BMW CCA, Puget Sound Region
Board Meeting Minutes
May 2, 2002

The meeting was called to order by President Karl Seeger at 7:00 PM at Round Table Pizza in Redmond. Those in attendance were:

• Karl Seeger, President
• Lance Richert, Past President, Concours Chairman
• Jim Millet, Zundfolge Advertising Manager
• Lucetta Lightfoot, Zundfolge Editor
• Tom Cox, Treasurer
• Ken Olson, Tour Coordinator
• Alan James, Member
• Rick Gulstrom, Membership Chairman
• Greg Mierz, Roster Manager
• Ken Wear, 02 Special Interest Group (SIG)
• Chris Chow, E30 SIG
• Greg Hodder, E30 SIG
• Doug Haussler, Member
• Bill Spornitz, Member
• David Lightfoot, Secretary

Opening Comments
Karl welcomed everyone. Introductions were made because there were some new people in attendance.

News from National

Insurance
The new national insurance coverage is administered by Wisenberg & Naughton. The national office has asked that all questions be submitted through Wynne Smith within 30 days. Insurance for specific events can be made directly with the insurance company.

Newsletter/Website Conference
There has been a good response to the Newsletter Editor/Webmeister Conference. Lucetta and Miki will be attending on behalf of our chapter. It will be in Tucson in June.

Oktoberfest 02
National reports 239 registered for this year’s O’fest in Colorado. The local hosts need volunteers. Jamie Thomas has agreed to be the local contact for chapter members going to O’fest.

Raffle 2002
The raffle solicitation was to be sent April 29th. The raffle cars will be M3 Coupes this year.

BMW CCA Foundation
Tammy Hull has been the driving force behind the creation of the BMW CCA Foundation. There will be three areas of emphasis for the Foundation: 1) Preservation/restoration information, 2) An archive/library, and 3) A driver safety program for young drivers. BMW CCA has provided $25,000 for seed money for the Foundation. The Foundation will now begin soliciting contributions from individual Club members. The Foundation’s initial trustees have had one organizational meeting.

National Board Meeting
The next national Board meeting will be held May 18-19 in Salt Lake City.

Member Survey
Karl thought Ken Hill might bring the survey summaries but Ken did not attend the meeting.

Tee Shirts
Lance reported that he has sold about 60% of the initial order of shirts at two events. He ordered another 50 shirts in small sizes.

Special Interest Group Policy
The proposed SIG policy from last meeting was discussed briefly and then adopted without modification. This policy will be posted on the Club’s web site with the bylaws. A copy of the official Club policy follows:

SIG Policy

1. SIG must be devoted to a particular BMW auto-related interest.

2. SIG must have a liaison to the Board so that there is a means of communication.

a. For event proposals, the liaison must attend the Board meetings leading up to and immediately after the event.
b. The liaison must be a member in good standing of the chapter

1. Definition of BMW CCA, PSR involvement and co-sponsorship:

a. “Involved” is defined as financial support or providing of insurance.
b. Involvement means we will be a co-sponsor.
c. Mere event promotion does not constitute “involvement” or co-sponsorship.

1. The conditions for our involvement/co-sponsorship include:

a. Specific approval of involvement in the event by the Board.
b. Promotions must mention BMW CCA, PSR as the co-sponsor.
c. SIG must be officially supportive of BMW CCA.

1. The Board will not co-sponsor an event by a SIG that is hostile to the chapter or BMW CCA.

2. It is preferable, but not essential, that membership in CCA is encouraged by the SIG.

a. The Board would prefer a written proposal, presented in person by the SIG liaison, to include:

1) The place, date, time.
2) Description of the event.
3) The number expected to attend.
4) The financial arrangements.
5) Who will be managing the event.
6) What the SIG is asking from BMW CCA, PSR.

1. We do not need (or want) “control” as long as our other concerns are met:

a. Financial commitment is limited.
b. Liability exposure is controlled.
c. Image/reputation of the Club is not likely to be tarnished.
d. The cost/benefit test for our membership is met.
e. No one involved is getting a personal financial benefit.

1. If BMW CCA, PSR is not involved, then use of the chapter name is not permitted.

2. Event management should be by the SIG.

a. As stated above, we do not want or need control.
b. The event should be run by the SIG.
c. Event chairperson in a co-sponsored event must be a chapter member.

General Meetings and Events

Griot’s Garage
Doug Haussler, event chairman, reported that 107 people signed in and about 120 were in attendance. This was the event capacity and Doug had to curtail registrations prior to the event. The event was successful.

Safety Seminar/Pacific Raceways
Karl reported that both the Safety Seminar and the Pacific Raceways discussion by Jason Fiorito went well.

Hornet Race
Wes Hill will be driving the Hornet in the race over the Memorial Day weekend. Joni Candey has purchased a 320i to run too. Lance will be promoting the fact that we will have two BMWs in the Hornet Race.

SAE/WWU Visit
Karl reported that there has been lots of interest in the trip to Western Washington University to see their automotive program and the latest Viking experimental car.

Washington Wine Tour
Karl reserved a block of 24 rooms and all have been taken. He has cut off reservations for the event at 24 cars to keep it manageable.

Detail Session
Tom has made the arrangements with Exeter Garage, who will be the host. The first promotional article has just appeared and already he has three reservations.

Vintage Races at Pacific Raceways
Lucetta reported that the corral spaces are already half taken. We may get some additional spaces but we won’t know for a while. SOVREN is asking for donations from the Clubs. The Board felt we already do enough to promote the race.

Portland Historic Races
David said he would be sending a bulk email message with contact information for the Portland BMW ACA hosts.

