The following is an email from Alan Prouser, our MINI friend from Memphis, who is starting up a MINI Club there. These minutes are great to read, especially since they had 47 folks show up for their first meeting! Enjoy!
From: STREISfan@aol.com [mailto:STREISfan@aol.com]
Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2004 10:57 PM
To: STREISfan@aol.com
Subject: Mid-South MINIacs held their first event
Hello fellow MINIacs, WOW! Was this afternoon fantastic or what! The following will serve as "minutes" of this first meeting. We met at Roadshow at 4:00pm this afternoon, Sunday December 5, 2004.
The "meeting" was somewhat called to order when I announced that Corky's was ready to start serving the barbeque buffet. After allowing time for everyone to eat I welcomed everyone and announced that I had prepared a questionnaire for everyone to complete so it could be determined what we want the clubs focus to be, what type of events we want to hold etc.
I put a vote to the floor as to decide on a name for the club. Possible names thought of were Memphis MINI Maniacs, Memphis MINI Motorists Club, and Mid-South MINacs. One suggestion from the floor was for the name "Small Car Club." A vote by show of hands was taken and the name "Mid-South MINIacs" was voted as the name for our club.
I commented that one of things we need to decide on was whether we would elect officers or not. Pending the recommendation of the membership as this is one of the questions on the questionnaire I moved to at least nominate and vote on one office.
I nominated Lori Patton, President of Roadshow MINI as "Godmother of Mid-South MINIacs" and the vote was unanimous to elect Lori as Godmother. I made mention of several members who offered their time and talents in assisting in any way they can. I thanked Joyce Kisling for making phone calls to various prospective members to advise them of today's event. I also mentioned Tom Taylor who offered to setup a website for the club. Tom is also the talent who has designed the logo that has accompanied recent e-mails.
I then called on Sam Johnson to talk about his experience at "The Dragon Tail" and he gave a great account of his "tackling the Dragon." Sam announced that there are plans for a Dragon Run either the last weekend of April or first weekend of May 2005. Further info will be sent regarding our club making this one of our possible events.
I also commented about my having met David & Sarah Blakey and David & Donna Kimble and their son Cooper S from Knoxville who are founding members of "The Smoky Mountain MINI's MINI Cooper Club." You can go to Smoky Mountain MINI's website at Welcome to the Smoky Mountain Minis Mini Cooper Club website! and click on "Features" to read Sarah Blakey's account of driving The Dragon.
You can also click on this website for more info about The Dragon. Tail of the Dragon at Deals Gap and Cherohala Skyway, Graham Co, NC I then mentioned the possibility of holding future events as a possible benefit or fundraiser for local charitable organizations.
I suggested for next Christmas filling one of our MINI's with toys and going to either one of the 3 facilities that houses families of St. Jude patients. I then called on Trisha Patton who spoke about Johnny Quinn of Millington who was severely burned. Trisha offered to spearhead an effort to help raise funds for the family.
Levi Phillips, another member, encouraged those of us there that felt so inclined to donate a few dollars and a fish bowl was immediately put in place for donations. Trisha will purchase a money order and send it to the bank handling the funds with the donation to be made in the name of Mid-South MINIacs.
If you would like to send a donation you may do so by going to this website link and mailing your donation to the bank listed. Help Opens the Door for Johnny Quinn.
Winners of the door prizes were then drawn. Thanks go to Blockbusters and Best Buy, each for donating a DVD copy of "The Italian Job" and to Auto Zone for giving a can of McGuires car was and also to ROADSHOW for donating a MINI pen and the grand prize, a remote controlled MINI that was won by Allan Scott. I thanked my wife, Joni for allowing me to buy the coolest car in the world, and for not thinking I was all too crazy to want to start up a car club. I also thanked Lori Patton for all of her help in getting this club started. Lori took the time and absorbed the expense of sending out their initial letter advising you of the plans to start this club. Lori didn't hesitate at all when I called and asked her if we could hold this event at ROADSHOW and to make things even more comfortable, Lori picked up the tab of the expense of renting the tables and chairs. Lori, our dear Godmother, thank you.
Thanks also go to Warren Hopper and Todd Fulford and the rest of the staff from Roadshow MINI that helped make today a success. I then adjourned this first meeting of Mid-South MINIacs at approximately 5:30pm. The minutes you have just read are not necessarily in order of the way things happened! With that said, if we do decide to have formal officers, who would like to be nominated as Recording Secretary!?!?!?
At today's meeting, and in the "minutes" above I made comments about David Blakey from Smoky Mountain MINI's in Knoxville. When I returned home from our inaugural event there was an e-mail from David asking how things went. I am pasting the e-mail below as he also mentions a possible event we may want to consider. For those of you who were not able to make it to Roadshow for the inaugural event of our car club, stay tuned as there will be more events to follow as we now officially are a club!
Please e-mail me your name and address so I can mail you a copy of the questionnaire as we would like input from as many members as possible. To those of you were there today, thank you for coming. If you did not complete your questionnaire please do so and mail it to me as soon as possible. I'll announce a date soon for our next meeting so we can review of the responses of the questionnaire and move forward accordingly.
-- Alan Prouser
