BMW Car Club of America
Puget Sound Region Board Meeting
Lombardi's, Issaquah, WA
February 3, 2005


The meeting was called to order by President Rick Gulstrom at Lombardi's Restaurant at 7:00 p.m. Those in attendance were:

* Rick Gulstrom, President
* Jim Millet, Zundfolge Advertising
* Walt Conley, Chief Driving Instructor
* Tom Olsson, Driving Events Chair
* Louis Hesselt van Dinter, Roster Manager
* Jane Hesselt van Dinter, Secretary
* Martin Hovenkotter, Treasurer
* Bill Spornitz, Member
* Jeff Butler, Tech Events Coordinator
* Don Robesh, Member
* Alan James, Tour Coordinator
* Dane Martin, Member
* de Anna Martin, Banquet Coordinator
* Chris Mason, Member
* Zena Bartusch, Member
* Dave Clary, SIG Coordinator
* Jeff Schlimmer, Member

Opening Comments

Rick welcomed everyone and thanked Jeff Butler for securing the meeting location and making arrangements for the food.

Presidents Report/ National News

Rick reminded everyone to vote for national board members by February 11th.
 
BMW NA is working on an exciting preview of the E90 series. BMW NA is also pulling together a great corral program for the Grand American race series, Details will follow - there are funds available to help chapters host corrals, drives and instructors are available for "chalk talks" and the possibility of seats in the M-School Driving School at the Performance Center being raffled off on site during the corrals.

2005 Motorsports insurance rates have increased 15%. This is not a reflection on our loss and incident rate, but based on the rise in how many events have been put on between the 2003 and 2004 season. We're not doing anything wrong; we're just way more active then we have been. Cost for certificates per event will be as follows 2/1/2005 - 1/31/2005:
Club Race $1,650.00
CR/Driving School 1,495.00
Driving School 1,300.00
Autocross/CCC 255.00
Tours/Rallys/Concours 138.00

Bill Spornitz will contact Wynne for a complete explanation of the new insurance rates.

Be sure to visit the BMW CCA Foundation website: http://www.bmwccafoundation.org/effeDrive.asp. You may be one of two lucky winners to get an all expense paid trip to Summit Point Raceway to drive a "race prepared" BMW M3. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity plus you will be helping the BMW CCA Foundation with programs like the Street Survival teen car control program, preservation programs and a BMW archive.

Treasurers Report

Tom Olsson presented the Track Budget. Board approved all line items.
Marty Hovekotter stated that all monies from the banquet are in the bank.
The first set of advertising bills is going out in the next week.
A complete report will be presented at next months board meeting.
Discussion was held about a club storage facility. It was noted that the prices for these units really vary by size and location. The logistics of where to have a unit and how to manage access was discussed.
Marty will check several locations and report back to the board.

General Meeting and Non-Track Event Calendar

Lance is looking at ordering club T-shirts in March.

Walt feels that the club should purchase its own projector for the laptop computer. de Anna would really like a formal proposal made to the board before any large sums of money are allocated. Walt will check prices and work up a proposal to present to the board. We do, however, have access to a projector for the Instructors Clinic so there is time for the proposal to be submitted.

Upcoming Events:

VRM is March 5, 2005 at 10:00. There is no limit on the number of participants.
Bill reminded everyone about the Team Seattle live update on February 5, 2005 at the GT Sports Bar in Shoreline.

Safety Gear Meeting is February 19, 2005. So far Jeff only has 7 people that have signed up. He is wondering about a bulk email to encourage participation.

Amateur Racing Q& A will also be held on 2/19/2005.
 
All Members Meeting will be held at Bison Creek Pizza on 3/26/05. de Anna is already getting email confirmation for the meeting. She has also received some posters and other items for this meeting.

Local Mini Club to be included in our club events. David Lightfoot will be our Mini contact person. There will be a Mini Class at the Concour's de Elegance this year.
New Events Ideas?

A Women's Tech session is being planned, date TBD. More details to follow.
Tech session at BMW NW pending.

Rick to work on organizing at Tech Session at Speedware.

Auto-cross. January 18, 2005 Marty went to the WWSCC in Issaquah to get ideas on how to set up and run an auto-cross event. He got lots of good ideas and advice. Event dates are to be determined. Chris Mason volunteered to help with this process.
Haury's Tech event will be held on April 23, 2005. Jill Millet will be the contact person for this event.

Fiske Rims Event- located in Kent, Fiske Rims is willing to do a session on how the rims and wheels are manufactured and cared for. Tentatively this would be a multi club event with an many as 150 participants and would probably be held in the fall.

Oktoberfest - Lance and de Anna are in the process of working out the details of our participation in this event.
 
