I added three new businesses under our “Sponsors” tab above… Praxair and Fleetpride (Midway Truck Parts) have had a long-standing relationship with the MIJC and O’Reilly is a bit newer.  Club members can take advantage of substantial discounts at these businesses.  Take a look!

Thank you to all who make the annual banquet the success that it continues to be, in particular this year Jan Brown, who cooked the main course for us.  Everyone loved the video, and we really enjoyed making it for you.  Remember that every membership gets a free copy of the DVD, so if you were not able to make it to the dinner, just ask Jill for a disc at the next regular meeting.  If you’re one of our non-Peoria-area members and you need one sent out to you, please let me know and I’d be happy to drop it in the mail.  Include the address you’d like it sent to.

Also congratulations to Golden Shaft winner Bill Gangloff, who had a myriad of different problems with many different Jeeps on the trail this past year.

Additional copies of the annual video are $5, payable to the club.  If you’re new to the club and this is the first video you’ve seen, you can also get the whole collection going back to 2003.  Jill is also putting together a T-shirt/sweatshirt order in the next month or so, if you’re interested in anything else that she does not already have in stock.  The deadline for getting that order in is our February meeting on 2/4/12.  There will be a new Back To The Future-themed MIJC tour shirt this year.  Read more in the minutes, posted in the forum.

Photos are now up from the banquet as well as Jill and Jon‘s pre-party, courtesy of myself and Will Watson.  If you’ve got some too, let me know or (if you know how) upload them to the FTP site.

Lastly, I’ll soon be starting weekly posts of the Production Log from this year’s video.  There are a ton of great stories behind the making of the video… some entertaining, some technical, with lots of pictures too.  I hope you’ll enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.  If you ever want to catch up with older entries (or read the Blues Brothers Production Log) you can use the “View By Category” links on the upper right of any page on the site.  That will take you to a list with the newest post at the top, so to start at the beginning you’ll want to go to the last page.

Our next meeting is Saturday, February 4th at noon at our usual winter meeting spot, Goodfellas Pub & Pizza.  MIJC Veep Todd Watkins will run the meeting.

Our Annual Dinner and Video Premiere Night is this Saturday, January 14th at the American Legion in Pekin (Map link now corrected).  Cocktails start at 6 and the dinner will be at 7.  If you follow the map link you’ll see that parking is limited, so you can also park in the Pekin Trophy House lot as well.  Once that’s full… find a spot where you can.  Don’t forget a side dish to share!  A few people have posted in the forum with what they’re planning on bringing, in order to help avoid duplication.

I’ll see you all on Saturday!

Join us at Goodfellas in Pekin at noon on Saturday to (re)elect our officers.  The club will be buying a pizza lunch for all who attend.  We’ll also have copies of the 2012 schedule to hand out.  See you there!

You can also renew your membership for 2012. Bring this form and your $30 membership fee to the meeting.  Remember that current members must re-up by January 31st to avoid the $10 penalty fee, as per our bylaws.  You may also make reservations for the Annual Dinner, which will be January 14th at the American Legion in Pekin.  The cost will be $5 per person.

Lastly, the meeting is the last chance for you to get me your photos and videos for inclusion in the annual video and on our website.  I will have my laptop with me if you would like to bring a flash drive or your camera, or you can burn a disc, or you can upload them to our FTP site.  Contact me for the upload instructions.