BOARD OF GOVERNORS MEETING for July, 2016

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BOARD OF GOVERNORS MEETING for  July, 2016

NORTHERN NEW JERSEY REGION – PORSCHE CLUB OF AMERICA, INC.

 

DATE:             Thursday, July 7, 2016

 

PLACE:          The Brick Academy, Basking Ridge, NJ

 

PRESENT:      Tom Iervolino, Tom Swift, Cindy Cristello, Janice Ernsting, Matt Fine, Chris Erven, Jeff Erven, Bill Gilbert, Steve Corodemus, Stu French, Dennis Thovson, Marlys Thovson, Sharon Doherty, Craig Mahon, Jose DeLaCruz, Knute Hancock, James Coleman, Walter Sliwa, Jeff Cafiero, Petra Swift, Murray Kane

 

ABSENT:        Grant Lenahan, Anthony Wartel, Nelly Wartel, Bob Knapik, Akemi Kane, Drew Karpinski, Scott Lynn, John Vogt, Leslie Schrem, Tony Cristello, Ken Casterline, Ed Pepe

 

CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order by President, Tom Iervolino, at 7:30pm

 

APPROVAL of MINUTES: See Motions Passed Prior to Meeting (below).

 

AGENDA:      [Agenda items in bold; meeting outcome in italics]

  1. Old Business
  2. None
  3. Updates/Redirections to Written Reports to BOG

[updates appear following each respective report]

  1. New Business
  2. Parade – Overview of Parade – nothing formal but a recap by those that attended would be great. Parade attendees related some stories and experiences.
  3. NNJR 60thAnniversary Committee – Discussion about a possible multi-Region event – Cindy

The Risentoter region is planning on expanding their planned September 2017 DE event into a much larger celebration and has reached out to neighboring regions to gauge interest. They have a commitment from Kalahari Resorts (15 min from Pocono) to reserve a block of approximately 500 rooms. We have not been asked for a commitment at this time, so we will continue to discuss the details as they become available, and determine if this fits within our plans for our 60th celebration.

  1. Mid-year Program/Financial review – Drew In Drew’s absence, Tom I. asked all committee chairs to review where they stand and advise if they expect any deviations from their planned budget.
  2. “Fill-a-Frunk – A Literal Food Drive” – Tom Riesentoter region had reached out to Tom to describe one of their long-standing traditions: On the Wednesday after Thanksgiving, members fill their “frunks” (front-trunks of a 911) with food donations and trek to a local food pantry. This event has been very popular in their region and others and they thought it would be cool to have many many PCA regions run this event on the same day.  NNJR Charity Chairs will evaluate.

 

REPORTS:

  1. Officers’ reports:[as submitted in advance; updates during/after the meeting in italics]

                        President: [Tom Iervolino] see Agenda above

 

Vice President: [Tom Swift]

We held two successful DE events in June.

 

Our two day event at Thunderbolt was attended by about 140 drivers, up about 10 over the year prior.  The weather was threatening but turned out to be quite good.

 

We had three of the nicest days I’ve ever seen at Pocono for our Ladies Day and DE event.  Paul Miller was again our sponsor, and brought a bunch of new cars up for test driving.  Pocono moved us to the middle garages, but with an overflow lot this didn’t prove to be a problem.  Dinner was held at Woody’s and worked out very well (thanks to Cindy for arranging this).  We ran three course configurations over the three days, including the double infield on Sunday (we hadn’t been able to run that for many years).  Attendance was similar to last year.   For next year I’d like to see us make a more concerted effort to attract women novice drivers to Ladies Day, as we have  been in the low 20s for a couple of years.

 

July brings us to Mosport and then to our signature event at Watkins Glen.  Demand for the WG event has been amazing, despite substantially raising prices to offset the large increase in track fees.

 

Secretary: [Cindy Cristello]  Minutes from the May, 2016 BOG meeting have been posted on the website. There was no BOG meeting for June.

