Wow, where has the time gone?

Wow, where has the time gone? It feels like not too long ago that I was sitting with Drew Karpinski and learning the ins and outs of leading our DE Program and now here I am writing my final DE article and in the midst of transferring DE to Tom Swift, our new VP and Track Chair.

I can clearly say that I have thoroughly enjoyed being your DE Chair. I really had fun, made a bunch of new friends and was constantly reminded how many great people we have in this crazy car club of ours. As I would say at every event Driver’s Meeting, there are many moving parts to these DE’s and they would not be possible without the commitment and support by so many event volunteers, our Instructor Corp and our Chiefs. At each event we had a leadership Team (our Stewards) and a cadre of volunteers. These Stewards are invaluable (and have frequently come to my rescue) and are not thanked enough. So, THANKS to all of you for your support and thanks to all the participants of our Program and please carry on and support our new DE Chair and keep the NNJR DE Program the best in PCA.

When I took on this role at the end of 2013 (I had a test run at the 2013 VIR event), I had developed a list of Goals and Objectives that I wanted to achieve during my tenure. These were:

Goal: Increase the “user friendly” aspect of our Program and ensure that all participants know what to expect and are, quite frankly, treated like customers.

Result: To name a few things we increased our frequency and content regarding pre-event Tech, provided more food and drink at Techs, enhanced the information that goes with the Track Pack and Track Pack email and held a get together/Happy Hour at every event with a number of them having food and snacks.

Goal: Improve the schedule and add new tracks if possible.

Result: We added a new track (Palmer) and moved the date for Thunderbolt to not fall on Father’s Day weekend.

Goal: Based on your feedback via DrivingEvals, we needed to improve our classrooms.

Result: We added a whole set of new topics and added classrooms for all run groups at 95% of our events. These presentations were created and presented by our Chief Instructors.

Goal: Ensure that every student that wanted to drive could drive (always have enough Instructors).

Result: Improved our incentive Program for Instructors which resulted in 95% student participation.

There were a number of additional things we improved that are more behind the scenes and were an attempt to ease the support effort of our volunteers and Stewards.

So, 23 DE’s later and 13,152 miles in the NNJR van, I am passing the DE torch to Tom Swift and receiving the President torch from Drew Karpinski. Thanks for the opportunity to be you Track Chair and see you all out there next season.

Tom Iervolino