The AHCA delegates meeting was held in Plainfield, IN Nov 11-12. The meeting was supported locally as well as by a large Zoom population representing many clubs. Key discussions included: club offices summaries, reduction in club insurance costs, opening of the registration for Conclave '24 at Elkhart Lake, WI, GGAHC and AHASC jointly sponsoring an international Healey meet in 2027, plan to re- establish a Future 50 (or similar) program to attract younger folks, AHCA partnering with Lands’ End to provide AHAC regalia, the Healey Marque magazine publishing costs being a significant portion of the annual costs, the club financials - proposed and acceptance of the 2024 budget and voting in of new officers.
The reduction in the club insurance costs - after the prior provider declined to continue covering car clubs, the club had to find an insurer until a reasonably priced option could be found. In the future, this should enable a reduction in some of the membership costs.
Mark Swanger from the Wisconsin Healey club announced that the Registration for Conclave '24 - Elkhart Lake is open. It sounds like a great venue including activities at Road America.
Marc Lewis from GGAHC and I pitched our two clubs jointly sponsoring the International Healey meet in Lake Tahoe in 2027. This would be in honor of the 75th anniversary of Austin Healey. We will continue the discussions and should arrive at an agreement in the next month or so, so stay tuned.
Jeff Porada presented a proposal to re-establish the Future 50 (or similar program) that is focused on getting younger folks involved in the Austin Healey clubs. The average age of the club membership was reported to be 72.
How to increase the AHCA membership was discussed. The approach discussed was to see if local members from the various clubs could incentivize the local-only members to join the national club.
Steve Kirby as the National “delegate at large” for the west coast has worked with the folks providing the National club’s Healey Marque magazine to provide a copy to our local-only members to see if they might be interested in joining the national club as well. The Healey Marque magazine is a great publication with a wealth of information.
On another topic, AHCA has entered a partnership with Lands’ End to create AHCA regalia with the AH and AHCA logos. It is very reasonable and if ordered soon it will be delivered to your home by Christmas. You can choose whatever type, style, color, and size of logo regalia you want from the AHCA Lands' End website. You will also have the customized option where you want the official AHCA logo to be placed on your own item. You will have your customized item delivered right to your home, in a week to ten days. There may be a minimum order quantity for certain items (i.e. hats). All the details for ordering are outlined on the AHCA website Regalia page. Use the following link to look at the items and if interested order your items. Homepage (landsend.com) The budget was presented and discussed. It was voted on and passed with an action to follow-up on reduction in costs by looking at potentially digital Marque magazine publication in lieu of paper copies.
As with last year, more discussions are planned.
There were several other topics discussed but not summarized here. If you are interested, please let me know and I will provide a copy of the minutes when they become available.