Looking forward to 2011

Your National Board of Directors met at the beautiful Kemp Auto Museum in Chesterfield, Missouri, November 3-6. Over the four days, the board had good discussions covering a wide range of issues.
One of the meeting’s highlights was a presentation by your director of marketing, Lisa Juhl. Lisa laid out some of the marketing ideas and concepts we intend to introduce in 2011. The overall target of our marketing campaign is to retain more of our current members and attract new ones. For our club to accomplish this task, it will require the efforts of all members. We all need to step up and help retain existing members and recruit new prospects. All of the section presidents and their invitees have been asked to participate in an upcoming series of webinars so that we can help arm them and you with the necessary tools to recruit and retain members.
Do you know where it all really starts? With having fun! I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the New Mexico Section’s Christmas party in early December. What a good time. The room was great, the food was great, the music was great, and, best of all, the people were great. As you have heard in many different contexts, it is not the cars, it’s the people you meet. That is so true. Thank you for a good time.
As I have mentioned previously, 2010 was a year of great change for our club. Virtually everything we do here at the National Business Office has been somehow changed or modified. These changes have had a very positive effect on the way we interact with our members and conduct the club’s business.
None of the things we accomplished would have been possible without the help and dedication of all the women in the office. I have never seen five people who are more dedicated or who work harder. A big “thank you” is more than deserved. In addition, Adam Lumsden and Gene Ramp have been instrumental in launching and maintaining our new website. We would not be where we are today without their support.
As we approach the end of 2010, I thought it would be worthwhile to look at where we are and where we hope to be in 2011. The club is in good shape. Our membership is steadily increasing and our finances are sound. Our National Board of Directors is a dedicated group of volunteers. In 2011, we hope to make the club even better. We want to accelerate the growth of membership and improve our retention rate. We want to add to our list of member benefits. We want to increase the camaraderie among our members. We want our car club to become the most fun car club people can join.
We look forward to 2011. We are focused on MBCA, and we are focused on the future.
                                  Doug Truitt