The election of the 2026 board members for the Smoky Mountain Region has concluded and the results follow. The full board, committee chairs and other positions are online.
John McDermott, Tom Moreno, and I will continue to serve in the second year of our respective terms. I would like to thank Steve Franklin for his service as Secretary for the last 2 years and welcome Jim Lara as the incoming Secretary.
Charles Gault and Tami Kirby will also remain on the board for their second year, but we lose Jack Gotlieb as he has “timed out” in his role. He has been an outstanding driving tour leader, and fortunately for us he has volunteered to continue as our driving tour committee chair in 2026. We welcome Lenn Rainwater to the board to fill the open spot for 2026.
In addition to the board roles, the following individuals will be chairing committees or otherwise serving in official capacities:
Matt Fischer, I can’t even name a single function, he does everything from newsletters to webmastering to advertising and he has for a long time. Very thankful for his contributions for so many years!
John McDermott, in addition to serving as VP, is the autocross chair and is also doing a fantastic job. We have quite a few events lined up for next year already.
Jack will continue as driving tour chair, as mentioned. He does a great job and has many members that help organize and lead these. We would love to bring on some new people to help with these, contact Jack if you want to ease into helping organize drives.
Tammy Kirby will be taking over as social chair from the extraordinary Kathy Moreno. Big shoes to fill, but I know Kathy will be helping and am very thankful for Tammy stepping into this role. And a side note, Tammy and Phil are chairing Spring Thing 2026, which is our club’s premier annual event and is a lot of work. Thank you both for taking this on!
Michael Ishmael will continue to chair our charity committee. The members of this club are so generous that we can provide meaningful support to various organizations in our area. Mike and the rest of our charity committee ensure that our support is going to places where it will have a positive impact.
Carl Justice will continue in our recently created HPDE chair position. He brings so much enthusiasm and knowledge to the table and is helping make it easy and approachable for the members of this club that want to experience their cars on the track to do so. We have already seen significant growth in participation by our region in DE’s across the southeast, and I expect that to continue under his leadership.
And finally, Mark Demange will be stepping up as our membership chair, following many years of commitment from Teresa Fischer. Many thanks to Teresa for all the welcome emails and support of new members, and for transitioning the role to Mark so we don’t miss a beat.
There are so many people that contribute to make this club great, and they all deserve our thanks for providing so many opportunities to get together and share time behind the wheel, themed encounters, and camaraderie.
I hope all of you have a fantastic Christmas and holiday season, and I wish you all the best for 2026!
– Todd