From The President 2011-Nov

First allow me to apologize for not having an article ready for last month’s newsletter. I have had some health issues that deterred my ability to type and focus on my tasks. I have spent much more time than I want to going to various hospitals and seeing a number of specialists.The good news is that every symptom I have appears to be correctible through medication (except for another eye surgery in Nov.) and I believe the “meds” are working – not as quickly as I would like, but I’ve never been real patient – pun intended.

Although we are winding down for our Porsche events for this year, we have still been very active. We had a very successful DE at BeaveRun and even made a little money without a key sponsor. I had the opportunity to meet one of our newest members, young Samuel Ross (the new son of Alex and Becky Ross) – he was extremely good and there was not a flinch when one of the track cars would go by at mega speed and sound.

We had another great DE at Mid-Ohio. We sold out about a week before the event. This has been a very successful track season for us and we need to thank our instructor team of Bruce Graham, Ralph Guido, Larry Pryor, Jr. and our track organizers lead by Dale Rabeneck with assistance from Scott Mores and Bob Nadin.
On the social front, we tried something new with a Speed and Sushi event in Greensburg. Great attendance, great cars, and great food and drink. We even had a surprise visit from Nancy Lowe’s award winning 914-6. We want to thank Paul and Diane Nickoloff for putting this together – sure that this will be on the calendar for next year.

Speaking of the Nickoloffs, they graciously invited us to their lovely home for September’s business meeting. As usual, there was a party atmosphere, but we did manage to complete our business agenda. Please note: all members are invited to join us each month for our business meetings.
We also had another fun rally – our second for the season. There were several glitches – like the original restaurant that we reserved forgetting about us so we had to scurry and find something the day before the event – we did. Also, for the first time, the weather didn’t cooperate and it rained during the whole event. We still had an excellent turnout – about 25 cars and as usual everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I want to thank Frank Bunecicky and Iron Jack Purvis for another well-organized event. They are already working on a new rally for next spring.

With the closing of this year’s activities, we will soon be planning for 2012. We would really appreciate volunteers to chair or assist some of our upcoming events – the Mid-Winter party, the All Member dinner, etc. We are also looking for someone to chair the PVGP. After the PVGP wrap up fiasco this year, Louise has decided that she has had enough of PVGP’s “attitude” and wants to turn this task over to someone else. Please contact me if you are interested in creating a new venue, chairing or assisting in next year’s activities.

One of the things we want to do is concentrate on is regenerating our P3 program (Porsche Projest for Patriots). With this year’s emphasis on our successful PVGP effort, we kind of put this very meaningful project on the back burner. This coming year, we want to change our emphasis to the P3 program. If you know anyone who is serving our country in Iraq or Afghanistan, please contact Judi Seiler.

As you read this article, Louise and I will have probably just returned from our great adventure. We are driving to Rennsport at the Laguna Seca racetrack. Some folks have looked at us like we’re crazy for driving our Porsche for this distance, however in our opinion this is what the car was designed to do. They are expecting up to 4,000 Porsches and had sold over 65,000 tickets by the end of September. This will be the first time our 993 has gone east of the Mississippi. We will also visit our middle daughter and family in northern California and then cruise up the coast to Seattle to see our son, daughter in law, and new grandson. If the weather cooperates, we will take a casual trip back through the northern part of the States. We’ll provide details of our trek in next month’s newsletter.
I look forward to having you contact me with your questions, suggestions, and input.