BMCU Newsletter February 2002

February 2002 Volume 14 Number 6

It’s postcard time!

The club spends a lot of money on the monthly newsletter. Even though the writing, copying, folding, and mailing is donated to the club, the US Post Office still wants money to deliver it to your house. Postage is our largest expense.
Each year we do housecleaning—we clean up the mailing list so we know who wants to receive the newsletter and who doesn’t. This not only gives you a chance to stop getting the newsletter if you really don’t want it, but it helps the club by keeping us from spending any unnecessary postage. It’s also a good way to keep the mailing list up to date with any address changes.
The way we do our housecleaning is simple: attached to this newsletter is a postcard. It’s already addressed to the club’s membership director, Bruce Schilling. All you have to do is put your name and address on the card, put on a stamp, and drop it into the mail. If you have been with the club for any length of time, you probably already know this routine well.
We need all the cards in by the end of February 2002. If we haven’t received a postcard from you by then, you will be removed from the mailing list and will not receive any more newsletters, beginning with the March newsletter.
As you send in your postcard, it’s also a good time to send along a few dollars to help the club—$10 or even $5 helps keep the club in the black and helps cover the costs of mailing the newsletter to your home for the year. Most clubs charge dues to cover such costs; we have never charged dues and rely solely on member donations to cover the newsletter postage expense.
So, mail back that postcard—you don’t want to miss out on an event ‘cause you don’t know when it is!

Plans for the year

Our annual Potluck dinner and business meeting is normally held in February each year. However, due to the Olympic Winter Games, we thought it prudent to not have an event in February as the traffic and attendance (many club members are Olympic volunteers and would be not be able to attend anyway) would not make it practical.
So, our February Potluck became a January Potluck this year.
As usual, the food was great. If you haven’t attended on of the Potlucks, you are really missing out. My theory is that everyone brings that dish that they really enjoy making, and it shows. From salads to pasta, soups and chili's, seafood quiche and shrimp cocktail, to homemade summer sausage, there was something for everyone. Did I mention there was dessert?
Once everyone was comfortably full, the business began. Of course, true to form, we had lots of laughs as part of the evening, but we had some serious business to attend to as well.
Old business
Bill Robinson, our club president, called the meeting to order and asked if there was any old business that needed to be taken care of. Two items came up for discussion.
Club shirts. More than a year ago, we created a club “logo” design and decided to have that design embroidered onto shirts. These shirts were made available to club members for the price of $35 each. The vendor who embroiders the shirts for us insisted on a minimum order of 25 shirts, and we were able to get one order of 25 shirts together and get the shirts made. However, despite repeated notices in the newsletter and at events, since that initial order of 25, we have been unable to get another 25 shirt orders together to get another batch made. In fact, our current number of orders is about 6 shirts. In light of the lack of interest, we decided that we will not take any more orders for the shirts and we will return the money for the 6 shirt orders we have.
Grill badges. We have tried for some time to get grill badges made. Our difficulty, of course, is that our volume of badges is low, which can make the per each price somewhat expensive when the up-front tooling costs are figured in.
We got close to getting them done last year, but just when we were ready to place the order, the vendor we chose more than doubled the price. Then we did more research and found another promising vendor, only to have that prospect also dry up.
The editor agreed to renew our efforts to find a suitable and affordable source for the grill badges. If you have such a source, I’d love to hear from you. You can contact me at nlmassie@mmm.com.
Club finances
Bill filled in for Marty Van Nood, who was unable to attend the Potluck, in discussing the club’s finances.
Bill presented Marty’s breakdown of the income and expense report. The club is in the black with a positive balance that even earned us a few dollars in interest last year. Our income source is club donations, and our expense is the monthly newsletter postage and annual mailing permit fee.
Web page
Our web site has been well received. It’s great to have a place for all the pictures, last-minute events changes, and other club information that members can look at any time they want.
Bill Robinson completed the design of the BMCU site last year, and even hosted it off of his business site. That was a temporary arrangement until we secured our own domain. We now have a domain, and with the generous help of a club member who hosts web pages, we have a new home for our web site.
If you have pictures of events, cars, etc., you can now send those to Mark Noeltner at mark@buffalochips.org. Mark will post those onto our web page.
When we get the site up and running on the new domain, we’ll publish the new URL here so you know where to go to see it.
Officers
Our non-profit charter requires us to have a board of directors to run the club. Because of this, we take the opportunity at each Potluck and business meeting to elect officers to the Board of Governors.
This year’s officers includes:
Bill Robinson, Governor General
Gary Lindstrom, Board of Governors
Sharon Forster, Board of Governors
Marty Van Nood, Chancellor of the Exchequer

Left over parts

Don’t forget to send in your postcard so you don’t miss a single issue of the newsletter. No joke—if you don’t send the postcard back, you will be off the list come March and you won’t know what the event plans are. So mail that card in today! If you haven’t been to many of the events the past year, the postcard mailing time is also a good time to help the club out with a donation. Just put the postcard into an envelope along with a check, and mail it to the address on the postcard. We don’t have any dues for club members, and we rely on those donations to keep us (and the newsletter) going for the next year.
Since this issue contains the club list of club events for the year, make sure you look over the Lucas Calendar and write things on your schedule so you can make as many events as possible. Don’t wait until the Friday before an event to decide if you want to go. There’s something on the slate for everyone, whether you like the socials, the driving events, or Tinker Days/ Tech Sessions. Let’s get some great turnouts for the events. The more folks we get, the more fun we have.
If you have any news that you want into the club newsletter, you can send the info to:
Nathan Massie
1944 E 2700 S
Salt Lake City, UT 84106
You can also send me email at nlmassie@mmm.com
Things that we welcome for the newsletter include any bits of technical advice (with the customary disclaimer), other clubs’ and organizations’ Brit-car events, or other interesting natter that you may come across. Rumors from the British car industry are also welcome.
Remember that articles/items need to be submitted about two weeks before the end of the month in order to make the next newsletter. I can’t guarantee that I will print everything, but as space allows, I will try my best to get it in there.
Don’t forget that we will run your Brit-car For Sale ads in Autojumble for cars, parts, or items wanted for no charge. It’s a great way to clean out the garage!

