At the very least, let’s hope this coming year is happier than the last one. It has been an interesting time, with challenges I never would have anticipated. But together, we are making measured progress towards re-engineering our organization to be more contemporary, with added benefits to make membership more valuable, and towards keeping the organization sustainable for many more generations of enthusiasts.

Many businesses have had to pivot  to remain profitable, relevant and engaged with their constituents, and the MBCA has been no different. While I watched with agony as car show after car show needed to be canceled, I watched with delight as our Social Media Committee engaged new and old members with their cars. I watched a community reinvent itself, and saw a new engagement strategy to unite members that had not previously been able to convene and enjoy each other’s’ company.

As I reviewed all the pictures and activities, I was struck by one thing: a lot of new cars, faces and names. If there is any moment that makes me proud, it is this moment. Despite a shutdown of our face-to-face community, we rallied together as members and reinvented ourselves. While our face-to-face activities will hopefully resume, I expect that those activities will be complementary to the impressive virtual community we have built.

As the MBCA evolves, there are new faces, new cars, and new stories. The members of today aren’t the members that have been pictured in our magazine for the past forty years. We are a different community now. We are a diverse, thoughtful group of enthusiasts who want to share the common bond our cars. And our magazine, events and activities should reflect that. I’m the first female president in 20 years, but I want our board, and our media presence, both physical and virtual, to reflect the diversity of MBCA.

As we get shots in the arm to enable us to once again get together and love our cars and members, I do have one request for section leaders. Please make an effort to reach out, engage and document your entire section. Be inclusive. Make an effort to showcase our diversity, the true picture of our membership. And put those pictures and stories in The Star and in your newsletters for the world to see. This will give our club the vaccine that it needs, to get a new culture of leadership and enthusiasm to propel us to the next level.

If there is any one accomplishment that I can make during my presidency, it is to engage new members with this organization. These new faces will be catalysts for our continued evolution to an organization that serves all its members well, and represents them equally. These new faces will preserve the precious heritage of our organization and simultaneously create a new heritage that will benefit future generations. If we are successful at this, our club will thrive in the future.