Treasurer: [Janice Ernsting]

Attached is the NNJR treasurer’s report for June 2016. Some notes:

  1. Income for June 2016 YTD was up 18% over last year for the same period. I thought this might be due to a timing difference related to the July event at Watkins Glen. However, that that did not prove to be the case. This is encouraging since track rental fees at WGI increased 41% over last year and those fees were paid in full in June.
  2. Expenses for June 2016 YTD held steady with a slight decrease over the same period last year.
  3. Net Income YTD 2016 reflects a loss. This loss is about half the amount of the loss reflected last year for the same period.
  4. Cash is down vs. last year’s balance.
  5. Autocross had an adjustment to May, due to a lost/voided check, which reduced expenses. The reissued check should appear on their July statement.
  6. All revenue and expenses related to the “Welcome to the Club Event” has been temporarily assigned to New Member with the exception of the trophies that were expensed to Concours. That income and the related expenses will be redistributed between Concours, Rally and New Member at some point in the near future. At that time, I will reissue the Treasurer’s Report if necessary.

Looking forward to Watkins Glen and the boost to our cash position!

 

  1. Board and committee reports: [as submitted in advance; updates during/after the meeting in italics]

 

Autocross: [Grant Lenahan]

We held an Autocross on June 19th, the first we have held at a venue other than the meadowlands in several years, and neither as popular, large or well maintained.  But the show went on.  To further complicate matters, it conflicted with Parade and we lost ~ 6 of our core operational team including the Kanes, Thovsons and Cristellos.

 

Yet, in the end we managed to have a successful event and more than broke even.  A big thanks goes out to the remaining team who doubled their efforts, and to some new recruits who stepped in as timers and one volunteered to be our onsite EMT/nurse, saving the budget.  A special thanks to Marc Salvatore who ran the timing setup for the first time without Dennis – and we made it work, no hitches, to Bill Gilbert who has really taken on our course setting role for the year (thanks Bill) and as always to Bill Merritt who wears many thankless hats.  troopers all.

 

Our next event is the Autocross school, July 23rd. Registration is open. At the moment registration is light as is volunteering as instructors.  Please pass the word.  We do expect most of our “team” to be back in place for the school.  registration is via Motorsportreg.com.

 

Charity: [Anthony and Nelly Wartel]

Donations for the annual tricky tray are beginning to come in.

 

The Committee will of course now accept any donation of items for the tricky tray auction to be held in December.  We are also looking for that big auction item to rival last year’s generous donation of a car transport trailer.

 

Please contact the Charity Committee or anyone on the NNJR Board of Governors should you have an item to donate.

 

This year’s tricky tray will once again benefit those at Employment Horizons.

 

Club Racing: [Craig Mahon]  no report

 

Communications: [Matt Fine] no report

 

Concours: [Jeff Erven and Chris Erven]

June was the scene of two Concours events.  The first was a Do-It-Yourself Workshop held at Ray Catena Porsche. The number of actual Porsches was slight due to the weather but was well attended considering.  Joe Germino provided an outstanding Venue with great food and door prizes.  A lucky member walked away with a Porsche watch.  The Porsches in attendance went home sparking clean and the sun did come out.

 

The second event was the Welcome To The Club portion of the Concours held at Employment Horizons.  (29) beautiful Porsches were lined up by class.  The New Master class was well received and the members really got dirty cleaning the Engines.  Score were tabulated and score sheets and Awards were given out during Lunch.  A big thank you to Ford Shaw and his staff for the great event.  The Doherty’s and Kane’s really were great in running the total event.  A lot of members volunteered and good comments were received.

 

At the Brookrace Park Picnic a people choice was awarded to Donna Paterek for her 356 Cabriolet.  Results were close but she won it all over 69 Attendees on the field.  Another Full Concours will be held at Brookrace on Sunday, July 24th.  This is a great Venue that Jon Vogt has made available to the club.  Anyone needing water to wash their Porsche can use the Lake.  Water has been tested and is safe to use.

 

Dealer Liaison: [Bill Gilbert and Steve Corodemus] no report

 

Driver Education: [Tom Swift] see report under Vice President (above)

 

Historian: [Stu French and Bob Knapik]

2nd installation of Throwback Porsche article- “Decade of the ‘60s” prepared by Bob & Stu, with editing and image enhancement provided by DennisT, will be further tweaked per PetraS input before inclusion in upcoming P4US.

 

“Decade of 70s” article next to be researched and prepared as part of Throwback Porsche series leading up to 2017 60th Anniversary

 

Both Stu & Bob served as Parade Concours judges, bringing volunteer-value to select competition groups, including Historics

 

Mailing and Distribution: [Dennis Thovson]

 

Mailing data for 2357 copies of the July issue of Porscheforus were sent to our Mailer on June 22nd. The issue was delivered to the Mailer on June 23 and placed in the Postal System on June 24. Many members received their copy of Porscheforus on July 1st!

 

Membership: [Marlys Thovson]

NNJR ended the Month of June with 2207 Primary Members (minus 11 from May), 1 Life Member and 1495 Family/Affiliate Members. We had 24 new Members join NNJR, 2 prior members rejoined, 4 late renews and 224 on-time renewals (60 of the on-time renewals were from multiple year renewals). Three members transferred-out and 2 members transferred-in. Forty-one members did not renew on-time for the July 1 cut-off.

 

One of the PCA Region Reports was re-written which we allowed us to find out how our new members heard about the Porsche Club and joined. Of our 24 new members, 20 found out about NNJR from other PCA members. KEEP SPREADING “THE WORD”

 

New Member: [Sharon Doherty and Akemi Kane]

On Sunday, June 12, we held the annual Welcome to the Club Concour and Rally. The day was beautiful and there were 29 cars in Concour and 41 cars in the Rally. There was coffee, bagels and other breakfast goodies as well as several lunch “dishes” prepared by Theresa Angiulli, fruit and green salads, chips, pretzels water, soda and we used the hot dogs and hamburgers that were left from the Cruise Night.  There was not much food left over at the end of the event!

 

The event was fantastic with many thanks to all who helped organize and run the event especially to those employees at Employment Horizons.

 

New Member was able to cover our expenses from the entries received.

 

Nominating Committee:

Nominating Committee Report:  The Committee began preliminary discussions on July 5 and will begin interviewing the current elected officers on July 7.

 

Planning: [Drew Karpinski]

Planning chair report- The Planning Conmittee requests updated budgets from all activity and committee chairs that have a budget.  Please let us know of any anticipated variances + or – , and any notes about your program and projected variances to budget that we should know about.  (If no changes are required and you feel you will make budget, please let us know.). Once we have these, we will consider if any budget changes are necessary for 2016.  Please send them to me at: planning2016@nnjr-PCA.com

 

Program: [Scott Lynn]  no report

 

Publications-Business Mgr: [Knute Hancock]

Third quarter Invoices were mailed out June 6.

 

Publications-P4US Editor: [Petra Swift] no report

 

Px: [Jose DeLaCruz] no report

Caps always sell well. Jose will review to see what is selling well in anticipation of being ready for holiday shopping.

 

Rally/Trek: [John Vogt] no report

 

Safety: [Leslie Shrem] no report

 

Social:  [Cindy and Tony Cristello]

Wine Tasting – Sunday September 25th at Paul Miller Porsche – Our theme this year is “Vinos de España”. Wine selections are underway. Graphics have been created (thanks Jose!) for the souvenir glasses, and the order will be placed shortly. Preliminary catering discussions are pending. Event is once again co-sponsored by Paul Miller Porsche and ShopRite Sunrise Kitchens.  A ‘save the date’ ad was placed in the July P4US. Registration opens August 1st. Form will appear in Aug P4US.

