January 2009 Newsletter
Visit DtRC on the
web at: www.downtheroadcorvettes.org
Visit the Rocky Mountain Region NCCC at www.rmrnccc.org
Visit NCCC on the web at: www.corvettesnccc.org
Next Meeting: 4th
Thursday of the month. January 22nd, 7 PM Go Chevrolet - 7320 North Broadway near I-25 and
the Boulder Turnpike.
Guest Presenters - Limit of 2 presentations per meeting, please make
arrangements with the President at least a day in advance to be placed on the
agenda and to see if the limit has been reached for this month.
2009 Down the Road Corvette Club Officers
|
President |
Mike Davis |
Vice President |
Bill Schultz |
|
Treasurer |
Gail Krusen |
Secretary |
Nancy Keyser |
|
Governor |
Nancy Burritt |
Board Members |
Mike Kelley |
|
Newsletter Info (Deadline the 15th) |
Official Club Address |
From your Prez
It seems odd to be using this title, some how, I had never figured on holding this or any other position when Mary & I joined DtRC. At that time, all we were looking for was a club where there were good people & lots of fun, boy, were we ever pleasantly surprised to find all we wanted in one place.
As for the up-coming year, look out, there are sooo many things going on, it will be hard to keep up!!!
I would Encourage all present, (and past), members to at least show up for the January meeting, there is going to be a lot happening and we will need all of your participation, (besides Mary & Cathy are bringing treats).
Please join all of your fellow members in welcoming the clubs’ newest & most in-experienced officers.
All for now,
See you at the meeting,
Mike
From your VP.
My kids got me one of those photo
frames that you upload pictures on and constantly watch a slide show. While
loading the frame, I came across many pictures from club events, rides, mystery
meals etc. These photos brought back a lot of memories from the past 8 years
that Cathy and I have been members of DTRC. The thing that stood out the most
is the lack of recent pictures. Over the past few years it seems the photo
opportunities have become more infrequent.
2008 was a "unique" year
for a lot of us. The economy has touched most of us in one way or another. I am
as guilty as anyone in that I seemed to have lost focus on the very activities
that I enjoyed the most. My new year resolution is simple "enjoy the
Corvette and my friends every chance I get in 2009 and beyond". Cathy and
I are looking forward in participating in rides, mystery meals, parades, dinner
runs etc. as much as possible, we hope all our friends can do the same this
year. I urge all that if you make a dinner run, spur of the moment ride or even
over nighters to other club events, to let everyone know. You may be surprised
at the turn out of others wanting to join the fun. People enjoy seeing a
Corvette on the road but when they see several in a caravan they witness a
rolling car show.
I look forward to our first
meeting of 2009, hope to see everyone there to kick the new season off with a
bang.
Bill Schultz
Misc. ramblings from the
Editor
Wow, it’s been a very, very long time since I edited the newsletter. In fact,
if memory serves me correctly (which is always in doubt these days), the last
time I did this job, I actually MAILED the newsletters out to club members.
Now, instead of dealing with postage and copying, I have to figure out html and
web pages, not something I’m well versed in. It’s already clear that I’m going
to have to learn formatting commands!
Unfortunately for you, I’m not quite the filler writer nor as clever as your outgoing editor. However, I am wired into the Corvette Community in ways that the old editor wasn’t. So, expect to see things on other non-NCCC clubs popping into our schedule of events. After all, there is a whole world of Corvette events beyond NCCC.
2009 is looking bright in spite of the lousy economy. I suppose that could change at any instant in time for any and or all of us, but there are some bright stars shining.
First, our sponsoring dealer has yet another new General Manager. I met him by coincidence a few weeks ago and he is very interested in having the Dealer Appreciation show again. Second is the new race track east of Denver that will have its maiden season this year, High Plains Raceway. They are still bundling the tire walls, but it will be race ready later this spring. I’m definitely looking forward to getting out there. There is also the 15th Anniversary National Corvette Caravan and the NCCC 50th Anniversary National Convention. All of these events will provide us with opportunities to to try new adventures and make new friends.
Since we haven’t had a meeting since October, I’m going to leave the minutes of the October meeting in this newsletter so that everyone has a chance to refresh their memory on what transpired.
Tim
Minutes of Past Meeting
Down the Road Corvettes
Minutes of October 2008 Meeting
INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS
This month there was a visitor in attendance by the name of Dan P, who has a
1963 corvette.
QUORUM
Quorum was present.
PREVIOUS MINUTES
The previous minutes were approved.
TREASURER'S REPORT
The treasurer gave her report. A motion was made and seconded to approve the
treasurer's report. Motion passed.
GOVERNOR'S REPORT
No report this month. The information from the Governor is in the
Newsletter. NCCC events are listed on the website.
SOCIAL COMMITTEE
The Social Committee has announced that the Club Christmas party will be at
"The Old Neighborhood Restaurant" on December 5th this
year.
NATIONAL CORVETTE MUSEUM
The museum has red and gold corvette museum T-shirts available online. You can
get a free T-shirt for new membership sign-up. The 2009 museum brochures will
be rolling out soon.
A planning meeting will be held here at the Dealership the second Thursday
of every month for the 2009 Corvette Caravan back to Bowling Green next year.
The caravan arrives on August 31st and departs Denver the morning of
Sept.1st 2009.
MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
No new members this month. Club Membership dues are due in October for the
coming year.
AUTOCROSS DIRECTOR
Another year of autocross is over and a big "Thanks" to Frank A. for
a great job!
DRAG RACE DIRECTOR.
Bandimere drag races are over for the 2008 season. Good job Joan B., our solo
dragster club representative.
MERCHANDISE COMMITTEE
Some great merchandise was available and catalogs are available to select any
merchandise for orders.
OLD BUSINESS
DtRC Officer Nominations for the 2009 DtRC Club season
For Tim’s Challenge, we have 5 families to support this year. Shopping day is Dec. 6th. We will all be meeting at 10 am at the K-Mart at 9881 W. 58th Ave. in Arvada.
Club members come out and help with the family Christmas Shopping.
Delivery will be on Dec.20th. Details will be decided and mailed out to all soon.
NEW BUSINESS
New 2009 Officers are:
President Mike D.
Vice President Bill S.
Treasurer Gail K. (Money Goddess)
Secretary will be shared by Nancy K. & Joan B.
ADJOURN
Meeting was adjourned.
Submitted by
Pat Barnes
Outgoing Secretary
Club
News:
February Birthdays:
Mike Davis -
12th
Mike Palomar - 12th
Tim’s Challenge – Shopping and Delivery
By Tim B.
I’m so glad that we were able to support families again this year! It made shopping a lot more fun this year! It’s great to watch adults stand around scratching their heads trying to figure out what a 6 year old means when she asks for a doll! It was a bit disappointing to see the reduced selection of goods at the K-Mart and not to get a discount on our purchase, but that is just a sign of the times. I guess if we are going to continue to do this, we really must get tax deductible status. Never the less, shopping was as always a great experience. We owe Pat a huge thank you for coordinating the lists and making sure that every child’s needs were met.
Delivery day dawned bitterly cold with a howling wind. We all met and headed out on our great adventure. At the first house, only half the kids were there. The boys and their father were out at a soccer game – hopefully inside somewhere. At the second house, there were extra kids! I guess this speaks to the way the economic downturn has impacted things as the woman’s sister and two girls had moved in with them. It was a bit awkward to show up as Santa Claus and not have gifts for all of the children – but more on that in a bit. At the third house, things were a bit more normal and a certain young lady got a wish for a bicycle fulfilled. She was beaming from ear to ear. At the fourth house, things had also changed! The family we were supporting had been forced to find different living accommodations. The mom and her two children were living in a basement room that a woman from their church had been kind enough to allow them to use. The home owner’s own daughter and her three year old son were also living there. Imagine how awkward it was to have Santa not have any gifts for the three year old!
At lunch, we discussed the situation and decided that an emergency shopping trip and deliveries were in order. In the meantime, Mike and Jackie and bailed Jackie’s son Blake out of the hospital for only his second outside adventure after his accident. They were able to bring Blake to the restaurant where we presented him with a gift card to help him adapt to his new world.
