Local Club Meetings

[Guest Hal Davis (MODEL A HAL)]

Where and when does your local chapter or region hold it's meetings? What are the advantages and disadvantages of these times and places?

Our club has it's meetings on the 4th Sunday of each month at 2:00 PM at a different location each time. Lunch is normally served at these meetings. Each month, a different group of members sponsors the meeting, funding the meal and paying the rent on the facility, if any. Sometimes, the meeting is held at someone's home or church, so no room has to be rented. Other times, it will be held at a community center, park, or restaurant.

I can't say why this particular day and time were chosen. It was that way before I joined the club. For some, 2:00 PM is a bit late for lunch, but it gives people time to get home from church and back to the meeting place, which is sometimes quite a distance for some members.

One of the biggest problems with this system is that some months, there will not be a sponsor, or worse, there will only be one family willing to sponsor that month. That makes the one family responsible for the whole bill which can be $200-300 or more. When there's no sponsor we usually go dutch to a restaurant.

It's not a perfect system, but it works pretty well. Tell us what your club does and why.

[Guest BruceW]

Hal,

Our region has between 70 and 80 family members. On a typical meeting night we will have approximately 50 people attend. Because of this, our meetings would not be able to be held easily in a member's home.

Our meetings are always the last Tuesday of the month. Our Executive Board has a brief meeting starting at 7:30pm and our regular region meeting starts at 8:pm. Im not sure why this meeting time started ..perhaps thats when the school was available at the time... but it works good because it seems everything else holds its meetings closer to the beginning of the month.

For over 30 years our region held its meetings in a school. I assume this is because early in the club's history, one of the main charter members worked for a school. The best thing about the school was that we had acess to a microphone system and all kinds of top visual equipment (large screen TVs, VCR, etc) for presentations. For each month, we have Hospitality Committee that people volunteer and 3 of the members provide a large array of snacks and drinks. Usually each lady or man only has to serve one meeting. Most of the refreshments are homemade so they are great. Everyone pitches in and doesn't mind doing so. To cover costs, we have a small basket on the hospitality table and everyone usually donates a dollar. .

One down side was that if the school closed for any reason on that Tuesday we had to either change meeting location or cancel. Also we only had meetings during months that school was in session. This wasnt too bad as we have plenty of summer activities where a short meeting could be held if needed in July and August.

However the school board suddenly decided last year that they wanted to charge outside (non school related) groups up to $80 per night that the organization uses the school. Our treasury would be unable to afford this (plus we learned that the Girl Scouts and vollyball teams meeting on the same night were not being made to pay the fee). We could have raised a big fuss and yelled descrimination but.. we are not like that.

We recently changed our meeting place to a church hall. Three of our members attend this church and one of them arranged for us to use the church FREE of charge. Its too early to see how well this will work because our first meeting at the new location got snowed out in January and our next isnt until Feb 24.

I dont know yet if the church will have the any audio/visual equipment we can use for presentations. One good thing is that we are no longer held to the calender of the school system nor at the mercy of the ever tightning school system. Schools have gotten so restrictive as to what you can and cant do any more. One other things is the length of our meeting. When held at the school it was mandatory that we leave by 10:00pm. With the church, they are not concerned if a meeting runs over for some reason and did not state that we had to be out by a certain time.

Although use of the the church hall is free for us, we have planned to give periodic donations to the church to show our appreciation (perhaps from the hospitality fund). We will need to clean up ourselves afterwards, but our region is known for leaving a site cleaner than when we arrived, even in the schools where there were custodians. Its a personal pride of the region.

I'll let you know more on the new location after our first meeting next Tuesday night.

[Terry Bond]

Ive got just a few minutes left at the end of the day before I head off to the regular monthly meeting of the Tidewater Region AACA. We are fortunate to have found a facility that is a catering establishment that gets rended out for weddings, dinners, receptions, etc. We hold our meetings there the third Thursday each month, except for the month of January when we move our awards banquet to a Saturday evening, and during the months we hold our annual picnic and car show. The meetings are dinner meetings and we have a phone-tree committee that contacts members prior to the meeting to take their reservations and let them know about the program. The meal is usually an all-u-can-eat buffet and the food is great! After dinner we hold a special program that may or not be auto related, but is always of interest. One of my favorite meetings featured a speaker with slide show of the recovery of the civil war ironclad Monitor. What a fascinating evening! Cost runs about $16 per person, so it's a pretty inexpensive evening. Meetings are very short on business - mainly special announcements about upcoming activities, info on leads and new acquisitions, and of course a closing "joke" from our longest serving member who attends nearly every meeting! Out of 130 families, we normally get between 75-100 people attending, so obviously something is working. Oh, almost forgot-the caterer also manages another establishment on the south side of town, and a couple of times during the year we hold meetings there, just to provide some variety and shorten the drive for our south-side club members. Same great food, same great people, just a different location. We have a blast and the next meeting is always eagerly awaited. Maybe I'll take the camera along this evening and try to post some pictures later.