Ocktoberfest Trek – Sunday October 23rd – Departing from High Marques in Morristown to a “surprise” location for tasty German fare. Venue selection and event pricing are pending.  Registration will open September 1st. Ad will be placed in September P4US

CIA Trek – Saturday November 12th – Good news!!! The CIA is doing large group luncheons on a somewhat limited basis, and we were able to get a date. Trek will depart from the Sloatsburg rest stop on the NY Thruway. Registration will open October 1st and will be limited to 50 participants. Ad will be placed in October P4US.

Holiday Cocktail Party – Friday December 2nd – Venue TBD. We are considering trying something different this year… our feedback tells us that folks enjoy the ‘cocktail party’ portion of the traditional dinner/dance format much more than the ‘dinner/dancing’ part, so this year we are going to nix the formal sit-down dinner and simply do a big cocktail party. There will be dinner-equivalent amounts of food and a dance floor will be available, but the seating will be more casual (more small tables / high tops) to allow folks to mingle more. Ads will be placed in the October and November P4US issues, and registration will open November 1st.

 

Technical:  [Ken Casterline and James Coleman]

The Technical Committee has  no planned activities scheduled at this time. We are working on two  activities for late Summer and early Fall that are not firm enough to reference.

 

Track Tech: [Walter Sliwa and Ed Pepe]

Mid Ohio Pretech went well at Paul Miller Thanks to all the volunteers that helped,

there were 20 cars all passed. Thanks’ to everyone that helped!!

 

Tech in Mid Ohio went well thanks to all the volunteers at the track. Thanks to everyone that helped!!

 

Thunderbolt/Zone 1 Watkins Glen pretech went very smoothly due to all the volunteers that came out to Powertech. We want to thank all that helped!!

 

Thunderbolt tech went well but we are having some issues with paperwork. We will continue to educate & help people with the paperwork. Thanks to all the volunteers that helped.

 

Pocono Pretech went very smooth at Paul Miller due to all the help from volunteers. We were able to keep 4 lifts working and did 40 inspections. Thanks to everyone that helped Great Job!!!!

 

Pocono went well but we are still having issues with paperwork. We will keep working on this and help people with this. We want to thank all that volunteered at this event!!

 

Mosport Pretech went well at Town Porsche. We had 5 cars all passed inspection. Thank you for all the help from everyone.

 

Webmaster: [Jeff Cafiero]

Little to report updating galleries and some content is a little behind.  As Murray shared our site took second in our division.  I’m waiting to see the judge’s comments so we can address where we feel short however for our first go round the club and BOG should be proud. Thanks to all who were involved.

 

Yearbook: [Petra Swift] no report

 

MOTIONS PASSED PRIOR TO MEETING:

  1. On June 17, 2016 motion was made (via email to all BOG members) by Cindy Cristello to approve the minutes of the May, 2016 meeting. Motion was seconded by Knute Hancock and carried by majority vote.
  2. Per our Article IX of our By-laws, President Tom Iervolino proposed the below noted Nominating Committee for the BOG’s approval. Approval was received by a majority of the BOG.

Drew Karpinski – Chairman **

Craig Mahon

Dom Miliano

Jeff Krol

Dyke Hensen

Shannon Muller

Knute Hancock

 

**On June 22, 2016 BOG was advised that due to time/schedule conflicts, Drew Karpinski can no longer fill the role as Nominating Committee Chair but will remain as a member.
Craig Mahon has graciously agreed to be our new Chair of the Nominating Committee.

 

MOTIONS PASSED DURING MEETING: none

 

UNFINISHED BUSINESS: none

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS: none

 

NEXT MEETING:   Thursday, August 4, 2016, 7:00pm (pizza), 7:30pm (meeting) at The Brick Academy
FUTURE MEETINGS:  Wednesday August 31, Thursday October 6, Thursday November 3, Sunday December TBD.

 

ADJOURNMENT: Upon a motion made by Jose DeLaCruz, and seconded by Jeff Cafiero, the meeting was adjourned at 8:34 pm.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

 

Cindy Cristello, Secretary