DELEGATE'S NEWS - 2024

2024 Delegates Meeting Recap

Saturday 11/15-Sunday 11-16

By: Mike Swanger – Wisconsin Chapter Delegate

This year the annual AHCA Delegates Meeting took place at a new venue, the Holiday Inn - Indianapolis Airport. Sue and I made the drive down to take part in the meeting on behalf of the Wisconsin Chapter. Here are my notes from the weekend.

AHCA President Roger Hamel opened the meeting at 9am on Saturday and thanked everyone for attending. This year, as in years past, the meeting took place in person as well as on Zoom. The mix was about 2/3 of the clubs were in person and 1/3 via Zoom.

Each club then gave their reports on the health and items of interest concerning their clubs. A few take-aways from this session included:

The use of Google Groups as a form of communication. Several clubs have been using this to great success as a way of keeping in touch with their membership.

The idea was proposed to go to a Board of Directors for each club instead of officers. Some of the clubs were finding it difficult to fill officer positions and this was found to be a better way to get members involved.

One of the things that we were asked to discuss before the meeting was involvement in a donation to the Healey Museum in the Netherlands. The museum has amassed an impressive collection of historical artifacts and Healey-related memorabilia. It is the only place dedicated to preserving the legacy of Donald Healey and his cars. Donations would be used to help offset the expense incurred in keeping the facility open to the public. The AHCA will be making a donation to the museum, and they are interested in the individual clubs joining in with support. They are looking for a five-year commitment to the museum. Many of the area clubs did pledge money to this cause. After discussion by the Wisconsin officer group, we decided that more information was needed before we would pledge to donate. I also noted that there was a possibility that we might make a separate donation on behalf of the Wisconsin Chapter. This was also the position of several of the other clubs and Roger told us that he would research the situation and get us more information about the museum’s finances and general viability. He will get back to us with his findings. We were advised that if we joined the AHCA with a donation we would avoid having to pay for an international draft to send to the museum. The AHCA will be making the donation on March 1st, 2025. Supporting clubs will be recognized with a plaque at the museum and will be awarded free admission to its members as well as a certificate to those that choose to visit.

Two of the clubs stated that they have visited assisted living communities to put on impromptu car shows. The residents very much enjoyed seeing the cars and were very thankful that everyone brought their cars to share.

Jeff Porada – VP Safety

Jeff stressed the importance of driving your car and being comfortable with the driving dynamics of a Healey. The fact that they do not have power brakes and power steering has caught many drivers by surprise as they will not react the same as a modern car. Taking part in gymkhanas can be a great way to test the limits of your car in a controlled environment. He also stressed the importance of checking the date codes on your tires. Tires more than 7 years old can begin to deteriorate from the inside and become unsafe. They may look fine, with good tread but what lurks inside can be dangerous.

Jeff is also an avid Sprite enthusiast and owner of Winners Circle, a shop in Cincinnati that is dedicated to Sprites and Midgets. He has been working with Howard Collins to create a Sprite Registry. There are over 100 Sprites registered so far, and a link is available on the AHCA website.

As part of his VP of Safety roll, Jeff is also the club’s SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) representative. It may seem odd that the Austin Healey Club is a member, as SEMA caters mostly to customs and hot rods. As the worlds largest automotive aftermarket association, SEMA’s influence is crucial when it comes to the government’s legislation concerning changes in the laws that affect old cars. The AHCA belongs to this group as a show of support for SEMA’s efforts to allow everyone to enjoy the old car hobby.

Neil Anderson – VP Conclave

Neil started his discussion with the presentation of the DMH Award to Bruce Gearns of the Southeast Michigan AHC. This award is presented to the club with the most participation at that year’s conclave. The conclave committee was regrettably unable to present this award at our conclave awards banquet due to the lack of information presented at that time.

Once the DMH award presentation was concluded, I had time to speak to everyone about Conclave ’24. I stressed to everyone the importance that our neighboring clubs played in creating a successful conclave and shared that we cut checks to clubs that helped us with the event. The total payout came to $2900.00. As a side note, I was approached by many of these clubs with appreciation for our donation. It was very well received and a bit of a surprise. Hopefully, we have started a tradition that future conclaves will take part in. I think that it’s very important that we share in the wealth when an event is successful. We also donated $2000 to the Ronald McDonald House as a way of giving back to the community. I had the opportunity to speak to many of the club delegates one on one and everyone had great things to say about our conclave. Everyone loved the location, and they thought that Lake Michigan made for the perfect backdrop. The fact that we combined conclave with the Healey World Challenge event at Road America put our event way over the top and cemented our club as host of one of the best conclaves on record! Those club members that didn’t attend are surely regretting their decision to stay home.

Planning for Conclave ’25 in Branson Missouri is well underway as their website is live and as of the meeting, they have 66 registrations. “Healey’s in the Ozarks” is happening May 18-23 and their website is conclave2025branson.com. Make it a point to visit the website for all the latest information and make your plan to attend today.

A midwest area club was entertaining the idea of hosting Conclave ’26 in Lexington, KY but unfortunately withdrew its name from consideration to organize and host the event. Neil is still working to make a conclave in Lexington a reality. Hopefully, he will have good news soon.

The Golden Gate AHC, the Austin Healey Association of Southern California, and the AHCA are co-sponsoring a 75thAnniversary International Meet to be held in Lake Tahoe in June of 2027. Mark Lewis and David Nock told us that it will be held at the Lake Tahoe Golden Nugget which is the same venue as at the 50-yearanniversary event in 2002. Room rates have already been locked in at $159/night + taxes. A logo has been created and a website established at healey75.com. More information will be released about this event when made available.

Steve Bell – VP Club Support

Steve has put in place a process for the local area clubs that have “local only” members to pay their insurance fee to AHCA. Fortunately, our club doesn’t offer a local only option as it tends to muddy the water with regards to membership.

It was noted that over the past 20 years, AHCA has lost 10 local area clubs. It was suggested that area clubs that have a strong membership use their experience to help mentor a nearby club that may be struggling.

Steve also made a passionate plea for all the area clubs to attend the delegates meeting in person. If the club’s delegate is not able to make the trip, a provision is in place to select a proxy to attend in place of the delegate. If club finances are an issue, clubs are encouraged to contact the AHCA treasurer, Bev Sealand and assistance can be obtained. Zoom became a necessity during the Covid pandemic but is now largely unneeded as there is truly no substitute for a representative from each club to be at the meeting in person. Technical difficulties create delays in discussions, voting, and seriously hamper the efforts of those in attendance.

Pete Sturtevant – VP Promotion

Pete reported that the AHCA website has established a very robust following with this year experiencing over 100k views of the website by over 50k users. The home page is obviously the most viewed page with the Healey Marketplace being the next most popular. Currently, there are 61 Healey’s available for sale with 20 sold this year alone. This is followed by Membership Renewal, Austin Healey Quarterly, Area Club Finder, Events, New Member Sign-Up, and Conclave. As expected, 85% of viewers are from the U.S. with 6% from Canada. The UK comprise 4% of the traffic with Australia, China, and Germany at 1%. 77% of visitors go direct to the website with 22% finding the website through a link from another site. Only 1% of users find the AHCA site through social media outlets like Facebook.

In addition to the website, Club Express supports an email service utilized for sending emails from the National Officers, AHCA Marque notifications, and to promote area club events and meetings. I personally found the club express email service invaluable in getting the word out about Conclave ’24.

This year AHCA implemented a new program with LandsEnd where you can order AHCA logo regalia from thousands of options, colors, and sizes available and shipped direct to your home. There is also an option for local clubs to have their logos digitized for $40 so that they can utilize this program for their own club regalia. This way local club members can have their club logo put on any of the plethora of items that LandsEnd offers.

Mike Schnieder – AHCA Membership Director

Mike had big news for us all! 2024 saw the largest increase in membership in recent memory. Current membership is at 2411, of that 511 are new members for 2024! Much of the increase in membership is directly related to the website and the increased traffic that it has seen.

