November 1998

Location: Pizzeria Uno, Newton Center, MA
Date: Wednesday, November 4, 1998
Present: Bruce Augenstein, Fred Beck, Shawn Casey, David Christman, Tom Farnsworth, Trish Farnsworth, Espen Frank, Denis Friedman, Carlos Giron, Dan Mull, Stan Jackson Sr., Stan Jackson Jr., Joe Marko, Sue Rathbone, Greg Scott, Luka Serdar Jr., John Sullivan Jr., Barry Tarr, Michael Webb, Ann Marie Weber, Peter Weber.

1. Call to Order (Mike Webb):

• Mike called the meeting to order and handed out a copy of the agenda.
• Mike gave us a quick briefing from the Chapter Congress which was held in New Orleans October 23/24. In addition to Mike, our chapter was represented by John Sullivan Jr., as well as by Greg Scott. Greg gave a presentation called Chapter Web Sites - Guidelines, Maintenance, Issues - together with Stephen Maguire. Greg also gave a demo of the Boston Chapter web site, and received a lot of praise for the excellent work he has done.
• Another important item on the congress was insurance for chapter events. Mike handed out a memo from Louis Millinghausen which gave an overview over insurance coverage and requirements. The National Board of Directors, at their March 1988 meeting, approved the purchase of an Excess Liability policy, which offer major enhancements in the liability insurance protection for our events.
• Another handout from the congress covered the BMW CCA Minimum Standards for Chapter Performance. One of the requirements is that a financial statement should be provided to all members at least once a year. We must print our financials for 1998 in the BIMMER at some point.

2. Secretary's Report (Espen Frank):

• The minutes from the last meeting were handed out, and the most important items reviewed briefly. The minutes were accepted by the board.
• Board member/staff directory was distributed for verification.

3. Vice President's Report (Fred Beck):

• We have scheduled Winter Prep Tech Session at Newport Imports in Rhode Island on Saturday November 14. They will provide a 20% parts discount for the day.
• Fourth Quarter General Meeting will be held Wednesday November 18 at BMW of Peabody, and will feature elections, autocross trophies, selection of winners for the membership contest etc.
• The Holiday Party will be held Saturday, December 5 at the Boylston Schul Verein (German Club) in Boylston. An ad with all the details have been posted on the web site and in the BIMMER.
• The board voted to let the BIMMER advertisers and one guest get in for free at the party.

4. Treasurer's Report (Bruce Augenstein):

• Bruce handed out an income/expense statement covering the period January 1 through November 4, 1998.
• At present the chapter has about $13,000 in the checking account due to the excellent job done by Will Farnsworth in collecting overdue BIMMER advertising. Will has collected over $11,000 since the last meeting.
• Our biggest payable outstanding is for about $2500 to Fidelity Press.
• By the end of the year, we should end up with a total surplus of about $15,000.
• Advertising billing for 1999 will be done early, and we will go for pre pay for new advertisers.
• The application for second class postage for the BIMMER has not gone through yet. Once it does, mailing charges should drop by about 40%.

5. Membership Report (Barry Tarr):

• The current chapter membership is at 2135 (as of the October report from National).
• The results are in from the Membership contest, with awards and results to be announced at the Fourth Quarter General Meeting. Jim Albright of Mighty Motors recruited 11 new members, the Autocross series brought us 44 new members.
• The board voted to give away chapter regalia as prices in the membership contest. Ten pieces of regalia will be donated for this purpose.

6. Legal Update (Trish Farnsworth):

• The chapter by-laws have been reviewed and a preliminary version has already been commented on by the board. Based on these initial comments, and also based on input from the by-laws from other chapters, a suggested set of by-laws (with changes highlighted) was handed out.
• The goal is that everyone review these and give feedback to Trish, such that we can have a final version to approve at the next board meeting.
• It turns out that we had neglected to file incorporation papers with the State for the last few years. This has now been taken care of, and we are now in compliance with the State requirement.

7. BIMMER and Web Site Update (Greg Scott):

• The BIMMER Policy was commented on and voted on by the board via e-mail before the meeting. This policy is now in effect and is being followed.
• It has been decided to put the printing of the BIMMER out for bid again to see if we can get a better rate. If we can save on the cost, we will try to use the cost savings to increase the quality of the BIMMER by looking into things like a glossy color cover etc.
• We should try to be more aggressive with advertising next year. Several new companies have expressed an interest in advertising, and we need to follow up more actively to bring them on board.
• Greg made a presentation at the Chapter Congress about how to develop and run a chapter web site. This presentation was very well received (see item 1 above).
• Our web site is very popular with the membership, and we have had up to 3,000 hits per week, with the highest numbers after an autocross. The Ultimate Calendar and the autocross results are the most frequently visited pages.
• There has been contact with Mark Luckman at the National Office, and the Boston Chapter has been given permission to put the BMW CCA Operations Manual on our web site.
• After a short discussion, the board decided that we should not try to sell regalia and other items via the web site by handling credit card transactions over the internet. It was also decided that we should not allow advertising on our web site (at least not for now, we can change this policy later if need be.)

8. Autocross Report (Fred Beck):

• The autocross season has been a great success, and attendance is up compared with last year.
• BMW participation has nearly doubled, and is over 50 % for the season.
• The last autocross had 89 participants, which is a new record.
• The autocross series will net the club over $ 5,000 this year.
• Next year we will try to sell regalia at the events, and we will try to put an autocross policy at the web site.
• We have been asked by Volkswagen if we would be willing to rent out the autocross timing equipment for a special event they are having for dealer personnel. The board voted to charge $300 for renting out equipment for a day, with a stipulation that any damage to the equipment should be reimbursed.

