1992 COUNCIL OF COUNCILS MEETING
Airport Executel
Seattle, Washington
February 15, 1992

MINUTES OF OFFICERS MEETING

Jim McCleaf called the meeting to order at 9:45 A.M. and welcomed the reps to Seattle. He asked Rick, from Rocky Mountain Vans, to be the Sergeant-At-Arms for the rear of the room and Robert Lester, from the Maryland Van Council, to be the Sergeant-At-Arms for the middle row.

Minutes of the 1991 Council of Councils Meeting were read and approved with one correction. It was noted that Sharon Brooks ("Camel") was the first woman on the 9 member NATS board.

Jim introduced the Council Of Councils board to a round of applause. Jim introduced Chris Paige, from the host Council, who introduced the executive board of the Northwest Van Council and thanked everyone for coming.

Each representative introduced himself during roll call. There were 20 councils in attendance.

Jim read bids to host for the 1993 Council of Councils meeting. There were two bids. HOAVC made a bid for Kansas City, Missouri for February 12-14, and New Jersey Van Council made a bid for Atlantic City, New Jersey for February 5-7. Ballots were then passed out and New Jersey won the bid for the 1993 meeting.

The 9 member NATS board was introduced.

The Dairyland Van Nationals Committee gave a NATS presentation, followed by the traditional Question and Answer session. There will be several bands; there are 150 pre-reg to date, and there are currently more pre-reg from England than from California. There will be two bands at the warmup party; just show up and "hang out". There will not be any formal games, etc. at the warmup party. There is limited shade and somewhat limited water. Showers are limited at this time but the Committee is working on installing 10-12 more.
Truckin USA will not be coming to video the NATS. New York Van Council brought up a question about pets. It was noted that pets should be on a leash and that owners control their dogs or be asked to leave.
A liquor store will make hourly deliveries for orders phoned in. There will be no free beer. When free beer was mentioned to the insurance company they just shook their heads.
The hosts noted that there will be racing at the fairgrounds the day before, so don't plan on coming early. Porta-Potties can be ordered by clubs or groups for their own area, contact the Dairyland Van Nationals Comm. For info.

Howard Furtak will organize a convoy to the Nats from Chicago.

Jim gave Brian Walker of Vanning Now the floor. Brian noted that Rascal had suggested a different format for the Council Of Councils meeting. To avoid an afternoon meeting which can turn into a rehash of the morning meeting he suggested that we have one open meeting with a visitor gallery in the back. Each council could have a maximum of two people (reps or officers) in the front of the room to speak for that council, but everyone would be able to see and hear the meeting. The meeting would start at 10:00 AM and have the usual lunch break and tradeable session. Halfway through the afternoon portion of the meeting we could have open discussion and participation from the visitor gallery. This suggestion was greeted with a round of applause.

Wisconsin noted that the visitor gallery would probably need some policing to keep the meeting orderly. We might need several Sergeant-At-Arms. The visitor's gallery should also be advised as to what's going on. It was suggested that a one sheet agenda be handed out to everyone. Also, this might require a slightly larger room.

Next Brian asked about VANNING NOW, "How do you like it?" and got a round of applause.  He did note two major problems, however. First of all, there are less than 600 subscriptions. Where are the rest? There are a lot more than 600 vanners out there. Each of the councils needs to be a sales rep for the magazine if we are going to keep it going.
Secondly, the magazine is currently acting like the U.S. Congress; it's currently in a deficit spending mode. Unlike the Congress, we can't just print more money. He noted that the $10 subscription does not cover the cost of the magazine. To keep the magazine going we need ADVERTISEMENTS. However, to attract any real serious advertisers, we need a larger subscription base. So it is very important to get everyone in the councils subscribing to VANNING NOW to keep it viable for the years to come.

A suggestion was made at the Council Of Councils board meeting that, for openers, each council take out an advertisement. That would help the immediate needs. It was suggested that each council receive the advertising information page along with the minutes of the 1992 meeting. It was noted that a full page ad (camera ready) is $60 per issue.

Brian noted that we have anywhere from 7 to 15 people who move between issues of the magazine. The Post Office will not forward bulk mail. They send a photocopy (at a cost of 35 cents each) of the address of each undeliverable piece. Then the magazine has to send another copy of the magazine (at $2.00 for the magazine and $1.04 for first class postage) to get the mag to those subscribers.

Joe Madonia noted that VANNING NOW should not put in free ads for the NATS or any other van-in. Those ads should be paid for. Brian noted that he continues to run the ad for the NATS free because that is our showcase for vanning. New Jersey said that the host council for the annual Council Of Councils meeting should pay for an ad in the magazine.

Wisconsin said that we need to figure out a way to keep up the interest in vanning all year long. They noted that they only have about 75 members at the beginning of the year and build up to about 150 by the end of the season. Constant interest all year long should help keep the subscriptions up.

Howard Furtak asked if we have a cover letter explaining who the magazine is targeted for, etc. (i.e. magazine dedicated to custom vanning, aimed at the 25-45 age bracket, etc.). Brian said that there wasn't, but he would create one.

Joe Madonia said we should have a gentleman's agreement that a booth could be set up to vend VANNING NOW at any event, and especially at the Nats, without having to pay a vendor's fee. That would help spark some interest. At this point, Dairyland Van Nationals Committee presented a check for $100 as a donation to a round of applause.

At this point Jim McCleaf let each council bring up its topics for discussion.

It was first noted that it is important for each council to send in the Reps sheet, stating who your reps are, to the council hosting the Council Of Councils.

