The effect of current USA administration policy on our group operations...

[mdsalemi]

The answer is: we don't know.

What we do know is that many things we do as a group (or club) rely on international sourcing. As we are an international group this should be of no surprise.

Our magazine, Pagoda World, is currently printed in North Carolina. It's printed on a Japanese press, (and various bindery equipment from other countries) which means support and parts for these machines may very well be going up, drastically, in cost. That means the landed price for finished, printed goods will rise. We already saw a significant rise in costs with the supply chain crisis of 2020-2022, which went hand in hand with a drastic rise in mailing costs.

Paper is sourced from all over, but it should known that a majority of fine quality printing paper such as that we use, is sourced from Canada. If that goes up in price, Economics 101 will tell you that any equivalent paper stock sourced in the USA from the USA will also automatically rise in price.

Our past publication of the Pagoda World Book was printed in Canada. It is likely we'd use the same printer in the future.

Our embroidered patches we send out were made in China.

Our single biggest costs as a group are Pagoda World comprised of printing and shipping. Our next edition isn't until September, so we will have some months to let the dust settle on what's happening before we make any moves.

We have the ability to move printing to non-USA locations and help mitigate some costs.

Stay tuned.

[John Betsch - "SADIE"]

Thank you for your continued diligence in keeping members informed and on top of the latest wrinkle in the world we live in. 

Every day is a "new day" as they say.  It's noteworthy to have someone ""On top of things"  and appreciated

Merci

JB

[zoegrlh]

Here here

[TOMNISTUFF]

I occasionally remember my father's response when, in 1973, I was a newly promoted 28 year old Engineering Manager at Ford Motor Company, who had the new privilege of driving any new Ford product that I preferred to drive free, on the condition that I turned it back in with a written evaluation and ordered a new different Ford model each six months, I complained in his presence about how much gasoline my new Thunderbird used.  He said,"Anyone who has to drive a new luxury car free and change it for a different one every six months has no right to complain about gas prices.
My father would have had a similar opinion about our discussion of costs associated with vintage Mercedes Roadster Club membership.  I'm just thankful that mine has not been keyed or firebombed (yet). 
Tom Kizer

[mdsalemi]

...no right to complain...

Tom, I have no idea where you were intending on going with this??!!

My wife worked for Ford Motor for more than 30 years beginning in 1985. Most managers of a certain level were ONLY entitled to one vehicle per year. Once you achieved another level, it was two cars. It was NEVER free unless you achieved a very high management level which were just a small number of managers corporate wide; a step below VP. Discounted, with service and insurance included, but never free. During times of some disruption to production, certain vehicles were excluded; some were forced. Sometimes you had to keep your "management lease car" for more than a year; during the supply chain disruption 2020-2023, some had the same vehicle for close to three years. What you experienced in the 1970s didn't extend to the 1990s and is vastly different today. But I digress...

We have an obligation (as "managers" of this entity) to best manage all of our affairs. The things most likely to be affected with this turmoil and wildly gyrating uncertainty are the items that we spend the most amount of your membership fees on. When confronted with higher costs, the easiest thing to do is raise prices. That's not management, that's skating to capitulation. The more intelligent thing to do is to leverage our knowledge of markets and manage things to keep these costs as low as possible while maintaining quality. I think we can do that.

Some entities, for profit and non-profits alike, have no idea what is going on because the whimsical proclamations of our administration defy action. Make a plan for tariffs yesterday morning, and you were thwarted at mid-day. And, who could or would have predicted such venomous animosity towards CANADA of all places, our best friend and neighbor?

As I indicated, we have a bit of a luxury: we have some months to let things settle out, and then make any decisions needed before we print and mail the next Pagoda World in September.

My goal is NOT to have to go to our greater BOD and ask to raise membership dues, but rather keep things at a "status quo" level.

[Pawel66]

Michael, thank you for keeping an eye on this.

[waltklatt]

I, too, am worrying about the extreme fluctuations.
Only thing I can do for now is to wait and see, when the dust settles.