Terry

[Junkman]

The Central Texas Region meets at 7 PM on the second Tues of each month. We tried meetings on weekends for a couple of years and found that it took away a weekend when we could have a mini-tour in our local area so we moved the meeting back to a weekday evening to free up our weekends for touring. We meet in the training room of a local business that is owned by a very gracious couple who like old cars. You have probably figured out that rent free meeting space is getting very hard to find. So we go out of our way to ensure that we are not a housekeeping burdon for our landlord. Our meetings last till 9 or 9:30 and a monthly roster of volunteers bring in refreshments. Our region has about 100 family memberships and a normal meeting will draw around 50 people. Meetings consist of a report on the past month's activities and creation of some hype for the upcoming activities. There is a monthly program/presentation that is either presented or arranged by a member of the region. There is socializing before and after the meeting. Hope this helps.

[fordee9r (Ron Springstead)]

Hi Hal,

Our Region used to meet at the Senior Center free of charge but new directors wanted to begin charging us $60 per month. We searched around and made a deal with the Elks Club. We would display our old cars at their annual chicken BBQ which usually did just OK. The first year our vehicles attracted so much attention that they sold out an hour early! They were more than happy to supply their meeting room to us for free. Over the years we have grown our treasury and have made periodic cash contributions to some of their youth projects. This arrangement has worked well for both organizations for several years now.

We meet on the second Thursday of each month at 7:30 PM. If the Hershey Meet conflicts with our October meeting, we back up a week. Early on, we polled our active members for the best day and time. Weekends were OK during the winter but Thursdays got the final majority vote. As membership changes over time, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea for ALL clubs to poll their active members for a possible change to the time and date.

[Guest SalG (Sal Grenci)]

The following is what folks on Long Island do, regions listed from west to east.

The Greater New York Region meets the 1st Thursday every month in an American Legion Hall in Malvern, meetings start at 8:30 and run 1 to 1.5 hrs w/o a break or an activity. Meetings tend to be lively w/ stories and a few jokes and plenty of give and take. Coffee and cake are provided by who ever will do the work and get reimbursed, the supplies are stored in the hall. A 50/50 raffle is held and the there is a staffed bar that is open before and after the meeting. Rental is $125.

The Vanderbilt Cup Region meets the 2nd Wednesday of every month, except December at a historic barn in Smithtown. Meetings start at 8:30 and run 45 mins and then there is a break for coffee and then a speaker, auction or some activity about 50% of the time. The refreshments are supplied by the 50/50 winner from the previous month,(started before I was in the club) this has caused problems in a previous hall, since there was no storage for us and people would forget. The hall is free, several members belong to the historical group and we supply cars for their Heritage Festival in Sept.

The F R Porter region meets the 2nd Tuesday in a church basement every month except December, in Coram, rent is $250 for the year. They hold a 50/50, have a meeting of no longer then an hour followed by coffee and cake supplied by a committee and they area paid from petty cash. One person handles the coffee, one the donuts. Guest speakers, video tapes of car stuff, old post card exhibits, slide shows from 30+ years ago of Hershey and local events are supplied by a member.

Piconic Bay Region meets in a senior center in Southold on the North Fork, not a member so can not tell you anything.

[novaman]

I belong to two regions.

[color:\\"blue\\"] Alamance Region website

Alamance Region is fortune enough to own its own clubhouse. We meet on the 2nd Sat. of each month, (changed if conflicting with Hershey in Oct.). Meeting times during the winter is 6:30pm, in the summer 7pm, using the Daylight Savings Time as the "line". We have a potluck, dish to pass (or whatever you call it where you are) dinner. Then we'll usually have a short program then the regular business meeting. Two families will host, getting tables decorated, silverware and napkins on tables. They are also responsible to bring soft drinks (usually 2 litre bottles). After eating the Host ladies usually wash the silverware to be put away and then after meeting the hosts clean up what remains, and locks the facilities.

[color:\\"blue\\"] North Carolina Region website

North Carolina Region has one general membership business meeting each year, 3rd Sat of January. This meeting is hosted by one of the Region's Chapters. There will be a Board meeting in the morning, Lunch is catered in some form, and you need to notify them you are eating and pay in advance. (All the info is in the region's newsletter). Then after lunch some form of entertainment, dancers, singers, etc. Then, is the annual business meeting. There are board meetings at the Region Spring and Fall meets, each hosted by a chapter.

[Guest Hal Davis (MODEL A HAL)]

Thanks to all who responded. I asked the question, in part, to get ideas in the case I have to start a new region, and also, just out of curiosity. It is interesting to see what other clubs do differently. Thanks again.

[RPrice]

Hal,

As Sal mentioned, the Vanderbilt Cup Region meets in a historic barn in Smithtown, NY. Another member and I both belong to the Smithtown Historic Society and as a result, we know some of the trustees and the director of the society. Many of our antique car functions are done in association with the society and thus a symbiosis has been formed between our club and the society. We have supported the historical society functions where old cars are needed and appreciated.

Perhaps you and others, seeking a location for meetings, can arrange similar meeting places. By the way, our club pays a small rental fee of $40 per month for our meetings. This was a result of an upfront agreement and it gives us a chance to support them financially.

Rog [color:\\"blue\\"]

[6219_Rules]

I do not know if there is an AACA group here in Colorado. Maybe Howard can answer that.

Hit the enter key too soon...I am looking now. Not a big crowd person, and rarely get out, it would still be nice to know. I will see what I find out.

OK found out that there is a chapter in Littleton and Fort Collins. I will see what they are about this March. I still have to go to the CLC meetings and check out the CCCA locally.

So many clubs so little time. <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />