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I have had thoughts re: the meet plaques for the national meets. Traditionally, plaques for many of the car meets over the years, (not only Pierce meets) used brass plaques, with three and four color scenes on them. As time has passed, through no particular fault of anyone, plaques have changed. Some local meets have plastic plaques, aluminum, etc. These old time plaques were things of beauty. I have a box with all the meet plaques that I received from 1964 to present. I have been going to mount them on something (? maybe a barn wall? there’s so many of them) The giving of a plaque use to be a big deal. Only people who brought cars were given them in some cases, and they were handed to the person in the car as it entered the showfield. I present this as a strong suggestion to maintain the tradition of a quality plaque, and open the topic for discussion here.
Liz asked mse to post some pictures of what the nice old meet plaques were like. Bob Sands sent some pictures this am. I will try to post some. Solid brass, beautiful baked enamel finishes
another
last one. These days, this type of plaque is probably 5 or 6 dollars. Based on the number of cars at meets, it would be an insignificant portion of a meet budget.
Tony,
I think that this is quite correct that we should have plaques that reflect the quality of Pierce-Arrow.
Peter
Tony, I like your ideas. We should strive to make memorable plaques
that can always be appreciated by all who view them.
Tony
Thanks for the pix Tony. That should not be a tough order to fill. We do something very similar for our AACA Annual show down here in Georgia.
Tony, a point well taken.
About 10, or so, years ago you brought up the “brass vs aluminum” meet plaque issue, at a Board meeting. I’m positive it passed, in favor of BRASS?
Then, about 20 years ago, I suggested to (then President) Fred Tycher, a new idea. Why not use the previous years “Weis” winner on the next years Meet Plaque. Fred thought it was a great idea, presented it to the Board, it passed and was used for a few years. As time passed (probably 2 or 3 years), the idea got lost and we went back to the “SAME OLD.” So much for progress, with our Meet Plaques.
Of course, today, it’s a dollar and cents game. The brass plaques cost double what the plastic ones do. So, we cut cost, in favor of profit–a step back–it’s a losing game!
Bob
Bob: You are absolutely correct. The board did pass a rule about the previous year’s Weis award being on the following year’s meet plaque. When I mentioned that to the board a couple of year’s ago, someone said, no we repealed that a couple of years ago! Be that as it may, the need for a memorable plaque, not an aluminum Cracker Jack type, should be made a perpetual phenomenon.
Tony: I can’t find any board resolution repealing the Weis Trophy car being on the meet plaque for the following year. Same for using a brass plaque. It is highly appropriate to recognize the Weis Trophy car on the meet plaque for the following year and have the plaque made of brass. If memory serves, the meet plaque is also to have at least three colors.
Paul: A couple of summer meetings ago, I remarked that this mandate had been abandoned. i.e that the Weis trophy winner car would appear on the meet plaque the following year. Charley Gils related that the board had repealed this motion a couple of years past. Charley is pretty astute as to what is going on, I don’t know.
Paul & Tony,
The resolution requiring the Weis Trophy car on the next year’s meet plaque was repealed at the 2001 Winter Board Meeting, February 10, 2001, Jupiter, Florida. The minutes of that board meeting (page 6) are pretty clear.
Paul
Good afternoon Gents,
2001 was before my time in the PAS and on the Board, so I am in the dark on Paul Morris’ reference.
Bob Sands, Tony Z. and I are charged by PAS Pres., Rich Lange to bring suggestions relating to dash plaques to the Winter Board Meeting.
I am sure that there will be interesting discussion on the matter.
I am curious the 2001 rationale for dropping the Weis winner as the featured image on the Annual Meet plaque.
Peter
Peter,
Their were several reasons:
1) It REALLY irritated the volunteer meet committees to have to force-fit a specific car into their meet logo and artwork. If you are brave enough, ask some of your New England members about the issue…..take a base ball bat with you. Personally, I’m not sure I’m brave enough to bring that issue up with some of your Yankee friends.
2) Due to the tradition of moving Annual Meet across the country to encourage participation in different locations, the previous year’s Weis winner is almost NEVER at the next meet. Therefore, the meet logo/artwork/plaque ends up featuring a car that isn’t even at the meet.
3) It isn’t that we don’t honor the Weis winner. That car is featured on the cover of The Arrow (that is sent to ALL members); we give the owner a trophy at the meet; and the car is permanently featured on the Weis Awards page of this website; and, if the car does come back to another meet, it is eligible for the Eric Rosenau award.
4) Having been to 35 Annual Meets myself, and having the plaques from all of those meets, I can tell you, that with rare exceptions, the artistic quality of the plaques suffered during the years of forcing the the meet committee to conform. Notice that NONE of the plaques that Tony shows have the previous Weis winner on them…including the Lake George meet that Tony himself ran.
We are much better off letting the volunteers of the meet committee run their own meet, without micromanaging things like meet plaque artwork.
This is ancient history. The idea was tried for several years and repealed 15 years ago. It seemed like a good idea when it was originally tried. It led to unexpected problems, and the board was big enough to admit they had made a mistake. Why drag it up again?
Paul
Paul: I guess I had really forgotten the reason for the rule being repealed. Surprisingly, I sponsored the winter meet in Florida, that year at my club. The reasons make sense, and others may chose to chime in on that portion of the discussion. However, the abandonment of quality multi color brass plaques is something that we should do, and in regard to that point, I think we should rule that some basic plaque standards are reinstated and insisted upon.
Tony,
I basically agree that the recent plaques don’t “feel” as nice as the old ones. My guess (not based on much of anything), is that the difference is largely due to a change in technology and the advent of desktop publishing. You and I remember ordering our meet plaques MONTHS before the meet from the place at the “Foot of Grape Street” somewhere in Massachusetts. In those days, the artwork was printed as separate colors. In the mid 2000’s the technology shifted to a more modern process allowing printing of full-color images (dye-sublimation printers?). I suspect that the more recent plaques are lighter in weight due to the printer (machine) involved and the blanks probably have a coating to enhance the adhesion of the ink.
I won’t comment on what quality standards should be instated. I haven’t been involved with plaques for 15 years, except one year, when for some unknown reason, ALL of the plaques were sent to MY house….I thought I had received a couple of boxes of bricks!
Paul
Eastern Etching, Foot of Grape St. Chicopee Mass. is still in business according to Ed Minnie whose family is friends of these people. I will explore some prices from them, or any other companies that I can find. I too am somewhat separated from the plaque business. The Glens Falls/Lake George meet plaque indeed was very pretty, and I think Tom Lutz handled that acquisition. This whole discussion is not an earth shattering subject for the Pierce club, just an attempt to retain what use to be a very nice momento for our always great meets.