BMW CCA, Puget Sound Region
Board Meeting Minutes
October 3, 2002

The meeting was called to order by President Karl Seeger at 7:00 PM at Billy McHale’s in Factoria. Those in attendance were:

- Karl Seeger, President
- Ken Hill, Vice President
- Wes Hill, Track Events Chairman
- Lance Richert, Past President, Concours Chairman
- Tom Cox, Treasurer
- Jim Millet, Zundfolge Advertising Manager
- Greg Mierz, Roster Manager
- Kevin Chow, Banquet Chairman
- Rick Gulstrom, Membership
- Chris Chow, E30 SIG
- Greg Hodder, E30 SIG
- Doug Haussler, Member
- Louis Hesselt-van-Dinter, Member
- Don Robisch, Member
- Tom Olsson, Member
- Mathew Mar, E38 SIG
- Doug Adams, Jr., Member
- Evan Lesure, Student Observer
- David Lightfoot, Secretary

Opening Comments

Karl welcomed everyone. Introductions were made around the table. Evan Lesure was observing as he wants to start an on-campus automotive club at a small college.

News from National

National Board Meeting
The next Board meeting will be in Austin, Texas on November 2, 2002. Minutes from the last meeting in Pasadena are available.

Driving Events Committee (DEC)
The Operations Manual for the DEC has been changed. There will be one elected representative from each region rather than one from each chapter. The election process is similar to that for National office. Ballots will go out by December 1st.

15% Rule
The Board decided not to pursue getting a private letter ruling from the IRS regarding members from another chapter attending a chapter’s events. The IRS could construe entry fees from non-chapter members as being “unrelated business income” or UBI. This relates to a problem for non-profits if more than 15% of their revenue comes from UBI. This can potentially trigger the income being taxed.

Elections
Secretary, Treasurer and three regional Vice-Presidents are up for election. Our RVP, Keith Wollenberg, will not be seeking reelection.

Editorial Eye
This is an organization that wanted to have samples of chapter newsletters from the National newsletter editors’ conference. There was supposed to be a publication from these samples. No one has seen it.

Gateway Tech
Gateway Tech is scheduled for March 19-24, 2003 at the Pacific Palms in San Gabriel, California. It looks doubtful that the event will occur.

Membership

The list of all chapters and their membership levels lists the Puget Sound Region as the fifth largest chapter.

Foundation

Karl received a mailing about the BMW CCA Foundation. He offered to provide a copy to anyone who wanted one.

Nomination Committee

Jim Millet, as chairman of the Nomination Committee, gave a report on the Committee’s progress. The open period for applications from candidates closed September 30th. All Board positions, except Tour Coordinator, have candidates but no positions are contested.

The Committee proposed two new Board positions. The first would be the SIG Coordinator. This person would encourage the formation of Special Interest Groups and facilitate their activities. When a SIG would need Club support (money, insurance, promotion), the SIG Coordinator would present the SIG’s proposal to the Board.

The second new position proposed was Technical Events Chairman. This was in response to the seemingly insatiable demand for tech events. This new Board member would be charged with organizing tech events through SIGs, are businesses or other means.

Both new Board positions were approved. Both will be appointed positions for the first year (2003) and will be elected positions starting in 2004.

Job Descriptions

Ken Hill was put in charge of gathering job descriptions for all Board positions. Each Board member is to write up the first draft of their position’s duties and submit this draft to Ken. In addition, it was suggested that each Board member create a notebook with all the policies and procedures related to their position.

New Meeting Location

After finding Round Table Pizza unsatisfactory for Board meeting business, we tried Billy McHale’s. The noise, distractions and set-up were no better for productivity than Round Table. However, the festive lights and weird decorations were appreciated. Lance also found the miniature choo choo train running around overhead to be a “high” point.

Karl suggested we return to the Mercer Island Community Center for our Board meetings. This suggestion was warmly received and approved. The location is central, close to the freeway, quiet and the tables and chairs can be set up to make the meetings more productive.

The one downside is the lack of food service. David volunteered to bring the food for the November meeting. Kevin volunteered for December. Wes Hill will call the Community Center to reserve the room for both months. The food budget for these meetings is to be about $5 per person. The Club treasury will pay for the food for all in attendance.

General Meetings and Events

SUV Tour
The Hill brothers reported that 18 vehicles participated including some full size SUVs. The weather was great. People had a terrific time.

Oregon Wine Tour
There was a little rain on Sunday but otherwise the weather was great. Tom Williams led the group on some fabulous roads. There were between 20 and 30 cars with a few coming and going at times. Being a fall wine tour, the vines were full of grapes. The last stop was a distillery which President Karl found very enlightening.

Wine Tasting
Kevin reported that the event will be held October 9th, at Esquin’s. There will be ten wines sampled, ranging from $20 to $60 per bottle. Food will also be provided. Twenty people are registered. Capacity is 100. About another 20 would be just right.

South Sound Tour
Doug Haussler had to revise his tour plans because Sunrise Lodge on Mount Rainier will be closed on October 13th. The revised route will be in the South Puget Sound area. Total distance will be about 200 to 250 miles. The event is full with 50 cars registered.

E36 Tech Session
Jim Millet said that the event is now full with 50 people registered. No wait list is being kept.

Video Night
Lance has previewed the chase scenes to be shown at this event. Lance is going to see whether Scarecrow Video will sponsor the event. Alternatively, rather than ask for $2 per person donations, the Board approved up to $150 for the event. The Hill brothers will also bring some videos from the Bobby Orr Stunt Driving School. The limit is 75 people at Bison Creek. There may be a repeat performance if there is demand. Some members in the Portland area also would like a copy of the tapes.

