BMW CCA, Puget Sound Region
Board Meeting Minutes
September 5, 2002

The meeting was called to order by President Karl Seeger at 6:55 PM at Round Table Pizza in Redmond. Those in attendance were:

- Karl Seeger, President
- Ken Hill, Vice President
- 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
- Louis Hesselt-van-Dinter, Member
- Don Robisch, Member
- Tom Olsson, Member
- Dave Clary, E31 SIG
- Reid Conti, Member
- Jennifer Nazarko, Member
- Mathew Mar, E38 SIG
- David Lightfoot, Secretary

Opening Comments

Karl welcomed everyone. Introductions were made as there were a number of new faces.

News from National

BMW CCA Foundation
Karl reported that the Kansas City and Hoosier chapters have made donations to the BMW CCA Foundation. The Foundation reports it needs to raise $100,000.

Personnel Changes
Karen Hill-Robinson is gone and Calvin Hill has taken her place in the National office.

Elections
A number of the National Board members are not running for reelection including our Regional Vice President, Keith Wollenberg.

Future Oktoberfests
The 2003 O’fest will be held in Austin, Texas. In 2004 the location will be Pasadena.

Insurance

Consideration of reinstatement of the chapter rebate program for event insurance is an agenda item for the November Board meeting.

Member Survey

Ken Hill distributed the results of the membership survey. The Zundfolge is the most popular membership benefit. Many members expressed a desire for more technical support through tech sessions, Zundfolge articles and web information.

Nomination Committee

Jim Millet, as chairman of the Nomination Committee, gave a report on the Committee’s progress. There have been no responses to the solicitation in the Zundfolge. However, candidates have been found for most of the positions.

These tentative candidates include:

•  Tom Cox for President
•  Ken Hill for VP
•  David Lightfoot for Treasurer
•  Ken Olsen for Secretary
•  Rick Gulstrom as Membership
•  Lance Richert as Concours chair
•  Kevin Chow for Banquet
•  Doug Adams, Jr. as Roster Manager
•  Lucetta Lightfoot as Zunfolge Editor, and
•  Miki Haraguchi as Web Meister.

Tour Coordinator does not have a candidate but Doug Haussler may be interested. A new position of SIG Coordinator is being considered. The deadline for nominations is October 1st.

New Meeting Location

There was a discussion of potential new locations for the Board meetings. Everyone seems to have had enough of Round Table Pizza. The poor lighting and noise the last two months have made the location less than ideal.

General Meetings and Events

Monroe to Mt. Vernon Tour
Doug Haussler wasn’t at the meeting to report. However, those that did go on the tour said it was a good event. The weather wasn’t terrific and still 28 cars participated. The route was excellent. The final bulk email before the event is what filled it up.

SUV Tour
Ken Hill said he has 17 registrations. The Tour will go through a huge Bureau of Land Management forest, part of which is set aside for just this purpose. Ken is going to scout a location that will accommodate larger vehicles since we have several full size vehicles registered. We also have a couple of fuller than full size vehicles registered: a Ford Exhibition and a Hummer.

Co-Show at Ste. Michelle
The event is dead for this year, as expected.

Oregon Wine Tour
Karl reported that the event is full. Tom Williams, the event organizer, is keeping a long waiting list. For fear of having drop-ins which can’t be accommodated, the starting point for the tour will only be disclosed to registered participants.

Wine Tasting
Kevin reported that the event will be held October 9th at Esquin’s. Kevin is working with Esquin’s to select food and wines. There is plenty of room left.

Mount Rainier Tour
Jim Millet reported that Doug Haussler is putting together a tour to Sunrise for October 13th. The Board’s only concern was the possibility of snow at that time of year.

E36 Tech Session
Jim Millet said there was a promotional article in the current Zundfolge. He already has 16 reservations with more coming in daily. The event is likely to be oversubscribed. The host is Car Tender and the date and time are November 9th at 9:00 am.

Video Night
Lance is organizing a Video Night at Bison Creek featuring great car chase scenes. The often weak plots surrounding the chase scenes will be edited out so that only quality time remains. The date is November 20th, Wednesday night. A repeat performance is possible one week later.

Fikse Wheels Meeting
We’re looking at a meeting sometime in November or December. Jim Millet is chairing the event.

Special Interest Groups
Karl added a new permanent item to the agenda for the Special Interest Groups (SIGs). The 02 group was particularly active this year but there are a number of others too. We discussed ways to support these SIGs and to promote the formation of others. Ken Hill volunteered to work with Miki to establish a page for each SIG with contact information and activities.

The E30 (second generation 3 Series) group was represented by Chris Chow and Greg Hodder. This past year they held a very successful picnic and were well represented at the Concours. They don’t have any other activities planned right now.

