I hope everyone had a Happy Holiday and didn't overdo the Y2K celebration! And now the slow winter months are upon us…car-wise. While we have yet to receive any snow here in Boston as of the date of this writing, I have already put the Tiger up for the winter. But this provides more time to attend to other matters … like administrative and governance items for the Club, of course.

Our election of Officers for 2000 is now complete. Your elected Officers for this year will be myself as President, Rande Bellman as Vice President, Pat Morrison as Secretary and Mariet Jaarsma as Treasurer. I want to offer my congratulations and thanks to these folks for their past and future contributions to TE/AE. I also want to thank all of you who voted. Even though we had only one candidate per office on the ballot, you took the time to vote and demonstrate your involvement in TE/AE.

We are asking you to again cast your votes in this issue. In my column of December, I let you know that we were going to be proposing a number of changes to the club's Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws. The list of fourteen areas appears later in this issue. Most of the proposals are to make the By-Laws more clear, to conform to already established practices or minor procedural items. I would put all but Amendments 4 and 5 in this category. Items 4 and 5 are more substantive. Let me give you my view of the reasons for each of these.

Amendment 4 proposes to allow Elected Officers to serve up to four consecutive terms. The current limit is two. My feeling here is that if an individual is willing to continue in Office and the membership wants to have this Officer continue supporting the Club and demonstrates it through the election process, then the Club rules should not be as restrictive as they are now in allowing this.

Amendment 5 proposes to provide for an elected Board of Directors, separating the function of Board member and Regional Representative. The logic here is multi-fold. First, the traits we want in a Regional Rep and the traits we want in a Board Member are not necessarily the same thing, even though currently they are the same people; and second, it currently only takes five member's signatures to name a Regional Rep (and therefore, Board Member…this is the area of Amendment 9) but an election across the entire Club is used for selecting the Officers. This needs a more balanced and consistent approach. I believe that the election of the Board will provide the best policy and fiscal leadership for the Club while maintaining a strong cadre of enthusiastic and hard working Regional Reps, as we have always had.

I ask for your support for these changes. I have worked them extensively with the Regional Reps/Board Members and have their support and encouragement to go forward. Later in this edition, you will find a list of these proposed amendments and a ballot for your vote. Please read the proposed changes over carefully and vote.

Out next issue (February) of Rootes Review will be the Roster Edition and will not have any columns, articles or the like. So I will be back in March. Until then!