Antique Automobile Club of America - Central Connecticut Region

Section 1. This organization shall be known as the Central Connecticut Region, hereinafter “Region” of the Antique Automobile Club of America, hereinafter “AACA”.

Section 2. The purpose of this Region shall be to supplement the activities of the AACA; the preservation and enjoyment of self-propelled antique vehicles; the conduct of meetings, tours and programs relating to the development and history of automotive vehicles.

Section 3. The Region emblem shall be a facsimile of a Pope-Hartford automobile with the inscription “Central Connecticut Region – AACA.”

Section 1. The Board of Directors, hereinafter “Board”, shall consist of the present officers of the Region, the immediate Past President, and a minimum of six (6) other members to serve as follows:

Any members in addition to the six (6) specified above shall serve one (1) year term.

To qualify for consideration as a Director, a member must be in good standing in both the AACA and the Region, and have good attendance.

Section 2. The Board shall have the power to proceed in any manner as they, in their judgment, serve the best interests of the Region. The decision of a majority of the Directors present on any question shall be binding. A minimum of six (6) Directors, including at least two officers must be present during any vote by the Board to be valid.

Section 3. The Board shall have the responsibility for the preparation of any suggested changes to the Region By-Laws.

Section 4. Any vacancy occurring in the Board shall be filled by vote of the remaining Directors. (Refer to Section 2. above). The Director so elected shall serve for the unexpired term of his/her predecessor.

Section 5. Any member may serve on the Board of Directors. To be an accepted member of the Board, the member must be approved by the Board.

Section 6. Any member’s name can be removed from the membership list by a majority vote of the Board of Directors. (refer to section 2 above)

Section 1. The elected officers of this Region shall be President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. Said officers shall hold office for one year from the date of the election or until their successors are duly elected. In order to qualify for one of the officer positions, an individual must be a member in good standing in AACA and this Region. A vacancy in any office shall be filled by a vote of the Board as noted in ARTICLE II, Section 2.

Section 2. The schedule for election of officers shall be at the next regular meeting of the Region, following the meeting in which a slate of officers is presented to the membership. On the day of the election, nominations are also allowed from the floor.

Section 1. President – The President shall preside at all meetings of the Region and of the Board. In the absence of the President, the Vice President shall preside. If both the President and the Vice President are absent, the Board may appoint a temporary President to officiate. The President may appoint such standing or special committees from time to time as deemed desirable or necessary. The President shall appoint all committee chairpersons. A temporary President shall have the power to decide all questions of equal division and power and duties usually vested in the President of an organization.

Section 2. Vice President -- The Vice President shall act as the President in the absence of the President.

Section 3. Secretary – The Secretary shall handle all official correspondence of the Region and shall keep minutes of meetings of the Region and the Board. The Secretary shall perform such other duties as may be prescribed by the Board and those that pertain to said office.

a. The Treasurer shall collect and disburse all funds of the Region as may be ordered by the Board.

b. The Treasurer shall render a financial report at the Annual Meeting of members and whenever the President and/or the Board may require the same. The Treasurer shall be bonded at the expense of the Region if required to do so by the Board.

c. The Treasurer shall collect all dues payable by Region members. Any payment of AACA dues included with a member’s annual Region dues shall be forwarded to the AACA with proper accounting.

d. The Treasurer shall inform the Board (on an annual basis) and no later than the February Board meeting of any/all individuals who have failed to pay the current year’s AACA and Region dues.

e. The Treasurer is authorized to expend up to two hundred fifty dollars ($250.) for individual expenses authorized by the President. For expenditures exceeding the above stated amount, a vote of the Board is required.

f. Any requests for disbursement must be accompanied by an invoice or a bonifide receipt for an expenditure made by a member.

Section 5. Any officer of the Region may be removed for cause based on a two-thirds vote of all members of the Board.

Section 1. Members in good standing in the AACA are eligible for consideration for membership as members of the Region.

Section 2. Upon execution of a properly executed application for Region membership and upon presentation of a current AACA membership card or a properly executed application (with accompanying applicable fee) for the AACA, a new member may be accepted or rejected by the Board based upon the recommendation of the Membership Committee, if one exists.

