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Porsche
Club of America
The
Driver's Window
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One Saturday in June 1998 I was driving out to Dartmouth, Massachusetts to visit Factory Five. For those that do not know who or what Factory Five is, they are a company the makes a very nice Cobra kit that only requires a 5.0 Mustang donor car to complete. I was able to spend about 45 minute cruising around the Dartmouth scenic back roads in one of their demo cars. I tried to call my buddy to tell him what I was doing but the exhaust was too loud. The car was nice and I wanted one. I only had to figure out how to get one. At the time I was driving my 1990 944 S2 that was in perfect shape. Over the next few months I racked my brain on how I could do it. I finally emailed Mark and Dave at Factory Five to inquire if they would take my S2 in trade for the works. I never heard back from them. So in the meantime I figured that they were not interested in the deal. I finally joined the Porsche Club after Doug Adams had left a card on my car 3 years prior. The rest is history! I joined the club in November 1998 and talked with a bunch of people as to what the club did and how to best prepare myself and the car for what was to follow. I found myself autocrossing and doing Driver Ed the following spring. I can remember racing through the Nor’Easter every month hoping to see a picture of me or my car in one of the event spreads. Ironic huh? Now I bet you all can’t wait until you never see it in there again. Me too! Two years later I found myself on the board in the most demanding position there is, V.P. of Administration which is responsible for planning all the monthly meetings. I liked this position and was pretty good at it. In fact it was said that I was one of the best VP of Admin the club has had. A far cry from now being the worst president the club has had, but I warned ’em. Anyway the reason I bring all this up is to talk about monthly meetings. Monthly Meetings are part of the club’s bylaws. It states that we have to provide a club meeting for all the members every month with one month off. Many clubs have a set day of every month where they meet at a specific restaurant. Any member is allowed to show up, have dinner and hang out with other members. Northeast Region decided long before I was involved that they would try to organize a variety of events to try and entice different members out of the house. There are few meeting that are part of every year’s schedule such as the Annual Dinner and the PorscheFest at the MOT. These events always do well but we have had some great events that simply have not drawn a crowd. The problem I figured out is the diversity of our 1,500+ members. We have a crowd that barely drive their cars unless the sun is out and the stars are aligned. Then we have the crowd that like to drive their cars rain or shine. There are those that never break the tire loose. We have the crowd that likes to push their Porsches to the limit on the track or around the cones. We have Porsche history buffs, and we have people that could careless about history. We have people that love to socialize, and we have recluses. We have mad scientist types, and we have some less scientifically inclined. We have those that polish the ashtray, and we have people that remove the ashtray because it is 10 ounces of un-needed weight. For as long as I can remember the board has wondered what they can do to make Monthly Meetings interesting to more members. We have to plan them we might as well make them fun to do. Since I have been involved I have emailed members, begged in my columns and asked people during events, “What do you want to do?” I thought I was getting somewhere when a few members said they wanted a golf tournament. If I took all the participants from both years I still would have a half of the field full. Even the members that asked me to hold the tournament didn’t show up. So no more Golf Tournaments. Next we had the most extraordinary Porsche driver and living piece of history Vic Elford come to the club for a talk. How many of our 1,500 members showed up? 40! At the Parade Vic packed the place. There are some meetings that always draw a crowd such as the Paul Russell tour and the kart racing but the majority of the meetings bring less than 20. Maybe we shouldn’t expect more than that but I can’t help but think what fun everyone has when they do get together. I seriously would like to hear from as many of you as possible with your thoughts on Monthly Meetings, ideas to make them better, why they will never be better or any other ideas you have on the subject of club member participation. There has to be few things out there that a good chunk of us want to do. The Janet Guthrie meeting last month was very poorly attended by our club. Out of 70 total attendees the Northeast Region accounted for fifteen to twenty. Yikes! Are speakers a bad idea? Tell me! I will do what ever it takes to make a few events that drive you all wild. Next year I believe the board is going to try something different with the VP of Admin position. Instead of one person planning the whole year I think we will bring in volunteers to do one event each. This could be the answer. Again if you have suggestions, ideas or want to be involved please let me know. Oh, and by the way Factory Five finally emailed me back in December 1998 that the they would take my S2 in trade for everything needed to make a killer Cobra. I am glad I did the Porsche Club. I can do more with a Porsche than I could ever do with a Cobra. Email me at boris@porschenet.com |
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