2022
Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Minutes – Toronado and Aurora Chapter Meeting

OCA National Meet, Murfreesboro, Tennessee – July 8, 2022

The annual Membership Meeting of the Toronado and Aurora Chapter (TAC) commenced at 3:05 PM in  the Broadlands “A” meeting room of the Embassy Suites hotel.  (Note – the meeting was scheduled an hour earlier than usual to accommodate the 5 PM departure for the Grand Ole Opry tour.)  The meeting was attended by 14 individuals, 9 of which were TAC members and 3 of those just joined on the spot during the meeting.

Per our usual practice, the meeting started with all attendees introducing themselves, including brief summaries of their Toronado/Aurora involvement. 

For the Business Meeting, minutes of the last (2021) meeting were read, with no additions or corrections.  I reported a current balance in the Treasury as $3387.33.  This is a gain compared to last year ($2900), but a lot of that gain has come from multi-year memberships.  In addition to meeting the newsletter commitments of those multi-year memberships, there have been some increases in printing costs and will likely be more, plus increases in postage costs down the road, including one next week. 

As to Old Business, I indicated there was no news on the upcoming new Toro reproduction products from Fusick – these will apparently include gas tanks and sending units for 1st generation Toros, plus a driver’s floor mat for 1966 Deluxe Toros.  (Fusick did not vend at the meet this year – I thought their absence might be due to the repeat venue and gas prices, but was told there was a conflict with vacation plans since this meet was scheduled unusually early in early July.)  If any of these parts are of interest to anyone, they should probably give Fusick a call.

The only official New Business was the acknowledgement of Ralph Braun’s passing.  Our Chapter chose to honor all his years of devoted service to the Oldsmobile hobby and TAC with a memorial donation to the RE Olds Transportation Museum in Lansing.  I indicated that this Olds Museum is a worthy endeavor, and all of us might consider donations to help assure its survival and improvement.  I also offered that each of us needs to plan for the eventual disposition of our collector cars, and parts and tools – to one degree or another, THESE ARE NOT JUNK, and certainly should not just be thrown away; a local tech school could possibly find worthy homes for tools, cars could possibly be sold or donated to a museum, and parts could be recycled by a local OCA Chapter.

While talking about Ralph, I offered that he had posted some Toro parts on eBay right before his passing – most had sold, but there were some ’67 deluxe wheel cover groups that went unsold.  Possibly the closed postings could be researched if one was interested. 

Another consequence of Ralph’s passing to consider is the loss of his “Trailing with Toronado and Aurora” column in our bi-monthly issues of Toronado and Aurora Times.  That column will be missed both for content as well as the space it filled in TAT.  So, once again the request goes out for all members to take pen in hand (or more likely a keyboard) and share with us some material for TAT.

The meeting then moved on to the usual informal discussions per attendees.  One member wished that someone would reproduce/repair the 1st generation vacuum headlight components; for lack of same, I offered that one can do a headlight electrical upgrade from a company with an ad in the National Meet’s Program booklet.  I also offered that with difficulty, I was able to obtain color-coded vacuum lines from a company that supplied engine vacuum line kits (15 feet of each colored line is needed).

Another member would like to see color-matching rubber floor mats reproduced – that would seem to be a much taller order than the Fusick driver mat for 1966; easier would be the single color rubber trunk mat, but even that has never been made.  If enough of us were to ask, maybe some vendor somewhere might be willing to take on the project.

The last item of discussion was the re-telling of a conversation at the previous evening’s reception.  I happened to talk to a John Powell who represents a waterless cooling system product.  Apparently more efficient that traditional antifreeze solutions, this waterless product has no potential for rust, and is therefore a permanent, maintenance-free coolant.  Interesting to say the least.

The Meeting adjourned at approximately 4:00 PM

Respectfully submitted,

Paul Andreas, Secretary-Treasurer