Section 3. Dues – The amount of dues payable annually to the Region Treasurer shall be fixed as determined by the Board. The Board may solicit input from the membership, but the vote of the Board is final.

Section 4. Termination of membership – The membership of any Region member may be terminated for conduct unbecoming a member of the AACA or other cause by a two-thirds vote of the Board present at a special meeting of the Board called by the President, or at the next regularly scheduled Board meeting. A member will be afforded ample opportunity to hear and reply to the charges or reasons for suggested termination. Additionally, any member whose AACA and Region dues are not paid by January 31^st shall be dropped from the Region rolls, unless extenuating circumstances exist as determined by the Board.

Section 1. Region members shall hold at least one meeting annually (Annual Meeting) for the election of officers and to transact necessary business of the Region. Special meetings may be called by the President or upon a majority vote of the Board. Written notice, email, or telephone communication shall be provided to Region and/or Board members, as applicable, of all meetings of the Region or the Board.

Section 2. The annual election of officers, including the Board require a vote of the membership as specified in Article VI, Section 3.

Section 3. For purposes of conducting business at the Annual Meeting or any special meeting of the Region, twenty-five percent (25%) of the membership that are present at the meeting shall constitute a quorum. A vote of the majority of said assembled quorum shall be sufficient to approve any action requiring a membership vote.

Section 1. The members of any region shall not, as a group, use the name of the Antique Automobile Club of America in connection with a commercial or charitable project.

Section 2. A Region or its Chapters shall not hold any activity in conflict with an AACA event of the Antique Automobile Club of America.

Section 3. Announcements of major Region activities must be sent to the AACA Vice President – National Activities.

Section 4. The names and addresses of all Region officers and members must be sent to the AACA Secretary-Treasurer each year within thirty (30) calendar days after a local election is held.

Section 5. The Antique Automobile Club of America is a nonprofit organization; the members thereof including the members of this Region shall not be entitled to any individual or collective interest, participation, share, right and/or property right, in and to the assets of the AACA or Region; but such assets shall be the indivisible property of the AACA or Region thereof; no dividends, pecuniary profits, stock dividends or payments of like manner shall ever be declared or paid to the members of the AACA or Regions thereof.

Section 1. Upon compliance with the requirements of the AACA Board of Directors, one or more Chapters may be formed, as circumstances dictate, within the geographic area of a Region.

Section 2. The members of every Chapter shall be members in good standing of the AACA and the parent Region. Each Chapter shall be under the jurisdiction of the Region President unless special exception is authorized by the AACA Board of Directors.

Section 1. No amendments shall be made to Region By-Laws that nullify or alter any part of the AACA constitution or its By-Laws.

Section 2. Any proposed amendments or additions to the Region By-Laws must be presented to the membership in good standing one month before any scheduled vote on said changes.

Section 3. In order for any change in the Region By-Laws to become effective, a quorum, consisting of a minimum of twenty-five percent (25%) of the membership must be present to vote. A majority vote is required for passage by the assembled group.

Subject: New CT Traffic Law 2010 (A Must Read)

A ' must read ' - new law to Connecticut...

GOOD THING TO KNOW: New Law: If a patrol car is pulled over to the side of the road, you have to change to the next lane (away from the stopped vehicle) or slow down by 20 mph. Every state except Hawaii and Maryland and the D.C. has this law. In California, the "Move-over" law became operative on January 1, 2010. http://www.moveoveramerica.com/ , Connecticut-June 2009. A friend's son got a ticket for this recently. A police car (turned out it was 2 police cars) was on the side of the road giving a ticket to someone else. He slowed down to pass but did not move into the other lane. The second police car immediately pulled him over and gave him a ticket. He had never heard of the law. It is a fairly new law that states if any emergency vehicle is on the side of the road, if you are able, you are to move into the far lane.
The cost of the ticket was $754, with 3 points on your license and a mandatory court appearance. Please let everyone you know that drives about this new law. It is true (see details at the following web address). http://www.snopes.com/politics/traffic/moveover.asp

These Guys Can Paint, Too!

