White Mountain Chapter BMW CCA
Social Events Committee Meeting
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
The meeting was called to order @ 6:45 by the chairperson, Cassandra Vorisek-Creto. In attendance were Cassandra, Tom Blinn, Dana Sion, Michael Morin, and David Harrison.
The meeting venue was Famous Dave’s Bar-b-cue in Manchester, NH. They are the prime suspect for catering for the Karting event and offered a sampling at no charge. See the corporate web site at http://www.famousdaves.com/ for more information.
SEC business: A number of topics were discussed and BBQ was sampled.
Miscellaneous news:
Dana reported that we have a supply of chapter logo window stickers that can be purchased from him for $1 each, volume discounts may be available if you make nice and ask politely. They are about 2 ˝ by 3 ˝ inches in size and designed to be applied to the inside of a windshield or rear or vent window, they are printed on the self adhesive plastic with no permanent glue and can be peeled off if you decide you don’t like them.
Hot Laps Go-Karting:
The Karting event at Hot Laps in Weare NH will occur on Saturday, July 19th.
On line registration is open and working correctly. Several people have already registered. Michael Morin is the registrar for the event. More details are on the chapter website (start with the calendar).
Cassandra plans to submit event information to the Profile editor (Martin C.) by the May 3rd deadline to get it into the June/July issue. We will also plan to do a few email notifications to increase awareness.
Dana will contact John Sullivan (regional VP and Boston chapter social chair) to ask that information be passed along both to Boston chapter members and to the other chapters in the region, such as Vermont.
The consensus of those present was that Famous Dave’s provides good eats and we should have them cater a BBQ meal option for the event. We discussed whether we should ask them to also provide beverages and desserts, with the consensus being that we can obtain both things through other sources (e.g. at a grocery store or discount club) at lower cost with comparable quality (although the desserts we sampled were quite good, they were also somewhat pricey).
Mount Washington “Climb to the Clouds” hill climb:
The chapter will participate in the Mount Washington “Climb to the Clouds” event again this year. The event will be Saturday September 13 and Sunday the 14th. There are details on the chapter web site (start with the calendar).
The Driving Events folks have asked whether we could host a “tailgating” style picnic type of reception during the event. The most likely good time might be on Saturday afternoon, since there is practice on Saturday that is over late in the morning and the competition part of the event is Sunday morning, so most of the participants would likely staying in the area and willing to participate.
Cassandra reports that there is a lodge that we could use to do an event. We would need to either use the lodge or have a tent or something of that nature to be sure we won’t have problems with rain or chilly weather. The lodge is said to be able to accommodate about 60 people, so we might want to prepare and serve food outside and use the lodge for seating, assuming it can be set up for that purpose.
We will need an estimated head count for planning purposes, and need to work out the budget and secure funding (as this is an unplanned added expense not in the original SEC budget).
There is also the possibility of having the Mount Washington Auto Road service do a sunset drive to the top of the mountain and a tour of the observatory. This would cost about $40 per person, we would not have to commit to a specific head count, and could promote it to all chapter members as well as to people participating in the hill climb event as a fun activity after the reception picnic. The cost would be paid by participants, who would probably have to pre-register so we could tell the providers how many seats were filled.
Summer “fun” rally:
The Boston Chapter is considering re-running the Seacoast Rally that Martin Callahan developed in 2007. Tom Blinn has volunteered to help revalidate and if necessary update the photo materials and reconfirm the route instructions, and the Boston Chapter would actually staff the event, fund the production of updated materials, collect the fees, and invite WMC members to participate. Tom ran the rally last fall and it was a lot of fun. He suggested that there might be a separate class for people who did it in 2007 unless there are a lot of changes in the route or the pictures, and the goal is to minimize the changes to make it simple. More as the details firm up.
Car show events:
All chapter members are encouraged to participate in these FREE events which are not sponsored by or run by the chapter, but are well worthy of a fun day out.
The Northeast Exotic Car Show run by the Dodge Viper Club to support the Make A Wish foundation is scheduled for Saturday, August 16th (rain date is Sunday, August 17th) at the Anheiser-Busch Brewery in Merrimack, NH. Free to attend, $20 entry fee to show your car, details on the chapter web site. Last year our chapter had the largest participation of any marque present. This year Tulley BMW says they will bring some new cars to show off, such as perhaps a V8 M3.
Since many attendees are NOT BMW CCA members or even BMW owners we think it might be a good place to give away a BMW CCA membership (for which we might get Tulley to be a sponsor), using this to capture contact info from the contest entrants, to be shared with the sponsor (if there is one).
The Bavarian Autosport Show and Shine is scheduled for Sunday, October 5th at their facility in Portsmouth, NH. Free food, discounts, tech demos, door prizes, and so on as in past years. Details on the chapter or BavAuto web sites.
Drive for the Cure:
The Susan G. Komen for the Cure driving event is planned for the two Mondays on either side of this year’s Oktoberfest (in Watkins Glen). The drive on Monday September 22nd will be at Tulley BMW in Nashua, and Monday September 29th the event will be at BMW of Stratham in (where else) Stratham NH. The latter is a changed date from what was initially planned. There should be plenty of good test drive opportunities during either event, and the chapter expects to provide the post event transport services to shuttle the fleet to the next dealer after each of the two events. Details on the chapter web site and at the BMW USA web site where you can register for specific drives you want to do (contingent on the cars being at the event instead of in the repair shop). This is always a good time and a good way to help raise money to support finding the cure for breast cancer.
Tech sessions in the offing?
Jan Marc Holzer reports that Tulley BMW’s service manager would like to work with the chapter to have them host some technical sessions at their facility. No specifics have been determined at this time but we should be able to arrange some interesting sessions.
Not the holiday party?
We are starting the planning for the chapter party that traditionally occurs in the first month of the new year, that is, next January 2009. We will need to find a new venue as by that time C. R. Sparks expects to have closed their present business location. Several venue options were considered and discussed, such as a function hall, a large restaurant facility, or a hotel. One advantage noted in using a hotel is that participants could choose to stay over if the weather is bad or they anticipate they will party harty and not want to drive home. Cassandra will research hotel options in the Nashua and Manchester areas, and perhaps even Concord or the seacoast. We are considering having a themed party (carnival?) and perhaps a different approach to entertainment. We are likely to have a silent auction to raise money for the chapter and for external charities; Cassandra has identified an organization that runs such auctions for clubs like ours, carrying out the bidding on the web, providing the option (should we choose it) to expand the potential audience beyond our chapter (and thus likely increasing the benefit in terms of funds raised), for a modest fee. We have received mixed feedback on the awarding of door prizes during the event, and may switch to having a “goody bag” for every participant with good stuff included. Some bags may have extras if we have things that are in limited supply, in which case the luck of the draw in terms of what bag you get determines who goes home with what. Our goal would be to have everyone receive several things of value. Really high value items (e.g., a BMW art car model) would be offered through the slient auction. We are also considering including a cash donation to a selected charity as part of the standard fee for participation. All of this is still subject to discussion and as a committee we would welcome feedback from interested members, ideally who will come forward and become active in helping plan and implement the event.
Next meeting: Tuesday, May 27, 2008, at the Common Man in Merrimack, NH, near exit 11 off the Everett Turnpike. Check the chapter web site (start on the social events tab) to confirm the meeting time and location.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:40 PM.