The meeting was called to order by President Rick Gulstrom at 6:45pm at the Mercer Island Fire Station 91.

Those in attendance were:

• Rick Gulstrom, President
• Martin Hovenkotter, Treasurer
• Lynne Eskill, Membership Chair
• Lucetta Lightfoot, Zundfolge Editor
• Lance Richert, Concours Chair
• Walt Conley, Chief Driving Instructor
• Tom Cox, Past President
• Tom Olsson, Driving Events Chair
• Jeff Butler, Tech Events Chair
• Alan James, Tour Coordinator
• Don Robesch, Member
• David Lightfoot, Vice President
• Louis Hesselt van Dinter, Roster Manager
• Jane Hesselt van Dinter, Secretary
• Mike Ellis, SIG Coordinator
• De Anna Martin, Banquet Chair

Presidents Report

Lucetta attended the Newsletter Editor/Webmaster Conference May 13- 15, 2005 in Atlanta, Georgia. She was able to obtain a Webmaster information notebook and some of the printed material available at the conference but was not able to get all the information that was available due to attending the Newsletter Editor sessions. She requests that the Board try to send someone from the website to this conference. She will forward this information obtained at the conference to Tom Olsson.
Per National, there will now be standards implemented for all chapter websites. There seemed to be no major issues with our magazine.

There is a National Board Meeting in Portland, Oregon on June 4. Rick ask if anyone was planning to attend. Bill Spornitz may attend and Lucetta Lightfoot is planning to attend and will report back to the Board.

BMW Team PTG will be held on July 17th at the Summit Point Raceway in Summit Point, West Virginia if anyone is interested, Rick has additional information. This is the 10th Anniversary of PTG working in conjunction with BMW North America in American sports car racing.

BMW CCA Crisis Communications. Per National, each chapter needs to have a Crisis Communication Plan in effect. This plan covers any unplanned event, occurrence, or sequence of events that has a specific undesirable consequence. In the case of BMW CCA the most likely occurrence would be an incident at a driving event. Rick stated that our chapter needs to declare a designated spokesperson to handle questions, especially from the media, in the event something happens. It was decided that Rich Milham, the Risk Management Representative would be the most appropriate person. Rick will contact Rich and request that he be willing to act in this role.

The D & O Coverage for Puget Sound has been bound. Information on this coverage was provided to our chapter from National and will be added to the meeting minutes as a separate entry.

There are new website addresses:

http://www.bmwcca.org/chapters/ - Contact individual BMW chapters.
http://www.bmwcca.org/join/ - Join the BMW CCA
http://www.bmwcca.org/renew/ - Renew your membership
http://www.bmwcca.org/addresschange/ - Change of address
http://www.bmwcca.org/contact/ - Contact the BMW CCA

Treasurers Report

Martin reports that our chapter now has over $62,000.00 in the bank. He has not, however, been able to get the new reports completed. He will bring them to the next Board Meeting.

There was an issue with a $900.00 check from three members in Canada that was not honored at the bank. Tom O. has been in contact with them and they will still attend the event this weekend, however, they will bring cash to make good on their entry fees.
 

General Meeting and Non-track Event Calendar

Club T-shirts have been printed and delivered last week per Lance. He does have some grey T-shirts, sweatshirts and long sleeve T-shirts available.
Louis ask if Lance could consider club Golf shirts with the next order. This will be considered for the instructor shirt order in the fall. Walt reminded the Board that the more shirts we order, the less the cost.

Lynne/Jeff/ David discussed the Membership Incentive Programs (BMW Dealership Presentations). It was generally felt that the salespeople had no reason to encourage membership in the BMW CCA due to a lack of education on the many benefits of membership and the variety of events offered through the club. Numerous ideas as to how to better involve the local dealerships were discussed, i.e. possibly offering two spots at the Novice day to the dealerships to be awarded to salespeople. Another idea involved allowing dealers to set up a display area at driving events where new cars could be seen, by participants, with a short talk by the dealers on their products. Walt even suggested Instructor rides to the salespeople/dealers.
Lucetta will check her sources as to which, if any, dealerships offered a free membership to BMW CCA with the purchase of a vehicle.
Lynne and Jeff will contact each dealership, individually, and discuss, with them, how best to partner with each other to encourage dialogue/events/membership and mutually beneficial relationships.

Martin reported on the North Cascades Tour. He states that it was a very successful event with 50 cars. He also mentioned that the Sun Mountain Lodge was beautiful and very accommodating to his group.
It was suggested that for insurance reasons, tours need to have sign in sheets and waivers should be signed.
Lance suggested that these very popular tours become annual events.
 

Upcoming Events:

David reported that he has not been successful in contacting anyone within the Mini Cooper Club. He would really like to see them become more involved in our chapter, and will continue to try to contact someone. There will be a Mini track day on Monday, sponsored by the Mini dealer, which should be fun to watch.

Griot's Garage Tech Session will be held on June 25th.

Dyno Event and BBQ will be held on July 30th per Jeff. He states that arrangements are coming along and still needs volunteers to help on the day of the event. Louis and Jane volunteered to help.

David reports that the Group 2 Motorsports Tour will be held on June 11, 2005 from 10:00 - 12:00. Muffins and coffee will be served. The shop area will be open at first and then the actual museum are will be open.

DeAnna and Dane Martin will be attending the Portland Historic event on July 9th. There will be a caravan down if anyone is interested, however, registration for the event is closed.

Chapter Calendar event status- Jane reminded the Board that if they are interested in a date that she needs to be notified even if the event is still in the planning stage. This way the date can be held for them and no other event will be booked.

The '02 Fest will be held on July 23 at Torgeson Park in North Bend. Brian Capp, the 2002 SIG is the contact person for this event.

Lucetta reports that reservations for the SOVREN Historic Race and Corral are coming in. She does not, however, have the actual tickets for this event yet.
 

New Event Ideas? 

Per Alan, the Le May tour still does not have a date.

Rick will discuss possible dates for the Speedware Tech event with Jane.

Alternative locations for an Auto-cross event are still being sought. A discussion was held as to possible sites around the Puget Sound area.

The Audio Tech Session is still in the planning stages. Jeff has a meeting with the Regional Manager for Magnolia Hi Fi tomorrow to discuss the possible use of one of their locations for a tech session. Tom C. is also working with Benchmark to see if they would be interested in an event like this. He will hold further discussions with them pending the meeting Jeff already has scheduled.

Marty and Alan discussed the Hill Climb Tour. This will be held on October 8 - 9, 2005. It will be our first overnight club tour in quite awhile. This tour will go to Mt St Helen's by back roads and on to the Hood River with a possible group dinner that night. Marty has been checking prices for local hotel rooms and has tentatively arranged for 45 rooms. The next day the group will travel to the Stone Hinge replica and to the SOVREN Hill climb. It was also suggested that there be an early leave group and a late leave group for people not interested in the Hill climb or needing to return to the Seattle area earlier. De Anna also suggested the Best Western at Hood River for a possible place for participants to stay. Marty will contact them.

Alan reports that there is no date for the fall Leavenworth Tour yet, but will probably be held in September.

David reports no new information on the BMW Collectibles Event in December.
 

Track Events

Tom O reports that the two day PCA and BMW CCA event this weekend is very popular with many out of state members attending. Discussion was held as to the future of the Bremerton Motorsports site. Per Tom, the contract we have with Bremerton is on a month to month basis.

A High Performance Driving School will be held on July 10th. Registration will be open for this event next week.

Pacific Raceway is holding several drag racing nights. Marty reports that there will be BMW drag racing that members can participate in. The registration cost is $25.00. The tentative dates are June 29th and July 6th but Marty will double check on those dates and post something to the website.
 

Tours/Rally

Jeff Schlimmer was not present at this meeting to present any new information.
 

SIG Groups /Events

Mike Ellis, the new SIG Coordinator reports that there will be an E30SIG BBQ at his home after the Griots Garage Tech Session on June 25th. Please contact Mike for more information.

The E30 Picnic is scheduled for Sunday, August 14th at the XXX Drive Inn in Issaquah.

David would really like to start a Mini SIG. He will write a notification for the magazine and Lynne will include this information in her New Members packets.