A proposal was presented to print a 2025 version of the Membership Directory. The projected cost of a 2025 directory is $23,000 which includes close to $8500 for postage and related costs, printing and layout. The cost to produce an updated directory is quite a bit higher than the last printed version in 2021. A vote was conducted during the budget presentation by Bev Sealand, and the vote failed so there will not be a printed version for 2025. All the information that was available in the membership directory is downloadable from the AHCA website. You can also print all or part of the information for those that want a hard copy. One big advantage of an online version is that it is much more up to date so everyone can rest assured that the information is as current as possible.

The AHCA is charged about $500/year for return postage for Marque magazines that are undeliverable. The magazines and calendar are mailed in the “periodical” category and thus, they will not be forwarded. Now that the membership information is online, the responsibility falls to each member to keep their information correct on Club Express. Keeping contact information current will not only ensure that members receive the magazine, which they paid for with their membership dues, but it would also save the club the cost incurred with the returned magazines. Snowbirds (you know who you are…) can maintain 2 addresses within the Club Express system. Just place a checkmark next to your secondary address during the time that you will be down south, and you will receive the Marque. When you return to your primary address, remove the checkmark and all mailings will be directed to that address.

Membership renewals will start December 1st for the 2025 year. A second email reminder will go out on Jan 1st and a snail mail reminder will go out on Jan 15th. It is much encouraged to renew by credit card on the AHCA website as this creates much less work for all involved. This also shortens the time that the local clubs are rebated their local club dues.

Roger Hamel – AHCA President

Chuck Anderson has been appointed as the AHCA Historian as Edie Anderson has retired from that position. Chuck is a wealth if information as he was raised in the club through his parents and founding members, Chuck Sr and Edie.

Updated history documents as well as full summaries of past conclaves are now available on the website.

Gary Feldman - Insurance

In the past, insurance for AHCA cost about $20,000/year. This has been renegotiated and currently we are paying Church Mutual and JC Taylor for all liability coverage except speed events in an amount less than $12,000/year. Coverage for gymkhanas is provided by K&K Insurance and the cost per event is expected to be $275 per event that is contracted for by March 2025. This cost is based on at least 10 gymkhanas. AHCA pays for the gymkhana coverage up front but will allow the host clubs to reimburse the AHCA over a period of time in three separate payments. The bond for AHCA treasurer is at a cost of $700 for $100,000 coverage and is renewed every 3 years.

Vince Barnell – Advertising

AHCA has collected $19,507 in revenue for advertising in 2024. Vince is working on a program in which an advertiser can have ads in both the Marque as well as the website. He is also working with Hagerty Insurance to bring them aboard as an advertiser. After surveying other advertising venues, he believes that our ad rates are slightly below market rates.

Reid Trummel – Marque Editor

The 2025 budget proposal for the Marque magazine has remained the same as 2024 and the expense for producing the 2024 editions are currently under budget. Over 700 pages of Healey content have been produced which includes both the printed Marque magazine and the online AH Quarterly. The classified ads will now be moved to online only on the AHCA website as they will then be available to a much larger audience. Currently, it takes 2 months or longer for your car to even appear in the Marque classified section, and once it’s sold it will be some time before it is removed. The online option will be much more current.

Reid has greatly simplified the directive concerning conclave coverage in the Marque. This has long been an issue for host clubs and should be much smoother for conclave committees going forward.

Reid has also been appointed to the board of directors for the British Car Museum in Virginia. Congrats Reid!

Bonnie Ayer – DMH Memorial Fund

Some of the funding for the DMH Memorial Fund came from the calendar insert sales. Payments were made to AHCA by members wishing to have their car featured in the calendar. Additional funds were raised from the auctioning of the opportunity to be part of the Formula 1 Pilots Parade at the grand prix in Montreal. Both income streams for the DMH fund have been eliminated. The DMH Fund is still supporting $6000 scholarships to two students at McPherson College.

Many years ago, AHCA donated a grouping of three lead glass windows to St. Michaels Church in Perranporth, England. This was Donald Healey’s church, and the windows depict Donald's contributions and life’s work. The church has been closed for 2 years and is in much need of repair. It is owned by the Church of England and so far, they have not agreed to tend to the church’s repairs. If the Church of England sells the property or the building ends up being demolished, the hope is that the windows will be returned to the AHCA. The issue then is to decide what to do with them. Moving the windows will be very expensive as they are large and very fragile and finding a location will also be a challenge. Donating the windows to the Healey Museum is being considered.

Steve Byers – Delegate At Large

Steve acts as the liaison for national members. These are members that are not affiliated with a local area club usually due to proximity of the core club. He keeps the national members current on what is happening at the national level. He sends out over 300 emails but gets very few responses.

Steve Kirby – Western Regional Director for AHCA

He has become a member of most of the west coast clubs in an effort to keep in touch with their membership. He also acts as a point of contact for the west coast clubs.

Bev Sealand – AHCA Treasurer

Bev chaired a committee to establish a digital only membership that will be available to anyone worldwide for $45/year. This membership will have all of the benefits available to current members without the printed version of the Marque. Digital only members will access the magazine in the members only section of the AHCA website. The $70/year membership will also be offered as in the past with the Healey Marque being mailed to members mailboxes. The annual Healey calendar will be mailed to all members regardless of which membership option is selected.

Bev then reviewed several versions of the budget for 2025. The budget option chosen by the delegates included the $45 digital only membership option and no printed membership directory. The motion for that budget passed with 25 votes for and 5 against.

Judd Perkins – Membership Retention Committee

With the aging of our membership, there is a concern about where the cars are going after the passing of a member. A committee was created to research this and track the outcome so that plans to reduce the disappearance of Healey’s can be developed. One idea is to create a binder of information for members that can be kept with the car when it changes hands. This would include the cars documentation as well as club information for the new owner.

In other news, a motion was made and passed that would increase the hotel expense for the delegates. Also, a motion was made to increase the plane allowance to $300. A delegate can now purchase a plane ticket for up to $300 without prior approval from the AHCA treasurer. This motion also passed.

A motion was also made to reimburse delegates for hotel costs to cover 3 nights instead of only 2. The percentage of AHCA reimbursement remained unchanged. This will allow delegates to conduct an impromptu “meeting before the meeting” to discuss areas of concern before the actual delegates meeting starts.

Congrats to the Conclave ’24 Planning Committee as we were nominated and motions passed for honorary memberships as a thank you for the work that was done to plan this year’s conclave. Honorary memberships were granted to Jim Clemons, Bernie Evans, John Seaman, Kenny Sierszen, and me. An honorary membership equates to a paid membership for the next calendar year. Also given honorary memberships were Jim & Jo Switzer for their organizing of the delegates meeting. A lifetime membership was granted to Edie Lowery as she is retiring as our long time AHCA secretary.

There was a vote conducted to nominate a delegate to serve on the nominating committee. This person will replace Eileen Wetzel whose term expired and wishes to retire. As it turns out, I was nominated to serve on the committee and the motion passed. I have no idea what this position entails so I will have to see what I am being asked to do. I am just hoping that it includes a company car… Maybe a 3000 or a Bugeye?

Respectfully submitted,

Mike Swanger

Wisconsin Chapter Delegate

DELEGATE'S NEWS - 2023

Delegates Meeting Recap

Club Members,

As our clubs’ delegate, I had the opportunity to represent all of you at the AHCA national delegates meeting on November 11th and 12th this year in Indianapolis Indiana. Below is a brief recap of my meeting notes.

All the clubs gave a club report with their most successful club event and any struggles that they have encountered over the past year. Most also revealed their bank balances and there are a few clubs out there with some big money.

VP of Safety, Jeff Porada gave his report. He stressed the value of participating in gymkhanas as a way of safely exploring your cars’ weaknesses in a controlled environment. There was also some discussion about the pros and cons of shoulder safety belts.

VP of Conclave, Neil Anderson reported that a proposal has been made to host the 2025 Conclave in Branson, Missouri in May of ’25. This event is still in the very early planning stages and has yet to have a host club come forward. It’s possible that Conclave ’25 might be hosted by a group made up of various nearby clubs. More to come on this event as things unfold.

The new VP of Club Support, Steve Bell had only been in his position for a few days as he has taken over for the previous VP that had to relinquish his position. Steve has made it a priority to work with the hundreds of local only members to try and convert them into a full membership. These folks are only members of the local club and not the national AHCA. The Wisconsin Chapter doesn’t have any of these members.

Mike Schnieder, VP of Membership, announced that the AHCA currently stands at approximately 2450 members. There is a program in place that allows everyone to receive a membership nametag. This program has been placed on hold as the company that furnished the tags has had trouble properly staffing their business after Covid. This problem is finally being resolved and nametags for all those that have requested them should be coming in the not-so-distant future. Mike also explained that the issues that many of the club membership directors have been experiencing are due to the fact that Club Express is not accustomed to working with a club that has 45 affiliate clubs like AHCA. This has led to several issues that had to be addressed by Club Express. Many of the problems that have occurred in the past have been ironed out.

VP of Promotions and Regalia, Pete Sturtevant had much to cover during his presentation. Something called a Microsite is available through Club Express. This is a bare bones website that is available for clubs at no expense. The Oklahoma club has such a site, and we are encouraged to check it out. Also, new members are being courted by way of new member cards that can be handed out, giving a prospective new member a code to redeem a free year’s membership to AHCA. I came home with a few of those cards to pass out to anyone that identifies a prospective new member. There is new AHCA regalia available through Lands End. It is ordered through the AHCA website. You should have already received an email from Pete explaining this new program. The interesting part is that any local club can furnish their logo and for a one-time fee of approximately $25, we can get our logo put on Lands End apparel. Lands End keeps all the proceeds so regalia sales would not be a fund raiser for clubs.

Treasurer, Bev Sealand covered the financials for the current 2023 calendar year, and we are projected to end the year in the black. She also went over the proposed budget for 2024 so that the club stays in a good financial position. One major bright spot with concerning the budget for next year is the provision for a $10,000 Conclave start up loan to the host club to help get the ball rolling in regard to Conclave planning. The previous loan amount was $2000. This increase will surely help in recruiting local clubs to step up and host future Conclaves.

Club Insurance is headed by Gary Feldman and Bill Borja. Gary explained that insurance that covers car clubs is getting harder to find as few companies are providing it. We are, however, covered for all our events and we are encouraged to reach out if any need for certificates of insurance arises.

Healey Marque editor Reid Trummel reported that the change from 12 issues to 8 has been well received and he encouraged everyone to check out the Austin Healey Quarterly which is available on-line.

DMH Memorial Fund director Bonnie Ayer reported that the club awarded two $3000 scholarships to McPherson College as we have in the past. McPherson is the only college in the country to give out a degree in automotive restoration. This past year the students were awarded a 2nd place award at the Pebble Beach Concourse for their restoration of a vintage Mercedes.

Roger Hamel reported that the Formula 1 pilots parade tickets that are offered by the Quebec club have been sold for the 2024 race season. This is a ticket that is auctioned off for the opportunity to include a club member and their Healey to take part in the prerace parade of drivers around the Canadian Grand Prix race circuit. He also announced that this opportunity will also be offered to Conclave ’24 – Elkhart Lake for the 2025 edition of the race. The proceeds will be split 50/50 between the Quebec club and our Conclave.

I was given the opportunity to promote our Conclave that is taking place next September. The delegates that were in the room, as well as those that appeared on Zoom were all very impressed with the direction that we are taking our event. A lot of excitement was created resulting in several on the spot Conclave registrations. The room was buzzing with excitement for a truly “bucket list” Healey event.

There is also a proposal for a 75th Anniversary Healey event that will take place in Lake Tahoe in late spring or early summer of 2027. This event is still in the early planning stages so stay tuned as things develop.

A registry for Sprites is being created by Howard Collins so that better records of surviving cars can be recorded. This will be published once it is made live.

The St. Johns, Gateway, Low Country, and Bonneville clubs have been put on suspension from the AHCA due to inactivity and failure to submit the required reports.

Two members have taken seats on the Delegate Nominating Committee. Brad Swiggart from Nebraska will serve a three-year term and Eileen Wetzel from Minnesota will serve a one-year term.

The auction that was held on Saturday evening after the meeting raised $1175 that will be used to help reduce the costs associated with the meeting.