President's Report

Greetings from your new President:
The new Board is ramping up for 2012. At our next membership meeting on November 10th, we will once again have the Year-in Review program and the nominations from the floor for the Bert Eisenhour Award. If you can't make the meeting, you may nominate a candidate for this award by mailing the name of the member or couple to Liz Werth, CTCC Secretary, A lot of the newer members may not know what the Bert Eisenhour Award is all about. See the article below. The Board reviewed the tentative budget that will be proposed at the February Pizza Party.

We will celebrate our 50th year of CTCC and the Bird-News Newsletter at our Christmas Party on December 3rd at Chandler's, as well as the Bert Eisenhour Award and Ken's Krazy Auction door prize extravaganza

2012 will feature our regularly scheduled events: Pizza Party, Tech Session, Spring Tour to Hannibal Missouri, Picnic, Fall Tour etc. Additional events such as day tours, social activities, brunches, plays, car shows and cruises are being planned. If any of the membership has ideas for events, please contact any Board member to coordinate the activity. We are attempting to have two activities per month, especially between May and October. Help us to have another great year.

Finally, I would like to sincerely thank all of those who have served on the Board and as Officers this past year, and those who are serving this year. These are the people who construct the frame, body and interior of the club. However the Club membership is the engine. Without the engine, the Club goes nowhere. Let's build a strong engine in supporting the club by attending any events you can or even by lending a helping hand. A little extra help goes a long way in making a better engine.

Stay healthy and drive carefully. Pete Kramer.


The Bert Eisenhour Award (What is it?)
The recipient of the Bert Eisenhour Award is determined by the voting of Club members for a member or couple who has shown outstanding service beyond and above the expected level for the betterment of the Club.

Why is this award called THE BERT EISENHOUR AWARD? A few facts:

1961: Bert and five other T-Birders started your Club (Founded as T.S.C.C.C.- Thunderbird Sports Car Club of Chicagoland) The Volume1, Number 1 issue of the BIRD-NEWS was published in March of 1962.
1970: Bert assumed the title of BIRD-NEWS Editor, continuing to serve in the capacity, uninterrupted, to the present; even though there were some serious health issues, Bert has never missed an issue.

Being editor, he is responsible for the entire publication of the newsletter, i.e., content, format, etc. (Color printing was courtesy of the Valley Community Bank, St. Charles.) Since accepting the Editor's position 41 years ago, Bert has overseen the printing of 492 issues of the B-N. This equates to approximately 16.184 individual pieces, be they articles, pictures or whatever is to printed for the CTCC newsletter. (This number is purely a guess on my part.)

Go ahead- count the individual pieces in the monthly copy. Let's do some math:

Time needed to create each issue: this is a guesstimate: 40 hours. 40 hours time 492 issues equates to 19,240 hours using 2080- as the average hours worked per years equals an average of 40 hours per week.

Numbers figure out that Bert has worked on the B-N for 9 1/4 years in real time. Bert has set the standard for dedication to our Club. In addition to having earned any number of plaques in newsletter competitions, Bert has earned a Gold Award in the CTCI Newsletter Contest of 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 Golden award and has never missed a CTCI International Convention. This in a few sentences is why it is called the BERT EISENHOUR AWARD.

'Now you know" (Reprinted and updated from an article in the B-N Edition, January '09 by Len Keil).