On the Call:

Tom M, Blair W, Bruce M, Larry N, John T, Alan M, Tony B

NON-EVENT TOPICS

1) BLAIR…     (1) Kimberfest (2) Logo creation (Dave Lawley)

2) ALAN… I'd like to add setting up a Tab on our webpage for Register Events. The Council could be a clearing house for planned events advertising, registration, and post event coverage.

KIMBERFEST

Blair asked if the Council should take this over? It has typically been held every two years, sponsored by The T Register, and has been a one-and-a-half-day series of technical presentations – each about 1 hour long.

Should this be an annual event hosted by the Council?

Should this be held in conjunction with MG International 2026? (before or after)?

John asked if this then should be held every 2-1/2 years to coincide with the ALL-MG event?

Could this be tied into the BMTA (British Motor Trade Association) annual events? (inactive for 4 years)

There was a lot of discussion about this topic, and it was decided to hold a separate call on this topic.

COUNCIL WEBPAGE - EVENTS

Alan said that he and Bruce had been discussing the possibility of including the four Register’s events on the Council website to help publicize all the events across all MG owners. Tony commented that this is possible to do, but spending a career in IT, if the same events are in both places (Register’s Website & Council website), the chances of them staying in-sync is not high. Possibly a better solution would be for the Council website to contain a picture and a link back to the Register’s page where we know that page is current since it’s being updated by the event coordinators.

Bruce also said we need to do a better job publicizing each other’s events in the magazines and/or websites. As our demographics profile ages, we need to open our events to a broader range. Everyone agreed with that comment and said we are moving that way, but some “heritage members” are reluctant to change. This is something we need to work through.

Bruce also thought that due to our demographics, possibly many of our member are more magazine based, rather than online, so it’s important to share information for each Register’s magazine. Be sure to include events as well as the “Marque of Friendship” ad. Tony updated it after Blair provided an address change and sent it to everyone after the meeting.

It was suggested that each Register sends their activities to Alan (cc: Tony) so we maintain a central clearinghouse for these events.

MG INTERNATIONAL 2026

We then moved into MG International topics. The purpose of this meeting was to assign “function heads” for the main event responsibilities. We’ll then get back together in two months to validate progress and see if we can help with the resolution of issues.

As applicable, each function head will determine what items we can offer over the four days. For example:

> Events: speak with the business to see what they can offer, their group rates, terms, restrictions, etc

> What can be driving events and where do we need a coach

> Tech Sessions: Determine what days to offer sessions, how many sessions per day

         > Normally, we’ve held 8 sessions/day (4 morning and 4 afternoon) in two different rooms 

(9-10 & 11-12 / 1:30-2:30 & 3:30-4:30 which allows for room and event transition in between)

Tom said he knows a diver and maybe a fun session might be a talk on Lake Erie shipwrecks

Tony also said he knows a fishing boat captain – would a day fishing for Walleye be “too far off base”?

Since Larry will be heading up donations, sponsors and vendors, he will send his list of 50+ companies to everyone and asked that they update his list with any he may be missing.

We also discussed our upcoming site visit on August 18-20 and everyone confirmed their transportation plans (below). Blair and Alan who will be flying on Monday 8/18 will try to land in Cleveland (CLE) early to midafternoon, then depart mid to late afternoon on Wednesday. Tony will rent a 12-passenger van so we can travel together as a group and can collect Blair and Alan at the airport. If that doesn’t work, we can arrange a shuttle with Kalahari.

On Thursday, 4/17 I reached out to the Sandusky area CVB (Shores and Islands) regarding the status of Osborn Park – our desired car show location for Thursday. They had not heard back from the MetroParks and gave me the contact details for our rep there. I then phoned them and the lady we had been working with has retired so I spoke with the Parks Director and she said our reservation is “on hold” in the books for Thursday 8/27/26, and they are looking forward to our visit this coming August 19. After we do another walk-through with our members who have not seen the site and we are still happy with it, they will forward the contract at that time. They seem to be a good group to work with.