Sitting in my home office on a Friday in the peace and quiet

Was is Neu?
By Tom Iervolino

Sitting in my home office on a Friday in the peace and quiet getting some work and PCA stuff done. I am also waiting for, actually looking forward to, the pending snow storm. Based on the reports, you would think it never snowed before much less the “we are doomed” “1 to 24” forecast. I am still amazed how you can be so wrong or vague and still get paid fairly well for such performance.
I can tell you about one group of individuals that do not get paid yet work very hard and achieve a very high level of performance. This group would be the NNJR-PCA Board and Activity Chairs (BoG). Let me tell you what this 30+ group of people do and have planned for us in 2016.
Autocross: Grant Lenahan took on the challenge in 2015 and re-tooled the program with a focus towards increasing the number of runs and increasing the fun factor. Well done Grant. He and his team have more improvements in store for us in 2016. In fact, Flemington Porsche has agreed to be the 2016 sponsor of our autocross program. The season starts early with events on April 17 and May 1. One of these days will be the famous Car Control Clinic. Thanks Grant.
Charity: All around really nice people, Anthony and Nelly Wartel, start very early in the year preparing for our big charity auction in December. The preparation and solicitation of prizes takes hundreds of phone calls so we end up with wonderful prizes and most importantly a decent amount of money for our 2016 charity, Employment Horizons. I know they have a few other ideas in the works to raise money at some of our other events (50/50’s etc…) so let us do what we can to help out the folks at Employment Horizons and when you see Anthony or Nelly coming your way. Thanks.
Communications: Matt Fine who is new to the NNJR BoG is well underway taking how and when we communicate to you our members, event participants, advertisers, etc… to the next level. Matt along with others has already made improvements to our Facebook presence and have other ideas in the works. Thanks Matt and welcome.
Concours: Jeff and Chris Erven, the dynamic father and son team who are also new to the NNJR BoG, are off to a great start with their 2016 events. You cannot help but be enthusiastic about concours after spending just 10 minutes with these guys. They are crafting a few changes to expand how cars are judged as well as working to increase the fun factor along with the educational aspect of concours. As of this writing I have been to one event so far this year and I have learned so much and plan to attend more events. Not sure I will be competing with my GT3 track car but, who knows?
Driver Education: Tom Swift our previous Treasurer and now Vice President of NNJR and DE Chair (as well as a DE Chief Instructor), is well underway pulling together our 2016 program. As I was DE Chair for the last two years, I can tell you that Tom is spending lots and lots of hours in pulling together the 2016 season. By the time you read this March article, he would have held our Introduction to High Performance driving in January and our Advanced Driver and Instructor seminars in February. Next up is event #1 of 11, our April Lime Rock event. Thanks Tom!
Historians: Stu French (venerable expert of all things Porsche) and Bob Knapik are pulling off a massive effort in documenting the history of NNJR which you see as monthly Porscheforus articles. This is all in preparation for the 60th Anniversary of NNJR in 2017. Thanks guys!
Mailing and Distribution and Membership: The long term dynamic duo Dennis and Marlys Thovson spend countless hours every month ensuring this magazine gets sent and that all of us as members are properly accounted for. The attention to detail and the work involved in doing this is not for the faint of heart. Getting this right also ensures we, as a PCA Region, get apportioned the correct amount of member fees and PCA National rebates that helps keep our Region going financially. Marlys is also responsible for membership which requires a careful accounting of members, new members and renewals. Thanks guys.
New Member Liaisons: Akemi Kane and Sharon Doherty are hard at work ensuring new members to our region, of which there are 12-15 each month, are properly welcomed to the region and receive new member material. They also have a few new member welcome events planned for 2016. Thanks ladies.
PCA Club Racing: While as a region we do not sponsor a specific PCA Club Race, Craig Mahon, Past President, works to help those from our region that want to try out Club Racing. Car preparation to ensure proper classification and proper safety equipment are just a few of the topics he helps our new racers with. This is on top of being one of our NNJR Chief Instructors for DE and being a club racer himself. Thanks Craig and keep the shiny side up.