There is no date set for the Wine Valley Tour nor has a contact been established.
 

2005-2006 Banquet

David is still attempting to contact Bill Auberlen to engage him as a speaker for this year's event. He did obtain a movie that could be shown, in the event a speaker is not available. Several Board members felt that between the auction and the dinner that a speaker is not that important to most attendees. It was felt that a backup plan be in place due to timing issues. David suggested a "Topless in January" event. It would feature all the convertible models of BMWs with a tropical theme. This idea was met with general enthusiasm from the Board members and de Anna mentioned that this theme would be easy to accomplish with very reasonable expense.
 

Concours

Lance reports that the featured car, the E28, will not have its own class. These cars will be in their appropriate regular class.

Also, all sign in sheets for events need to be to Lance prior to the Concours.

David is going to talk to the local Rolls Royce dealership and see if they would be interested in displaying the Phantom Rolls Royce, they have in their showroom, at the Concours.
 

Zündfolge

The deadline for the July 2005 issue is Tuesday, June 7th.

Lucetta states the Paulette, who does the magazine's layout, is out of town on an extended family emergency. They are going to attempt to put together the next magazine issue via email. Lucetta is requesting the Board allow her to purchase Adobe Acrobat Professional so they can communicate with each other. A motion was made to allow her to spend not more than $500.00 on this software by Tom Cox. Motion seconded and carried by majority.
 

Roster/Membership

Louis reports that membership has continued to fluctuate mostly due to people not renewing their memberships after the first year. He also states that any returned magazines, due to bad addresses, are sent to National for correcting. All members must update their personal information through National and National notifies the appropriate chapters of these changes.
Lynne reports that nationally, membership is down 1.82%.
 

Web Site

Tom O encouraged people to join the Yahoo Group. He explained that this group only allows those members to receive bulk emails from the club. Yahoo does not sell these names nor does this give the member a yahoo address. Its sole purpose is bulk email. It was suggested that sign up sheets be at driving events so additional members can voluntarily receive this type of email.
 

The next Board Meeting will be held on July 7, 2005 at the Mercer Island Fire Station 91.  This meeting will start at 6:45 p.m.  Martin Hovenkotter volunteered to bring food for this meeting.

Roundabout

Marty mentioned what a terrific job that Jeannie Muckelstone and Barbara Bowden with some recent moving violations he heard about.

Lynne states that PCA may not have enough turn workers and ask for volunteers.

Lucetta requested that agendas be sent out earlier that this last one was received. Rick states he will do this. She is also wondering if Board Meeting Minutes should be approved by the entire Board, prior to posting. It was noted that this was done in the past but not for several years. It was agreed that the draft will be sent to all Board members with 48+ hours for them to be reviewed. Changes will be made as requested and the final draft will be sent to Board members for final approval. No email response implies approval from member. Once sufficient time has passed for approval to be made, only then will minutes be posted to the website.

Walt is leaving for Greece for 10 days.

Tom O. is Jeff's newest customer, his car was rear ended with some damage.

Mike ran into a group of British car enthusiasts as they attended their Run to the Gorge. One gentleman had a right hand drive, non- kit car, Cobra with a V-6 engine. There was also an MGB with a V-8!

Tom Cox questioned as to whether Board Members wanted to continue to receive News from National via email. Generally, everyone likes this format so he will continue to send it out. Also, Tom mentions that in reference that the State of Washington has a one time exemption for speeding tickets. If you ask for this exemption, however, it is only granted if you get no other tickets in the next six months. If you do, all bets are off and all tickets must be paid and will be reported to your insurance company. Per Alan, apparently you can request this exemption every 7 years.

De Anna has lost 37 pounds!!! She has decided to make a career change and will be attending Bastyr University to obtain her degree as a Nutritionist. She also attended a recent Mercedes Benz rollout and got to test drive several models, even screeching the tires in the corners, which made the dealers a little nervous.
David also attended this event and the organizers were warned ahead of time to "let him go and not to worry about his driving ability".

Louis recently attended a Stick Seminar in Canada with the world renowned stick player, Greg Howard. He had a great time.