Thank you Michael, for keeping the publications going.
I always enjoy reading up on the tidbits.

Walter
1967 220SL diesel
1969 280SE
2003 Beetle TDI
2005 Honda Element

[Silicon Valley Brian]

Not to get too far off topic, but the "free" car or truck for directors (senior managers) and higher was a longtime perk at General Motors when I worked there from 1999 to 2007. Everyone aspired to get promoted to "director" level, as it came with the free car perk. I was hired as a mid-level manager in Corporate Communications and was soon promoted to handle the CEO's (Rick Wagoner) communications, which gave me the title of Director of Executive Communications. Every 90 days I'd trade in my car or truck for whatever the company had in stock (at that time, there was a lot of overproduction, so we typically got what wasn't selling well in the showrooms). We didn't get to choose. It was set up as a "review" program, but my understanding is this was just was done for tax reasons. It was good, however, in helping us understand the positives, and flaws, of the products we were promoting. I left GM before the recession hit in 2008, so I missed the bankruptcy. I don't think the free car perk still exists in that form, though I'm sure the most senior execs still get to drive whatever they want. There's a reason why they used to refer to GM as "Generous Motors!"

[TOMNISTUFF]

I'm sorry to interrupt.  I'll keep it short.
Michael, I apologize.  When I wrote the April 9 post,  I was still suffering from memory problems following a 2020 coronary, and still am, at least the details.  I now know, at least, that I can't trust my memory for things that occurred in the late 1960s.  I've been retired since 2001.  Please excuse me.  These recent posts are great reminders.
Tom Kizer

[mdsalemi]

...It was set up as a "review" program, but my understanding is this was just was done for tax reasons.

When Ford first introduced their integral "infotainment system" called "Sync" (wholly written by Microsoft, which was badged as such in the car) it was, IMHO, about 85% perfect on V1. Had it on a Ford Contour. Loved it. Then, those brilliant minds--the engineers at Ford--could do it better and cheaper than Microsoft, and their new and improved model was called MyFordTouch (MFT) Introduced on a Ford Edge. It was a kluge; a horrendous downgrade in every way imaginable. It was so bad, that the CEO (under deposition in a legal issue) admitted to smashing the screen in frustration.

When it was time for review, I gave it to them with both barrels, and was called down to a lab in Dearborn. There, to a 20 something year old software engineer, had to explain a LOT of things to him (which he took back to the design team) which at first he did not really understand. Things like organization of metadata on music sorting, something that was perfect on Sync V1, all screwed up on MFT. Placement and style of the 4-way emergency flasher button, and a few other things. I'm happy to report that all my complaints (and I'm not so entitled to think I was the only one with them; think of the CEO who smashed the screen) were addressed in a serious update.

At Ford, at least, these reviews were a bit more than for tax reasons. Sometimes they listened.

[Mike Hughes]

When Ford first introduced their integral "infotainment system" called "Sync" (wholly written by Microsoft, which was badged as such in the car) it was, IMHO, about 85% perfect on V1. Had it on a Ford Contour. Loved it. Then, those brilliant minds--the engineers at Ford--could do it better and cheaper than Microsoft, and their new and improved model was called MyFordTouch (MFT) Introduced on a Ford Edge. It was a kluge; a horrendous downgrade in every way imaginable.

I'm happily retired now but was selling Fords and Lincolns when SYNC came out.  it worked pretty well, had neat features, and was easy to help a new client use.  MyFordTouch was a pig's breakfast.  The worst part was that Ford required every new vehicle to be activated on delivery, and then we had to deal with pissed-off customers for weeks and months on end.  There was a help desk, but getting through in a timely manner was hit or miss.  From a customer service standpoint, it was a disaster.  The good part was that the factory soon was sending out product training people to help us and, more importantly, listen to us about what the problems were and tricks we had learned to get things to work.

The telematics improved over the years, but we were always on pins and needles whenever they rolled out "improvements."  When I retired right before COVID hit in 2020 all that stuff worked pretty well, and my 2020 Escape Hybrid still performs flawlessly.