Northwest Van Council noted that young adults generally get bored at events, because there is nothing for them to do. Doc, of New England, said they tried having events for that age bracket and they didn't participate. Judith Pilon noted that the lack of participation might be because the kids  didn't like the game the adults selected. One solution would be to let the kids in the host club come up with the games. They know what their friends like to play. Another suggestion was to let that age group into the adult
games. Florida has done that by figuring out games that both adults and kids can play. Video games were also a suggestion, but the past problems with that in New York were briefly touched.

Midwest Vans noted that there is an overabundance of raffles at events. Howard said some events have as many as 13 raffles. If you've driven a long time to get to an event and it's late, you don't want to be hassled by 10 different groups trying to sell you a raffle ticket before you even get parked. Desperado noted that he is usually not there when the ticket is drawn, anyway. There should be a provision for having your name on the ticket, so you don't have to be present to win. Florida noted that they limit the number of raffles at an event. Anyone holding a raffle has to get permission from the host club prior to the event.

Doc said that a better way to raise funds is to make your fund raiser a game, like a dunking booth or pie in the face type game. Have a little fun with it.

MOVE said they want an end to under aged children being charged adult price. The group generally agreed that 16 and up is considered as an adult. They also stressed the need for an emergency phone number on the flyer. It was agreed that more and more events are putting the emergency phone number on the flyer. It was also stressed that it doesn't do any good to have the emergency phone number if you don't leave the part of the flyer with the number on it at home with the baby sitter, Mom & Dad, etc.

New Jersey would like to see membership I.D. cards for those pickup trucks that belong to mixed van & pickup clubs. This would help upon entrance into mixed events. They would also like to see the membership card recognized nationwide.

Southeast Virginia Van Council said we need to promote both VANNING NOW and the NATS.

Joe Madonia spoke on behalf of the vendors. He's been vending for several years now and vendor fees need to be considered. He said vendor fees at the NATS are OK, but a vendor fee of $100 for an event that only draws 200 vans is unreasonable. He also noted that, at some events, there are so many vendors that they don't make any money and they don't come back. He also noted that some states are getting strict on collection of sales tax and proof of insurance.

At this point the meeting was concluded.

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MINUTES OF THE AFTERNOON GENERAL MEETING

Brian Walker called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone.

John Cunningham gave a short recap of the morning meeting.

Brian introduced the Council Of Councils board and Chris Paige introduced the host council, the Northwest Van Council. Chris passed along the "pass along" plaque to New Jersey, host council for the 1993 meeting. At this point Rick Colon, of the Northwest Van Council, chaired the meeting. He thanked everyone for attending and thanked the Florida Van Council for hosting the Friday night Pajama Party.

Chris presented appreciation awards to the reps who attended the 1992 Council Of Councils meeting and also presented an award to Sharon Roy.

Joe Madonia fielded a short question and answer session on the NATS. He noted that the NATS board had a meeting yesterday and listened to bids. He then introduced the members of the NATS board.

In response to a question from the floor as to how the board decides who gets the NATS, Joe noted that there are several factors. They first inspect each proposed site and then bring recommendations to the committee. The committee then considers all of the factors in each bid and votes. Joe noted that you must bring your bid to the NATS board at Council Of Councils meeting the year ahead of when you want to do it. Joe noted that they have 3 bids for next years NATS. The members have voted and the results will be announced in July.

During open discussion Howard Furtak said one vendor is selling videos of the NATS and Midwest without any permission. Also, he noted that we don't know what's on the video, which may end up costing us a park in the future. Steve Capps of Florida said that something like that occurred in FVC and the video ended up being used in a divorce suit.

Colorado announced that they are putting together a yearbook of all the clubs in the world. They need a photo, list of members and logo.

Dairyland noted that pets must be on a leash, 10 feet or less. You need to keep kids and dogs under control.

Lynn suggested we not re-read the minutes of last years meeting each time. Brian Walker noted, that for legal reasons of the corporation, the minutes have the be read at the yearly business meeting. It was noted from the floor that, according to Robert's Rules of Order, you can make a motion to dispense with reading of the minutes.

New Jersey noted that they have a signed contract for the Marriott for Atlantic City for next year's meeting. They're ready to go. They will have a raffle to raffle off 2 rooms for the Atlantic City Council Of Councils meeting to be drawn at the NATS. Proceeds will go to housekeeping for the hotel.

Doc noted that we should start utilizing uniform recycling procedures, including using clear plastic bags for all recyclables (cans, bottles, etc.) and dark plastic for others.

Kansas City said that they will be "Back For More in '94"; another bid for the Council Of Councils meeting.

It was noted that there would be a bus ride at midnight in the pool and the meeting was concluded with no formal adjournment.

Minutes recorded by: John Cunningham, Sec. Council of Councils and  Heidi Tappert, Northwest Van Council

ATTENDEES AT THE 1992 COUNCIL OF COUNCILS MEETING

Northwest Van Council
British Columbia Van Assoc.
Southern Van Council
Texas Van Federation
New York City Van Council
Southern Ohio Van Council
Northern California Van Council
Heart Of America Van Council
Wisconsin Van Council
National Street Van Association of United Kingdom
Midwest Van Council
Colorado Van Council
West Lake Erie Van Council
New England Van Council
Van Association Council of Michigan
New Jersey Van Council
Maryland Van Council
Southeast Virginia Van Council
Florida Van Council
Northeast Ohio Van Congress