9. Driving School Report (Luka Serdar Jr./Carlos Giron/Sue Rathbone):

• The finances for the 1998 "Bimmers across the Border II" event in Canada has not been settled yet. We are still waiting from some money for that event. Joe Marko is working on that.
• There were no incidents at the Driving School in October, so we will get full insurance rebate.
• At the October school, several new instructors were certified.
• We need some more volunteers at the events to handle such issues as tech, driving out flaggers etc.
• We have been given a schedule from the track with the possible dates for 1999, and we have to rank them by preference. There are weekends available in April, July and August. On Sundays, the track won't be available until noon due to go carts. We will probably try to go for Sunday/Monday events.
• We will continue to cooperate with the White Mountain Chapter next year also, but we won't share financial responsibility with them. They will have their track days and we will have ours, but we will help out with personnel.
• The driving school season has been quite profitable for the club, with a surplus of over $10,000.
• However, the club is in need of some new radios for the flagging stations, as the radios provided by the track have proved to be unreliable and not always properly charged before an event. Sue and Carlos presented several proposals for types of radios with prices. After a short discussion it was decided to wait with this decision until the next meeting, after investigating if the radios that the club owns, and that we use for autocross, could be used for the driving schools too.
• The sponsorship plan for the driving schools need to be better coordinated. The amount of money charged to be an "official" sponsor needs to be consistent from event to event.
• The dealer drive program needs to be better coordinated such that we know in advance how many of the dealer personnel is expected at each event. If dealer personnel just show up at the day of the event without proper registration, that creates a scheduling problem.

10. Ice Time Trials (Stan Jackson Jr./Stan Jackson Sr.):

• We hope to get a good season for Ice Time Trials this year, after unpredictable ice the last couple of years.
• We have scheduled 10 possible Sundays starting January 17 and ending March 21. We hope to get in at least 5 events out of these 10 possible.
• There are 3 possible locations on the lake that can be used depending on the ice conditions. The most desirable location is by the Ledges clubhouse.
• There will be a new class structure this year, depending on driving wheels/tire combination. We will have front wheel drive, rear wheel drive and AWD, and these classes will be further broken down depending on non-snow tires vs. snow tires vs. ice-tires. Altogether, there should be 9 trophy classes if we get enough participants.
• The chapter hotline will have to be updated by Saturday at noon, at the latest, with whether an event will be held that Sunday.

11. Concours Report (Dan Mull):

• This year's concours was held at the Museum of Transportation on Saturday September 12.
• A total of 26 cars were entered, distributed among four different classes: Late Clean, Early Clean, Late Super Clean and Concours. Competition was close, and in the Late Clean class there was a 3 way tie for first place.
• The sponsors were Zymol, Foreign Motors West and Performance Automotive. The event netted the chapter close to $500.
• We now have a club membership at the Museum of Transportation where all chapter members will get admission for $3 (instead of $5) by showing the BMW CCA membership card.

12. Regalia (Mike Webb):

• The chapter regalia will be advertised in the BIMMER and on the web site. Dan Mull have taken some pictures of the regalia which will be published on the web-site.
• Sales tax on sales of merchandise needs to be properly collected and paid to the state.

13. Chapter Library (David Christman):

• The library activity is picking up, and the system for dropping off and picking up books seem to be working well.
• A few more books would be nice.

14. New Business (Mike Webb):

• The board decided to make the membership list available to chapter sponsors for a fee of 10 cents per name, pre-paid for one time use. For the sponsors, any setup fee would be waived. We maintain the right to preview the materials being sent out to make sure it is appropriate.
• Mike is in the process of putting together a chapter operations manual, and wants the board members to send in a job description of their position on the board.

Minutes prepared by
Espen Frank,
Secretary

November/December 1998 BIMMER

Behind the Wheel: Great Year! Let's Do It Again! by Mike Webb

Under the Hood: Snow and Statistics by Greg Scott

Crushing The Cones: Season Awards This Month! by Fred Beck and John Mansfield

November/December 1998 New Members by Barry Tarr

The Road Ahead: Driving Events Coming Up by Fred Beck

Zymöl/Foreign Motors West Concours d'Elegance by Dan Mull

The Mystery of the New 3 Series Headlights by Betty Lou McClanahan

Castle Hill Photo Gallery by Dan Mull

Boston Chapter Autocross Series: Autocross 6 Photo Gallery by Ron Sisco

Holiday Gift Ideas by Robyn Webb

1999 Boston Chapter Elections by Greg Scott

1999 Boston Chapter Elections: Candidacy Statements by Greg Scott

Ultimate Fall Festival Photo Gallery by Ron Sisco

Ultimate Fall Festival Driving School Photo Gallery by Don Heileman

Boston Chapter Board Meeting Minutes: November 1998 by Espen Frank

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Boston Chapter Board Meeting Minutes: August 1998 October 1998 BIMMER

Boston Chapter Board Meeting Minutes: February 1998 April 1998 BIMMER

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Boston Chapter Board Meeting Minutes: November 1997 January 1998 BIMMER

There are 3 more Boston Bimmer articles by Espen Frank