MCA Regional Directors Summit Final Update October 2012

Hello MCA Regional Directors, Presidents and Members at Large,
Well it’s been a couple of weeks since the Big Summit in Dallas Texas on October 12-13 and what a great Mustang weekend it was! Sorry for taking a short week off from the Mustang world, but I had to reenergize and come down off of cloud nine. To start with, there were around 150 MCA members at the Meet and Greet Friday evening. When you arrived at the Hotel, the first thing you saw was the MCA welcome table and at that point you received your special Ford lanyard and name badge. Then you were directed to the Meet & Greet room to pick up your special goodie bag. In the bag were some cool things. Regional Directors (only) got treated with a special SS SVT Mustang coffee mug. All in attendance received SS Mustang water bottles, Ford 36 x 24 double sided New Boss 302 cool Posters, Shelby GT 500 posters, Carroll Shelby memorial stickers, pens, and more all packed in a very special Heacock Classic insurance bag.
The Summit was supposed to start at 6:00 PM Friday evening but it didn't work out that way. It started as soon as you walked into the Hotel lobby. The Hotel was full of excitement, thanks to all of the special guests. Ford Racing sent John Clor, Gary Patterson was on hand from Shelby American, and Mr. Boss 302 himself, Donald Farr of Mustang Monthly Magazine were all there and ready to go! As soon as they got to the Summit, they all jumped in and got down to Mustang business. The next time you see Donald Farr, ask him how long it took him to run out of his new Boss 302 book! It was about one hour. Then came the cool Ford Boss 302 poster singing. Donald, John Clor and Austin Craig wore out their pens signing posters and books! All in all, it was a great time as MCA members and Regional Directors got to spend quality time with some really cool Mustang people like Jeff Lacina, The Track Guy, Classic Design Concepts, MCA Head Judge Jim Silverman and Marty Rupp who were at the judging table answering all kinds of questions.
Also, all the the MCA Top Brass was on hand to meet and greet the members and Regionals Directors in attandance. One of the surprise guest Friday evening was Mr. Edgar Carlson. Now, most MCA members have no ideal who Edgar is but just ask anyone in the Ford world & Shelby world and they will tell you that Edgar works behinds the sceens promoting Mustangs at large. As one of our guest speakers stated after the Summit was over, we (MCA) had some key industry people at the MCA Summit this year.
It was posted on the forums asking if the MCA could share an up date on what went on at the Summit Saturday October 13 so on to the meat of the 2012 MCA's Regional Directors Summit. MCA President Steve Prewitt started of by introducing the National Board of Directors. He then presented a few special MCA President's awards to the MCA Regional Clubs that had not been present at the Grand National in Oklahoma in September. Up next was MCA office manager Kristie Moore. Kristie is the voice of the MCA and I'm glad that everyone got to meet this cool, hard working Mustang lady. Up next was Ms. Mary Jean Wesche, the Editor of the MCA's great monthly magazine, Mustang Time’s. MJ went over all the do’s and don’t's on how to get your Mustang's and club's stories, pictures, and national or regional show information to her and the dead line dates for each month. The Pictures submitted for the Mustang Times have to be a specific size , both in demissions and pixels, in order to be used. As MJ put it several times, there is a deadline for each month so email MJ if you are not sure about the dates.
Since Mrs. Bonnie Madden with Heacock Classic Insurance was unable to attend, MCA VP Ed Hockaday gave a run down on how important MCA Regional Club Insurance is. MCA Regional Clubs can purchase a Regional Club general liability policy that is very inexpensive because it's under the MCA's National Show Insurance policy. Heacock also has all kinds of insurance programs for your classic . late model and newer Ford Mustang. One very important part of the Regional Club Policy is, since it falls under the master policy for General Liability coverage, it expires and renews every February 25th, the same date the MCA's insurance policy expires and comes due. Therefore, you have to plan to get your coverage as close to the February 25th date as possible to be covered for the entire year. For more information, contact Bonnie Madden at Heacock Classic Insurance or Kristie in the MCA office.
After a short break we heard from MCA Regional Director Todd Quick from Wild West Mustang Club Beaumont Texas and Mike Rey, President of the Mustang Owners of SE Michigan. I asked them to share their stories on what made their MCA Regional Clubs so successful. Through out the day we also heard from Regional Directors Ward lindsey of the Mid South Mustang Club in Memphis, Tennessee and Chlee Green, President of the Northside Mustang Car Club in Cleveland, Texas. Each told different stories about the running of their MCA Regional Clubs but they had the same ending; their MCA clubs are on the move, big time! I have received lots of feed back on this part of the MCA's Regional Directors Summit and it appears that everyone enjoyed hearing from the MCA Regional Directors and about their MCA Regional Club's success.
Another area covered by the MCA's Regional Directors Summit was MCA Judging at our National Shows. Jim Silverman, National Head Judge for the 3rd-5th generation Mustangs talked about the new MCA on line judge testing and encouraged all MCA Regional Directors to get their club's members involved . As Jim put it, the MCA needs more certified and gold card judges. Jim is expecting the 2013 MCA Grand National at Walt Disney World will need all the certified & gold cards judges we can muster.
We also heard from Donald Farr, Mustang Monthly Editor and author of the MUSTANG BOSS 302; Legend to Modern Muscle Car. Donald was asked about the new 2013 Boss 302 book that just came out and he said, "I haven’t seen it yet, only new Boss owners so far". He also talked about the new Shelby Tribute Magazine he worked on that has not hit the newsstands yet. Donald also gave away two Shelby Tribute Magazines to two lucky attendees in the give away drawings. Of course my number was not drawn! Well, I guess I can wait for two more weeks.
