Updated 22-Aug-2022 = Copyright (c) 2022 Corvairs of New Mexico     

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REORGANIZATION MEETING 

With the four elected officers having resigned as of Friday 16 November 2018,
it is up to the members of the club to decide if the club will continue.

We held a reorganization/discussion meeting on Sunday, November 25. Twenty
members attended. A report will be in the December newsletter, published soon.

FIRST PRIORITY: elect new officers at the regular December 5th meeting, 5:30 PM
at Galles Chevrolet. After that, we can discuss the club's future.

SECOND PRIORITY: We discussed many ideas of how the club should change. These
ideas will be discussed and some will probably be implemented soon.

If you care how the club moves into the future, come to the December meeting at
Galles Chevrolet at 5:30 PM and help elect officers. Then, let those officers
know your ideas. This is our club. All members should contribute ideas.

SUMMARIES OF REPLIES OR COMMENTS

  • 17-Nov - Terry Price
  • 18-Nov - Dave Allin
  • 18-Nov - Jim Pittman
  • 18-Nov - Dave Allin
  • 18-Nov - Tarmo Sutt
  • 18-Nov - Larry Blair
  • 20-Nov - Fred Edeskuty
  • 21-Nov - Ed Halpin
  • 22-Nov - Mark Domzalski
  • 23-Nov - Bob Kitts
  • 25-Nov - Gordon Johnson
  • 26-Nov - Report of Meeting TERRY PRICE: It is my belief that Corvairs of New Mexico can overcome the obstacles before it and continue on. I will be happy to attend a reorganization meeting. I am involved in church activities which take up a lot of time. Unfortunately, I have a class I conduct on Wednesday nights which keeps me from attending the Corvair meetings sometimes but most of the time I do my best to make it to the meetings. I also have a neighborhood meeting that also meets on Wednesday nights but only 4 times a year and not always on the first Wednesday of the month. I will continue to support the club and step in to help as often as I can. This truly is a serious commitment on my behalf. I must be very careful to not make commitments that I cannot keep. It is my hope a meeting time can be established that will work for many. I had already arranged to be at the next meeting in October and see no reason why we should not still have the meeting. Whoever is the next officer in line, or a board member, should be the one to conduct the meeting. As always, I appreciate your efforts in this matter..... Thank you,Terry Price DAVE ALLIN: As one of the newest members of the club, I'm not sure how much standing I have to comment, but I must say that I want the club to continue. To that end, I am willing to serve in any capacity the members feel I am qualified for. Jim's concern about driving at night is an issue for many of us, and it may be keeping some members from attending our meetings. I suggest we go to Plan B of our previous discussion on when and where to have the monthly meeting, and schedule it in the daytime on a weekend, either at a restaurant or at some other venue that can be arranged. Bob Agnew allows clubs to meet at The Olde Car Garage (for a nominal fee), and we could check to see if there is a suitable day/time slot available there. There may be other locations that work as well. I would be willing to have the meetings at my house, although it might mean sitting on each other's laps. We would definitely need a re-organization meeting, but it would need maximum participation. Perhaps Jim (or me, or somebody) could send an email out with three or four options for a re-org meeting time and location, and everyone could respond saying which ones work for them and which don't. Then we could tabulate the results and arrange to meet at the time and place that the most people could attend. I hope I'm not being presumptuous with my suggestions, but I really want the club to succeed, and I am willing to do whatever it takes to achieve that end. I am a retired Army First Sergeant, and I have a lot of skill and experience in organizing groups of people, so please take advantage of me. JIM PITTMAN: I think the club can continue, but participation has dwindled in recent years. We should work on the questions, * Whether to have a reorganization meeting; * Whether to move the meeting time and place into daylight; * Whether enough people commit to standing for office; * Whether enough people commit to supporting the officers and the club. If a consensus says we need a separate reorganization meeting, Heula and I can have it here. Maybe a Sunday afternoon, maybe Nov 25 or Dec 2nd. Or we can meet at the regular time and place and elect officers and go on from there. Meantime, we need to reach "enough" members to get a consensus. Whether to do it by email or by phone calls, that is the question. Meantime, I'll summarize replies and suggestions on my web page for all to see. DAVE ALLIN: My first question would be, do all the members have email? Do we have valid phone numbers for those who don't? I think we will need a reorganization meeting, but scheduling it is tough. Of the two times you mentioned, I can't make