MGreetings! This is Jim Evans and Reinout Vogt speaking to you as a unified group of two candidates running under the label of “The No Name Party”. Why unify as a group? Because we are comfortable that we can work most effectively together and would therefore like to be elected together to serve together. Why the label “No Name”? Because we just couldn’t think of anything cute! Besides, it’s not the name that gets the job done…it’s what the workers bring to the task:
Jim Evans, running for CoChairman, is a longtime member of the club, a former club CoChairman, and has just served three years as club treasurer. Jim has been involved in organizing and directing many club activities over the years, to include the club’s “Abingdon Weekend” and ”Abingdon Summer Party”, the British Car Swap Meet, and a national MGB owners convention. Outside of the MG world, Jim has a background in consulting, sales, and small business ownership, and currently works as an appraiser of collector vehicles, Reinout Vogt, running for Treasurer, is also a longtime member of the club, a former club Treasurer and former club CoChairman. Reinout was involved in organizing the national MGB owners convention, the club’s “Abingdon Summer Party” and has been a contributor to conducting club activities for many years. Between his 1968 MGC and a 1931 M-Type related activities, Reinout works in the Medical Diagnostic Imaging industry as a Marketing Manager for Molecular Imaging scanners.
At first, when asked to write a ‘platform’ for the club newsletter, we were concerned about the best way to describe our plans. Luckily the answer came right there at the last club meeting, when one member asked “Isn’t it all about fun?” And, yes it is. It is all about having fun: enjoying our MG’s, having pleasure with friends at club events, and getting the benefits from being a club member.
On the other hand, there can be times when things don’t go as planned and are not fun; we know what these situations and think we can prevent them. If the not fun things are prevented, the membership is happy and the club prospers.
So how does supporting the No Name Party help you put the club on the having fun track and off of the no fun track? Let us explain our platform, which includes these two important plans.
First, we will work to make ‘more fun for the buck’. That means a carefully scheduled and well organized events program that includes technical events, driving events, and social events. We also intend to have more programs at the club meeting, such as a guest speaker, a movie, or product information.
Second, we will work hard to get more people to have fun with us. It is probably not realistic for our club to really change the demographics of the people that join, or for us to promise to make more young people buy an MG so that they will join the club. But what we can do is make sure that we encourage every MG owner we meet, find, or know, to become a member and stay a member.. And all the new members who sign up will be helped, guided, and assisted to make sure that they feel at home in our club, stay a member and have fun with us. The realization of these two plans needs the continued communication with our members via the web site and the newsletter. Both need to be up-to-date and timely so that you are always, well in advance, informed about when and where the fun will be held. But also we must make sure that those members who are unable to join us have fun reading the newsletter and fun surfing our web site.
The club by-laws call for four people, and their responsibilities are clearly laid out therein. All these ‘jobs’ are no more complicated than what we are all used to doing at home and in our work. What we are trying to say here is that serving as a club officer is not rocket science: it goes without saying that a president conducts a meeting, that a treasurer makes financial reports and that a secretary keeps records. These constitute the minimum contribution from a club officer and the real job is to lay the groundwork for a successful club in the future.
As a group, the members of the No Name Party expect to do more than just perform the minimum job on these official tasks. Call it manage the club, and it sounds too business like. Call it lead the club and it sounds like the boy scouts. Call it run the club and the military comes to mind. It is hard to give it a name that pleases everyone; however we will be behind the wheel with a destination in mind. We have the commitment to implement the things we spoke about in this letter and we hope that you agree with our vision and support us with your vote. We respectfully request that you cast your ballot to include both members of the No Name Party: together we feel we have a perfect mix of experience and young blood to guide the Chicagoland MG Club towards the future. Please check your ballot carefully so that you can clearly identify the No Name Party candidates when you vote.