[JONAT] AGM report

[Mark Stephenson]

Fazal, I think that's perilously close to "biting off more than I can chew."
:-) Thanks for the support. Same to you Christina.

I'm back from the AGM. As I looked through some old e-mails I recognized
some names of people I met at the AGM. Bill Borrusch and Dave Belanger are
up for the tour in 2006, which is good news because they are still active.
Russell Glace from South Florida suggested we start in the Keys. It would
certainly be an interesting drive, and would definitely make a good link if
we can't add it to the loop.

That opens up an interesting tour construct. We're going to have a bunch of
clubs and individuals offer to do a sector, however, I'm almost positive
that we aren't going have all of them fall in a perfect loop around the
country. There will be some we just can't include. However, we can create
links. Arizona sort of pioneered this last year, but for a different reason.
Our club's home, Phoenix, was not on the route, so we had to set up a route
for the members to connect. As may be the case with South Florida, the
entire sector would be the link. What will be great about it is that we'd
have three sectors converging on one point.

Christina, you may have to opportunity to do both the ocean and the mountain
routes. 

Dennis Eynon, a fellow Jaguar Club of Central Arizona guy, my roommate at
the AGM, and the presenter of the tour to the Board of Directors, came up
with a great idea. 

The 2006 Annual General Meeting, where we have about 150 members assembled,
is set for Seattle, WA about this time next year. The Western States Meet,
probably the biggest single event in the country in 2006, will be held in
Portland, OR in mid-July. (Christina do you know the dates?) I don't think
there could be a better start and end. It may create a bit of an overlap or
gap depending on the route, but close enough, IMHO. We'd run the continent
counter-clockwise this time. These dates give us an extra two or three
weeks, which, if clubs hold events like concours on the weekends, will slow
down the run, but make it more interesting.

Mike P., I'm with you on the circles. We did that last year and we had a
successful run. (See route maps below.) I'd be willing to bet that the other
successful SCs did the same. That was the predominant suggestion from a
number of people who, for the remainder of the AGM, came up to me with
ideas. I was grateful for the suggestions and pleased that there were so
many. (More below.)

Here's a little timetable information to give everyone an idea of what we
have ahead of us. Clubs need to sanction events (concours, slalom, rally)
four months in advance and set the date. That means that we really need to
juggle about three things simultaneously. 

We need to find out what clubs are interested and if they want to have a
sanctioned event in conjunction with the tour, then we need to have them
hold off requesting the sanctioned date until we get the route set. However,
we are going to need to find out which clubs are on board, before we can set
the handoff dates. This means that we really need to have the handoffs set
by October 2005 at the latest. Tweaking between two sectors might be
possible by mutual agreement after that, but we can't allow that tweaking to
affect the other sectors down the line. Working backwards, we're probably
going to have to have the clubs committed by August and a working route
established. Moving even closer to the present, we'll start with a really
general outline which will get more and more specific as time goes on.
Preceding that, we really need to get the website up and running. If anyone
has a direct e-mail to Greg Meboe, have him e-mail me or Pascal
(pascal@jcna.com). I think Greg's sector pages as in my signature line were
excellent, allowing SCs to enter their own route information and
descriptions, tracking signups, with the security of keeping the entrant's
full name secret. I definitely want he and Pascal to talk about transferring
or setting up the same thing on the JCNA website, and transferring the JONAT
I over if that's agreeable to everyone. Pascal can set up forums for us,
too. Once that's done, we can make a big announcement to all the clubs.
(Pascal, see 
<http://jonat.org/sector/info.cfm?sequence=7.0> for Greg's really cool
pages.)

I think as we build up steam, we'll need to split lists into two and perhaps
three, so management and SCs don't lose e-mail in what I expect will be a
very busy list. 

In some places, particularly the East Coast, clubs are quite close together.
I'm going to suggest that we don't have any one-day segments. The
administrative hassle isn't going to be worth it. Two day segments would be
rare, and only if one of the contiguous segments is long. If more than one
club within a reasonable proximity wants a segment, I'm going to suggest
that the multiple clubs work together and create a single segment. They can
each set up a day or two of the sector, but there will be one point of
contact for the segment. Does that sound like a good idea?

Now back to those other suggestions. We can keep them in mind for future
tours.

I received the spoke suggestion that's been mentioned here, and that's
something we can consider for the future, but if we plan for links, that is
sort of a combination of the two.

One was having pins for each sector like the Harley people do. (I had that
in my handout, although I don't think we'll have the numbers to justify it.
That first pin costs a whole lot, but after that they're cheap.) However, I
think stickers for the route book would be a good idea. Most areas of the
country that have some distinguishing feature have stickers of that, so if
it's Seattle, it might be the a Space Needle sticker, Boston might have a
bean, or maybe the North Church, etc. Clubs could probably buy a sheet for a
couple bucks.) Then again, I've seen inexpensive generic pins for the same
things, so that might be worth looking into.

Another person referred to another marque club that had a "pass the baton"
tour (sounds like us with Jay) except the segments didn't have to link
temporally with the next. Each ran a tour then got the "baton" to the next
club. That would add flexibility, but I like the continuity.

I've mentioned the route book binder with the tour and the sponsors
emblazoned on it. I've mentioned local clubs obtaining sponsors if they'd
like to cover sector costs. We'll have some sort of identifying insignia
cling, magnet, plate or something. A flat entry fee will get you those items
for as many sectors as you take. Anyone have any other ideas? The nice thing
about JCNA affiliation is that we'll have front money, so while I don't want
to make it too complex or get too involved with memorabilia (unless we can
get a memorabilia volunteer), we do have more options.

OK, I've realized that I've created a short novel here, so I'm going to
silence myself. We're in the brainstorming phase for a little while, so
throw out your ideas and we can discuss them.

Mark Stephenson, Sector Coordinator - Arizona
Jaguar Owners North American Tour (www.jonat.org)
AZ Sector Home Page - http://jonat.org/sector/info.cfm?sequence=7.0
Arizona Sector Report - http://jonat.org/mark/JONAT07AZReport
Route details - http://jonat.org/mark/secdetail/secdetail.htm
Printable maps - http://www.jonat.org/mark/routemaps.pdf




-----Original Message-----
From: jonat-admin@autox.team.net [mailto:jonat-admin@autox.team.net] On
Behalf Of Fazal Cader
Sent: Sunday, April 03, 2005 7:25 AM
To: jonat@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [JONAT] JCNA

Mark, looks like you've really got the 'bit between the teeth' on this one! 
And, I'll be happy to help where I can - and I'll start saving my pocket
money for 06.
Which leads me to suggest that we start working on firstly, setting a start/
finish date (at least start date) so that clubs can start planning their
rallies and other club events and, secondly, a draft route. I'll start the
ball rolling with a start from PAG, Irvine on 14th April, heading East.

Cheers

Fazal