83rd Annual Membership Meeting in Philly

Just before Christmas, a letter arrived letting me know I had won a National Award for Service.  A few days later the Master Editor and Master Webmaster award letters arrived as well. Off to Philly again this year became the plan right away. I have anticipated this trip for a while now.  

    I volunteered to teach a seminar on “How to Host a National Meet”  Our club learned a lot very quickly in 2018 about hosting a meet.  Darrin and I felt we needed to share some of what our club had learned. Gathering all the things needed for Annual Meeting took a little while.  

    First locating the Deep South Region banner was a trick.  Darrin and I found it and proceeded to flatten it out. It had been folded up and stored in a kitchen cabinet.  

    The next project was the booth at the trade show.  Our club is hosting the Southeastern Fall National October 2019 in Mobile.  The booth will display a banner from Visit Mobile along with visitor guides.  We will also have a few moon pies and beads.  I have spent a lot of trips in the car and late evenings putting together my outline for the seminar.  I am thankful that I am the first one so I can get it over with. Then there is getting together what to wear to what event. 

     Thursday evening will be casual.  Friday will be a red shirt day with a nice outfit for the Regions and Chapters Presidents Dinner. Saturday during the day will be casual.  Saturday night is the big event.  Dressed to the hilt. Clyde Smith picked us up at 7:30.  We then picked up David and Belinda Rooney.  David and Belinda won a National Award for their 1959 Corvette, Corina.  

     Thursday morning we climbed aboard a plane and flew to Philadelphia.  After landing we found our way to baggage claim and outside to wait for a taxi to carry us to the hotel.  We then settling into our rooms and eventually  ventured six blocks to an upscale Italian restaurant, The Gran Caffe L’Aquila. I enjoyed Italian bread with olive oil and Parmesan cheese and the rare treat of pasta. The meal was excellent and the company was great. Walking the streets of Philly on a cold night was refreshing and fun.  The sights are so different than what you would see in Mobile. 

Seeing old historic buildings along side the new modern ones just let’s me know that old and new can live side by side. When we made our way back to the hotel and visited the AACA Hospitality room.  This was a chance to start connecting with friends from everywhere. Old vehicles, friends, community, and common ground is what AACA is all about.

   The 83rd Annual Meeting in Philly started off early on Thursday morning.  There was just enough time before the seminars to grab a donut and swing into the trade show to double check the booth.  With the beads and moon pies in place Darrin and I headed to lead a seminar “Hosting a National Meet in Minimal Time. Together we talked to a crowd of 32 about hosting a meet. We prepared two outlines so participants could follow along. One on how to “Host a Meet in a Short Amount of Time” and one on the “Committees for  Successful Meet”.  For an hour and a half we talked about the many facets of a National meet. Many people asked questions and there was genuine interest.
      Darrin made his way to another seminar and I made my way to the trade show before heading to the Membership Committee meeting.  Arriving at the meeting it was clear there was a group of eager people dedicated to growing membership.  For two hours we discussed two viable plans to grow membership. We all agreed to work hard to implement these plans.

      We met Belinda and David for lunch.  While in Philly you need to try a cheese steak you would think, not so unless you like canned cheese.  We attended more seminars or got some rest.  The seminars followed a theme of women in the automotive industry.  I attended several.
    One lead by Sally Barnett called “Motor Girls or More than Just Alice Ramsey” that feature the first for women, racing, driving and speed to mention a few.  Sally also talked about the reenactment that she participated in a few years ago that reenacted the first women to drive across the country.
   

We all spent a lot of time talking about our Southeastern National to be held in Mobile.  Many people bragged that our meet in March of 2018 ranked at the top of all meets in the last 20 years. The evening brought the reception for the Regions and Chapters Presidents Dinner.  We gathered before dinner to visit with the Presidents of other regions. The dinner is a highlight for regions and chapters.  It is a time to spread the word about your local events and National events.  It is a time to learn about the direction of the club as a whole. It was interesting to see how many clubs are led by a female President this year.  At our table 75 percent were women Presidents.

 Membership again, was a common topic throughout the annual meeting. Not only is it a concern to gain new members it is also a concern for member retention. After dinner we attended the AACA hospitality room and the JC Taylor hospitality rooms.
     Saturday morning arrived early with another full plate of events.  Staging the booth with more moon pies and making sure it looked good for the final day of the trade show.  I had donuts with Sally and discussions of a road trip to Birmingham and Huntsville possibly with the North Alabama and The Battlefield Regions and maybe pairing this trip with the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Apollo landing and the 200 Year Anniversary of the State of Alabama.  Judging school is an annual requirement so off to school we all went.

     Dain King teased me about staying awake the entire time.  Proof there is a first time for everything. We had breakfast and headed to the Auto Show Philadelphia at the Convention Center.  It was a chilly 26 degrees for the four blocks walk up Race street. There were a lot of AACA member cars and local cars, antiques and resto mods as well as brand new vehicles.  I left on my own to return to the hotel to attend Terry Bonds seminar “The Lady & The Automobile in Art”.  Very interesting about the influence that women had in selling the automobile. There was just enough time to pack the trade booth items up and get them to our room before the General Membership Meeting began.
 

    So much happens at the meeting.  It is changing of the guard time.  The past board members are recognized and the new ones are installed.  The direction of the club is discussed along with the clubs roundtable discussion.  The meeting is very informative. After the meeting there was a little bit of time to rest before the festivities began for the National Awards Banquet.
 

We all headed to our rooms.  Before long it was time to head down to the reception before the banquet. To get to the reception you walked across the red carpet and under a star.

    The evening event was a black tie event. Ben Franklin decided to attend and share a spot in photos.  The reception included the background music from two violins and a piano. You could tell every one was ready to know what award they had won including me.  Finally the doors opened and we all headed in to find our seats for the banquet.  The food was excellent.

    The program began and the anticipation just kept building.  The youth scholarships were announced and then we moved to the presentations of all the Master Webmaster awards and the Master Editor awards.


    I heard my name called and nothing else as I made my way to the front twice to receive the two awards.  It was not long and the awards for the vehicles began.  One after another were announced by Wes Peterson with a short history of car and owner.
 

When it came time for the Corvette Award they announced David Rooney with his beautiful 1959.






   

It took a while to get to the award that I won.  What a thrill it was to be announced for the Ann S. Eady Award.  To make it even better Kelly Adams told me that Ann Eady was from her region. After the banquet a few of us gathered to say our good byes until Ocala.  The plane ride home was uneventful and Clyde Smith returned each of us home safely.