Immediately after lunch, a group headed off to WalMart for some shopping while Pat went to Target shopping. Then, the group including Santa Claus heeded back to the last house being gifts for a certain three year old. Let’s just say that we left that house the second time on a much, much better note than the first time. Later that evening, after Pat had completed her shopping, Santa Claus headed back out again with more gifts for the two girls that had been missed at the second house.
I can’t thank all of you enough for stepping up and making Christmas special for everyone this year. It is a true display of what this club is all about!
I’d like to close this article out with a personal note about how doing the right thing for selfless reasons had a positive impact on my life - immediately. My lovely wife lost her cell phone about two weeks before our delivery day. For whatever reason, we hadn’t managed to get it replaced. On the Thursday before we delivered the presents, she’d also had a biopsy done on a lump in her breast. The lab told her that they should have the results the next day, however, in spite of her best attempts to get the results, they weren’t available. Needless to say, she was quite upset as we set off to deliver to our families that morning. After we’d finished the deliveries, while I was outside at the restaurant seeing if Mike and Jackie needed any help getting Blake out of their car, I got a call on my cell phone. It was a Verizon store calling me to let me know they had “recovered” Pat’s cell phone. We stopped by the store on the way home to pick it up. A little later in the day, Pat discovered that there was a voice mail message on her cell phone. The message was from the lab and the lump was benign…..
April Fool’s Rally – Chair and volunteers needed!
It seems hard to believe, but it’s time to get going on the April Fool’s
Rally already. We need volunteers to get this going.
Upcoming
Other Events
Remember a current schedule of NCCC events, access to flyers, event results and regional points standings can be found at www.rmrnccc.org . A tentative calendar from the planning meeting is available on the web site. (I’ll try to figure out how to import the upcoming important stuff into the newsletter next time).
DtRC has been invited to participate in Georgetown Colorado’s 4th of July parade. I’ll update the information as the time gets closer.
DtRC
Club Bone-Head award
I’m not sure who has this dubious award right now, but I suspect it may well belong to Mr. Schultz or possibly Ms. Burritt. They had a marvelous little
Committee
Updates
Social
Committee
Christmas Party - December 5th
As usual, our social committee did an outstanding job on the Christmas party this year. It was held at the Old Neighborhood again which has just turned out to be the best darned place for us to get together for the party. It is so good to see everyone have such a good time!
As usual, the gift exchange was the highlight of the party and we actually closed down the restaurant with all the stealing that went on with the gifts. I hope everyone got something they will use and cherish. I know I did!
Governor’s
Report -
By Nancy B.
(Since I didn’t get anything new from the governor for this newsletter, I’m including the last report to refresh everyone’s memory.)
For those of you that responded - the 50th Anniversary NCCC pins are on order. No need to pay me until they come in. Ellouise M. will pick them up at the February governors meeting for us (mailing costs have been impacting the NCCC budget big time) - and I will get them the next time I see her after that. So don't hold your breath - it will probably be March. And I may need to be reminded who ordered them at that time - so I hope all your memories are better than mine.
Since the governor is a defacto part of membership - I'll report here for Cathy & I. We will NOT be doing new directories for 2009. If you have gotten a new car since the directory came out last year - send Cathy S. and I a picture - and we'll print a address label size sticker to pass out. Same with any address changes/phone changes. We'll send out email before the next meeting asking you all to confirm your info.
As usual - we have also had several people not rejoin. So bring your directories to the January meeting and we'll do some real-time updating. We'll bring the extras in case you have misplaced yours. We no longer have access to the nice color copier, etc. so we'll make these directories last best we can.
If you are wondering - the club membership now stands at 28. NCCC
books show 26 as one couple's NCCC membership belongs to another area
club. These are 28 very active members - and it is great we get so many
people out for the meetings, our events and other clubs events. Next year
might be a year to do some refocusing of effort and maybe come up with some
ideas for drawing in new members. That is how Dave (and eventually I) got
involved. Dave was only thinking of getting a Corvette, and started
talking to some Corvette owners at a show (who we now loving know as Pat and
Tim B - and if memory serves Peggy and Phil were there too) - and club business
cards came out, invitations to the meeting were offered and the rest as they
say is history. And see what happened - you've had to listen to me each
month for the past several years. We actually had quite a few people join
that year - and a number of us are still here. Anyway - put your thinking
cap on - and see what you can come up with. I'm sure the officers and
membership committee would be glad to hear your ideas.
