues clarified with out it.

Jack

OORAH (if not too bold as a non-USMC veteran)

JohnD - that is a very valid point. I don't recall what we did last year, but I know sometimes one gets busy at the meet and sort of forgets to eat...at any rate, some have dietary restrictions and some of us simply want to eat healthier than a hot dog.

Last I recall hearing about membership numbers, I thought we were over 9,000. Now, my memory may be at fault, but if correct, either we've had a drastic decline, or it has been a long time since we've had an update. Marketing the club is really what would need to happen to increase membership - promoting National, Regional, and local events to not just BCA members, but the public at large.

As to the comment about lack of interesting Buicks, you have to keep in mind that everyone has their own tastes. I've heard it in the local club as well that nothing interesting was built since 19xx - I find that a disappointing and somewhat disparaging remark. I know there are some folks who are really into the front wheel drive Regal GS, the last generation Riviera was a great car, and the modern judging will soon include SUVs and vans. Interesting times.

Derek,

Let's see, that is four years before we see "Ruby" on the judging field, now that you reminded us they are coming.

JOHN

Ruby is deteriorating...just got back from the body shop today as a matter of fact...the original grill wasn't available so it got a replacement part - still Buick, but different. I honestly don't know whether she'll last that long in our possession. The plan for this year is to have the teenagers prep the Regal for 400 point judging and have the '29 as display only.

Good news.

Just got my Bugle in the mail today. Sat down and voted and will put the ballot in the mail tomorrow.

Wow...Winnipeg gets Bugles before Michigan. I got mine a couple days ago.

It takes a while to shuttle the mail up the peninsula from the major east - west routes.

Jack - Thanks for responding to my post about long-term planning. I don't disagree with the points you make, but I'm not ready to admit we cannot stop the decline in membership and at least hold our own. Most of the reasons for non-renewal involve selling the Buick in the collection or the aging issue. The BCA's financial position is strong. The financial statements should have been published in the Bugle. I'll follow up with Bill Stoneberg on this.

Jerry, I am hoping the more of the BOD candidates will step up and provide the membership with their positions on the issues, or talk about issues that we have not yet discussed here

Jack

Jack - From my viewpoint, I don't believe the BCA has any major problems. We do have issues to discuss, and as you will note from my posts, I believe we have two major issues to discuss. Communications can always be improved and long-term planning will produce better decisions. We have many other issues that may be urgent, but not as urgent as communicating and planning. These other issues include working the bugs out of the "new" National Meet Committee (which includes the parking issue), a formal process for working with our contractors that allows ideas from contractors to flow to the board, identifying approaches to declining membership, a direct line of communication from the chapters to the board (to keep the tail from wagging the dog), replacing some board actions from e-mail to verbal communications, and more.

Jack - Since we are both candidates, do you want to discuss these and other current BCA issues between us on this forum? Other candidates can also join in.

I think that discussing them on the forum will give members a chance to see what is going on, and hopefully members and other candidates will join in and give their views. Then members may have a better choice of who may best represent them. At the very least , it be improving communications. There may well be issues out there that BOD members and candidates are not even aware of. Maybe if we are lucky, some former BCA'ers will weigh on on why they are not members, although this may be a bit off the track of the original intent of the thread.

I have been involved in the antique cars for a couple of decades. I have been active in my local AACA Chapter all of that time. For the last 7 years of so, I have been active in National AACA Events. Since I now seem to be collecting only Buicks after many years of being primarily a Model A Ford owner, I recently joined BCA. I have read all of this discussion, as well as many other recent Buick Forum discussions. I have never attended a BCA event and it does not appear that there is a local BCA Chapter, Region, or Division. I have explored this forum extensively, and also explored the BCA Website a bit.

I have read through the last year's worth of BCA Board minutes on the BCA Website. The minutes don't seem to really tell me much, as there are a lot of reports and other documents that are "attached" to the minutes but don't appear on the website. As a new member, I would concur with comments about the need for more communication from the Board. I would like to learn more about BCA. I would love to read the BCA bylaws or SOPs. I have not been able to find a copy of those documents on the BCA Website.

I realize that AACA has a large presence in North Carolina and thus there are lots of AACA events in North Carolina. It does not appear to me that my area of the country has that large of a BCA Presence. From my limited observation, it looks like the main thing that I get out of joining BCA is the Buick Bugle. How do I get a copy of the Bylaws to find out more about BCA? What else does a new member of BCA from Southeastern North Carolina have to look forward to? Any comments from those running for the board or anyone else that would like to comment?

Matt,

I will respond to your comments as a candidate for the BOD. So these are not "official" comments. The bylaws have usually been provided in the roster, but because some changes are under development, I believe they were not printed with this last edition. I will see if there is some way we can get the old ones to you.

