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The Ontario Jaguar-OnLine
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Just Desserts & Awards Night |
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Photos courtesy Paul Turcotte Written and presented Jeff Booth
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HARDWARE STORE: OJOA's annual awards, which honour participation and contribution.
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OJOA Annual Awards
The following is the script that formed the basis of the Introduction and presentations
at OJOA’s 2007Awards Night,
complete withits selection of to-die-for desserts.
Written and presented by President Jeff Booth.
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You
know, we always get good attendance at our meetings -- especially when
there’s a ton of free desserts.
Good Evening ladies and gentlemen, and very welcome guests.
It is my pleasure and my honour to play a part in helping to host the
2006 Ontario Jaguar Owners Association club awards.
We have a number of awards to present and, believe me, determining who
the recipients are was no easy task.
There are many more deserving members than we have awards and -- as a
result -- making those final determinations is never, never, never easy.
A wide range of considerations come into play as directors focused in
on the short lists of names, some determined by the specifics of the
award itself, such as the Driving Skills Award – which is based on your
Driving Skills -- nothing else.
Our awards tonight are the...
- The Prince of Darkness Award
- The Most Active Member(s)Award
- The Most Improved Jaguar
- The Driving Skills Award
- The Jaguar Thornhill Cup
- The Carick-Barrett Memorial Trophy
- The Freeman Cup
- The Award of Nine
- And a SURPRISE AWARD!
These awards will be presented tonight by directors
and by the Chairs of your Slalom and your Concours and by our Past President.
Now, ladies and gentlemen you have a challenge .....
tonight, we have some news to announce –
this is the surprise award mentioned a moment ago.
We have a new club award.
It is Jaguar Thornhill Cup
(photo at right)
This is it here. This lovely silver-plated cup -- which I think would
be perfect for chilling your champagne in -- is sponsored by Jaguar
Thornhill, who already sponsors your website and who are one of the
handful of Jaguar dealers in the Greater Toronto Area. This dealership
also hosted a BBQ for club members a few weeks ago, on their Steeles
Avenue property.
And, of course, we have Zoltan Kosa here, representing Thornhill
Jaguar. And Zoltan, we thank you … we thank Duane Taylor, your
General Sales Manager … and we thank Ryan Kaye, your Financial Service
Manager.
Zoltan by the way, drives a late-’90s XJ and has been repeatedly honoured by
Jaguar Canada for his thorough knowledge of the Jaguar line.
We thank you for your support AND for this award, which will circulate
within this Jaguar club for many decades to come.
Zoltan’s participation here is two-fold, he will first present the Jaguar
Thornhill Cup to the club,
(see photo atleft)
and then he will listen to all your good ideas
of how we can award this magnificent, silver-plated work of art.
Once YOU have determined how the Jaguar Thornhill Cup should be
awarded, then we can go ahead and have the dedication plate engraved
for it and set about determining which member will be it’s first
recipient.
OK, now to OJOA’s annual awards….
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The Prince of Darkness Award
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Ladies and gentlemen, you will recall that one of the Marvelous pieces
of Jaguar-related “treasures” we inherited recently was Elvis. Yes,
this is Elvis. He now has a name. Well, at least that's what we've been
calling him for several months now. Thanks to Dan Lokun, for
christening this cast plaster cat (see photo at
right).
You may recall that a few months ago, we had the consensus opinion that
Elvis should not be auctioned off but kept and used within this club
for some fun, some good-natured fun. And this is what is happening now….
And while Elvis may be part of the Prince of Darkness Award tonight, he
may reinvent himself by next year to become some other -- appropriate
-- bestower of an honour that goes by a different name and for a
different reason.
Elvis, you should know, has traveled with us all the way up to Fergus,
during a bit of a run some of us had at the end of summer.
And if you were there, you might have see Dan walking up that big steep
hill toward that lovely old limestone museum, carrying Elvis
affectionately under an arm.
Dan took Elvis for walkies.
Elvis was also part of the spectators' gallery at our absolutely
marvelous too-much-fun-to-be-legal Slalom, back in September.
He positioned himself under our flag for most of that day -- and if you
were there you know that the day started out cool, overcast and
threatening -- and then got worse, until the skies opened up and dumped
the remnants of Huricane Ernesto on the Slalom track.
And poor Elvis got quite wet, but, stalwart Elvis, never left his post,
brave cat that he is.
Now, Elvis is part of our first award tonight, which recognized bravery
in the face of Jaguar's own Version of the Prince of Darkness.
