Chapter Coordinator Newsletters

August 2010 Newsletter

by Lee & Liz Niner on August 11, 2010

Hi all - Here are the minutes from our "working lunch" Annual Contacts Meeting held on Thursday, July 29th at GT 35.

We had contacts or their designated representatives from 21 chapters and 2 interest groups in attendance along with the NAMGAR Board. This annual meeting is designed to be a forum between chapter & interest group contacts and the NAMGAR Board. As always, we enjoyed all the comments and questions but most of all we liked seeing all of you that attended this 5th annual meeting of contacts.

Status of Chapters & Interest Groups

51 chapters and 7 interest groups. 4 new chapters have affiliated in the last 12 months - British Motor Club (FL), Key West British Car Club (FL), MG Car Club of Toronto (CAN) and Ottawa MG Club (CAN). There are currently 3 clubs (2 in the US and 1 in AUS) exploring affiliation with NAMGAR.

There are 10 MGA specific chapters, 30 all MG chapters and 11 all British chapters. These 51 chapters are located in 27 US states, 2 Canadian provinces and 1 International local - Norway. States or provinces with the most chapters are California & Pennsylvania with 5 chapters each followed by Florida & Ontario with 4 each.

Communications

Out of 51 Chapters - 24 snail mail newsletters, 15 use their web site or Email newsletters, 7 have no newsletter but use Email for event notification and 5 use British Marque News. Out of 7 Interest groups - 4 use one on one telephone conversations, 2 use Email chat rooms and 1 has a newsletter via Email.

Websites - 48 chapters and 2 interest groups have websites, 2 chapters and 5 interest groups do not have a website and 1 chapter is working to produce a website. You can view the various chapter & interest group websites by going to www.namgar.com .

Renkenberger Spirit Award

Six awards have been requested and given out in the last 18 months since the award's inception (Mid-Atlantic - 11/08, Hoser Eh's - 4/09, MGMGMG - 9/09, Houston MG Car Club - 12/09, Michigan Rowdies - 2/10 and MG Car Club Northwest Centre - 6/10. The NAMGAR Board is emphasizing that this award is given to any chapter or interest group that requests it for one of its members that has given exceptional service to that chapter or interest group. All that is requested is a 250 word write up and a picture of the recipient(s) be submitted for publication in MGA!. Please make an effort to inform your chapter's or interest group's executive and members to make use of this award, NAMGAR membership is not a requirement to receive this award. Go to www.namgar.com for details.

Regional GT's

There were three regionals held last year (Key West, FL hosted by the Key West Chapter; Sonoma Wine Country, CA - hosted by the MG Owner's Club - Bay Area and Poconos, PA - hosted by the British Car Club of Northeast PA).

In 2010 the "Annual" Key West Gathering Regional was held in April and the 2nd NAMGAR in the Poconos will be held Setember 29th - October 2nd. Please note that the deadline to register for the Pocono regional has been extended to from Aug 2nd to Aug 21st. Go the www.namgar.com for more info. If your chapter is a few hours away from the Poconos, it's a great way for your chapter to have a get away weekend with other MG'ers.

NAMGAR makes putting on a regional really simple. It can be a car show, a rallye, a long weekend or just about anything. NAMGAR will also fund up to $400 for dash plaques. Please think about hosting a regional in 2011. Questions, Email Bruce Woodson @ vicechair@namgar.com and he'll work with your chapter to put together a NAMGAR Regional.

NAMGAR Website

Peter & Anne Tillbury, NAMGAR Website Coordinators, requested that all NAMGAR members initiate access to the member specific areas of the website. The address label of your MGA! magazine mailing envelope contains your membership number - which should appear in the form of 8D34N1234. If you visit www.namgar.com at the upper right will be a link to register. Click on the link, enter your number, name and preferred Email and password for the site. Don't wait to register do it now.

There are 12 chapters that have not provided their logos or provided a short chapter write up for the chapter's section of the NAMGAR website. Please check out the chapter's section and if your chapter is one of those 12, notify your executive and request that this info be provided. Your chapter is missing out on a free plug for itself!

MG80

The MG Car Club of the UK is celebrating it's 80th year by launching MG 80. MG 80 will be held on the weekend of 16 - 17 October worldwide and is a perfect event for a chapter to participate in. The objective is to take pictures or videos of your event and send them to the MG car Club's website where they will be posted with other clubs from around the world. Go to the www.namgar.com for details on how your chapter can get involved.

Rallye To Reno

This is shaping up to be a great MG experience. This could be the MG experience of your life. Plans are being formulated now. This rallye starts in Ocean City, MD on Route 50 and continues on out along Route 50 to Reno, NV for the all MG "MG 2011". You can join in along the way also. Go to www.rallyetoreno.com for information and details. How many 1K, 2K or 3K mile dash plaques will NAMGAR and the other registers be giving out? Let's get this into your chapter newsletters also.

GEN2

Much was discussed about how to get the next generation involved with MGA or Magnetts. Local chapters have done such things as offer rides to younger people at car shows, provide scholarship money to local chapter member's kids on a merit basis or donate parts for a GEN2 owner to assist in getting a basket case A back on the road. However one thing is known - our MGA's and Magnetts will probably always have a resale value. What's important is getting these "new" owners into NAMGAR and its local chapters and interest groups. So it was agreed that GEN2 will take care of itself as far as the cars go but continuing generating interest in NAMGAR and its chapters and interest groups should be our focus. It was mentioned that "newer" owners of MGAs and Magnetts do not seem to be joining NAMGAR and local chapters at a one for one ratio. Give some serious thought to paying for a one year membership to NAMGAR and your local club to the new owner when selling your MG. Lets try to get this issue into your club's newsletter if for no other reason it will initiate some discussion. Who knows, a new slant to our ongoing issue might surface.

Thanks to all you chapter & interest group contacts and for all you do for NAMGAR and your chapters & interest groups. Please share this newsletter with your membership. Enjoy the rest of 2010 in your MG!

Lee & Liz Niner - NAMGAR Chapter & Interest group Coordinators

Reader Comments (1)

Buckey McChesney (Peoria, AZ)
on February 8, 2012 10:51pm

Lee & Liz,
I was at GT-35. I was in the room for the chapter contacts but was called out before the meeting even started. Sorry.
I am our club's president (AZ MG Club) and just added my name & info for the contact person. Bob Schaulin, the club contact for many, many years passed away Feb. 4th 2012. I notified John Drake of the change as well.
Sincerely,
Buckey McChesney