By George Scheyd

On February 27th if you drove up New Park Avenue in West Hartford you would have seen the AACA sign in

front of the Walton Company (proprietor Skip Weeks). Ten club members were celebrating camaraderie by

working on a club project, sanding and painting the staging for the car show in June. The morning began with

coffee and low fat, low calorie doughnuts. After the project was completed the members exchanged

pleasantries and were rewarded with an outstanding, super delicious, real Italian pasta dinner prepared by

“Chef” Lou Maglaty.

It was a fun project because ten industrious workers made light of the work. The following members were in

attendance: John Rogers, John Scheib, Ray Yirga, Bob Hand, Paul Bosco, Nick Nesci, Al Lepore, George Scheyd,

Skip Weeks and Lou Maglaty. Thanks to all.

Trip to NYC - 12/27/09

These are pics of our Model A Ford trip to NYC on Sunday Dec. 27^th (see picture section for the pictures). We had 40 cars from LINY, NJ, & CT clubs in all. Rockefeller Center was the first stop and then Times Sq. was the second. What a day we had, left Berlin, CT at 4am, met the L.I. Club on Long Island and they escorted us to the city. It was a fairly warm day after the rain that ended about 7:30am. 225 miles round trip, got home to Kensington at 6:30pm. Nick Nesci

Charitable Contributions for 2009

As most of you know, each year we donate a portion of our net proceeds from our car show net profits. Below is a list of organizations receiving contributions in 2009. The total this year is $1300, the same as last year and includes four donations to transportation related organizations. Thanks you Carl Earn for preparing the list and the related letters, etc.

1. St. Francis Care –Regional Cancer Center (on behalf of C. B. Ellis-car show field owner)

2. Glastonbury Chamber of Commerce

3. U.S.M.C. Toys For Tots

4. Paralyzed Veterans of America

5. Operation U.S.O. Care Package

6. Wounded warrior Project

7. Conn. Cellar Savers Fire Museum (meeting host in Sept.08)

8. Conn. Fire Museum (meeting host in Nov. 07)

9. New England Air Museum (host of our Jan 09 meeting)

10. Conn. Trolley Museum (host of our Sept. 09 meeting)

Connecticut Trolley Museum Meeting 9/12/09

On Saturday morning, 9/12 a small group of CCR-AACA was given a tour of the Trolley Museum, fire engine Museum and Bus Museum. These museums have many interesting and old pieces of equipment. Listed below are some of the collections, with a brief description.

Trolley Museum:

A discussion of the various types of cars, such as post horse drawn cars, single truck cars and the more common double truck cars. Many of the cars could be run from either end, requiring that only the overhead pole be switch and the seats flipped to reverse direction. Some cars were single ended cars. The cars run on 600 volts D.C. and most have air compressors to activate the brake system. Some of the older cars only had a hand brake (similar to a mechanical brake). The museum has about 50 trolleys and about 70 pieces of equipments in total (locomotives, service cars, etc.). The museum is the oldest trolley museum in America, being incorporated in 1940. The typical weight for a trolley is 18-22 tons. About 30 of the 50 trolleys are under cover. Some of the cars include:

1. 1895 car, originally run in Wildwood, NJ, with a hand brake.

2. 1922 New Orleans car No. 836. Older restoration, and was in the movie A Streetcar Named Desire, when it was used as a service car.

3. 1927 Car No. 2056, used in Springfield, MA. From 1927-40, then in Montreal from 1940-59. Currently sagging and the frame is corroded form the salt exposure.

4. 1906 Connecticut Co car no. 206. Work car, with a workshop on board.

5. 1910 Springfield, VT combination car (passengers and freight), which was obtained in 1947.

6. Northern Ohio Electric Railway Polar Car. Very ornate and includes a kitchen and wicker seating. Car is from the late 1800s.

7. 1980 Bradley Intl. Airport cars (2). Four were built by Ford, and they have the other two. These prototype cars were to run remotely on a special roadway. Couldn’t get them to work properly and the project was abandoned.

8. 1902 New Haven Car No. 355. Used until 1948 to bring passengers to Yale Bowl. This is an open car and on the last run, it carried 30 passengers.

9. 1924 Montreal open touring car No. 4. Custom built in Canada. 4 built and all remain (1 & 3 are in Canada and #3 is in Kennebunkport, Maine). Used until 1959, and it has subway wheels (thinner and larger).

10. 1912 Rio de Janeiro car. Used until 1951. This car was manufactured by the St. Louis Trolley Co. as a kit and was shipped to Brazil for assembly. The CTM obtained the car and it came to the U. S. via a coffee barge at the cost of about $10,000.

11. 1910 Hartford, Waterbury and New haven car, used until 1948. Car No. 1326, and it has longitudinal seating (more standing passengers).

12. 1950 Fairmount Track Vehicle. Used for track inspection. Motorized, with a 2 person capacity. Can be removed from the tracks and/or turned around by one person. Can go about 40 mph.

13. 1899 Powal Mills (Taftville, CT) locomotive, with a hand brake. Used by CTM to pull the repair car.

14. 1917 Electric locomotive from the Canadian Rail road. Light green and weights about 55 tons.

15. Gang Car, for repair work. Had a Ford flathead V-8.

16. 1924 Laconia Car Co. Type 5 trolley, which first ran on Boston’s elevated system, and then went to the underground subway system. This is car no. 5645, and all 4 motors were rebuilt. Motors are in series for the first few phases, and then in parallel for the final phases.

17. 1984 Brooklyn Rapid Transit car, originally open and then closed.

18. Canadian Car & Foundry trolley, which has heat for the winters. Obtained from Montreal for scrap value.

19. MBTA picture car, used by the trolley company’s president, and for conference committees. This car was streamlined like a bus.

General Motors wanted to promote their buses and they began to buy up the trolley lines (along with other major corporations) and close them down. This was the end of trolleys. Ironically, GM is now out of the bus business.

Fire Engine Museum

1. 1929 Ahrens-Fox, Cincinnati, Ohio, with centrifugal pump. 6 cylinder engine, with a 6 cylinder pump, next to the engine (appears to be a 12 cylinder engine). Ahrens-Fox had the pump in the front of the engine.

2. 1927 Mack 1000 GPM pumper. Used until the 1950s.

3. 1928 American-LaFrance 1000 GPM pumper. This engine was at the famous 1944 Hartford circus fire.

4. 1967 Walter CFR airport truck, equipped to handle burning metals. Handmade body, with a 677 Detroit diesel engine, with AWD. Obtain from P & W, from the Renscheler Field Airport.

5. 1942 GMC Crash Truck, still owned by the State. Was used to protect Brainard Field.

6. 1947 Mack Pumper.

7. 1948 American-LaFrance ladder truck. Was open, but had an enclosed cab added in 1984.

8. 1931 GMC/LaFrance. GMC built the chassis and a LaFrance boby was added. This reduced the cost to the town. An ALF truck may have cost $12,000 at the time, versus $5,500 for this truck. They were produced from 1928-31.

9. 1934 Seagrave cab with right hand drive and a 1929 ladder truck, with a separate driver. This truck was from Springfield.

10. 1940 Ford/LaFrance from New Hartford. Chassis by Ford, for the same reason as #8 above. Cost was about $5,000-$6,000.

11. 1926 American LaFrance 750 gallon pumper from Hartsdale, NY. Right hand drive.

12. 1923 REO touring car, with a purchased body. Again, to save money, a large car chassis was utilized. This is a 35 GPM pumper from the Lost Acres Fire Dept. in Granby , CT.

13. 1930 Maxim (produced 1915 to 1980). Was originally a pumper from Guildford, CT, to protect the ship yards. This is a hose wagon Model B10, now and would carry the hoses to the fire, and connect up with a pumper.

14. 1945 Seagrave from United Nuclear Corp. in Montville, which obtained it from Electric Boat.

