July - GGC BMW CCA

Golden Gate Chapter BMW CCA
Board Meeting Minutes
July 12, 2008
Gau Poang Restaurant, San Mateo
Board in attendance: Jeff Cowan, President; Bob Goebel, Vice President; Kyle Breton,
Membership Chair; Chris Webber, Secretary; Mark Dadgar, Driving Events Coordinator,
Kelly Collins, Communication Manager.
Board members not in attendance: Tammi Hull, Treasurer.
Guests in attendance: Kris Linquist, Autocross Coordinator; Percy Chow, Ad Manager;
Mary Sandkohl, East Bay Area Rep; Aleksey Kadukin, Tech Session Coordinator;
Patrick Demorais, Newsmagazine Assistant Editor.
The meeting was called to order at 11:24 a.m.
Top issues
Receivables:
• We have been chipping away at receivables, we have a collections person on the
hook, will charge 5% (not bad) to actually get arms broken to get this money.
• Hull isn’t here, but we have money.
Truck Lease:
• Nuthin'.
Trailer Painting:
• We have an appointment, but we don’t have someone to drive there on 7/23. The
problem is the trailer is in Gilroy and the quoting is in Alameda. It’s a whole day.
Still in progress.
Content Management Systems:
• Chico Web Design has been called; Dadgar is pushing this forward. Apparently
our current calendar doesn’t let you see events happening during the current day.
GGC makes you plan ahead to get information!
• Linquist says he’s been “playing with it” at work. I hope he means the website
calendar. Otherwise Webber is pretty certain Linquist may get fired.
Membership Tool:
• It works, it runs, it’s automated. It isn’t quite ready for shipping because the code
isn’t super perfect. Breton was hoping to have it done by now, but buying a new
house has distracted him. Imagine that.
Social Events Coordinator:

• Cowan will call Zampecini after Zampecini returns from vacation to discuss the
plans for this role.
Brochures:
• The brochure sucks, the Bombe is better.
• Linquist suggests a new campaign “Bombes not brochures.” Hilarious.
• Goebel recounts the last meeting’s discussion verbatim, and Dadgar suggests that
Goebel is, in fact, Rain Man. Goebel begins mumbling, “Definitely, definitely a
good meeting, I ran the meeting. It was a good meeting last time, definitely.”
• The waitress comes in and says, “I’ll take your pants off.” Seriously. That's all.
“I'll take your pants off.” Everyone agrees that is what they heard. Much
deliberation ensues. The group decides she meant to say “I will take your plates
out.” Good Lord.
• We agree that no matter what we give to dealers, some dealers may work better
for us than others.
o How do we motivate dealers to push out GGC materials and info? Free
autocross? Lots of discussion around the pros and cons… maybe it
becomes a salesperson-only event? Morning CCC and afternoon
autocross? Maybe we charge $25? This could be a really good idea. There
are groups that do advertising for all the local dealers—that may be a good
way to get in to the dealers. We would need twelve instructors, and a
weekday. Lots of excitement here.
Show and Shine:
• Cowan wants to put this on, and he feels like he’s got the time to put one together.
• Alameda County Fairgrounds? Palo Alto? Some grassy lot somewhere? Cater it?
Cowan is on it.
Monthly Updates:
Treasurer’s Update:
• Webber to check the email and see about notes. Webber didn't do it. Who wants
to read about our receivables again, anyhow? Snoozer.
Driving Events:
Driving Schools
• The “Thunderhill Thrash” is in full swing. We have 47 students; we have room
for 80.
• We have 20 confirmed race-school entrants for the August event. We can take 30.
o What that means with the extra charge for the race school, we are close to
break even already. Details coming together. Barbecue will be outside
again—watch out for mosquitoes! Collins suggests that all participants
keep their pants on this time. Webber imagines that to be a solid plan at
nearly any GGC event.

• If Chris Goelkel moves away, we will have no one to drive the truck and trailer.
We will need an autocross person, a CCC person, and a track person to start
sharing the load.
Car Control
• Goebel stands and shouts, “We need qualified instructors!!” We have 106 on the
roster, and we never ever hear from 50 of those. Webber is one of those that we
never ever hear from.
• Bold and direct solicitation follows: Dear reader, are you an autocross
addict? A track junkie? If you think you have the experience, knowledge,
skills, and aptitude required to be a car-control clinic instructor, please
contact carcontrol@ggcbmwcca.org. The CCC staff will work with you to
determine your fit for the program, and reward you with riches heretofore
unseen! (In point of fact, those riches will be unseen forevermore...)
• Lots of discussion about what makes a good instructor, how to get them, why they
stop coming… Webber falls asleep for a few.
Autocross
• We have two remaining spots open for the next event.
• The new wireless timers work, tested by Matt Visser. Nice!
Membership Report:
• We have members, but not very many! We have 4,926 members and associates.
Gas prices driving members away? Webber thinks that’s unlikely.
• Webber may be one of the people who fell out… No! Breton checks, in real time!
Webber has two months remaining.
o The real-time check is impressive. Breton is the best among us.
Communications Report:
• Collins has an issue! “Big surprise!” says Collins. Webber types, then deletes the
“big surprise” part 34 times, fearing if it is included, it could be slanderous. But
Collins said it about herself. But Webber doesn't want to paint an incorrect
picture. But Webber must type what is said. Especially if it is funny. The anxiety
is too much. Webber breathes into a bag for the next few minutes.
• Eblasts
o Festorics team sent out an eblast.
o MSR sent out a couple of messages too.
o Since none of the event systems communicate, when someone elects to
remove themselves from one list, the others still send. No good. We
shouldn’t expect our membership to understand that they have to remove
themselves from multiple places, nor should we make them have to jump
through those hoops.
o When this goes out, Collins needs to know, since she is the head of
communications, and these are going out without her expressed consent.
o Cowan suggests that we, as a board, need to reach out and explicitly
define the policies that people must follow.
o Collins suggests using MSR for all emails to people who are registered for
an event. These are informational, and not solicitations.

o Collins to review the ops policy on this and clean it up. Dadgar has current
version.
• Chapter’s monthly eBlast to go out Tuesday or Wednesday.
Advertising update
• Chow says everyone is paying “Reasonably on time.” That's reasonable.
• New advertisers are paying up front, WHEN they order! Hooray!
Secretary’s Report:
• Webber has/does nuthin’. He cannot report because of the hyperventilating.
Webber is not up to the task of speaking. Webber turns to the window and
trembles a bit, and waits for everyone to move on.
Tech Sessions
• Diablo motors in the works.
• Peter Pan in the works.
• