2003-03 Regional Director's Report and Vice president's Report
(including bylaw change suggestions and strategic planning discussion)

Working Title: More of Everything Please (as long as I can drive there)

March 14th, 2003

by Daniel Thompson

The Northeast division comprises 12 clubs, 1300-1500 members, roughly 25% of overall JCNA membership. The geographic center of the region is roughly Connecticut (JCSNE), with the furthest club to the south being five hours drive away, the furthest to the north five hours drive and the furthest to the west 7 hours drive. Arguably, the Northeast region is a club unto itself with an ever increasing amount of cross club cooperation and multi club events. JOA and JCNA was founded in this region, Jaguar Cars headquarters was for a long time centered in New Jersey, the archives are still located there and JCNA has strong political representation from this region with the president, vice president, past president and Journal editor all originating from this region.

Ottawa Jaguar Club: stable membership, around 60 members. Older crowd, some kids. Emphasis on social aspect, not much of a technical nature. Concours draws just about 100% participation from members, seen as THE social event of the season. Dealer support is poor (Jag sold through local Ford dealer). Same group of core people have rotated through all the executive positions. Could use some new blood. Car ownership gravitating towards the newer (1980's and 90's) models. Slalom was tried but failed due to lack of interest. Fun rallies are being tried, no JCNA sanctioned rallies. Good newsletter with strong editor talent. No web presence to speak of. Monthly meetings draw 50% of membership even if nothing special is on the agenda. Because of distance, rarely participate in other N.E. club events (besides Montreal). See Montreal club for possible plan to merge clubs/share resources.

Jaguar Club of Southern New England: Long established, well run. Good mix of veterans with newbies who have stepped up to the plate and injected enthusiasm. Rich with judges. Membership stable at about 100; 25-30 active of those. Concours turnout can be low, prefer support of other clubs in region to make events successful. Good corporate support from "near dealer". Lost slalom site for 2003 but confident they can find another. No current "champion" of rally program. Club is not just about concours any more. Strong mix of events including driving tours. Good newsletter, decent web coverage. Surprisingly, they have to compete with a non-JCNA affiliated club "Jaguar Club of Connecticut", who are mostly "anti-concours" type people from the old days. Many members overlap. Can this satellite club be brought into the fold? Some members of executive feel Championship class concours should be overhauled in a major way, perhaps going to one National show where cars are judged on a level playing field. Feeling that top level concours has become too far removed from the concerns of the vast majority of membership.

J.A.N.E.: Very strong club with now well over 325 members and growing. Wide variety of events appealing to all types of owners. Good mix of older and younger people, some of whom willing to step up to plate but demographics still a question mark. Younger members tend to gravitate towards slalom activities. Strong dealer relationship with more dealers showing interest in supporting the club. No real rally program but would like to see it work; members tend to enjoy the social aspect of rally events rather than the competitive aspect. Excellent newsletter with new editor. Former weak area website now world class due to younger member taking on the project. Strong revenues now coming in from regalia sales and steady flow of new members from website. Populous board of directors, large team of volunteers. Serves large geographic area. Much increased cooperation with surrounding clubs.

Jaguar Touring Club: Strong club which has successfully been reinventing itself over the last several years. Anchored by the incredibly enthusiastic and dedicated Maletsky family. Heavily involved in slalom. Concours has been de-emphasized and the results are very encouraging as far as member participation is concerned. True to the name, touring is encouraged and cross club activities have been successful. Many years ago was seen as a "polishers" club but that is no longer the case. Good dealer relationships. Strong web presence. Strong newsletter. Overlaps the geographic area with several other clubs (see Jaguar Auto Group for possible synergies). Membership steady at 150-185. Younger generation has been moving in to help older members run the club.

Jaguar Auto Group: membership steady at about 50. Interesting history: club ran since 1970's without JCNA affiliation; had "anti-concours" philosophy with Jaguar Touring Club picking up the polishers and Jaguar Auto Group hosting the drivers and dirty fingernail types. Auto Group joined JCNA in 1990's. Positions on both sides have long since softened. Auto Group likes to do 2 slaloms per year. No concours and none required. Good selection of events. Overlap with other area clubs and sharing of geographic area. President of club admits professional responsibilities make it hard to devote necessary time to club. Suggestion has been made to merge Auto Group with Touring club. All parties seem to like the idea. Synergies include newsletter, website, events, tours, concours, slalom. Neither club wants to lose the ability to host 2 slaloms per year. Rules must be changed to accommodate. Great initiative worth exploring further.

Empire Division: loosely knit group of vintage racing fanatics, not really a club at all. About 50 (?) members, JCNA affiliation since 1954. Exists to host Lime Rock high performance driving school each spring. Profits from Lime Rock event serve to pay member's JCNA dues for year. Superb event, well worth the effort, should be expanded upon, possibly with a concours and/or slalom and/or rally on Sunday (a possible venue for the Northeast annual "Regional" event). No newsletter or website, none required. Based in Yonkers, NY. Question would be: can this club find a way to incorporate itself into other clubs in close geographic proximity without losing its unique culture and mandate? Perhaps a JTC-Auto Group-Empire merger? Discussion to follow but tradition must be allowed to continue. Greatest loss would be the infamous name which has existed since 1954. See proposal later in this report regarding a possible Northeast region monthly newsletter.

Jaguar Aficionados of Greater Buffalo: 57 members. Glad to say new people have stepped up and the club is "under new management". No web presence, decent newsletter. No concours, slalom or rally. No real impetus for any of them in the future, few members have "show" type cars. Host a large car show every year, usually with British cars but may expand to American iron this year as attendance by Jaguars weakening. Have developed a relationship with dealer to promote club services to purchasers of new cars. Will be polling members to find out what type of events they like. Feeling is members mostly concerned with "driving" events. Relatively low percentage of membership participates. Executive feels many people retain membership simply because of insurance benefits/premium reduction. Enthusiastic about idea of a joint Northeast newsletter initiative and sharing events in the Northeast.

Jaguar Association of Central NY: Membership: 68 and stable. No concours, no slalom, no rally, no web presence as of yet. Members are spread out geographically with the majority centered around Syracuse. Many senior members are "snowbirds" and travel to Florida for winter. President has made valuable contacts with local SCCA rep and plans are underway to have Jaguars join in their slalom type events; with an eye to picking up tips on how and where to hold a JCNA sanctioned slalom. Once again, the club will host an All-British car show. Some dealer support (2 dealers in area) but more sought and Jaguar corporate support would be appreciated. For the first time tech sessions are being planned and turnout should be high.

Jaguar Drivers Club of Long Island: Major overhaul and new management in 2001. Under leadership of the very enthusiastic Joe Limongelli. Strong concours. Good newsletter, good web presence. Younger generation has stepped in (a little late but much welcomed) to take over the hard work of running a successful club. Club is being modernized and brought into the 21st century. Strong mix of experience and enthusiasm. Concours, but no rally or slalom. Membership now growing again, should end 2003 near 200 members. New models evident in younger generation.

Jaguar Owners Association - Montreal: Club in existence since 1955, re-joined JCNA after 20 year absence in 2000. Currently sixty members and growing. Strong base, but older membership. Focus on E-type and XK models. Trying but failing to find technical support for the V12 and 1980's models. Good dealer support but definite interest in sales of latest models. No concours and no desire to hold one on a regular basis. Looking to combine efforts with other clubs in Northeast in order to host joint (international) events such as Stowe, Vermont in fall 2003. Currently share newsletter with Ottawa club. No web presence yet. Trying out rally program in 2003, slalom first time this fall. Concentrated on drives, technical seminars. Enjoy the Formula One race in Montreal every year but not overly happy with corporate support for the event or the club. Currently have set up a task force comprising members from Montreal club and Ottawa club to examine the possibility of forming a "Jaguar Club of Eastern Canada" stretching from Kingston to the Atlantic provinces. Very much interested in looking at a joint Northeast monthly newsletter with participation of all 12 clubs.

Delaware Valley Jaguar Club: furthest south of all Northeast clubs. 160 members and growing. Great depth of age and experience, some question marks regarding attracting younger members. Strong concours, with participation of other clubs. Rally "crazy", desire to hold more than 2 sanctioned rallies per year. Good depth of judging. Excellent newsletter, strong web presence. Varied lineup of event offerings for members, something for everyone. Good relations with neighboring clubs and cross club participation encouraged.

Nation's Capital Jaguar Club (NCJOC): strong, healthy membership of 225+ members, a strong newsletter and website, and a tremendous slate of activities, this club looks to be in great shape. A new guard has stepped up to the plate in recent years and is working hard to offer something for everyone. The club is dealing effectively with several of the classic Jaguar club dualities: concours versus driving, social versus technical, older versus newer. There had been rumblings of starting a "Maryland Jaguar Club" for those people north of the beltway but the executive board of this club has been working diligently to satisfy the entire membership.

To the south, there is the Virginia Jaguar Club, formerly part of the Northeast region but as of last year part of the Southeast region (their members tend not to travel north for car events, preferring to go south and avoid the congestion). This was a JCNA issue for them. NCJOC has been successful in having members, formerly 'inactive', take organizational and leadership roles. Tech activities, (among club members as well as dealer supported) are expanding as well as social event schedule. In the aftermath of 9-11, club is fulfilling an important civic role for membership! The challenge of the new NCJOC president and his team is to offer events that will appeal to everyone "something in everybody's backyard" while balancing the interests of a diverse group of owners (a challenge they and their predecessors have been meeting very successfully). The club has made outreach efforts to owners of new Jaguars, and has minimized the turnover of members with just new models. A concerted effort has been made in recent years to involve other Northeast clubs and multi-marque clubs in their activities. They benefit from strong multi-dealer support.

Regional Director's Activities for 2002-03:

Attended JCNA AGM in March as representative of Northeast region. Took on added responsibility of JCNA vice presidency, member of executive committee. Took on job of Communications Committee chair, re-juggled team responsible for website (see www.jcna.com), took on job as JCNA Concours Rule Book Editor, re-wrote concours rule book in Microsoft Word format, incorporating latest changes and additions/deletions. Wrote and contributed several (23) articles and reports for the JCNA website, including serving as 2002 JCNA Formula One editor, reviewing each race. Participated heavily in the JCNA.com discussion forums, answering inquiries on-line from a variety of sources dealing with technical, originality and political issues. Served as president of the Ottawa Jaguar Club in 2002 (concours chair in 2003), attending most monthly meetings (150 miles away) and arranging for guest speakers at many meetings. Attended Ottawa club concours in June. Wrote many articles and reports for the joint Ottawa/Montreal newsletters. Served as membership chair, treasurer and newsletter editor for the Jaguar Owner's Association-Montreal (vice president and membership in 2003). Attended many local Jaguar and British car shows, helping organize technical seminars, tours, drives, monthly meetings, dinners, Formula One Grand Prix weekend festivities etc. Attended Lime Rock high performance driving school in May hosted by Empire Club. Organized a multi-club presence and dinner at the annual Stowe, Vermont British Invasion in September. Visited and attended a monthly meeting of the Ontario Jaguar Owners Association (Northcentral region), helping to open lines of communication between the two clubs and regions. Examined and evaluated several projects for the Communications Committee, including possible alliances with Jag-Lovers organization and Jaguar Enthusiast Club. Aided in the updating of the club listings both on the JCNA website and in the JCNA directory. Organized the JCNA website awards for 2001 and 2002. Served as Canadian representative of the UK-based XK Club (not JCNA related), helping to compile a database of all surviving XK cars located in Canada for an international register.

Regional Initiatives for 2003: the Montreal club will be hosting, in September, the first of what is hoped to be a series of "Regional" events to include concours and slalom in conjunction with the much praised British Invasion weekend in the resort area of Stowe, Vermont. The hope is to attract cars/members from all over the Northeast region, with judging and slalom expertise to come from several different clubs.

Also in the discussion stages are possible mergers of Ottawa/Montreal and another possibility with Jaguar Auto Group/Jaguar Touring Club. The regional director will serve as unofficial ombudsman to see if these ideas warrant further action.

Also in the discussion stages is the possibility of using the latest in technology, internet and email to create one "master" newsletter for all the clubs in the Northeast region. The idea would be that all clubs, from the smallest to the largest, contribute articles and stories. Finances could be shared with each club paying a pre-determined annual amount per member for the newsletter. Synergies would include a larger budget, advertising revenue, access to expertise, sharing of labor etc.

Analysis of National Issues

Organization of ideas in this section will be "loose". I will try to the best of my ability to group the ideas together into some sort of coherent package. As some of you are aware, over the course of 2002 I have made several appeals for input and feedback from across the nation. The first appeal was under the title "what do the members want?" and the second under the title "why aren't members interested in the Challenge Championship?" At first, it was obvious that many members and club executives around the country were apprehensive about opening up and baring their souls to a "JCNA" person, but as time passed they began to realize that the organization they had grown to be fearful of was not out to "get them" this time around and perhaps there really was a desire to listen (for once) and take action. I have received hundreds of pages of replies and have sent replies thanking the senders for their input and assuring them their voices will be heard. The ideas the reader will see presented here come by and large from the membership, with the writer acting almost exclusively as a conduit for their voices. Some of the feedback is not flattering, but it needs to be said and heard.

One of the points I'd like to make at the outset is to introduce the idea that JCNA was essentially born "backwards". Whereas most car clubs or other organizations are based on a strong central authority which spawns local chapters, JCNA started as a collection of local Jaguar clubs (JOA) that got together and formed a central body. Even today, JCNA doesn't really exist as an entity on its own. It is a collection of individual clubs, each with its own strengths and weaknesses, each with its own ideas and viewpoints. Take away the local clubs and you have nothing left. Power is very decentralized in JCNA, creating what is at many times a "vacuum" at the top. The problem with vacuums is, they tend to suck in all sorts of unwanted debris along with the good stuff. Sometimes when something unsavory gets stuck in the vacuum it becomes very hard to dislodge it without pulling the plug and starting over again. I hope that will not prove to be the case with JCNA. These individual clubs will resist any attempt to manage them from the top down. They do NOT want to be told what to do by JCNA. Helpful tips, no problem. Forcing rules and regulations on them….. no thank you. The local clubs want to grow, they want to offer more to their members, they want to cooperate with other clubs in their region. They want JCNA to help them achieve these goals, to facilitate those objectives, but not to force them into behaviors through the medium of draconian rules.

Here is where Regional Directors (or at least the idea of what a regional director should be doing) play a key role. Activities, events, ideas and initiatives for cooperation…. all of it needs to come from the regional director. This is not to say that a regional director is supposed to possess supernatural skills and the ability to find magical solutions to the most complex problems. A director acts more as a clearing house for ideas through his/her constant communication with clubs. Taking note of interesting initiatives and new ideas and then applying that newfound knowledge to other clubs in the region. Encouraging and fostering cooperation, not alienation.

Here are some of the themes that were heard again and again:

· The club wastes too much time, energy and saliva on concours
· JCNA is no longer just about concours
· Jaguar Journal is getting better, but it is still not good enough
· Demographics are a real problem; getting younger members and owners of newer models to participate is difficult
· Championship concours is "broken", either fix it or out it out of its misery
· Too much politics, personal agendas at the national level; we have enough fighting and problems in our personal and professional lives, we don't need it in a car club
· Jaguar Cars is not supportive of the owners of "classic" models; the dealerships are not interested in older cars (pre-1995) and focus only on selling as many new cars as possible.
· Car clubs are supposed to be about having FUN; the fun seems to have gone out of JCNA
· Jaguar owners, in general, are doctors/dentists/professionals who like owning a fancy car but have very little passion for the marque or desire to get their hands dirty
· Jaguar owners, in general, have their "noses in the air" more than any other make of enthusiast car/British car.
· The Concours program tends to divide the membership, rather than serving as a tool to bring people together.
· Use the $300,000 that JCNA has in the bank to create excitement and enthusiasm for the clubs and the marque
· The key to attracting new members is a strong newsletter and a strong website (both locally and nationally)
· All clubs have to find the balance between social events and driving events.
· Owners of the newer models are more interested in what the marque can do for them rather than what they can do for the marque.
· We need expanded club coverage in the Jaguar Journal. Our members want to know what is going on in the clubs around them.
· The real decisions at the JCNA level are made behind closed doors by a long-standing old guard.
· 10% of the people do 100% of the work (club level)

So there you have it. I will now expand on these points and add a few others as well.

Concours: more specifically the Championship division and all the controversy that surrounds this activity. 100 points, regional disparities, "awful" judging, ultra-expensive restorations, and on and on and on….. For much of its history, JCNA was considered as being "concours-centric". Seemingly every aspect of the organization was dominated by the concours program, concours arguments, and indeed the leadership of the club was dominated by top level concours participants. Well, this has changed and is continuing to change. A look at statistics will tell us that Championship concours is a dinosaur that is slowly going extinct. A lower and lower percentage of the overall membership participates in this activity and a very small percentage of the membership bothers to fulfill the minimums necessary to qualify for national championships. In recent years, a new division has come into being in order to attempt giving mere "mortals" the chance to compete for trophies. When that sputtered, the rules for national trophy qualification were relaxed and more trophies ensued. As if that was not enough, now we have a motion on the table for yet another rule change that would lead to more trophies for regional class. Nobody goes home without a trophy! Is there something wrong with all of this? No, not really. Unless we start to take it much too seriously. What we have now is an activity (concours) that serves more to divide the membership than it does to bring members together. We end up with a club of "haves" and "have nots", where the guy with the slightly scruffy XJ-S that he drives every day feels like an outsider in his own car club. Should we eliminate Championship concours competition? Absolutely not! But we need to fix it, that's for sure. We have a very capable group of people in place right now who are looking at the whole issue of judging, the rule book and authenticity. In my opinion, these people are the best placed to decide what the future of this program should be. I'll throw in an idea that has been repeated to me over and over again: move the national championship to a central location every year, such as the Biennial or a rotating regional event and have the top cars in the country meet in one place to be judged by one "crack" team of judges. "BUT!" cry the local clubs, "we'll lose those beautiful cars at our local concours and nobody will come any more and the sky will fall in and…….."
There is a logical and fair solution out there somewhere, involving mandatory participation in local or regional events in order to qualify for national status. I'm sure our capable team of judges can come up with a solution.

For the local clubs, the lesson is clear. Don't base your club's entire existence around concours. Is it still important to host a concours? Yes! But it is equally important to offer a wide variety of other events, both social and "driven", clean hands and "dirty" hands, to the membership. I'll even go further on this one: the days when club management and JCNA management were dominated by concours-fixated people should end. Unless we, as individual clubs and a national organization, begin to offer more and better events to our membership we will surely drive this car club right into the ground.

Jaguar Journal: it is getting better, but it should be world class. There is a certain "chicken and egg" debate here. On one side, we are "only" a club of 5-6,000 members so our magazine can't be as good as that of larger clubs. On the other hand, if we build a world class magazine (one that we would be proud to sell on a newsstand for $5) we may very well attract a larger membership, justifying the risk. For many car clubs, the magazine is the club; many people join the club simply to receive the magazine. Take for example the Jaguar Enthusiast Club (JEC) in the U.K. They have a beautiful magazine, over 100 pages long with a wide variety of articles dealing with the technical, the social, the historical, the recent models, the club scene etc. JEC has over 20,000 members worldwide. But unlike JCNA, the JEC was not built "backwards". When you join the JEC, you join the JEC and not a local club. You can join a local club for a small fee on top of your JEC fee, but the decision is separate. The local clubs (chapters, actually) do not publish a newsletter nor do they have a website. They are chapters of the JEC and resources, both financial and human, are poured into the parent. In JCNA, we have 50 newsletter editors and 50 webmasters sweating over their keyboards every month trying to put out a decent newsletter or website. Then we have the editor of Jaguar Journal and the JCNA webmaster, both of whom cannot understand why they don't get quality material submitted to them. Talk about backwards! We also have 50 activities directors and 50 club presidents pulling their hair out trying to come up with interesting activities every summer. Where are the JCNA sponsored activities?

Another interesting exercise is to look at the financial statements of other Jaguar clubs (JEC, JDC) and other car clubs and compare their total annual revenues with the amount of money they spend on their magazine. The resulting ratios demonstrate that JCNA allocates precious little in the way of financial resources to their club magazine. An interesting recipe: a lack of financial resources and a dearth of human resources. It is a wonder that our Editor manages to put out such a good product!

We need to devote more resources to the Jaguar Journal and put a team (and a network) in place to ensure its future success.

Back to Regional Directors again: we have six regions and twelve directors. There are 6 issues of Jaguar Journal per year. Why don't we encourage (oblige?) regional directors to write one, just one, local or regional piece for the Journal every year. The result would be two articles with local flavor in every issue of the Journal. How hard can that be?

