Norine Haas, IATC President

    Welcome to each and every one of you! 

    I want to begin by thanking David Hammond and Dorothy Driskell and the faithful committee here in Columbus for the wonderful work they have done to make this convention a pleasurable event for all of us.  It takes effort and planning to bring a meeting such as this to life.  It is all the more special that we are here as you celebrate your 90th year as a Torch Club.

    Because she was a member of the Columbus Club, I want next to acknowledge the contributions that the late Linda Jefferson made to Torch International.  She was a valued friend and IATC Board member, creator of marvelous regional newsletters that we all saw as model communications, leader of an extraordinary meeting for regional officers, a faithful visitor of the region’s clubs in Youngstown, Akron, Cincinnati, Lima and Toledo, and a passionate cheerleader for Torch in general.  Her death one week after we had been together in Baltimore for our February Board meeting shocked us.

    My term as President of the Association is just about over, and it has been an honor to serve in this capacity. As we open the convention this year, I want to begin our thinking about the state of Torch and outline how the IATC Board has moved to update and enhance the Torch experience for our clubs.

• You will remember that, after much discussion, the Board voted two years ago to transition from employing the rather expensive management firm, Association Builders in Virginia, to our Region 6 Director and manager of his own marketing company, Jim Coppinger, a long-time member of the Kalamazoo Club.  That continues to be the perfect solution for our Association.  Jim has brought many talents to our organization, and received high marks for his responsiveness to the need of our clubs and individual members.  With encouragement from the Board, he reduced expenses, balanced the budget, simplified association procedures, greatly reduced unnecessary paperwork, and revised and rebranded our materials.  The new layout and design you have seen in our brochure, the Torchlight, Leader Letter and The Torch magazine over the past few years are samples of his handiwork.  He has formed a fine partnership with Scott Stanfield, our excellent magazine editor. 

• Together, Jim and I completely redid the New Member Packet, and revamped the distribution procedure for the packet to save treasurers from sending in little checks to order a packet or two at a time.  And just in general, Jim has reorganized everything possible to tie up loose ends!

•  I am not out of order in stating that we inherited a data base that was a true nightmare.  Jim and IT specialist Mark Dahmke, a member of the Lincoln Club, have worked tirelessly to figure out who is who among our members, living or dead, active or inactive.  This has required cooperation from local club officers that is greatly appreciated.  Thank you so much—we could not have done this task thus far without your cooperation!  Even after two years, though they are so much improved, the database and refinement of the IATC website are still a work in progress.

• We made a good decision in dividing Region 1 into two geographical parts—Region 1 now comprises the five clubs in the coastal eastern section, and the six clubs in the inland western area compose the renumbered Region 10.  Their Regional Directors are Diana Hinchcliff and Tim Spaeder respectively, both finding the territory much easier to manage than the 11 clubs in the area from Erie, Pennsylvania to Massachusetts.  The Board will be considering other methods of covering our larger geographical areas as well.
  

• We have created a business plan, and continue to refine and use it.  Our active Finance Committee’s duty is to monitor the budget and see that the dues received from our clubs are used with care.  We value the partnership with the Torch Foundation, which has provided financial assistance for the past two years to publish the papers in the Torch magazine. The Foundation has made dramatic strides in the past few years, offering a grants program for clubs and providing financial assistance in tandem with the IATC for new club development.  For advice about this assistance, call Jim or Dick Lynch who will be happy to help.

• One of the best Board decisions made over the past three years was to get back to having face-to-face winter meetings in Baltimore, a central airport hub.  Though we have a phone conference every other month, our working and discussing important issues in person and having time to socialize and become better acquainted have provided major benefits.  Major change has come from in-depth conversations about what is best for our organization.  For example, it was much easier to discuss the management change that has proved so beneficial— for such decisions telephone consultation cannot do the job.  There is a financial cost involved in having a yearly winter meeting, but it has proved to be worth every penny.

• As our clubs age, burnout sometimes takes a toll, and finding leadership becomes a problem.  Though we have four new clubs in Nebraska, one in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and one in Sarasota Springs, NY, in the last three years, we have also lost five clubs in that amount of time.  A net gain of one club over three years makes it a challenge to reach the 100 clubs goal we have set for our Centennial Celebration in 2024, but the Board has been tackling this as well.  The Board cannot do this alone—we need all of our Clubs to consider where they can be part of the expansion of Torch Clubs in the U.S. and in Canada.

• Losing clubs has been one of my biggest concerns during the time I have been president, and so I am pleased that Dick Fink, our incoming President, has decided that one of his major goals will be working to preserve and enhance clubs that seem to be struggling.   We have workshops to look forward to this week to discuss club enhancement and new club development.  And I have appointed a Club and Member Relations Committee to begin to help Dick strategize how best to save clubs that appear to be losing ground.   This discussion is beginning in earnest.

