President’s Column, June 2007

by Bob Morin

There have been several events since last month’s President’s Column.  The first was actually not a Chapter event, but a National event.  Each year the National club hosts a congress and invites the Chapter volunteers who work in that specialty.  One year they will invite the newsletter editors and webmasters, another year they will invite the Driver’s School people and this year it was the President, Treasurer and Membership Chairperson.  Fifty out of the 65 Chapters sent at least one representative and I’m proud to say that all three of our volunteers were able to attend.  There were presentations to the entire group and then break out groups that dealt with more specialized topics.  Then, on Sunday morning, we broke out into groups by region with our Regional Vice-President and we were able to compare notes and exchange ideas with neighboring Chapters.  It was a great opportunity to get some fresh ideas and to network with our counterparts from around the club.

The following weekend, we had our Chapter business meeting on Friday night, and then on Saturday night, the Hurczyns hosted the Wine & Cheese Party in Bristol, CT.  Almost 40 people drank plenty of wine and ate quite a few appetizers as well.  Thanks to Jim & Maria for opening their home to us once again for this terrific event. 

The next day we broke new ground for the Chapter and held our first Street Survival Teen Driving School.  This event was amazing. Twenty-five teenagers who no more wanted to be there then you want to go to work on a Monday morning, all had big smiles on their faces and couldn’t believe they had so much to learn about driving by the end of the day and 15 really hard-working instructors also had positive remarks about how rewarding their day was.  The parent’s comments were all universally positive as well.  I’m sure Dave will cover the event elsewhere, but I would like to say thank you to Dave Rich for taking on this challenge and to jerri & Willy Wiley and Mike Zarolinski for all they did to help.  Thanks also to Sheila for being instrumental in securing the Hartford Insurance location and to the Hartford for having us.  Malachi Blandon helped us get a UPS tractor trailer to the event so the kids could learn about blind spots and what it’s like to deal with car traffic from a truck driver’s point of view.  Alan Coykendal arranged to have an airbag deployment demonstration that was a real eye-opener for students and parents alike. Michael Hurczyn did the classroom and Jim Hurczyn was responsible for the instructors.  Lastly, I’d like to thank the numerous volunteers who came out and spent their Sunday to help us make these kids better drivers. 

Less than a week later, another Driver’s School at Lime Rock completed a very busy stretch for many of our members.  This time, we had considerably better weather than in April when you almost had to chip the ice off you fingers to wrap them around the steering wheel.  Wally Thomas, Steve Wasley and Frank Giacalone organized another great event and once again we had an excellent group of volunteers help with the day.  Thanks to all who helped.

As I write this, the June 10th Winery Tour is already sold out, but you may still be able to get into the HMS Tech Session on June 23rd.  Of course, registration is now open for Oktoberfest 2007 in Fort Worth, TX.  This will be a year of celebration of the E30 M3 as well, so if you are the proud owner of the original M3, you’ll want to make plans to attend.

The F1 boys had almost a one month vacation since their last race, but finally started the European season in Spain and once again it was BMW in 4th place, but this time it was Kubica behind Massa in the Ferrari, Hamilton (continuing his amazing rookie season) in second and Alonso putting a second McLaren on the podium in third.  Heidfeld wasn’t so lucky after starting 7th when his gearbox failed and he DNF’d.  BMW is in a solid third in the Manufacturer’s Championship and Heidfeld is sixth and Kubica seventh in the Driver’s point race.  Monaco could be a wild card race as it is very difficult to pass and very easy to crash. 

In News From National, Wynne Smith reports that 599 members have recruited 888 new members since the inception of our latest membership contest and National membership now stands at 76,114.  It was also reported that E30 M3 superstar Steve Soper will be attending this year’s Oktoberfest to help us with our M3 celebration.  

I hope to see you at our next event.