B.A.D.A.S.S., LLC Announcements

[MGBV8]

This is the official notification thread for B.A.D.A.S.S.

[MGBV8]

From Jim Blackwood:

Posted by: BlownMGB-V8
Date: June 19, 2025 11:36AM

BIG NEWS for those of us who use this message board, and apologies up front to Curtis, I was going to run this post past him before I put it up, but I don't think there's anything in here he'd be offended by and it does contain a fair bit of news so it should be welcome.

Since much of the recent excitement some of you might have become aware of was at the instigation of yours truly, I suspect maybe more than one denizen of the Deviants will want to know just WTF, over? More than a few changes all around us and we as individuals need to get a handle on it, like yesterday you know? 'What's this I hear about...' etc.

Well yes we did sort of upset the apple cart in some respects but it was all for a good cause and I'm sure you will mostly agree once the dust settles. As we all know this site has Historical Significance, at least for a certain subset of car enthusiasts. (I'm really starting to like that 'certain subset' business:-)  Regardless our heartfelt thanks go out to those who made it all possible. Kurt Schley the giant with the vision to see what it might become, the guys who looked after the Newsletter for awhile when Kurt could no longer continue, and Curtis who had the longest running Stewardship and made  some very good improvements. Now comes the day when those Denizens take matters into their own very capable hands. We are a band of Doers, willing to tolerate a certain level of talk but only for so long before action has to be taken. We've all proven that in our own lives. Those who will tread that uncommon path do not shirk when action is called for.

So anyway we sold the MG-Roadmaster. A tree fell on it and we took the insurance settlement and sold the car. Not what we expected but I think we made the most of it, considering the Roadmaster campaign had achieved its goals and active participation was on the decline. After all was said and done insurance proceeds were about $18K and we kept the car under a Salvage title. We then sold that to Jacob Tayrien (pronounced vega-Tarian) and hope to hear more of him. That brought us to around $20K after adding that to our balance of around 2 grand and paying off the other deal.

Speaking of which, I've been talking to Curtis and we agreed on a lot of things including bringing the website into the ownership and control of our own favorite charitable organization, the British American Deviant Automotive Sportscar Society (or BADASS for short). Now this is guaranteed to please a lot of people and those not so well pleased are as always more than welcome here in spite of their intransigence. May they become true believers in the end. The deal was as fair as we could make it all the way around and Curtis will be available when needed as an advisor, we more than welcome his input at any time and for any reason, recognizing that his disposable time is on a tight budget.

So we have taken a couple of sharp right turns, but hopefully we know what we are doing.

Now before this could even get off the ground we had to make some other changes. I can hear questions about this and that detail including, "You Did WHAT? Who authorized THAT?" so be cool, and think mellow thoughts, it's all good. There was a good bit of back room maneuvering going on for some time now. The first thing we did was get group approval at Townsend last year to move forward, and at Long Island we called a BADASS meeting with four agenda items, and I think we proceeded in accordance with all expected diligence.

First we changed the focus of the organization's mission statement from maintaining and campaigning the MGB-Roadmaster to the new mission to acquire and operate the BritishV8 website.
The next item was to sell the salvaged car to Jacob at the agreed price.
Third item was to approve the acquisition of the website in accordance with the mission statement, the background work of which had already been done.
And finally, we held officer elections with the results being Carl Floyd at the helm, Al Moore as his co-pilot (yeah, mixing metaphors but it's valid) and Mike Moore as Treasurer, each and every one of them with all the authority and responsibilities such offices represent. We felt as a group that the three of them give us the highest potential for good and interesting progress into the future that will benefit us all. As we know calls for officer elections are infrequent in the organization but it is the right of any member in good standing to lobby for such actions. We felt our new leaders are well positioned for whatever length of term they are willing to serve and it's my request to you all that we let them do the job as they see fit and not burden them with spurious demands. (You all see what I did there, right? I had to get the Spurious in there somehow, even though it is a separate organization.) Subsequent to wrapping up the Long Island meet, the car and title have been delivered to Jacob in Arizona and our team is involved in the process of transitioning the website with the least disruption. Have patience with them if there is a hiccup here and there. We've recently become comfortable with Carl as an acting administrator and now he has full authority to deal with any issues that come up and Al has the experience and know-how to back him up and make recommendations. Mike of course is well known to many of us and a trusted brother. I see good things ahead, let's do our utmost to support them in this new mission. Pledges of support are appropriate of course if you feel so inclined. Perhaps someone can add a link for Mike on that one. In the meantime I exhort you all to make use of the website just like in the old days, post your threads, and be active participants. We're rolling it back to it's glory days and then charging ahead. Give the crew time to get a few things in shape, but we hope to soon see changes like updated HIWD postings and whatever else Carl has in mind. I want to specifically thank you guys, and let us know if there is anything we can do to help. But more than anything else, PARTICIPATE and encourage participation in others. This is the ONLY member owned forum devoted to performance enhancements of ALL British cars and particularly those which have been given transplants of various types as well as the proper locus for meet notifications, reports and information. Let's make it our own and give it the participation we all deserve.

What did I forget? I'm sure there's something.

Jim Blackwood, founding President and former VP
British American Deviant Automotive Sportscar Society

[MGBV8]

We will be having a B.A.D.A.S.S. meeting Tuesday September 2nd to review review the following topics.  

1 - Election of a secretary  

2 - Establish a Board of Directors

3 - Current Finances

4- Investment of funds for a return that will help pay expenses.  
       B - If agreed a committee will be formed to investigate opportunities

Please join us at the link below if you have any interest in any of the above.