• Speaking of the Centennial Celebration, we have just eight years to reach the goal of 100 clubs and 5,000 members, but we do have eight years!  Much can be accomplished in that time, and I have appointed a Centennial Committee to plan for this major milestone.  One person from each region has agreed to serve with Stephen Toy as committee Chair.  That group composed of long-time and newer members will work together as time goes by.

• We are placing special emphasis on new club development, since we hope to have 100 clubs by 2024, and would love to have one in Minneapolis where Torch began.  Materials have been created to assist in establishing new clubs, including suggestions such as the best locations and how to begin.  Funds are available to assist with start-ups as well.  Having created four clubs and consulted on a couple of others, Membership Chair Francis Moul is our New Club Guru.  Don’t hesitate to call upon his expertise!

• One of the most exciting developments in a long time has been Torch Tours.  During our winter meeting of the Board in 2015, someone mentioned that the subject of Torch Tours had come up over and over again for at least a decade, so we decided that was enough talk: let’s move on this.  If it was a good idea ten years ago, it’s a good idea now.  We were fortunate that Past President Charles Carlson, a world traveler, was willing to research travel companies and after hearing his recommendation, we agreed that Road Scholar was our best bet.  You all must have heard by now about the marvelous tour last February to Cuba.  The pictures exhibited here at the convention prove how enjoyable the tour was, and I was more than proud to hear that the experienced Road Scholar tour leader said ours was the most intelligent, interesting group she ever led.  And the group that complained the least.  They loved being together as Torch Club members. 

• Another Torch Tour is scheduled for March 2017 with the Panama Canal and Costa Rica on the itinerary.  The maximum number for the tour is seventeen, and seven people have already signed up to go.  Perhaps you will decide to be one of the ten others who will have this opportunity to travel with fellow Torch members.  Jim Coppinger will be happy to provide details.

•  One more thing that took two years to accomplish is finally up and going, and that is the fact that we are now on Wikipedia.  Wonders never cease.  I will have to keep an eye on our submission to see that it carries our new tagline:  Torch: A Forum for Reasoned Discourse.

• I have enjoyed the last two years, traveling around the country, visiting a number of clubs and workshops.  The highlight of a presidency is presiding over the charter celebration for a new club, which I was fortunate enough to enjoy twice, first in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and later in Saratoga, New York.  Torch people never disappoint me—across the Board they are smart, interesting and hospitable people.  Thanks for the fine welcomes I have received, whether in person or on the phone. 

    I move on to the position of Past President with many happy memories!

    My tenure as president of the IATC will cover two years of our march toward our 100th birthday.  In 2015, the IATC Board created a Century Project that called for an increase in the number of clubs from 69 to 100 and in membership from 2100 to 5,000 by 2024.  Ambitious?  Yes.  Doable?  Yes. But not without a specific set of actions.

    It is encouraging that even without a coordinated effort, we increased membership this past year from 2226 to 2404 and added three new clubs. Unfortunately, we lost two clubs during the same time.

    Gaining and losing has been a part of our history.  Our history also demonstrates that without a person or two leading the charge, club growth remains static. To achieve our twin goals, we need to develop a plan. 

    Our history tells us that when we make a concerted and coordinated effort, we grow both membership and clubs.  In 1961 we developed our 100th club.  We exceeded 5,000 members in the 1960s.  We know by experience that we can reverse the erosion of clubs and membership when these goals are targeted.  During this past year, we have had several examples of members developing new clubs and resurrecting clubs that seemed to be moving toward oblivion. 

    As we have examined the state of our overall organization, several things are clear. First, it is possible to develop new clubs in areas without a history of Torch Clubs. Second, it is possible to invigorate weak clubs from potential disappearance to vitality. Third, neither of these two accomplishments happen automatically or without hard work.

    Therefore, the Board of IATC agreed to target two regions to fund a special project to develop evidence to use to help us move more effectively toward our goals.  We expect over the next six months to identify, produce a club assessment tool to locate weak clubs before they disappear and suggest ways to work with weak clubs to being them into a more vibrant situation.

    At our winter Board meeting in February 2017, the Board will decide whether we have a solid foundation to continue this effort into the future.

    As always, ideas from the membership are welcome.

    On a different kind of note: in September, Jim Coppinger will be with the Buffalo Club celebrating their 90th anniversary, and I will be celebrating the inaugural meeting of our newest club in Wayne, Nebraska.

   Let me end with a quotation from the person responsible for years of club enthusiasm in Kalamazoo, Leonard Kercher, who penned this credo for all Torch Clubs in 1955: 

   "The first value of Torch is the free and responsible mind."