Change…it's happenin' all the time. And it's happening here at TE/AE in a number of ways. You have read about some of the changes and initiatives towards change previously in this column. In this issue I wanted to present some changes that I hope you will agree will make TE/AE a stronger club.

First, in an article later in this edition, you will find an announcement from Tiger Tom Ehrhart concerning his and Joanne's parts business. I am pleased to announce that Tiger Tom's will be offering exclusive discounts and early NOS parts availability to TE/AE members ONLY! We will have first shot at his prized NOS collection at below market prices and monthly specials from his catalog items. It won't take many purchases to more than make up for the price of TE/AE membership. Everyone buying parts for their Sunbeam should join TE/AE…it's cost effective! I think you will be as excited as I am at this exclusive arrangement we have with Tiger Tom. Also, I wanted to say a special thanks to Tom for his willingness to enter into this with TE/AE. It is going to cost him money offering the discounts but it sure does make membership in TE/AE more desirable. Thanks, Tom.

A while back, the board of TE/AE approved advertising in the newsletter but for various reasons, we have never solicited any. Well, that's another change coming. Starting soon, we will have ads in the Rootes Review. Not only will it bring a few dollars into our treasury, but it will also provide members, particularly those new to the Marque, with sources for Sunbeam and other auto related parts and services.

TE/AE now has a new Publicity Chairman in Gary Schotland. Gary is a past President of TE/AE and has many ideas and much enthusiasm to promote the club. Under his leadership as President, the club's membership expanded significantly and now we can once again benefit from his energies in this area. I would also like to say thanks to our outgoing Publicity Chairperson Mary Sue Baum. Thank you for all of your efforts during your time in this office.

We currently mail the newsletter by first class mail. This is expensive relative to other mailing classes available to us. We are going to start mailing the newsletter using bulk mailing at significantly reduced rates on a trial basis. It will add a couple of days to the time in transit in the mail, but we hope to make this up by mailing earlier. As I mentioned earlier, it is on a trial basis. We will be monitoring the effects of the new mailing class and would ask for your feedback too. Please contact one of the editors or officers if you have any problems whatsoever caused by this bulk rate experiment. If all goes well, it will become our standard, freeing up some funds for other purposes.

This past Sunday (June 6, 1999) The New England Region, headed by Stu Brennan, hosted their Spring Regional get together at my house in Concord, Mass. We had almost 20 people and 7 Sunbeams made it…some coming over 100 miles just to be with fellow Beamers for an afternoon. It was a very enjoyable time, swapping tips, stories and getting to know a few new people. There is a more complete write up on the event later in this edition.

I am putting the finishing touches on the Tiger to get ready for SUNI. Pat and I are going to tow it out. It was never built as a long haul road car what with the 3.31 gearing and the four speed so it gets trailered to the really far away events. 2400 miles each way to Big Sky, but we will see a lot of new places on the trip and, most importantly, have the car at SUNI. Hope to see many of you there.