As an aside, I spent some time this winter in Myrtle Beach, and I know and respect your input to the forum over the years and I was thinking of contacting you, just for a chat. You are in a wonderful part of the country, and I am sure there are other members perhaps in NC and eastern SC. The Tarheel Chapter is centered around Raleigh, which seems to be a bit over 100 miles for you. Perhaps you could consider forming a chapter in the coastal area. I did not realize until now that there is no chapter listed in South Carolina. It does not take a large group to form a chapter, and I will see if I can get someone in the area to help you with that. The office can get you members names and addresses sorted by zip code to help. I am not sure if you were able to attend the National Meet in Concord a few years ago.

I hope this will help you and I just wanted to respond now on the forum. As Regional Coordinator for the Northeast, I was able to help get two new chapters started in this area, and I believe this is necessary for BCA growth. I will do whatever I can to support your efforts. As a BOD members I would do what I can to support similar efforts throughout the country. I will drop you a PM soon.

John

Thanks for the response. I was aware of the Concord Meet, but I did not attend it. I thought about going but I was not yet a BCA Member and had something else going on that prevented me from attending. We have several of our local AACA members who own Buicks. We have had some casual conversations about potentially starting a local BCA chapter, but I would certainly need to see the Bylaws before starting any serious effort towards that end.

Just wondering what other candidates or members at large think about my position on term limits for BOD members?

Jack

Just wondering what other candidates or members at large think about my position on term limits for BOD members?

Jack

Care to restate or elaborate on that Jack. I did a quick scroll back through your posts but didn't see where you describe that in detail.

It's great discussing issues concerning the BCA, but the more proper place to discuss them would be on a forum that only BCA members have access. Discussing them on an open forum that is not really the BCA's is not the best venue. I site or thread that you have to sign into with your BCA# would be the ideal location for such information. Many times "opinions" and "rhetoric" are given by people that don't even own or have interest in a Buick - they are just passerby's on another clubs forums.

Keith's comments are in line what I have stated earlier. I agree that this should be on members only, but so far I have not seen comments from many "outsiders".

John

MrEarl: I had so far only stated that I felt that term limits for BOD members were a good thing, and that as BOD member, that would be an agenda of mine. I mentioned it a bit in my post of a week ago as follows. "I can forsee, a BOD with an entrepreneurial spirit instead of business as usual. That is my reason for my position on BOD term limits. The term limits position is not directed at any current BOD member, but I think that it is too easy to stay too long and get stale.

A changing BOD keeps up enthusiasm and brings in fresh ideas."

I would be open to exactly how many terms we should have as a limit, but as a starting point I am thinking of three terms as a limit. That would give someone who should want to stay on the BOD nine years to effect the direction of the Club , but not long enough to get stale. I really think two terms is enough for most members, but I do not think that would fly.

Currently, two consecutive terms are the limit.

Been that way for a long time I think.

As noted, "term limits" for BOD members do exist. In a very few cases, after a former BOD member "does their time", they have waited one year and then ran for the BOD again. Perhaps that "sitting-out-time" spec might be a point for discussion?

I like Keith's idea of a "members only access" area for discussions, but this might also limit the amount of "outside insight" which might be received from other forum surfers, on particular issues. Perhaps they could ask permission, from a moderator, to participate or send their comments to the moderator for reposting or consideration?

Just some thoughts,

Willis Bell 20811

In general I like the idea of term limits, although determining the logistics of it could be quite a discussion.

There are a couple points to ponder. One is that there have been times in most organizations' lives where it has been a struggle simply to find enough people willing to sit on elected / leadership positions for the organization. Imposing term limits could make that a bigger issue.

Another issue I've seen, although in much smaller organizations, is without term limits some individuals or a small group stay on and become akin to owners of the organization. It doesn't just become stale, it can become a "my way or the highway" sort of mentality.

I would hope in an organization the size of the BCA, that we would always have enough folks stepping up which would alleviate the first issue.

It is nice to see some ideas come forth. It is interesting that it is when you see controversy that you tend to see more candidates (polarized on a certain position) and you often get higher voter turnout as a result.

Another issue I've seen, although in much smaller organizations, is without term limits some individuals or a small group stay on and become akin to owners of the organization. It doesn't just become stale, it can become a "my way or the highway" sort of mentality.

.

The BCA strongly has this issue, it's just not with elected officials, but hired ones.

Paul: It looks like you are correct on the existing policy on two consecutive terms for BOD members, I guess that would make my position on the subject, a non issue.

The sad side of this story is the actual number of votes cast. I suspect you can get the actual numbers from the Board meeting minutes but it is a small number of BCA members that actually select the Board because so few members actually vote. If you have not voted, send that ballot in and lets make this year a record.

So so true Barney!!