one of them, due to the Model Car Club Christmas party. Maybe first send out a questionnaire (or call people) with yes/no answers on whether people want the club to continue, and if so, will they stand for office, and would they support a change to daylight meetings. If not enough answer yes to the first two questions, then everything else is moot. If enough people say yes to all three, then we can send out a questionnaire with times and locations to choose from. We could then use the first meeting at the new location, if there is one, to reorganize. Personally, I would favor a more streamlined organization, with fewer officers and a less formal meeting format, but I'm not sure what the requirements from the state are. I would like to see the meetings more open and social and less Robert's Rules of Order, and include tech tips and even demonstrations if possible, to get all the members more personally involved. From my experience, the only officers really needed are a President, Vice-President, Secretary/Treasurer, and Newsletter Editor. Those four can easily absorb the other functions as needed. TARMO SUTT: Tarmo and Kay think the club should have a re-start opportunity. They can drive to Albuquerque for an afternoon meeting if one is called. A major problem is lack of participation, but we all have many more demands on our time than in years past. New officers and a rethinking of the purpose of the club may help participation. CORSA and CNM have always been for the preservation and enjoyment of Corvairs. That can continue indefinitely. LARRY BLAIR: Agree, driving at night is getting to be a problem for many. Lack of participation is a problem. We should conduct meetings and come up with activities that people are interested in. FRED EDESKUTY: ... My hope was to get at least a little more active, one of the reasons I bought my old "turn key" Spyder back. ... my distance from ABQ preclude evening meetings. ED HALPIN: ... [ Ed wrote a long email about problems and possible solutions. We can discuss at the Sunday meeting. The followings are ideas and comments. ] ... priority: elect new officers ... combine secretary and treasurer to one position ... president picks vice-president ... work to pick up new members ... organize activities to attract and keep members ... become a facebook or email only organization, no dues ... if the newsletter is a problem, go to quarterly or online-only ... the Colorado clubs hope we will hold up our Tri-State commitment ... communication tools: each does its part. * web site * newsletter * emails * facebook * business cards MARK DOMZALSKI: ... [ Mark and Elizabeth are in north Florida in the middle of work to repair Hurricane Michael damage. Mark will try to email some thoughts. -- Jim ] BOB KITTS: ...[ We will be out of town, but are interested in what is going on. ] GORDON JOHNSON: While I probably can't make the meeting this Sunday, I would like see the Club continue and would like to support it by participating more than I have in the past. I hope that the Club can make some changes that will enable more members to participate. I appreciate the problem of driving after dark and scheduling meetings earlier could avoid this. Perhaps meeting times could be earlier thru the time of the year of shorter days. Meetings on Saturday (with breakfast?) or Sunday afternoon might be possibilities. I look forward to the discussion and election of new officers at our December meeting. REPORT FROM THE NOVEMBER 25th MEETING: REORGANIZATION MEETING Heula Pittman On Sunday, November 25, 2018, twenty CNM'ers gathered in the Pittman home to discuss ideas and plans for the future of the club. Those attending were: John Wiker, Jim Pittman, Brenda Stickler, Larry Blair, Steve Gongora, Heula Pittman, Kay Sutt, LeRoy Rogers, David Allin, David Huntoon, Lube Lubert, Rita Gongora, Tarmo Sutt, Anthony Berbig, Linda Soukup, Fred Edeskuty, Ray Trujillo, Terry Price, Vickie Hall and Pat Hall. Jim called the meeting to order at 3:06 and started by saying that the reason we are here is that all four elected officers resigned on November 16th. It is now up to the membership to decide whether the club should continue by electing new officers and by considering changes to the way the club operates, or be discontinued. After exchanging emails during the last week with our members, Jim received back several comments and suggestions. He wanted to read some of these messages to the group before we began our discussion. Some messages came from members who were in attendance and some from members who could not attend, including an email from Ed Halpin, one of our members from the Pikes Peak club and the Rocky Mountain club in Colorado. Jim then read an email from our former club secretary, Anne Mae Gold, which stated her personal opinions of current conditions within the club. Several points were consistent through the various messages, including: * Communication: If the club is to grow, we need to communicate better. Several communication tools are available including email, facebook, telephone