Dave Clary was in attendance representing the E31 (8 Series) SIG. They had a strong showing at the Concours and plan one more lunch and drive before the end of the year.

Mathew Mar came to his first Board meeting representing the E38 (third generation 7 Series) SIG, which call themselves the Seattle Sevens. They have six board members. The group has a ride planned for September 28th.

Treasurer’s Report
Tom said the cash balance was $47,824.16 per the bank and about $41,000 considering outstanding checks. We haven’t received any news about the dues reimbursement from national. Keith acknowledged Tom’s first email but Tom has not received a response to his second.

Greg and Doug Adams, Jr. completed compiling the membership numbers to calculate the “bonus” reimbursement we should have received from National. The data was handed off to David to manipulate. It appears we have never received the bonus. Thus far, our questions on this issue have stopped at Keith and haven’t gone to the rest of the Board or the Executive Director.

Web Site
Miki wasn’t in attendance. It was observed by several that the performance of the new server is a big improvement.

Zundfolge
Lucetta wasn’t in attendance. She had sent a reminder for the October issue deadline (September 3rd) and a number of contributions were missing.

Roster/Membership
Greg provided a report indicating 2,965 members with 283 associate members. We have 1,276 members on the bulk email system.

We have 593 members in Oregon. Greg observed that he frequently gets questions from Oregon members about events in their area. The Board felt that actively trying to start an Oregon chapter would be seen as hostile to the ACA chapter in Portland, with which we have had a long-standing relationship. However, if a group of volunteers in Oregon wanted to petition to start an Oregon chapter, we could help them.

Greg also noted that the National office seems to have a lot of problems with the membership database. Mistakes seem to be frequent. Associate members can’t be tracked. The chapters are not given any accounting for the monthly rebate checks they receive.

Track Events
Jacqueline was not at the Board meeting. Karl and Jacqueline, in absentia, recommended Wes Hill as the replacement for Jacqueline as the Track Events chair. Rather than wait until the end of the calendar year when all the other Board positions expire, a motion was made to have Wes replace Jacqueline immediately and take charge of the October Driving School. The motion was unanimously passed.

In anticipation that this change would be uncontroversial, Wes has been the contact point for registrations for the October School. Although Wes was not in attendance, it was reported that he already has 20 pre-registrations in hand.

Wes is also our Club liaison to the ICSCC. Two members proposed three rule changes to the ICSCC rules for 2003.

The August Drivers’ Training Day went very well. The August 30th scheduling screw up with the track ended up with no one using the track that day. David reported he went out to the track to find no one there and the track beautiful and empty.

Banquet
Kevin reported that the banquet date has been set as January 25, 2003. David Hobbs has been confirmed as our speaker. His fee is $2,500 plus expenses. It is hoped that he will be enough of a draw to make the economics work.

Both Kevin and de-Anna Martin are looking for a location but it has been difficult finding what we want within the price range we’ve set. Mathew Mar had a contact at one of the large SeaTac hotels that he gave to Kevin. The first promotional article will be in the October Zundfolge.

Tours/Rallies
Ken Olsen wasn’t in attendance. There was nothing new to report.

Concours d’Elegance
Lance received a replacement trophy, paid for by Griot’s, for Ron Ager. It will be awarded at an appropriate event. Lance is working on securing a location for 2003. He is considering a date change since our traditional date has so many conflicts when trying to secure a large high profile site.

Roundabout

Ken Hill—asked about donating a driving school/membership (at his expense) to a charity auction in Olympia. The only issue would be bumping a member from the school. Wes Hill is looking for an advertising rate sheet. Jim Millet said he could supply one. Walt Conley is home recuperating from cancer surgery. We voted to send him a get well gift.

Don Robisch—said he wanted to help with track events.

Kevin—has made some progress is getting a vinyl logo made to apply to the Club banner.

Reid—said the cop that gave him his latest speeding ticket can, “kiss my ass.” Not that he is bitter.

Greg Hodder—had fun at the August Driving School, which his dad also attended.

Chris—is planning a pizza lunch for members on September 12th at Sodo Pizza.

Lance—announced that Hell was about to freeze over. He’s close to buying an (is nothing scared?) E36. One of the E30s will have to go.

Tom Olsson—came looking for a job. He will likely be put to work.

Louis—attended the B.C. Club’s concours, safety school and tour. Had a great time with the friendly Canadians.

Jennifer—more evidence that Hell is freezing over; she bought a black E36 M3.

Karl—Wendy Flanagan, who has been very helpful on our Washington Wine Tours, recently had a baby boy named Cael. The Board authorized a gift of up to $50.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:30 PM.

Respectfully submitted,
David Lightfoot
Secretary