50th Annual National Convention - August 7 - 14,
2009 - RMR -
And a permanent reminder for the next year’s worth of newsletters. Don't forget as you start making 2009 vacation plans - mark the following in your book. DtRC will be hosting the low-speed autocross currently scheduled for the parking lot at PPIR. I don't have the AutoCross dates handy, but can get them if you need them this soon. Even if you can't join us for the whole week, we'll need lots of help the days of our events (it is over two days I believe).
NCCC RMR Events
The competition season has ended for 2008. The results will be up
within a couple weeks on www.rmrnccc.org
. The regional planning meeting is coming up soon - Frank has one date on
the CSP calendar in June for our 2009 AutoCross, and I am of course going to
put on the April Fools rally for the 1st Sunday of April and the Sno Big Deal
shows the weekend before Thanksgiving - unless I hear otherwise. We're not
locked into anything by putting events on the calendar. But we may get
locked out of a date if another club has a similar event scheduled for the same
day. So better safe than sorry.
15th Anniversary National Corvette Caravan -
August 31 – Labor Day 2009
Planning is underway for the fourth National Corvette Caravan heading to Bowling Green Kentucky to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the National Corvette Museum. Repeating the Denver stop of the caravan from the 50th birthday bash in 2003 is going to be a daunting challenge. A lot has changed since 2003. The caravan planning committee is meeting on the second Thursday of every month at Go Chevrolet.
Up next is preparation of a budget so the committee can put together a request for sponsorship from the Colorado Chevy Dealers Association. Given the state of the economy at this point in time, sponsorship is not a slam dunk and it will take a lot of hard work by a lot of people to insure that caravan participants have another experience to remember with this caravan. For those of you that participated in the 50th birthday caravan, please come out and help the committee.
Drag
Racing Report
Joan B.
I’m sure that Joan is looking forward to the new season!
AutoCross
Committee
Frank A.
DtRC has reserved Jun 27th for an autocross at the CSP track in Golden.
Merchandise Report
I seem to remember that we have some new volunteers for the
merchandise committee, but the meeting minutes don’t show who volunteered and I
don’t remember.
NCM
Ambassador’s Report
For the latest news and goings on at the museum go to http://www.corvettemuseum.com/ .
With the departure of John Harnagle from the club, this position is open!
Want to
Advertise?
If you are a member of Down the Road Corvettes, you may place a For Sale or
Wanted Ad for any Corvette related items in our newsletter for free.
Submissions must be received via E-mail to the editor no later than the
15th of each month.
Disclaimer: All prices listed here are not guaranteed. You will need to confirm any and all prices with the selling party.
Advertising
*************************************************************************************
*** Member Ad ***
For Sale:
1980 Corvette 4 Sale, Automatic, 60K miles. glass tops, Silver / Dark Blue,True Spoke wheels & new tires, + original wheels.
Original and stock. Good condition. Tell me what it's worth.
Bruce Kinney
(303) 543-1238
ROCKY
MOUNTAIN REGION
2009 EVENTS CALENDAR
A "tentative" calendar should appear on the regional website again by mid-January.
DtRC Meetings are the 4th Thursday of the month.
2009 Committees:
|
Dealer Rep |
Open |
|
Membership & Directory |
Cathy S / Nancy B |
|
Social Committee |
Mary Kay K |
|
Merchandise Committee |
? |
|
Rally Committee |
? |
|
Show Committee |
? |
|
|
Open? |
|
Webmaster |
Mike P |
|
Newsletter |
Tim B |
|
Drag Racing Competition Director |
Joan B |
|
Autocross Competition Director |
Frank A |
|
Tim’s Challenge Representative |
? |
|
Sno' Big Deal Extravaganza |
Open |
|
Roving Reporter/Photographer |
Bill S. |