Meeting Time:  Tuesday September 2nd.  8pm Eastern, 7pm Central
Google Meet Link: https://meet.google.com/gwy-rjuv-ghx

[BlownMGB-V8]

This thread has been designated by Carl as the official one for information about the non-profit, "BADASS", this website, and by extension any organization sheltered under its umbrella. which at present includes the annual BritishV8 meet and *may* include the Spurious although that option is not finalized as of yet, some details still being decided which should determine which way that will go, either of which will be fine.

Since our new Secretary, Jim Miller hasn't been able to report here yet about the details of recent events I figured I should bring everyone up to date so far as I am able and he can correct my version where necessary. With that in mind then:

We did hold that video conference, at which several things happened and I'm not even going to try to keep things in order, this is stream-of-consciousness stuff here. Jim Miller was elected as Secretary as mentioned, and I think he'll do a stand up job of it. Let's give him the encouragement and support that position requires.

We decided that a Board of Directors is going to happen but at this point the details are sketchy. My opinion, based on the precedent that past committee chairmen were appointed by the President is that there is likely no issue with the President deciding the makeup of the first Board and appointing its members, and simply reporting the results to the membership. After that the Board can be self sustaining, managing its own membership. Does anyone have an objection to this process? Approvals would also be appreciated here. This method was not brought up in the conference but I feel it is the best way forwards. It has been suggested that all four officers, any committee chairmen, most recent President and Founding Presidents of any member organization be members of the Board. Seems reasonable to me, any comments? I think I would like to include Steve DeGroat as the Founding Treasurer of BADASS. We may end up with some redundancies, depending on the final determination, but qualifying more than one way should not be any problem.

There has been much discussion about the finances. At present our Treasurer Mike Moor has set up accounts with Chase Bank to hold the funds of BADASS, Bv8 and Spurious, each distinct and separately held. These accounts are under the Non-Profit umbrella and as such qualify for certain preferential treatments. Much ado about the wisdom and necessity of disclosure of the amounts of those funds with the mood leaning towards making the details available upon request of any interested member, disclosure in an open annual meeting but not posting that information online unless it is in a secured location not readily accessible to the general public. It seems to me that this approach has merit. Another suggestion was that we create a debit card account to be used as funding for the annual meet, holding a stated balance in that fund to be used and replenished by each organizer, with the card turned over to the next year's organizer after the meet. Present funding is at $2k based on this year's Long Island meet and past experience, that number will probably go up with inflation and we should have no problem sustaining that account.

Investment of surplus funds was also discussed. Depending on yield, BADASS holds sufficient assets to just about cover annual website costs and it would be foolish of us not to try to do just that. The question to be decided is at what level of risk and exactly what type of investments, as well as whether member organizations should also support the website. These are ongoing discussions which are yet to be decided so stay tuned. As always your contributions to the discussions are always appreciated, whether we agree with you or not.

Jim

[BlownMGB-V8]

We held a Board meeting a few days ago with the following members present:
Carl Floyd-President
Al Moor-VP
Jim Miller-Secretary
Mike Moor-Treasurer
Me (Jim Blackwood, Founder)
Robert Milks-Advisor
Scott Costanzo-Advisor

We do not have an official Board just yet, but these are some of the proposed members, I think we are going to add Rick Ingram and maybe 1 or 2 others and ask the members to approve them.

We are working on several issues. First, we want to find a relatively seamless means of incorporating the Spurious members into BADASS. The following has been proposed:

Create two tiers of membership. The lower tier is to be non-dues paying members. This class will have no voting rights and gets no bling but are a part of the organization and are therefore welcome in any discussion, not much different from before except that we are taking away your vote. Let's be perfectly transparent and clear about that. We are going to remove an important membership right. This is also the status of a dues-paying member who has neglected to keep up with their dues. Still a member but no vote. You want to vote, pay the dues.

The upper tier is full dues-paying membership and brings in the Spurious practice of an annual T-shirt and a chance of other occasional bling. These dues will first and foremost support the website if that is needed, then the annual BritishV8 meet, and at the discretion of the Board such other needs as are deemed necessary including but not limited to Charitable purposes and/or investment by the Treasurer.

To do that the Spurious need to be given the option of becoming members of BADASS, and BADASS as an organization has to accept them. This means a shift in control, duties and benefits but overall the organization will profit from it, as will the membership. In some individual cases the balance may not be optimal but should be no more than a fairly minor inconvenience. This will require a vote by the BADASS membership which we will be calling for in due course. The Spurious membership can approve or disapprove individually, or if their Charter Members so choose they can vote amongst themselves to accept or reject the proposal.

It has therefore been proposed that we institute the above tiered membership and invite the Spurious to join or merge their organization. Assuming no objection by the charter members, each individual Spurious in good standing and current on dues will become a full dues paying member of BADASS with full rights. At this time we will issue a call to the BADASS membership requiring the payment of dues to retain voting rights in the organization. Any Spurious who is also a current BADASS member will NOT be required to pay double dues. Any BADASS member who submits dues will automatically be considered for Spurious membership HOWEVER this in no way guarantees approval. This remains the exclusive right of the Spurious leadership. It is clear this includes the risk of the Spurious organization assuming control of BADASS, but since a probable majority of Spurious are already BADASS members this is unlikely to cause any problems and in all likelihood it will be business as normal for both organizations.

Once the dust has settled on that the Board will propose a new Mission Statement and Articles of Incorporation which we will submit to the members for approval.

One change I would propose for the organization to make the duties a bit less onerous is to have the membership elect a Board of Directors for a term of 5 years, and then let the Board appoint or elect the Officers on an as-needed basis. I see no good reason to drag the members into a banquet hall at every annual meet just to re-elect the existing officers. But if you disapprove please let your views be known, and you may get the chance to vote on that.

Jim