November 1997

Location: Pizzeria Uno, Newton Center, MA
Date: Wednesday, November 12, 1997
Present: Bruce Augenstein, Fred Beck, Charlie Burke, Shawn Casey, Will Farnsworth, Espen Frank, Denis Friedman, Joe Marko, Dan Mull, Bruce Machon, Greg Scott, Luka Serdar Jr., John Sullivan Jr., Barry Tarr, Mike Webb, Ann Marie Weber, Peter Weber.

1. Call to Order (Joe Marko)

• Joe called the meeting to order and handed out a copy of the agenda.
• Welcome onboard to Greg Scott as the new Bimmer Editor. Greg is already our Webmaster.

2. Secretary's Report (Espen Frank)

• The minutes from the last meeting (08/13/97) were distributed. The minutes were accepted by the Board. These minutes have also been published in the September 97 Bimmer.
• Board member/ staff directory was distributed for verification. Updated version will be handed out at the next meeting.

3. Vice President's Report (Mike Webb)

• Next general meeting will be held November 19 at BMW of Peabody. We will send out a mailing to announce the meeting.
• Ballots for the election will be in the next Bimmer. We will also have ballots available at the next General Meeting. The deadline for sending in the ballots has been extended to November 30 due to the late arrival of the last Bimmer. The secretary will tally the ballots and have the results available for announcement at the Holiday Party.
• The Holiday Party will be held on Saturday, December 13 at the Knights of Columbus in Burlington. The party starts at 06:30 p.m. and will pretty much be the same as last year, except that we will charge $5 in admission and will have a DJ.
• The late arrival of the Bimmer has caused a problem for many events this year. Often the Bimmer comes out announcing an event only days before the event is held. This has caused low attendance on many events.

4. Treasurer's Report (Bruce Augenstein)

• At present the chapter has about $6,200 in cash in the checking account. However, we have paid all outstanding bills so accounts payable is at 0.
• Accounts receivable is presently at about $10,000, mostly related to Bimmer advertising.
• We will send out reminders when we issue the pre-pay bills for 98. These bills will be sent out in December.

5. Membership Report (Barry Tarr)

• The current chapter membership is at 1847 full members and 140 associate members.
• The welcome letter that goes out to the new members includes a reference to the chapter website, as well as a copy of the ultimate calendar.
• If members are late with payments on the membership renewals, they will be issued a new member number and show up as new members. The software used to generate the letters will be modified to account for this so we avoid sending out new member letters to previous members.

6. Driving School Report (Luka Serdar Jr.)

• Luka handed out a Status Report for the Driving School Program containing objectives, a summary of the 97 season, and a plan for the future.
• We are working on developing an instructor training program and had a successful instructor training day together with the White Mountain Chapter on October 12. The loss for this was about $ 600 for the chapter. The Board had previously approved a loss of $1000.
• Mike Cox and Steve Fitzgerald are working on qualifying instructors.
• We have been adding to the Driving Schools over the years and now have a mentor program, a driving manual, a racing program, and we use feedback forms for both students and instructors.
• The last year the chapter has been involved with many more track days than in previous years as we were involved with Oktoberfest, with the BMW CCC at Mt. Tremblant and also with the White Mountain Chapter at various events.
• It has been reported as a problem that some instructors get overworked in that they go from session to session almost the whole day without much of a break. We will look into this.
• The final financial numbers for the event in Canada and for the Chapter School on October 17 have not been finalized yet.
• We have started planning the dates for 98 already, and the tentative dates are Sunday April 26, Friday June 5, and Sunday/Monday September 20 and 21.
• Many dates are available in Canada and we are looking at July 11/12 or 18/19. We want to find a yearly date for the Canada event in the July/August time frame, but do not want to conflict with Oktoberfest.
• Seven dealers participated in the dealer drive program in 97. We get 50% of the fee back from the National Office.

