DELEGATE'S NEWS - 2025

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2025 Delegates Meeting Recap

Saturday 11/8 -Sunday 11-9

By: Mike Swanger – Wisconsin Chapter Delegate

As your club delegate, I along with Sue made the trip to Indianapolis to represent our club at the annual Delegates Meeting on November 8th & 9th. Here, I will give you a summary of my notes as well as any takeaways from the weekend.

AHCA president Roger Hamel opened the meeting welcoming everyone and thanking us for attending. Roll call was taken and nearly every local club was represented with about 80% taking part in person and a handful, mostly west coast clubs, attending via zoom.

Area club reports were next on the agenda, and all of the delegates gave a brief review of their activities over the past year as well as any changes in our membership and our financial status. Questions that were all to answer were: Best Attended Event, Best Social Event, and Best Fundraiser. Our report was as follows:

Our membership has gained 3 members since last year for a total of 56. We held 3 tours and no gymkhanas or autocrosses. Our bank balance is currently at $7700. Our best attended event was a tech session / open house at the shop of new member Bob Wagner where about 12 members were in attendance. Our best social event as well as best (and only) fundraiser was our fall dinner with approximately 40 people making the evening a success despite the Brewers / Cubs postseason game on the same night. We also confirmed our annual $100 donation to the Healey Museum in the Netherlands. This will be our second year donating as part of a five-year commitment. 

One takeaway from the other club reports was the bank balances of many of the other clubs. There are several clubs that seem to be rather flush with cash. I am not sure why they feel the need to carry such a balance or how they came to have so much money in the first place. In a conversation with Jake Jacobs from Ohio, he stated that their club caps their account at $5000 with any additional funds being donated to a charity. He said that this practice eliminates any arguments with regards to the bank account.  

A great idea came from one of the northern clubs that hold annual “Snowbird Parties”. They have a fall party just before all the snowbird’s fly south for the winter, and another in about April when the spring migration takes place and the snowbirds return to roost in the north. I thought that this was a great idea for an excuse to get together. 

At this point in the meeting, all of the national leadership reports were given to bring us all up to speed on any changes that have taken place with AHCA.

Jeff Porada – VP of Safety: 

Jeff stressed that three things can be done with our cars with regards to safety. First is maintenance. A good maintenance regimen is very important to keep our cars on the road and to keep them safe. Always check things like the age and condition of the tires. Make sure the brakes are in good shape and that there are no leaks in the brake system. Check the fuel system for leaks and just looking over the overall condition of the car. Secondly, drive your car! A car that never sees any use will surely deteriorate sooner than one that gets exercised regularly. And lastly, do some competitive events with your car. Learning the limitations of both car and driver can be crucial before a spirited drive on public roads finds that you or your car might not be up to the task. Better to evaluate both in a controlled environment.

Neil Anderson – VP of Conclave: 

Neil reported that Conclave ’25 in Branson Missouri was a success. They had a total of 146 registrations, and the event profited $1400 with an additional $1400 coming from regalia sales.

Marc Lewis chimed in to give us all an update on the Austin Healey 75th Anniversary International Meet that is taking place in Lake Tahoe on June 6th-12th, 2027. This is not a conclave but an international meet and is expecting a large turnout of cars. The 50thanniversary event was held in the same location and was the largest ever gathering of Healeys with about 650 cars in attendance. Pre-registration is open, and a $100 deposit will hold your spot. Deposits are fully refundable until June 1st, 2026, and you will be notified once early registration is open. If your registration is paid in full by June 1st, 2026, a $100 discount ($50 for a single) will be applied to your registration. Registration prices include all meals, and the only additional costs are if you intend to have your car judged in the concours judging or if you plan to take part in the gymkhana. See the website, healey75.com for all the details.

Jeff Porada from the Ohio Valley club then proposed a unique idea for conclave in 2028. His proposal was to hold a conclave in Hocking Hills, Ohio during the first or second week of September. Hocking Hills is a very large state park in southeastern Ohio known for its natural beauty, including waterfalls, caves, and cliffs carved into Black Hand Sandstone. Hocking Hills is also renowned for its driving roads and is often used by Car and Driver, Road and Track and other magazines as a test area for critiquing cars. It has also been a popular testbed for vehicle manufacturers. What makes Jeffs proposal interesting is that the event will have no host club. Instead, Jeff and his partner Nancy will be the organizers and interested clubs can volunteer to spearhead the different events. Any profits will be divided up between the contributing clubs based on a weighted scale that is yet to be determined. A larger, more involved event will result in a larger piece of the profit pie. This is basically an expanded version of what our club did with our conclave where we solicited help from other clubs and then gave out donations to the clubs that contributed once our event concluded.  I found this “out of the box” take on conclave to be a very interesting idea. How it turns out may change the course on how conclaves in the future are run.

The success of our conclave was clearly on display with an abundance of our regalia being worn by the delegates in attendance. Roger Hamel asked me in front of the entire group, in a half joking manner, if Wisconsin was up for putting on another event. And later I was approached numerous times by folks interested to see if we were going to step up and host Conclave ’29! We obviously raised the bar in regard to conclaves! I just told them that our conclave committee is enjoying retirement!

Steve Bell – VP of Club Support:

The only thing of note from Steve was his request that all club members, especially officers, keep their contact information current in Club Express. On several occasions he tried to reach out to clubs and found that the information was out of date. 

Mike Schneider – Membership Director:

Mike had some interesting stats regarding membership that he shared with us. The AHCA has 2408 current members, down just three from this same time last year. There are 74 members that are members of multiple clubs. Personally, I found that number to be lower than I expected given the number of snowbirds in our club alone. He advised us that Club Express has no way to determine which club is a member’s home club and which is their secondary club. This can sway the membership numbers for each individual club as dual club membership will count them twice in the AHCA’s total member tally. There is an option for members to add a second address to their profile, but adding a second address is simply so that everyone receives their magazine and not necessarily that they are a member of that local club. 

Mike also reported that there are 181 members that opted for the digital only membership option. The option is a reduced-price option that doesn’t include a hard copy of the Healey Marque. The average age of the club actually decreased from 72 to 71. This was attributed not only to the passing of a few advanced aged members but to several younger people getting involved with the club. In fact, we now have 9 members that were born after 2010!

The auto renew option is now available and is the preferred method of renewing your membership. In order to take part, you must contact either Mike Schneider @ membership@healeyclub.org  or Linda Hakula @ cetrainer@healeyclub.org to initiate this option.  

New members can receive a free membership for the calendar year at healeyclub.org. Once on the site, choose “membership type” and enter “Promotional1961” in the dropdown menu to sign up and receive a complimentary membership.

Pete Sturtevant – VP Promotions / PR & Regalia:

The website has been very active with 150,000 views year-to-date from 60,000 individual viewers. Much of this activity has been attributed to the Healey Marketplace feature of the website. This has been a very popular feature of the site. Another increasingly popular feature are the technical zoom meetings. These meetings are basically on-line tech sessions and were started by the New England club. They have gained so much popularity that the concept is being expanded. The number of people joining the call has started to get overwhelming, leading to people not being able to ask questions and contribute the way the sessions were designed. 

So, now the tech calls have been expanded, and a “Mid-America” zoom meeting has been established and is being hosted by the Ohio Valley club. An additional call is being set up as the “Plains Area” zoom with “West Coast” and “Southern” zoom calls to be added soon.  This on-line tech session concept has proven to be very popular and will certainly make joining the AHCA even more attractive by adding value to the membership.

A regalia program has been added through outfitter Lands End. Regalia items featuring the AHCA logo can be purchased through the AHCA website. A link on the AHCA website will take you to Lands End where you can purchase items from their catalog featuring the AHCA logo. Local clubs can also take part in this program by adding their club logo to the offering on the site. There is a $30 one-time charge to the local club for adding their club logo and then anyone can order local club regalia. Clubs need to contact Pete Sturtevant @ vp_promotions@healeyclub.orgto get their club logo added to the program. The retail price for items purchased off the site does not include a profit for the local clubs or AHCA.

Roger Hamel – AHCA President:

Roger spent a few minutes to let us know that a donation was made this year in the amount of just over $6000 to the Healey Museum in the Netherlands. He thanked everyone for their support in helping to offset the costs associated with keeping the museum open. As a way to say thanks for our support, the museum is supporting the Healey Marque with historical data that will be published in future issues and will surely be enjoyed by all of our members.

Bill Borja & Gary Feldman – Insurance:

Gary stressed to us that our insurance does not cover speed events such as gymkhanas and time/speed/distance events, but supplemental insurance can be purchased. If we plan to host such an event, we need to contact Bill Borja @ waborja@aol.com to be sure that we have the proper coverage.

Jay Evans – Advertising:

Jay is very new to his position having taken over in the last month or so. He is eager to expand on what has been already established and is always open to any ideas we might have to increase exposure to our current advertisers and bring in additional companies wanting to partner with AHCA. Jay can be contacted @ advertising@healeyclub.org. 

Reid Trummel – Healey Marque Editor:

Reid is looking for local club content and has challenged our clubs to submit one story per club per year for possible inclusion in the Healey Marque. Submissions can be about anything Healey related from how you came to purchase a Healey, to your favorite place or event that you have been in your Healey, to something about the restoration of your car. Really anything that you think the rest of our members would find interesting or entertaining. 

Reid also requested a $1600 increase in his budget for next year. After some investigation, it was found that the reason for the increase was that Rick Neville is no longer able to contribute the auction report, which he did at no charge to the Marque. A paid contributor will now be taking on this task so an increase in the budget was requested. Since the Marque is currently operating under budget the request was denied by the delegates.

Bonnie Ayre – DMH Fund:

The Donald Mitchel Healey (DMH) fund was established as a way of giving back to the community on behalf of the Healey marque. Some years ago, a stained-glass window was created and installed in Donald Healeys church in Perranporth England. It depicts scenes historic to the area as well as Healey’s automotive accomplishments.  Several years back, the Church of England closed the church and the building as well as the window have gone into disrepair. Just recently the roof on the church has been fixed so hopes are that the building will be revitalized and there will not be a need to relocate the window. Stay tuned…

For the last several years the DMH fund has granted scholarships to two students attending McPherson College in McPherson Kansas. McPherson offers the nation’s only 4-year accredited program in automotive restoration technology. As an example of the quality of education received by students, in 2023 the students entered a 1953 Mercedes 300S that they had completely restored in the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. The decade long project resulted in a historic 2nd in class award. AHCA offers two students a $3000 scholarship to assist them with their education. Looking for more about the McPherson program? Go to mcpherson.edu. 

Linda Hakala – Club Express Trainer:

Keep an eye on your e-mail in box for “Braking News” articles (yes, it’s Braking not Breaking) about website additions and information about Club Express. This has been the most popular way of relaying updates to our membership.

Also, Linda is offering Club Express zoom training for local clubs with questions about Club Express and how to navigate through the site. Have a question or comment about Club Express? Just let Linda know @ cetrainer@healeyclub.org.

Jud Perkins – Retention Committee Chair:

Declining membership has been on the minds of the national club officers for some time and so a committee of seven club members has been established to delve into why the sharp decline in membership is occurring and to implement strategies to curb the trend. With cooperation from Membership VP Mike Schneider, emails were sent to 700 past members of the club. Extra care was used to try and ensure that members that may be deceased were not included in the mailing. Of the 700 emails sent, 400 were opened and about 45 people responded. The most popular reasons for not renewing their membership were:

-They have sold their car.

-They felt that local club participation was more valuable than the national club.

-The renewal process was too complicated. 

Once a car is sold, there needs to be a way of exposing the new owner to the AHCA and demonstrating the value of joining the club. To facilitate this, a program called the “Healey Passport” has been created. Basically, the Healey Passport is a small folder that is carried in the car. On one side of the folder, the owner would keep their registration and insurance information that is required for all drivers. On the other side of the folder, there will be a card that would include AHCA information. An offer for a free one-year membership. A card with major suppliers (i.e. AHCA advertisers) like Moss, AH Spares, Hagerty, etc. and more. This Healey Passport would stay with the car so that the new owner will have access to all this information.  The hope is that this program will lessen the number of cars that are “lost” once the car changes hands and create a real value to AHCA membership. Look for your Healey Passport to be included with the June ’26 mailing of the Healey Marque. There will also be a future “Braking News” installment requesting that those with multiple cars let the AHCA know so that additional passports can be sent out.

Much brainstorming is also taking place to create value added additions to the AHCA membership. Included is Healey legacy planning. It will include the importance of adding a car to a will. How to sell a car and how to get it appraised. A legacy planning section will be a future addition to the website.

An increase in “Braking News” e-mail communications will be implemented in an effort to keep members more up to date on improvements and enhancements to the club.

The Sprite is considered the gateway to Austin Healey ownership due to its lower purchase price and lower maintenance costs. A bigger emphasis on Sprites will be a larger focus in future as a way of hopefully bringing in new and possibly younger members.

A dedicated social media presence will be implemented to give more exposure to the marque as well as a bigger presence to the younger audience. As part of this initiative, a national Healey Pride Day or Month is going to be established where members will post photos of their cars on social media to give the Healey brand more exposure. 

Request to be desanction from the Illini club:

A request has been made by the Illini Austin Healey Club to be desanctioned. The reason for this was declining membership, no treasury, and lack of participation by its remaining members. A vote was taken by the delegates, and their request was granted. The few remaining members will be absorbed by neighboring clubs.

Ben Moore (acting as a substitute delegate) – Proportional Representation:

Ben was approached by a member of his club with a proposition called “Proportional Representation”. As the acting delegate, Ben felt that he had the responsibility to bring it to the attention of the delegates. 

Due to various circumstances, some local and regional clubs are seeing a sharp decline in membership. This reduction in members causes stress on club governance and operations. As such, some clubs have considered merging with nearby clubs and part of the decision-making process is the question of potentially forfeiting delegate representation. This proposal would allow clubs to consider how their representation would be affected by a merger. So, in a nutshell, four clubs, each with 25 members, would currently be represented by four delegates, each with one vote. But if those four clubs merged to create a single club with 100 members, their representation on a national level would be reduced to one delegate or one vote. To alleviate this, the following proposal was brought forward.

Clubs with up to 25 members = 1 vote

26-75 members = 2 votes

76-125 members = 3 votes

126-175 members = 4 votes

176-225 members = 5 votes

225-300 members = 6 votes

Over 300 members = 7 votes

After much spirited discussion a motion was made and a vote by the delegates was taken, and the proposal did not pass. 

Bev Sealand – Proposed Budget:

Bev Sealand outlined for us the current 2025 budget so that we knew where we stand regarding expenditure and income this year. We also looked at any changes that are needed for 2026 to be sure that we stay in a good financial position. A few minor tweaks were made regarding next year’s budget, and the new budget was passed.

Bev Sealand – Proposed By-Law Revisions:

The club’s by-laws have not been revised in some time and so some housekeeping was needed. Many of the revisions were due to simple typos and clarifications. Changes were made and the by-laws were approved by the delegates.

Gary Feldman – Honorary and Lifetime Members:

The core group of seven people responsible for putting on the 2025 Branson conclave were put up for consideration for honorary one-year memberships. This was voted on and passed.

Also, outgoing president Roger Hamel and Jim and Jo Switzer were nominated to receive Lifetime memberships in the AHCA. Lifetime members are a very exclusive group of people comprised of past presidents and folks that have made huge long-term contributions to the AHCA.  A vote was taken and unanimously passed.

A vote was passed to extend Bruce Gearns role on the nominating committee for an additional 3-year term.

Roger Hamel:

Roger took a few minutes to thank everyone for their efforts during his 3-year term as AHCA president. He has decided not to run for an additional term and will fulfill his role through the end of the year. Next year Roger will assume the role of president of the Kiwanis Club of Canada.

Ben Moore:

Ben has been nominated to assume the role of AHCA president starting on Jan 1st. Ben’s experience with AHCA is unique in that he was literally brought up in the club. His parents were long-term members and very active since the very early days of the club, thus Ben basically grew up in a Healey. Ben is a former VP of Promotions and brings youthful yet vast experience to the role of president. A motion was made to consider Ben for our next president and a unanimous vote in favor was made by the delegates.

This concludes my summary of the 2025 AHCA delegate meeting. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out.

Respectfully submitted,

Mike Swanger

Wisconsin Chapter Delegate

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

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.

The 2024 Delegates Meeting will be held November 16th-17th in Indianapolis Indiana. 

Respectfully submitted,

Mike Swanger

Wisconsin Chapter Delegate