Third:

Objective: encourage more people to become involved at the National Level.

Background: serving as a Regional Director costs money. Not every person willing to serve at the National level can afford to do so. Travelling to the AGM, the semi-annual board meeting and potentially the Challenge Championship or regional events is taxing on the pocketbook. Serving in such positions should not be closed to the less well off amongst our membership. A regional director can easily spend $2,000 or more on travel per year on JCNA related events.

Proposal: allow Regional Directors a travel allowance of say, $1,000 per year, to be used to help defray part of the costs of traveling to AGMÆs or regional events. This allowance can be claimed by the Regional Directors, but it is not mandatory. Costs will be limited to airfare, hotel costs, gasoline etc. Anything directly related to travel (not meals or a bar bill!). Expense reports with receipts will be submitted to the JCNA treasurer for audit and reimbursement. Regional Directors will be expected as part of their duties to submit an annual report before every AGM to every club president in their region and the board/AGM delegates, outlining the activities they undertook during the course of the year in their capacity as Regional Director and detailing how their allowance was spent (or not spent).

Thanks,

Daniel Thompson

Submitted by pascal@jcna.com on Fri, 03/28/2003 - 09:45

Re procedures, I must say there is room for improvement.

As a local club, we rarely have formal board meetings and work on most issues by email. We've done conference call meeting too and that worked although email is far more convenient. it's very easy when it's time to vote on a measure to make the formal motion and then ahve the secretary gathering the votes. So indeed, the intermediate board meeting could be eliminated.

At the AGM, I couldn't believe the amount of discussion taht took place. While discussion is good, a lot could have been done in the 2 months leading to the AGM via the forum. We need to encourage this for 2004. Maybe we should have a distinct forum only for AGM proposals so taht they don't get buried.

Having a 2 months lead time for AGM proposal will help to. This will allow discussion ahead of time and reduce the amount of time spent. I would have prefered, and most delegates, to spend more time looking at the cars on display than sitting in a room.

An incentive might be to limit the amount ot time spent discussing those proposal which where not submitted at least 2 month before.

another thing could be to have 2 morning sessions... this would allow items to be deferred to committes at the first session and give time to committees to meet in the afternoon to review and amend proposals which could be voted on the next morning. complicated from a logistic point of view but useful. Or a longer break at mid day for committes to meet, then have teh delegates recnvene later on the afternoon to vote on proposals tweaked by the committees...

We have a year till the next AGM, let's use that time to improve the way we work.

the trasnparency projector isn't very useful since we have the agenda on paper... having a computer and projector instead would allow the secretary to display amendments live instead of having to reread, etc... lots of time can be saved that way by editing motions live for all to see.

Pascal

Submitted by dthompson@gbc.ca on Fri, 03/28/2003 - 08:38

Pascal,

If this proposal passes the "litmus test" on this forum without suffering any serious setbacks, then I would most definately submit it to the JCNA business committee for examination and approval as a motion at the next AGM. The final version of the motion will be distributed to clubs and delegates far in advance of the next AGM. There will no need for an overhead projector, transparencies and a long speech!

I would be willing to look at an amendment to this proposal that says the funds can only be used to help defray the costs of travel to an event where the JCNA BOD is meeting. I personally have no problem with that. As Mark suggested, perhaps we could add the Challenge Championship to the list. Remember, the average director will spend far in excess of $1,000 per year attending these events. This proposal is really designed to help attract people to run for director who otherwise may have dismissed the idea on financial grounds.

I'm not a big believer in mandatory attendance at a semi-annual BOD meeting anyway, so I won't defend that. I think that we have enough technology in place now with the website, email etc. that we could hold a "virtual" semi-annual meeting and oblige the BOD to only meet once a year at the AGM. We could probably get a whole lot more work done that way too.

I think you overestimate the enthusiasm some clubs have for JCNA when you propose to ask them to fund the cost of a hotel room for their regional director. I personally would be embarassed to accept a free hotel room if I was travelling to attend the concours of say..... the Jaguar Touring Club in New Jersey. I agree that attendance at regional events should be done out of enthusiasm. Not all regions are the same geographically however, some regional directors will have to travel very long distances if they want to attend 3 or 4 regional events.

Daniel

Submitted by pascal@jcna.com on Fri, 03/28/2003 - 08:16

We need imput from the bus. com. to make sure it doesn't get bounced to a com. at the next AGM. It's a good idea. Also I would only allow for AGM and BOD travel expenses, up to $ 500 for the AGM and up to $ 500 for the additional BOD. in other words if a dir only attends the AGM and skips the intermediate BOD, he doesn't get to spend the whole $ 1000 ... :-)

Going to regional events is something reg dir shoudl do out of enthusiasm and it's a couple of tanks of gas anyway... Maybe encourage clubs to provide an hotel room to the reg dir if he attends.

Pascal Gademer
SFJC

Submitted by NE52-32043 on Thu, 03/27/2003 - 18:05

It think the club can more than afford this... and it's a good idea. According to the financial report, we have over a $12,000 annual surplus in the budget that is adding to a "kitty" that already exceeds $300,000. We can certainly afford to defray some of the expenses of the Regional Directors to either travel within their region or to attend national functions like the Board meetings and AGM. I agree that expense reports should be closely reviewed to assure proper spending. But we ask our Directors to take on significant duties and responsibilities for the club and at the same time, pay their own way. We should not squander away the "cushion" that has been built up, but it would not hurt to dip into it a bit to help directors do their job.

Steve Weinstein, JTC-NJ
'72 E-type 2+2
'89 XJS Coupe

Submitted by dthompson@gbc.ca on Thu, 03/27/2003 - 11:28

Mark,

Three points:

- the proposed $1,000 allowance is discretionary. The regionla director in question will evaluate their own personal time and budget and decide which event most meets their needs. They could use the allowance to help defray the costs of the AGM, the semi-annual board meeting (if we continue to hold them), the Challenge Championship, a local or regional concours, whatever. It is up to them. And it is up to them to file a written report to their "constituents" explaining just what they used this travel money for!

- we have enought money in the treasury to cover this for quite a few years. However, the policy would have to be evaluated on an ongoing basis to see whether or not it is working as planned. If not, it can be modified or discontinued.

- as for the inclusion of meals, I'm neutral. People have to eat, whether they be at home or on the road.

Daniel

Submitted by marks@jcca.us on Thu, 03/27/2003 - 11:18

I like the concept, if we have the money to pay for it.

I'd also suggest that in the case of the AGM, where meals are part of the package, the Directors' costs for those should be covered as well.

Should the Challenge Championship costs be covered as well?

Mark Stephenson
Jaguar Club of Central Arizona