7. Bimmer Update (Will Farnsworth, Greg Scott, Joe Marko, Mike Webb)

• Greg Scott has stepped forward to be the new Bimmer Editor.
• Bimmer cost and timeliness is still a big issue. The November/December issue will not be out until the week of November 16.
• Going forward we need to be very strict on the deadline of the 10th of every month for submission of materials to the Bimmer. This is the only way of ensuring that the Bimmer comes out on time.
• The late arrival of the Bimmer has caused a problem for many events this year. Often the Bimmer comes out announcing an event only days before the event is held. This has caused low attendance on many events.
• There is a significant cost element associated with doing changes and layout at Fidelity Press. This has run us about $1,500 per month. To try to reduce this we will try to do all the changes and layouts ourselves, and have them do the printing only.
• The printing time is only about 2 days, it is the all the changes that take time.
• We have signed up two new advertisers for the Bimmer, and one company wanted to advertise on our web-site.
• Ron Sisco is on-board as new photographer. Joe Peng moved out of the area.

8. Autocross Report (Fred Beck)

• John Mansfield and Fred Beck will run the autocross again next year. Fred will be the chair.
• We will coordinate the autocross events with the Miata Club and other events to avoid schedule conflicts.
• BMW of Peabody was the 97 season sponsor. Fred will talk to Bimmer Advertisers and try to bring in additional sponsors for 98.
• The 97 season had 2/3 non-Bimmers, and we want to bring in more Bimmers next season by opening up the course even further.
• The 97 season brought in about $ 4,000 and we paid $ 2,000 in track rental. We will have 27 trophies for the 97 season, at a cost of about $ 510.
• The board unanimously approved letting Fred and John participate for free in the 98 season due to the amount of work involved in running the events.

9. Concours Report (Dan Mull)

• We had 31 cars in the Concours this year. The weather was great and it was a very successful event. The event was televised on cable by Media One. They also made an half hour tape, which Dan has a copy of.
• We have received a check from Zymol for the sponsorship both for last year and this year.
• The Bimmer was late in announcing the event.

10. Tool Box (Shawn Casey)

• The tool box is still empty. Letters have been sent out asking for tools without any response.
• Only 3 people have called about the tool box.
• We will try to contact some other chapters and determine how they got started with their toolbox. It is suspected that the other chapters bought the tools for their tool box.

11. Charitable Donations (John Sulivan Jr.)

• John brought up the issue of charitable contributions, and the fact that we did not give to Lahey Clinic in memory of Parker Spooner this year.
• After a brief discussion it was decided that we going forward will have a separate account for charitable contributions in that all the money collected when we sell tickets for door prices will go to this account. Instead of simply giving away raffle tickets, they will be sold at $1 apiece. This money will be earmarked for charitable contributions, and the members will be made aware that this is the purpose when the tickets are sold.
• We can not guarantee a specific amount, but we will give away what we collect for this purpose.

12. New Business (Joe Marko)

• The board approved selling some of the computer equipment used to produce the Bimmer to Heather Lincott. We will keep the Quark Express and the Zip drive.
• The issue of voting rights for board members that are not elected will be addressed at a later meeting. Joe proposed forming a by-laws committee to look into this.

January 1998 BIMMER

Behind the Wheel: Membership Drive Contest! by Mike Webb

Under the Hood: Timing Isn't Everything by Greg Scott

The Road Ahead: New Year Opportunities by Neil Schneider

January 1998 New Members by Barry Tarr

Fourth Quarter General Meeting: The Tradition Continues by Joe Marko

Cheap Tricks: Headlight Covers for Short Money by Tom Tate

First Annual Golf Outing by Mike Webb

Sansossio Auto Body Tech Session by Mike Webb

Candidacy Statements for National Elections by Greg Scott

Boston Chapter Board Meeting Minutes: November 1997 by Espen Frank

More Boston Bimmer articles by Espen Frank

Dent Wizard Tech Session: Let the Wizard Help September 1999 BIMMER

Boston Chapter Board Meeting Minutes: November 1998 November/December 1998 BIMMER

Boston Chapter Board Meeting Minutes: August 1998 October 1998 BIMMER

Boston Chapter Board Meeting Minutes: February 1998 April 1998 BIMMER

1997 Holiday Party February 1998 BIMMER

There are 3 more Boston Bimmer articles by Espen Frank