Demographics: Jaguar has not produced an "enthusiast" car for over 25 years. Yes, I can hear all the XJ-S and XJ-R owners wailing, but it's true nonetheless. Our club has largely been populated over the years with E-type owners and to a lesser extent XK owners. Here's the problem: how many 30 year olds do you know that own E-types or XK 120's? The average age of our members is well over 55 and the curve is moving the wrong way. Yes, Jaguar is not helping us by canceling the F-type and forsaking an X-type "R" for a diesel, but we have to figure out ways to help ourselves. Back to the JEC again, last year the XJ-S surpassed the E-type as the most popular model amongst members. The same thing is happening in JCNA. Twenty years from now, E-types and XK's will be a rare commodity while X-types may be the most popular vehicle in member's garages. Heck, an enthusiastic 40 year old can buy a second hand XJ-S convertible for less than the price of a new Miata. And what are we doing to encourage these people to join? If you don't know the answer, you better get a move on! We need to get the technical expertise up and running on these cars, with articles in the Jaguar Journal and the website. We need to get concours judges (groan!) that know what they are looking at when they look under the bonnet of an XJ-S. Finally, we need to host activities that attract the XJ's, the S-types and the X-types. What do the younger people like? A big park where a bunch of old people sit in folding chairs and stare at 40 year old cars that never get driven? Not likely! They want to DRIVE! To the countryside, through the mountains, to the lake or the seaside…. whatever. And they want to drive fast! Slalom, rally, track days, high performance schools…… that's where the action is and that's where you'll find them.

Politics, personal agendas, fighting. Not enough FUN! Here is all I have to say on this topic. When local members or potential members look to the management of their club or JCNA and they see discord and unpleasantness, their natural reaction is to head in the opposite direction. We all have family and career pressures. Life is complicated and depressing enough sometimes without having to go to a car club meeting and be greeted with cynicism, elitism and plain bad manners. Car clubs are supposed to be about having FUN, not about power trips, unhealthy competition and politics. We (the people that are fortunate enough to represent the interests of others) are there to make the car club experience better. Don't overstay your welcome and don't try to mold a club into your own personal version of utopia. By all means, climb on board, make a positive contribution and then…….. step aside and let others take a swing at the ball. If you run for office and nobody bothers to vote…… they are probably trying to tell you something.

Jaguar Cars support: at best, this can be described as hot and cold since the takeover by Ford and the separation of JCNA and Jaguar Cars (but mostly cold). The beancounters have gotten involved, that's for sure. When you have a captive audience of 5-6,000 Jaguar fanatics spread across North America, why on earth would you ignore them? And why wouldn't you be encouraging buyers of new X-types, S-types etc. to join their local enthusiasts club?? It makes no sense. I think we, as a club on the national level and as individual clubs on the regional level, need to put enormous public pressure on Jaguar to show more support. For those clubs who have secured dealer support, great! Continue to develop those relationships. For those of us who are knocking our collective heads against the wall, we need the services of a JCNA "ombudsman" who will represent our interests and display a common front to Jaguar Cars.

Bylaw Change Proposals

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 limited 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 AGM's 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 to maintaining a car). Expense reports with receipts will be submitted to the JCNA treasurer for audit and reimbursement. Regional Directors will be expected 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).

Objective: encourage more people to serve at the national level.
Background: members of the JCNA executive (president, vice president, secretary, elected member) must be pulled from the ranks of the regional directors. A member of the executive must hold both offices. Because of this, a person who wishes to hold the office of president (for example) for more than one term unwittingly "blocks" access to the position of regional director while serving. This discourages, indeed it renders it impossible, for enthusiastic local members to run for Regional Director until the president steps aside.

Proposal: the JCNA president, vice president and secretary can be (but not mandatory) nominated and elected directly from the JCNA membership. Note that all positions (president, vice president, secretary) will continue to be elected by the delegates at the AGM. The elected member will continue to be elected by vote of the regional directors.

Objective: encourage a wider variety of activities at the local level
Background: because of the possibility of "cheating", JCNA bylaws limit any individual club to one sanctioned concours per year, forcing members to expose their cars to other clubs and other judges in an attempt to remove conflicts of interest. The same set of rules has been arbitrarily applied to the slalom program and the rally program, where conflicts of interest and the opportunity to"cheat" is much less evident.

Proposal: allow local clubs to sanction an unlimited number of rallies and slaloms per year if that is their desire.