Mini Meeting
David said that MINI Northwest will likely host a meeting the last week of May. The building is still not completed.

Wine Tasting
Karl reported that Kevin Chow wants to do a wine tasting at Esquin’s in Seattle. The date is likely to be in August or September. Kevin will get a date.

Sears Point
Bill Spornitz stopped by Sears Point Raceway during a recent vacation and got information regarding a potential date in 2003. We will submit an application for a date. Track rental there is very expensive.

02 Tech Session
Ken Wear said the 02 SIG Tech Session on April 13th was a success. Eighteen people attended. The host was GP Automotive.

02 Drive
The 02 SIG will have a group tour up on May 4th. The planned Chuckanut Drive route has been changed due to construction on Chuckanut. The route will now go through Sedro Wooley and the Skagit Valley and then up the North Cascades Highway.

Springfest
The Springfest on May 18th has 111 registered. The event will potentially have a capacity problem.

02 Fest
Ken Wear reported that he already has 14 registered for this July 27th event. They have online registration setup and can accept payment by PayPal. They also have 13 sponsors for the event.

E30 SIG Picnic
Lance said that the E30 SIG picnic will be held at Newcastle Park, right off I-405. All members are welcome. There is no cost for the event. There will be a special display of E30 race and tuner cars. Auburn Foreign Car is providing $300 to buy food and drink. Thirty to 40 cars are expected. Lance requested $150 from the chapter to pay for the rental of the cabana. The request was approved.

Track Events
The Club’s two-day Novice School was held the two days following the Board meeting. For that reason, Jacqueline was not in attendance at the meeting. The school, May 3rd and 4th, was sold out. The next track events will be June 9th and July 14th.

Banquet
Karl said that Kevin was trying to procure large prizes from some of the local professional sports teams. The teams want to know what charity the event will support. So Kevin has asked the Board to designate a charity early in order to facilitate the solicitation of donations.
The Board decided to not designate a charity yet. Instead, the consensus was that we should rethink the entire event. It has drawn poorly in recent years. A subcommittee will be formed to try and figure out how to increase participation in the event.

Tours/Rallys
Ken Olson reported that the Spring Rally last weekend had 29 cars participate. The responses to evaluate the event have been good. Total event expenses were $1,490 while revenues were $1,440, for a net cost to the treasury of $50.
Ken mentioned that the College Planning Network rally was coming up June 6-9 and that the British Columbia club was also holding rallies that are available to our members.

Concours d’Elegance
Lance reported that the Bannerwood Park site in Bellevue has been selected. He said we may want a mid-July date next year so there are fewer conflicts. We will probably have a limit of 100 cars on the grass. We will use some of the adjacent parking lot to increase the number of cars we can accommodate. BMW Seattle will again be the main sponsor. Griot’s Garage will be a secondary sponsor. They will bring their trailer and door prizes. The attendance raffle will also be held at the Concours d’Elegance.

Treasurer’s Report
Tom said we have a balance of $17,300.44 in the checking account and an additional $6,242.71 in the CD. Tom prepared the IRS Form 990 and mailed it off three weeks early.
Karl asked again for some budget information for planning. He noted that Zundfolge and track are the two big cash flow items.
Tom and David will take a look at the checks we’re getting from national. It doesn’t look like we are getting the extra amount we are supposed to get for former ACA members.

Web Site
Miki was not present. Karl reported she has been busy. She has received a lot of event photographs but hasn’t gotten them posted. Everyone seems to really like the web site’s new navigation system. The server still sucks. The 2001 officers are still on the site.

Zundfolge
The deadline for the June issue is next Tuesday, May 7th. Lucetta reported that she still receives a fair number of handwritten submissions. Sage’s column has been well received. Lucetta needs the list of Club racers for the annual feature.

Roster/Membership
Greg reported that we have 2,874 members, including 260 associate members. We have 49 new members this month. Greg said there is a problem with the timing of his receipt of the mailing list and the mailing of the Zundfolge. This means that new members are sometimes waiting two months before they receive their first Zundfolge. It was decided to mention this in the letter included in the new members’ packet.

Greg said he now has 1,090 on the bulk email system. A different bulk email software was evaluated and rejected.

Greg asked that his $20 on-line support subsidy be reinstated. This was done without a vote because it was previously approved. A similar amount for Miki was tabled in her absence.

Roundabout
Greg—mentioned that an E30 tech session was coming up.

David—mentioned that long-time member, and former Board member, Bill Muse died April 27th.
Doug—reported that he attended the Bimmer Fest in Southern California. They had to cut off registrations at 1,000.

Tom—said he was reluctantly considering selling his M6.

Chris—said the E30 SIG has go-kart sessions at Sy-Karts on the second Thursday of each month. He also asked that forums for the various SIGs be added to the Club’s web site.

Greg Hodder—said he was attending his first Board meeting, found it interesting and intends to attend more.

Lance—mentioned the DTM Power Club, a group that heavily modifies their BMWs. They will be participating in the Concours.

Bill—said that he visited the Vlasic/Hogan residence where they are preparing a 2002ti for the Concours.

Jim—reported he is getting a steady stream of E36 owners asking questions since the model enthusiasts were announced in the Zundfolge.

Rick—said the Kahn Team Racing got first in class in Portland (Hugh Golden) and that Jacqueline also did really well. Rick also said he thought the Club should buy a PA system for use at events. Everyone agreed and asked Rick to come back with a proposal.

The meeting was adjourned prior to 9:00 PM as many in attendance had to be at Bremerton Raceway early the next day.

Respectfully submitted,
David Lightfoot
Secretary