The Shelby American (Winter 2021)

pre-registrations. This makes some people nervous. The upside is early registration is that it allows people to make concrete plans in advance. The downside is, of course, plans some- times change and require adjustments or refunds. Is there a happy medium? TALBOTT: I actually hate waiting as long as possible to accept convention pre-registrations. I have always felt that if someone is coming to the con- vention, they should be planning that well in advance of the final week prior to the event. If people are not going on the open track, concours or vintage racing, they can just walk in. We have never turned a walk-in away. SAAC: We were always of the mind that when someone cancelled their convention registration we should re- fund their money. It wasn’t like we would never see then again. We knew they would probably attend a future convention and keeping their money like some other organizations would have left a bad taste in their mouth. We tried to treat everyone like family. TALBOTT: That attitude has stuck with me and I’ve often quoted you. Gwenn and I have often told each other that members need to be treated like family, in spite of the fact that some of them almost insist on being treated poorly. SAAC: They often push the limits. They don’t understand how it works. Especially today. Things are a little different today than they were when we started. Today there is almost an adversary relationship because they have a sense of entitlement. “ I’m here, I paid my money, and now take care of me .” That’s why we try to get so many members involved with helping out at conventions - even for a half a day - so they can see that we are, essentially, all volunteers working to make the event successful and enjoyable for everyone. It’s like a family reunion. In the early days it was much easier to get people to help out. In the past twenty years there has been a change in people’s attitude. I think it’s socie- tal. Those who have only recently joined come to conventions with the idea that they are customers who de- mand a certain level of service and are quick to let you know when their ex- pectations have not been met. TALBOTT: That’s not likely to change in the future. SAAC: When we first began accepting payments for membership renewals, convention registrations and mer- chandise by email many people were concerned about providing credit card information to a website which might not be secure. Were there any actual cases of SAAC members being hacked or was this just the computer equiva- lent of an old wives tale? TALBOTT: We have never had a member actually trace a problem back to the membership office. I have often said to Gwenn that one of the best pieces of office equipment we pur- chased was a shredder. We use it con- stantly. In a way, you never really know if the shredder should get the credit for keeping criminals away from member info, but it never hurts. As I said earlier, we shred anything with personal information, even return ad- dresses on envelopes. SAAC: What is the biggest take-away you’ve had from going from an “aver- age member” to becoming involved with the club’s administration? TALBOTT: I never realized how much work it is to keep the membership of- fice going. It makes me exhausted watching Gwenn work on it like she does. The convention, the Annual, and anything else SAAC-related is like an iceberg. Members see about 10% of what it takes to run the club; the other 90% goes on behind the scenes. SAAC: What don’t members seem to understand about how the club oper- ates? TALBOTT: Continuing with the poli- cies which you established, we have tried to treat club members like a fam- ily. We are glad to work with members who are going through hardships; loss of jobs, health issues, etc. Two years ago a member lost his home and car in one of the California wildfires and today posted something on Facebook thanking SAAC and the membership office for helping him rebuild his col- lection of Shelby literature. While I have the floor, I will mention one more thing: We are a group of volunteers, and anything that the members could do to make our job easier would be greatly appreciated. We occasionally get emails from members with the subject line stating, “ When is my membership due? ” No name, no con- tent in the email, nothing more than that. Of course, we track down the info using the member’s email address, but it would be nice if that member took the additional three seconds to give us their name, city and state. SAAC: What is your favorite Shelby American car? The one you would buy if you hit Powerball? TALBOTT: My favorire car? Wow, that’s a tough one. In 2009, at the Indy Mecum auction, a 1965 Shelby crossed the block, Number 14, which I would have bought if I had unlimited re- sources. It was an early ‘65, and a great example of what the “brand” stands for. It went for about $235,000 then, and would easily go for double that today, I’m sure. So it would take the Powerball for me to buy that. SAAC: Ten years from now how are things with SAAC likely to be differ- ent? TALBOTT: I hope that more young people show an interest, take the reins, and lead the club into its second half-century. I am in my 60s, and many members are older than I am. I am the secong youngest member on the Board of Directors. For SAAC to have been around for over 45 years is a testament to the founders of the club, and I trust that SAAC will be around for another 50 years to show people that life can consist of more than work, social media, and worrying about what pandemic may be around the next corner. In order for SAAC to do that, we need the membership to step up and help, especially younger members. SAAC: How close are we to having a computer chip imbedded under a member’s skin so that they can renew their membership by just thinking about it? TALBOTT: We experimented with a pilot program to test that. We im- planted a chip into Howard Pardee’s ear lobe and all we received were pornographic images. The SHELBY AMERICAN Winter 2021 84