Fikse Wheels Meeting
Jim Millet checked with Fikse. They do not want to host a meeting. However, they would be willing to make a presentation at another location.

Treasurer’s Report
Karl reported on a letter received from Wynne Smith, Executive Director. The letter accompanied a check for $11,268.35 which represents the bonus dues we were owed from National. Keith Wollenberg had brought to Wynne’s attention that we hadn’t been receiving the agreed to amounts.

Tom said the cash balance was $44,790.62 per the bank and $6,301.29 in the CD. It was noted that we are accumulating too much cash. We need to have a way to spend down the balance while maximizing the benefits to members. There were a plethora of suggestions on how to spend the money (wheels, tires, superchargers, ad nauseum), a few of them even made some sense. It was agreed that Tom and David would come up with a responsible and sustainable proposal for reducing the cash balance.

There was a general discussion of insurance issues including whether we should continue to cover certain events, particularly tours. The main difficulty in making any insurance-related decisions is our inability to see a copy of the current policy. We’ve been told by National it is “proprietary.” We’re going to make another effort to get a copy.

Web Site
Miki wasn’t in attendance. Karl observed that it appears that the transition to the new server is complete. The domain names have been renewed and transferred.

Zundfolge
Lucetta wasn’t in attendance. Karl related her desire for articles to be submitted earlier. It was noted that last month’s deadline was before the Board meeting. This prohibited any decisions made at the Board meeting from getting into the next month’s magazine.

Karl also related Lucetta’s desire to publish the activities of the SIGs. We have had a lot of 02 coverage this year and she would like to have submissions from the other Special Interest Groups. Tom Cox brought extra copies of past issues.

Roster/Membership
Greg reported 2,965 members with 283 associate members. We have 1,270 members on the bulk email system. He also noted that National seems to be making progress on sorting out the database problems related to dual members.

Track Events
Wes reported that the early arrival of the October Zundfolge messed up the timing of his message regarding the October Driving School. The result was he had to field a lot of phone calls. Wes and Jacqueline have had difficulty getting together to work on transition issues due to Jacqueline’s busy race schedule. They should be able to get together next week after the last Conference race.

The ground school is probably going to be at the Mercer Island Community Center rather than Bellevue BMW. The October school is full with 40 cars plus five extra drivers. There are 10 to 18 people on the waiting list. The Instructors for the school have not been lined up yet. Wes is working on organizing the school.

Selection of track dates at Pacific Raceways and Bremerton should be coming up in November. Wes hopes to hold a “town meeting” on Tuesday, October 29th, to get everyone’s input on track. The “town meeting” will also be held at the Mercer Island Community Center. This input will help Wes to know how many dates to request for next year. We may consider running at Monroe in addition to PR and Bremerton. We are also trying to secure one day at Laguna Seca and one day at Sears Point.

Banquet
Kevin reported on all the details for the banquet. The date is January 25, 2003. The place will be the Best Western Bellevue Inn. The schedule will go from 5:30 until 9:30. The silent auction will be shortened and there may not be any oral auction at all.

David Hobbs is confirmed as the speaker. An extensive promotional plan was presented to encourage attendance. Many people do not know who Hobbs is, so some education is in order.

Dinner choices will be New York steak, grilled salmon or vegetarian plate. The banquet committee recommended either $40 for early registration and $50 for late registration or $45/$55. A breakeven point analysis was presented for various attendance levels. The room can hold up to 350. After some discussion, the Board approved early registration (before 12/31/02) of $35 and registration during January of $45. This is a $20 to $30 reduction from last year’s prices! Final cutoff for registrations will be one week before the event, 1/18/03.

To further encourage attendance, the dress code will be business casual rather than suits. Non-members, SIG members and members from other chapters will be encouraged to attend. We have arranged discounted room rates at the hotel ($59) to encourage out of towners to attend.

Kevin noted that we need to gather digital photos of 2002 events for a Power Point show which will show during the auction and cocktails.

Tours/Rallies
Ken Olsen wasn’t in attendance. Karl noted that he had sent out an e-mail about three one-half day rallies, all to be held during the same weekend. People can participate in one or all of the rallies.

Concours d’Elegance
Lance hopes to get the replacement trophy to Ron Ager sooner rather than later. Bradley’s has agreed to provide a full detail service to the winner of the attendance raffle. Lance hasn’t done anything on schedule next year’s site since most parks departments won’t take reservations until after the first of the year. The revision of the judging sheets is planned for this winter. Kevin Chow offered to put together a picnic to be held on the day of the Concours.

SIGs
Chris Chow reported that the E30 SIG held a gathering at Golden Gardens that drew 16 cars.

Roundabout

Greg—got some new wheels for his E30 from Discount Tire.

Tom—has envelopes and magazines.

Wes—wanted clarification regarding turning in Driving School checks and expenses.

Louis—is going to his first track event in Spokane.

Don—got new ICE for his car.

Doug Adams—offered to help put the track information on Access.

Rick—noted this coming weekend is the last race weekend for the club racers.

Doug Haussler—met the Seattle Sevens E38 SIG and said they’re just a great group of people. They are also very passionate and knowledgeable about their cars.

Lance-took delivery of the E36. The Dinan ’87 E30 is for sale.

Evan—thanked everybody for the guidance he received.

Karl—delivered a bottle of wine on behalf of the Club to Walt Conley who is recovering from cancer surgery. Walt was back at work for the first time today. Karl also, sounding a lot like a drug addict, reported his race car was back in running order. He will get a fix, err, be racing this weekend.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:45 PM.

Respectfully submitted,
David Lightfoot
Secretary