While the very correct usage of the term Prince of Darkness, here
refers to any electrical component made by Lucas Electric -- that is
any component that has failed -- the term is in general use with us to
describe any electrical failure in Jaguars.
Bravery, in the face of Lucas adversity, is something we all seem to
have to face, whether its cranky wipers, intermittent ignition, or
starters that won’t.
The three recipients of The 2006 Prince of Darkness Award are all
members who work quietly and humbly, often behind the scenes,
facilitating Jaguar experiences for people both inside this club and
from other clubs.
The recipients are:
Advertising Manager, JOHN
TYSALL, (see photo at
right, that's John holding Elvis) whose E-Type decided to
quit just 50 feet on the “other side” of the Registration Desk at our
Concours. John’s E-Type spent the entire Concours afternoon on
the road just outside the competition field.
The Second recipient is ALAN BRAND, your Newsletter Editor, whose lovely classic Jaguar sedan
– affectionately known as “Grace” – has been bedeviled by on-again,
off-again electrical problems with its wipers … I think one wiper motor
was even wired the wrong way!
And the Third recipient of the 2006 Prince of Darkness Award goes to
VICTOR KRISEL, one of the
organizers of the JONAT run through Ontario. The alternator on Victor’s
V12 Vanden Plas decided to deep fry itself on the run … and
self-destruct. Victor had a previous engagement during our Awards
Night and was unable to get to the meeting until it was just about
finished. Regardless, he was presented with his Prince of
Darkness booty -- out of the boot of a Jaguar in the dark. This, we
felt, was only appropriate.(That's victor,
on the left of the photo below, with three of OJOA's directors).
Now, speaking of booty, in addition to getting to care for Elvis for the
next year, each of the three Prince of Darkness recipients got to
choose for some first-class Jaguar-brand clothing and
accessories.
Recipient Alan Brand was not at the meeting ... but promises to be
there soon to pick up his Prince of Darkness prize.
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The Most Active Member Award
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This award will be presented by Activities Director Michael Woodman.
For those of you who may be unfamiliar with how OJOA’s Most Active New
Member is determined … it is teased out of our all-important BLUE BOOK,
which is really dark red.
Its pages are mined for the clues that will reveal which one among us
has attended the most OJOA events, be they regular meetings, driving events or shows.
This year’s determination – which consumed more than two hours of
checking and double-checking names and dates, resulted – in a clear
winner.
This is unlike last year, where we had a virtual three-way tie, which
we teased apart by then factoring in other considerations, such as
volunteer effort and so on. Not this year. This year's winner -- or
rather, this year’s winners -- for they are a couple -- were a clear
nose ahead.
This year’s OJOA Most Active Member Award goes to man and a woman who
also have a long, long history of club contribution -- and of welcoming
newer members into the OJOA family.
The 2006 recipients of OJOA’s Most Active Member award -- happily and
deservedly -- goes to Dr. MURRAY & LINDA SMITH !
(The Smith's had car trouble on the way to Awards Night, so they will be officially
presented with their latest award at the next OJOA regular meeting.
The photo shows Activities Director Michael Woodman with the Smiths' award).
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Most Improved Jaguar
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This award will be presented by the Concours chair, Jeff Booth.
The Most Improved Jaguar Award is presented to the OJOA Jaguar which
has shown, between this year and last, the greatest improvement.
Now, these improvements can result from just cumulative care, where the
leatherwork looks better one year than the previous, to fewer
deductions for paint blemishes, because they’ve been touched up since
the previous concours.
This year’s recipient goes to a long-time member and – I’m particularly
happy to note – a long-time contributing member of this club.
Among his contributions are becoming one of our Judges -- and loaning his
lovely E-Type to Jaguar Canada for the unveiling last year of the
Jaguar Lightweight Coupe concept car at a downtown nightclub.
I know a lot of people in this room were at that nightclub that
evening. It was a very interesting time.
The car involved here is a 2003 XJR ...... and the recipent of this
award is our own BRAD MARSLAND ! ! !
(Brad couldn't make it to the meeting
but promises to be at the next one to receive his well-earned award.
The photo shows President and Concours Chair Jeff Booth with Brad's award).
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The Driving Skills Award
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This was a tough one.
And this tough one's going to be presented by your Slalom Chairman Ross Hamilton.
Why was it a tough one?
Well, let me tell you a little story about that. .
It should come as no surprise that the Driving Skills Award will go to
a club member who did well at our Slalom, driving a Jaguar, held in
September in Mississauga.
