Wow has anyone seen the latest EBAY auction of items from Mrs. Durant of Billy's. Appears to be a good collection of items belonging once to Billy. The price is a bit hefty but we'll see if they get it. I like his hat and some of the Durant Motors year stuff. Some of the items are late Durant just before his death. EBAY item #270602960838. To bad we don't have a museum or museum fund set up yet. Might be a nice aqusition but at a lower price of course.

Where Are You From? Oviedo (near Orlando) Florida

Do You own a car built by Durant? 1928 Durant Model 65 4 dr

Mike.
We do have a museum fund that I set up many years ago when I was president. I got some members to contribute as well as myself. We did buy some lit with some of the funds and there should be some funds still in it. Would love to see others contribute. If we are serious and care about our club and the history of Billy we all should contribute to this museum fund. The average contribution by most of us was only $200.00 each but if more contributed we could really do something. How about it Mike, can we get contribution out of you please?
Lets support our club everyone.
Faithfully
Lance Haynes
San Diego

Where Are You From? San Diego, CA

Do You own a car built by Durant? many

Is there an Inventory List of what we have?

Dave

Where Are You From? Iowa

Hey Lance & Dave
Frank and I are working on getting the 501C-3 IRS status for the DMAC now and hope to get it at least by the start of next year if not sooner, depending on how long IRS takes to approve us. There are some issues that need to be cleaned up before we can file and we hope to have those done soon. The last time I saw a Treasurers Report that was posted in the Partner showed an museum fund but there was no money in it. But Bob could answer that better.
To my knowledge most of the items are still being held in private hands and there is no central collection point or collection administrator etc. I know that at one point several years ago Carol volunteered to start a list but I'm not aware of the status of that or if it's been done. I'm sure the Partner takes up most of her time and that is why we have such an outstanding club magazine. We need a separate person to act in this position.
As far as donations go, once we are sure of our accountability I have no problem donating items I've collected as small as my collection is compared to others in the club. We must preserve these items for future generations as we all are getting older.
Firs we need the 501c3 non-profit designation by the IRS and then we need someone appointed, voted or whatever to be the Curator/Custodian of the items who will accept the items, catalog them in, issue the letter of acceptance to the donor and be willing to maintain and provide accountablility to the Board of Directors and the Club of the items. We sure don't want to run into the problem we had before when many things were donated to what was thought was to the club, but ended up in private hands.
To answer your question Dave, I'm not aware of any list available, but I might be wrong.

Where Are You From? Oviedo (near Orlando) Florida

Do You own a car built by Durant? 1928 Durant Model 65 4 dr

Hi Y'all,
Yes, I am still alive... I think..
Please look in the Special Interest Section of our website and you will find our By-Laws approved in 2007. Article IV, Section 6 list the duties of the Property Manager. An annual report on property owned by the DMAC is to be listed in the Durant Partner. Thanks Rick and BOD for these by-laws.

I tried to talk to Arstico Scrobogna (Durant's Secretary)around 2000 or 2001, but was referred to his daughter in Myrtle Beach, SC. Ended up sending her a Certificate of Appreciation to present to her Dad in behalf of the DMAC for his contribution to the automobile industry. Believe the items on eBay were, at one time, in his posession. About 6 years ago there were some items similar to those now listed on eBay. Remember, Lance..

What would be wrong with taking a portion of each members annual dues and channel it into the Museum Fund?? The Shriners do it for support of their hospitals.

Yates
Founding Pres.

Where Are You From? Four Oaks, NC

Do You own a car built by Durant? 23 Durant Touring

Hi brother Yates and all.
Yes yes yes, lets do something, anything. We really should go after those Durant papers one way or other.
I have 16 pieces of literature Mike Larsen & I bought with some of the museum money we collected way back. I also have a brand new XL Slazenger golf shirt still in the clear plastic the president of the Deal of NJ Borough gave me. He also gave me the original 100 year old street sign that was on the corner where Durant lived off and on. The sign is porcelain both sides and says Norwood Drive on the top and Runyon Ave. in the middle and is 22" long and over 11" high. Jacob Rothschild mansion, a 37 room, 14 bath, white stone building "of French Architecture." Built by Arthur P. Gottlieb about 1908, the house belonged to Durant in the 20's and cost 1/2 million. Sadly the house has been torn down as it got badly deteriorated. A number of us also were given a copy of the original blueprints to the Elisabeth factory in NJ. I had ask Charlie & Peg Spitz to put on a natl meet in NJ and man did they ever in September 2004. I really want our club to have all this stuff plus many other items. Lets all get behind collecting and saving everything we can for our great club.
Faithfully
Lance Haynes
San Diego

Where Are You From? San Diego, CA

Do You own a car built by Durant? many