15. 1936 Mack with babbit bearings. Under restoration. 600 GPM Pumper. 8000 miles on the truck. Most fire trucks are very low mileage. The truck has an overhead ladder storage rack, so the firemen could sit underneath the ladder.

16. Burt also went on to explain the fire alarm system they have at the museums, which is a 1904 Gangwell , which runs on 48 volts, from batteries. The Trolley museum uses the 600 volts from the trolley line and steps it down to 48 volts. The system was originally used in Danielson, CT. They also have a 1940 system , originally used in Althol. MA.

Bus Museum

1. 1948 GMC Bus, with an Allison T. Q. donut 2 cycle engine.

2. 1936 American Car & Foundry-Brill (trolley car manufacturer) bus, from Springfield, MA. The bus has a Hall-Scott pancake engine (they also manufactured aircraft engines). NHRR was the owner of this bus line.

3. 1947 GMC from the CR & L bus line, which ran until 1972. This bus ran in Waterbury, CT.

4. 1939 Yellow Coach Model 740-238. Yellow coach was owned by GMC from 1923 through the mid 1980s.

5. 1962 GMC

6. 1980s Grumman bus

7. 1955 Yellow bus (owned by GMC).

Our host and co-owner Ray Zisa gave us an overview of the business and went on to describe the cars in the shop.

The Corvette Center (CC) has been in business since 1978 (31 years), starting in Bolton, CT and moving to its’ current location in the late 1980s. The CC does restorations and modifications, to include body, paint, mechanical and electrical work. They do some paint work for Calloway Corvette and they use various vendors for some of their work. Ray belongs to several Corvette Clubs and judges at Corvette events. He also owns several racing Corvettes, plus other vintage cars. Some of the cars in the shop included:

2. 1978 white Corvette in nice shape for sale (older owner can’t get in and out of the car easily).

3. 1966 blue big block roadster. The car is in for a restoration. The owner is a collector with a number of 67-68 big block Corvettes.

4. 1967 chassis with a 327 ci 4 speed for restoration. This is an original car that was extremely dirty.

5. 1967 Corvette 427/435 big block. This is a six figure car due to its rarity and documentation. Big block car are generally worth twice as much as small block cars.

6. 1965 396 ci big block convertible. This is a $100,000 car, which is used as a driver.

8. 1959 coupe, with a new reproduction frame ($5K for the frame), with leaf springs (1963 was the introduction of independent suspension).

9. 750-800 HP Corvette, used for racing. These cars are raced at track in NH, PA and several in NY.

11. 1965 Corvette body on a newer stainless steel frame with a 427 ci, 500 HP engine. It has late model suspension. They call this type car a Vette Rod. Corvette bodies are now press molded and held together with binding strips and 3M glue. The nose alone on this car is in six pieces.

12. CC uses blasting to strip the paint off the fiberglass, as it leaves fewer marks on the surface. CC uses American Dry Stripping for this work. CC does their painting in a downdraft paint booth installed in 1987.

13. 1957 Corvette, which had been a show winner before the owner decided to have it repainted. CC had to strip off 9-10 coats of paint and found much body damage underneath. All the panels, except two, had to be replaced.

15. 1999 Corvette that was in a soft roll on to the roof. The roof and front end has to be replaced. This model Corvette get about 28-30 mpg at highway speed and cruises at 1500 rpm. The 5^th and 6^th gears are overdrive.

A great meeting, that didn’t break up until almost 9 PM. We had 24 members and guests in attendance. Our thanks to our host, Ray Zisa.

As a reminder, this is the last hard copy of the Distributor Newsletter you will be receiving, unless you told John Aucoin, our newsletter that you had to have a hardcopy. The savings in money (printing and postage) will help offset the website costs and any remainder will go to our treasury. The big savings will be in time, which will make John very happy. Please visit our website at CENNCONNAACA.org to see all the information you now get in the newsletter, plus pictures of past events, plus some future articles. Also, the website will be out means to notify the membership promptly of a cancellation or postponement of an event. Thank you for your support.

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An article of interest - Please click HERE for an interesting article on Dick Fuchs '72 Mustange.