I just got an email about the SOVREN Historic and the car corral. The dates are: The 17th Pacific Northwest Historics will be held at Pacific Raceways July 1, 2, and 3, 2005.
I will be the BMW Club contact/organizer again for this event. The admission costs are the same as last year and will include a program too. I would like the board to approve a budget for this as they did last year. This would include payment for the tent area and some other incidental cost—postage and such. Last year it was under $100.
Please add this to the agenda for me.
Thanks,
Lucetta



Track Committee

Tom Olsson submitted the Track budget for this season.
Motion made to approve budget as it stands.
Walt seconded.
Motion passes.

2005 Chapter Track Event Calendar no major changes.
Instructors Clinic- no new information.
Novice Skills- Registration just opened and Tom is receiving electronic registrations.
PR Dates- We presently have June 5th at PR. June 4th is a Porsche Club date. This year each club can have members attend either /or both of these events. You would need to register and pay for both days.
Street Survival - no update.

Upcoming Events:

WSP training facility- no update.

General Business:

Autocross Event- see above
Turn Workers - Lynne Eskill is working on obtaining workers.
Karting Enduro - Dave Clary will put together a proposal for a Karting Enduro. No date has yet been set. Rick made a motion to allow Dave to spend $1845.00 to set up the Karting Event. This would get the track reserved. Motion was seconded and carries.

SIG Enduro - a proposal was submitted to the board. Authorization was given to go ahead and obtain the track with the date and more details to be determined. The proposal was added to the minutes as a separate entry.


Tours/Rally

Jeff Schlimmer states that the Rally is still set for April 30, 2005. Dave Bedoes, from Canada has expressed interest in assisting with this event. He may even be able to speak at the post rally dinner. Jeff is also considering a pre rally map training event to familiarize people with how a rally runs. He is looking into a South area site and banquet facility.


SIG Groups / Events

No report on past events.
Dave Clary ask the board permission to order trophies for each member of winning teams. Board approves.
SIG contact information is now available on the website.
E30 Picnic will be held on August 14, 2005 at the XXX Drive Inn in Issaquah. More info to follow.


Banquet Recap 2005

De Anna submitted a complete financial accounting as a separate entry. She has ask the $15000.00 be donated to the Parkinson's Foundation. Board approves.
There was a general discussion on how the charity is chosen for the banquet. It is felt that a proposal be submitted by interested parties and the Board will make the final determination as to which charity will garner our support for that particular year.
Lance submitted a final accounting of all auction items.
A heartfelt "Thanks and Good Job" was offered to de Anna, Lance, David L., and all the wonderful volunteers that made this years banquet such a success.

Concour's de Elegance

Will be held on Sunday, July 24, 2005. E28 will be the featured car. No other new information available.

Zundfolge

This is the February Zündfolge report to the board:
The deadline for the March Zündfolge was Tuesday, February 1st. Proofing was Wednesday, February 2nd.
If, after the board meeting, there are text changes for the February issue, email them to lucettalightfoot@msn.com no later then Friday, so we can attempt to get them all changed.
Are the Karting Enduro and the SIG Enduro the same event? Or are they two different events?
There should be two new advertisers in the March issue.
If there are any questions email them to lucettalightfoot@msn.com.
Thanks,
Lucetta

Roster/Membership

Louis reported on the database update process. This should make it more user friendly and easier to access the information.

Web Site

No new information or updates.

Next Board meeting will be Thursday March 3rd at the Mercer Island Firestation 91. Alan James has volunteered to provide food and beverages.

Roundabout

There is a California Big Road Fest for BMWs if anyone is interested.

De Anna went over her banquet report in more detail.

Louis reminded the Board about his upcoming wedding reception on Saturday, 2/5/05.

Chris has an E30 for sale. He also has a case of Brake Clean, which he will sell for $5.00 per can.

Tom loves the new website software!

Walt went over last year's track attendance statistics.

Jeff has an E30 that may become a racecar. He drove an E36 and just loved it!

Rick read an email message from someone with a BMW that has been in the shop 12 times over the past year and a half. She was asking for our help with this. It was suggested that anyone with this kind of issue be steered in a general direction but not given specific advice due to legal issues and ramifications.

Banquet--I've sent a thank you to Erik and he's responded as to what a great time he had. He really enjoyed the group. His talk was planned for 35 to 45 minutes and obviously he went way over that. Too long for most but some people couldn't get enough. Kudos to de-Anna for an incredible event.

Treasurer--Marty and I need to spend some more time working together. We need to bill the February ads and do the year end financials. By the time we get through all of that, he will probably be comfortable with the job.

Future Events--I'm trying to come up with some social events. I'd like to set up a meeting to have Ross Bentley talk about his most recent Speed Secrets book: Engineering the Driver. It may be time for another Collectibles meeting in December since it will have been two years. Somebody mentioned that long-time national board member Barbara Adams is coming to town. It might be good to put together a social event for people to talk to her.
That's all for now.
David