President’s Column, February 2007

by Bob Morin

Well, 2007 has begun, but it sure doesn’t feel like winter, the way January started off.  Can you believe temperatures over 70 degrees in January?  I guess I put the hibernating cars away too early this year. 

We haven’t had any events since the last issue, because this is traditionally kind of a slow period for club activity in CT.  We probably could have put a picnic on the schedule and been okay, however.  By the time you read this, we will have held our Annual Dinner and the next scheduled event is the Winter Doldrums Party on March 10th.  Maybe by then we’ll have had some winter to cause some doldrums, but if not, we can still have a party.

After that we will be beginning our Driver’s School season at Lime Rock Park with our first two events being pretty close together like last year.  The season opens for us on April 6th, which is Good Friday.  That may be good or bad, not sure.  Some folks might have the day off that would otherwise have to burn a vacation day to attend, while others may have Easter weekend plans and be unable to attend, so it might be a wash.  Exactly four weeks later, we’ll be holding our second Driver’s School on May 4th, so be careful with getting your registrations in, if you plan to attend either/both.

In between the two Driver’s Schools, we will be quite busy.  We tentatively have a Wine & Cheese Party scheduled for the 14th of April, and then National will be holding a Chapter Congress and inviting the President, Treasurer and Membership Chairperson to a weekend in Valley Forge, PA on April 20, 21, and 22, 2007.  This allows the Chapter representatives to get together with their counterparts from around the country and exchange ideas to make the Chapter and the Club better for all.  A variety of speakers and breakout groups cover topics of general Chapter interest and topics specific to the individual tasks of President, Treasurer and Membership Chair.  And finally, on April 29th, we are excited to be organizing our first Street Survival Teen Driving event in Simsbury, CT.  So, five weekends in a row will keep some of us busy enough to make up for the lack of events in February!

Of course, the F1 season kicks off in March as well, with Australia on March 18th.  In testing, the BMW Saubers are still running behind the top teams, but you never know if they are giving it their all or just experimenting with different setups.  One thing we do know, it will be an interesting season, between no more Michael Schumacher, 2006 Champion Alonzo switching to McLaren, Giancarlo Fisichella taking over as number one at Renault, and Kimi Räikkönen taking over at Ferrari.  With all the driver changes and the teams all using Bridgestone tires this year, there will be many new factors coming into play. 

In News From National, membership now stands at 75,801, up .95% over last year.  Connecticut Valley remains the 11th largest Chapter with flat growth.  Check out ROUNDEL or www.bmwcca.org for details about the membership drive that is currently underway.  There are some great prizes for the winners, but everyone can be a winner because if you even sign up one new member, you will have your membership extended by one month (and an additional month for each new member signed up thereafter).  Techfest Tacoma 2007 will feature Csaba Csere, editor-in-chief of Car and Driver as the keynote speaker and there are already over twenty speakers and presenters lined up, so make your plans now if you wish to attend. 

Don’t forget to keep that New Year’s resolution to make 2007 the year you attend your first car club event.  We’d love to see you.

Until next month…