and the club newsletter. Some work for some and some for others. Can we put these to better use? * The day of week and time of day our meetings are held. Quite a few of us are aging and no longer feel safe driving after dark. We feel that this is one of the problems with low turn out to meetings and events. Others have to work and it's difficult for some to make it to a weekday evening meeting. * Our present meeting place, Galles Chevrolet, was discussed. There are pros and cons on continuing to meet there. We can have the room from 5:30, but must be out of the building and off the premises by 7:00 PM, which puts a time restraint on the meeting. The room is small and awkward for us. Depending on the time of year, we cannot always get out while still in daylight hours. Some suggestions for meeting places were restaurants. Rita has suggested two possibilities, Annie's Soup Kitchen at Candelaria & Eubank and another. Both have "whole back rooms" that would be private for us to use every month. Other restaurants were named. Ideas should be taken to the December 5th meeting for discussion. "Old Car Garage" was also discussed as a possible meeting place. The owner, Bob Agnew, charges a fee and we do not know if he has a time slot during the day on weekends that would be available. Linda and her husband, Anthony, recently moved here from Minnesota. They shared thoughts and ideas from their Minnesota club. Something she did there was to compile a survey with multiple questions that she mailed to their members. The idea was to get input on things to do that would interest people and improve club growth. What are your talents? What would you be willing to do to improve our club? Why do you not go to meetings? When can you go to meetings? After discussion of what we would try to learn, Linda agreed to compile such a survey and mail it to our members. The idea was to put out the word on what each of us can do and be willing to do to improve our club. A phone tree was suggested. Linda suggested that a post card could be mailed soon to pass the word on the importance of the December meeting and to urge attendance. We have to get a slate of officers elected, we need to start planning for improvements, we should remind members of the Christmas dinner (scheduled for Saturday, December 8) as well as donations to The Storehouse. Terry Price agreed to do this. Many present stated that they would like to see more tech sessions and TUNAs included in the calendar. Many join the club expecting to talk cars and learn about maintenance and modifications to their Corvairs, and often feel neglected by old-time members. New members are sometimes not made aware of our Constitution and our web site. This information is in the CARE & FEEDING yellow booklet given to all new members. The matter of new officers was addressed. The group agreed that we, as interested and active members, could nominate candidates for office who could be considered for election at the December meeting. After discussion the following members agreed to serve if elected: President - David Allin. Vice President - Dave Huntoon. Secretaries - Linda Soukup and Kay Sutt. Treasurer - Steve Gongora. We discussed whether two people could share the office of secretary and the two ladies agreed to work together in this capacity with the understanding that if one couldn't be at a meeting the other could take notes. At the December 5th meeting additional nominations from the floor will be accepted and we will have a full slate of candidates. We asked "Who are the Board Members?" Presently we have Newsletter editor, Merchandise, Sunshine, Old Route 66, Car Council Representative and possibly one or more past Presidents. Are these voting Board members or simply Committee chairs? Our Constitution says that Board members are to be appointed by the President and approved by the Board. This is a detail that the new officers will have to deal with. We did not discuss changes to the constitution, but as our constitution was ratified fourteen years ago, it may be appropriate to examine it with an idea of amendments to bring it up-to-date. We also did not discuss our club's relationship to CORSA as a chapter. We need to examine whether we are remaining current with CORSA's requirements. This will become vital because of CORSA's insurance coverage for upcoming events such as the 2020 Tri-State. The Colorado clubs have expressed concern that CNM will not participate in or organize future Tri-State events. The members present asked Jim Pittman if he would preside over the December 5th meeting. He agreed, acting as interim president. The issue of the problem with the T-shirts in the 2017 Tri-State was tabled for now, leaving the new administration to deal with it. We adjourned two hours later with lots to think about. We hope that we have learned from all the thoughtful insights presented, can move ahead and have a new renewal of CNM, all working together in concert and continue celebrating and enjoying our little Corvairs for many years to come. =END=