It should also come as no surprise that it will go to a driver who took
first in his or her class.
But the tough part here is determining which First Place finisher is
the BEST first place finisher. That’s because there are so many
different classes and we had to find a way to fairly compare them.
We looked at the various current North American records for the various
classes -- and calculated who's time was proportionately the closest --
to the mark for that class. This fairly assesses each car and,
despite the wide range of performances, set the comparisons on a level
field with each other.
By doing these calculations for all of the first place winners, Ross
Hamilton and I were able to come up with a series of per centages --
many of them over 90 per cent.
And then we realized that we had a couple of surprises.
The first surprise was that the person who came closest to the North
American mark in his class, with a performance of 96 per cent of the
record was -- please not applause here and you'll find oiut why in a
minute -- was none other than Slalom Chairman Ross
Hamilton. Ross, by the way, was driving Nelson Burkhart's
E-Type at the time.
Now, Ross, God bless him, the Slalom Chairman himself ... has declined
the award. This was done as an expression of sportsmanship. Ross
does have much more Slalom experience than most everybody else….
This then brought us to which 1st Place finisher had the next-best time
when compared to the North American record in his or her class. That
driver had a performance of 94 per cent of the North American record.
Unfortunately, that driver was ....... me. And I have also declined the
award with the intent, like Ross, that it should go to someone else.
But be warned, folks, Ross and I will be in the running next year.
OK, so who gets this lovely Driving Skills award?
Well it will go to a member who drove his Jaguar probably harder and
more aggressively than he ever had before the Slalom.
That driver's performance reached 91 per cent of the North American
mark in his Slalom class.
The Jaguar was ... an E-Type ... and it had 12 cylinders .... and the
driver was ROB HUTCHINSON !
(PHOTO. From left, Slalom Chairman Ross Hamilton presents Rob Hutchinson with his award)
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Carrick-Barrett Memorial Trophy
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All of OJOA’s annual awards are special – as are the people who receive them.
One award, above all others, carries with it a from-the-heart sentiment,
from two OJOA families.
This is our Carrick-Barrett award. It honours the memories of Cy
Carrick and Sandra Barrett.
To present you with the background of this unique, special award, and
to present it, I’d like to call on Bob Barrett.
–Mr. Barrett Speaks –
And the award this year, goes to a long-standing member, a long-time
contributing member, a consistent Concours participant, a consistent
Concours winner, a Concour judge, a Slalom volunteer and a
behind-the-scenes Concours sponsor ….. WALTER SMITH !
(PHOTO. From left, Treasurer and Membership Director Bob Barrett presents the
Carrick-Barrett Memorial Trophy to tohe well-deserving Walter Smith))
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The Freeman Cup
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The Freeman Cup is OJOA’s penultimate award.
It will be presented by Vice-President Fred Hill and is awarded to a
member who has shown devotion to the club, its interests and its
members -–all elements along the same continuum.
We are breaking from convention a bit this year, in that the Freeman
cup is being awarded to several members jointly.
The Freeman Cup this year goes to contributing members -- who have been
with the club for different lengths of time — and who stepped forward
to help OJOA grow – and they did this without being asked.
Their contributions include judging, auctioneering, behind-the-scenes
administrative challenges and so on.
The Freeman Cup this year goes equally to, the members of your Slalom
committee, in alphabetical order, to NELSON BURKHART,
ROB HUTCHINSON and toSTEVE SHERRIFF.
(PHOTO: From left: Vice-President Fred Hill presents The Freeman Cup to Rob Hutchinson,
Nelson Burkhart and Steve Sherriff)
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Award of Nine
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This is OJOA’s highest award, and it honours the nine founding members of this 47-year-old
club, one of whom is still with us .. you may have met Peter Draycott
at our Concours this past June.
The Award of Nine also honours, on an annual basis, members who have been very active in club activities.
The Award of Nine will be presented by Past President and Advisor to the Board, Peter Harris.
This year’s winner is a
long-standing OJOA member who has consistently taken on heavy loads
within this club and, as a result, has helped your club grow. He has
helped your club become more fun. He has helped build your club for the
future – and he has helped build your club for our our future members.
And – go figure – right now he doesn’t even have a Jaguar.
Ladies and gentlemen, this year’s recipient of OJOA’s Award of Nine …. is ….
your Slalom Chairman, ROSS HAMILTON !
(PHOTO:From left: Award of Nine recipient Ross Hamilton holds his silver
cup, after it was presented by Past President Peter Harris, right.)
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