Planning: Drew Karpinski, Past President and a DE Chief Instructor, is working with all the program chairs in establishing their yearly budgets. By now this is all settled and the next step is to conduct our midyear review where we review program expenditures, receipts and check how the rest of the year looks programmatically and financially. Drew is also responsible for ensuring our Federal and State tax filings are done properly and on time. No rest for our Past President.
Porsche PX: Jose’ DeLaCruz our PX goodie master, sign maker and artist, manages the NNJR PX as well as our on-line store. Jose’, besides ensuring we always have a nice selection of items to buy at various events, is looking at what additional items we should carry in our on-line store. Thanks Jose’.
Program: Our Chair Scott Lynn has a number of special presenters lined up this year. Our January speaker, Phillippe Defechereux, was really great and Scott always has a surprise for us in the works. Thanks Scott.
Publications (P4Us): Michele Lynn is our Editor in Chief (Chief Cook and Bottle Washer) and I am not quite sure how she pulls off the layout and publishing of this magazine every month. It is a herculean effort that does take some cat herding (getting all the various writers to get their articles and photos in on time). Great job Michele!
Publications (P4Us): Knute Hancock our P4Us business manager (and a DE Chief Instructor) works every month to ensure we have advertisers which make the production of this magazine possible. He also works with our advertisers and manages the invoicing and payment of ads. Thanks Knute.
Rally: John Vogt our rally chair (and proprietor of fine cars; High Marques owner) has done a wonderful job in turning around our program where we now experience record participation. As I know how much John aims to please, he has a number of really fun rallies and destinations in the works for 2016. You cannot help but have fun hanging around with John. You da man John.
Safety: Leslie Shrem as our safety chair keeps up with the latest requirements from PCA National and manages our insurance needs for all moving car events. Thanks Les.
Social: Cindy and Tony Cristello love to throw a good party and it shows in everything they do for NNJR. It is early in the season but be sure they are hard at work in planning out and negotiating with the various venues for our 2016 social calendar.  This is on top of what Cindy does as one of our elected officers; Secretary. What a great team!
Sponsor Relations and Dealer Liaison: Bill Gilbert, Past President and a DE Chief Instructor, along with new BoG member Steve Corodemus, are hard at work in ensuring our 2016 sponsors are signed on and satisfied with their relationship with NNJR and that we do what we have agreed to do as outlined in our sponsorship agreements. They have ideas in the works to increase NNJR sponsorship which clearly creates a win-win for the sponsor and NNJR. This goes a long way to help our financial stability and allows us to put on some of our famous and great events (wine tasting, DE events, AutoX, etc…..). Thanks guys.
Technical Committee: James Coleman and Ken Casterline have really made our technical presentation and education events fun and informative. They a have fun series of events planned for 2016 which started off with a 2 part series of legacy cars in February and new models in April as well as a new safety products seminar this month. Really good stuff guys, thanks!
Track Tech: Our great team of Ed Pepe and Walter Sliwa are hard at work before during and after the very busy DE season. They train new tech inspectors, plan, manage and run each pre-DE safety tech and plan, manage and run the safety tech sessions at each of our DE’s. Wow, that is a lot of work and effort to keep us safe. You guys are the best. Thanks.
Treasurer: As a new member to the BoG and as an elected officer, Janice Ernsting is in charge of the money. She not only produces  a monthly treasurer’s report, she balances the books each month and ensures all expenses for all programs and all receipts are accounted for and credited to the proper accounts. Thanks Janice!
Web site: Jeff Cafiero was the leader of our team that developed our new and really well done web site. Thanks. He also spends countless hours keeping it updated and current. This is especially so in the beginning of the year when the region’s full year calendar needs setting up. Thanks Jeff!
Yearbook: This all year effort which culminates in our annual NNJR yearbook is created and managed by Petra Swift. This yearbook in not only important on chronicling our year, but it is also a work of art that we should all be proud of and should purchase and place on your family room table. Petra also produces and issues our monthly membership email blast. Thanks Petra.
So there you have it, the above mentioned team of people are some of the most dedicated and hard working people I know. Their mission is to make membership in NNJR-PCA special and to make our region one of the best if not the best in all of PCA. There are also countless volunteers that help each of these leaders that I too need to point out and thank. Oh yeah, did I mention, they all hold full time jobs as well. Pretty amazing in my book.
Thanks and see you out and about.
Tom Iervolino, NNJR – President, (862) 206-9610