After lunch, heard from Ford Racing's John Clor. I will say it again. If you've never sat through one of John Clor's presentations, you are missing out big time! After the Summit Saturday evening, I thanked John for coming out to the Summit. John said you could feel the excitement in room all day. Gary Patterson, Shelby VP, also gave a cool Shelby presentation. A first for me and probably a lot of other people, too. Gary also talked about the 2013 GT 350 and GT 500 Supper Snake along with some of the other cool Shelby packages that are available for you. Did you know you can have your V-6 Mustang turned into a Shelby? There's a package available for those Mustangs, too! Wouldn't it be cool to have one of them to ride around in and still get 30 miles to the gallon?
One thing's for sure. I will be in Las Vegas in 2014. OK, here's what tons of people are asking for, the report on the 50th Mustang Birthday Celebration as given by the 50th's Executive Director, Ron Bramlett. Ron reports that the 50th will be celebrated with three total Mustang 50th events, scheduled over two weekends; the Mustang 50th Birthday Celebration "kick off party" in Norman, Oklahoma and then the actual Mustang 50th Birthday Celebrations, one at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and the other at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It will be a wild two weeks, to say the least!
The first Mustang 50th event will be the Mustang 50th Birthday Celebration's Pony Drives which will truly be the "Mustang Drive of a Lifetime!", as Ron told us all. No matter where you are in the United States, you will be able to hook up with a Pony Drive in your area that is headed to Norman, Oklahoma for the kick off party. This will allow Mustang enthusiasts from all over the world to drive their Mustang with an ever increasing amount of Mustangs that are all going to the same place each day and night. The Pony Drives will include scheduled stops for lunch, shows, gathering and other past times along the way. Each night, there will be a scheduled stop at a host hotel which will be where the Pony Drives will all stay at after driving approximatley 300 to 400 miles each day. The routes will be planned out to all arrive in Norman on Friday, April 11th, 2014 for two days rest and the Mustang gathering of a lifetime! By the way, just so you know, Norman is just a few miles from Mustang, Oklahoma and Oklahoma City,
On Sunday, August 13, 2014, two Pony Drives will pull out of Norman, Oklahoma and head in opposite directions to either Charlotte, North Carolina or Las Vegas, Nevada for the Mustang 50th Birthday Celebrations. As it is still over a year and a half away, all of the plans and scheduling have not been set in stone. What we do know is that Opening Ceremonies will be conducted on Thursday, April 17, 2014. This will be a very historic date in automotive history as it will be the actual 50th birthday of the Mustang which was first sold n April 17, 1964. As any seasoned Mustang enthusiast will tell you, on Thursday night, April 16th, 1964, thousands of buyers stood in long lines at their local Ford Dealerships overnight to be able to purchase a Ford Mustang on the first day of sales which was Friday, April 17th, 1964. 50 years later, in the wake of on-line sales and ordering and E-bay Motors, there are no long lines outside the Ford Dealerships. But many special models like the Laguna Seca Boss 302 still evoke those "gotta have" feelings that the original first generation Mustang brought out in so many people almost 50 years ago. It's a magical connection to a true American car that has been with us for many generations continuous for over 48 years! To miss the Mustang 50th Birthday Celebration would not be cool!
As for activities once you get to either Charlotte or Las Vegas, there will Open Track road racing and parade laps around the road courses, drag racing, Pony Trails to go on to explore the regions, guest speakers, dinners, historic displays, and many other special events and celebrations to take up your time and burn off your energy. In fact, the 4 days of the Mustang 50th Birthday Celebration will fly by so fast that you'll wish it was longer; much longer! As these events and special celebrations are scheduled in, we will keep you posted. At this time, please go to the Mustang Club of America's website at www.mustang.org for all of the up to date information. Entry forms will be coming soon! I hope that helps to answer some of your questions about the 50th celebrations. Ron and his committee are working very hard to make this 50th one you will never forget.
I would like to personally thank Heacock Classic insurance for the 150 very nice bags, car covers & pens that they sent. I would also like to thank Classic Design Concept for the Shirts and gift certificates. Special thanks to Scott Hoag at MRT for the gift certificates, shirts and New Mustang radio short antenna, Craig Chesley of Snake Oil Products for the seat belts and 12 nice fender covers, Jeff and Julie Yergovich at R &A Motor Sports for the Wild Horses magazine and for hauling the 1967 Mustang MYSTICALBUILD all the way from Missouri for the Summit, to Jeff Lacina, The Track Guy for the so cool Air pump, Jim Silverman for the Judging flashlights, Shelby American for the 150 Carroll Shelby tribune window stickers , and everyone else who attended and made the 3rd Annual Regional Directors Summit a success. Also, a HUGE THANKS goes out to Ford Motor Company Marketing Manager Steve Ling for making it possible to give each and everyone who attended the MCA Regional Directors Summit, lanyards and ID cards, cool BOSS 302 posters, Shelby posters, T-shirts, Mustang SS water bottles and SVT SS Coffee mugs (RD's only). As an added bonus, all MCA Regional Directors left with a new 2012-13 RD hand book. Please make good use of them. For the Regional Directors that could not make it to the Summit this year, the new RD hand book will be available on line in the Regional Directors forum real soon.
In closing, it was a great event and I'm looking forward to seeing you all next year at the Bigger and better Regional Directors Summit in October 2013.
Horace Collums
MCA Regional Directors Summit Chairman
Cypress, Texas