Autojumble

For Sale, 1972 MGB roadster for restoration. Rough, but runs. Dual carbs. Price of $1495 OBO includes wire wheeled parts car. Bob Wager, 455-4400.
Also for sale, assorted MGB trannys, engines, wheels, body parts, etc. Too much to list here. One-half Moss price or best reasonable offer. Bob Wager, 455-4400.
For Sale, VTR video: Miss the 2001 VTR? Wish you hadn’t? Purchase your own copy of the VTR on video. This video is available now.
VTR 2001 VIDEO: $30 plus $5 ship/hand (total $35). Send check/money order to:
Julius Abellera
3680 Monroe #1302
Riverside, Ca 92504
The VHS tape is 2 hrs in length full of TRIUMPHs in motion, visual memories of VTR 2k1, not only numerous angles, but spectacular shots of the exit from a panoramic photo shoot, cockpit run of autocross, in a word or two, a TRIUMPH MOVIE!!

The Lucas Calendar

This calendar works about as well as its namesake, so use it with care. Club events have bold dates. The others you may find interesting. All events are subject to change.
February, 2002. Because of the 2002 Winter Olympics, there will not be an event this month.
March 9. Utah Lotus Museum. Mark Bradakis, 364-3251.
March 16. St. Paddy’s Day parade. Bill Van Moorhem, 582-9223. May include a garage tour afterward.
April 6. Spring Tinker Day. Mark Bradakis, 364-3251.
April 13. Tax Day Social, Pugs and Diane Pivirotto, 486-0547.
May 11. Antelope Island Run, Joe Chou.
May 25. Southern Utah Run. Jon Hermance, jonathan_hermance@atk. com.
June 15. British Field Day. Bill Davis/ Bruce Schilling/others.
July 10. Club 90 night. Bill Robinson, 947-9480.
July 13. Trapper’s Loop Run. Ken Gleason.
August 3. August Social, Bruce Schilling, 486-0425.
August 10. Heber Valley Parade, Doug and Ilene Wimer, 435-654-2117.
August 17. Annual Alpine Loop Run. Sharon Bailey (264-1971) and Karen Bradakis (364-3251).
September 2. Miner’s Day Parade. Floyd Inman.
September 14. State Street Cruise Night. Bill Robinson, 947-9480.
September 28. Mt. Nebo Fall Color Run. Gary Lindstrom, 532-1259.
October 19. Fall Tinker Day. Mark Bradakis, 364-3251.
October 26. End of the Season Dinner. Gregg Smith.
November. Tech Session. Date and time to be announced.
December. No event.

Quick Tips

Here’s a few tips to help you in the garage or out on the road. As always, use this advice at your own risk. Many thanks to The Spanner, the newsletter of the British Auto Club of Las Vegas.
Leak finder. Often a rough-running vehicle that idles poorly is suffering from a vacuum leak. An easy way to check for leaks is to spray carb cleaner around the intake and carb/manifold gasket. If the idle speed changes, there’s definitely a leak. If the idle speed does not change, spray around other vacuum sources on the manifold to check those, too.
Just a drop. Need a drop of oil on a bolt or hinge while working on your car? Use your car’s engine or transmission dipstick as an oil dropper. It’s a handy way to get a little oil on that bolt, and the dipstick is great for applying a little oil on a hard-to-reach spot. Make sure you clean off the tip of the dipstick before returning it to its home.
Refueling. Have you ever tried to pour gas into your car’s tank from a container that doesn’t have a spout? Besides making a dangerous mess, you cannot get all the gasoline into the tank because you can only tip the can (OK, milk jug) up so far. In a pinch, a rolled-up newspaper or magazine makes a great spout. When you are done, dispose of the highly flammable paper responsibly (and don’t smoke while you do this!).
Super fix. How about this temporary fix-a-flat idea? Next time you run over some object out on the road, pull the object from the tire and stick the tip of a Super Glue tube into the hole. Squeeze in some glue and cut off the plastic tip and leave it in the hole. Give it a few minutes to dry, then re-inflate the tire and head for the nearest repair shop.

Board of Governors:
Bill Robinson, 947-9480, email: brobinson@redwoodmusic.com
Marty Van Nood, Chancellor of the Exchequer; 467-0525 (H)
Gary Lindstrom, 532-1259
Newsletter Editor: Nathan Massie, 486-2935 email: nlmassie@mmm.com
Membership director: Bruce Schilling, 486-0425 email: partsmaster@sisna.com
This Newsletter is published by the British Motor Club of Utah, Ltd., a non-profit corporation of British automobile owners. The group holds monthly events such as drives, picnics, technical sessions, and more. We welcome owners (or potential owners) of British cars, in any condition, to the group. Membership is free, but we ask for a donation at events to support the Newsletter and other activities. If you would like to join the group, send your name, address, and a list of British cars owned to Bruce Schilling, 917 East Mill Creek Way, Salt Lake City, Utah 84106, or to Bruce’s email address shown above.
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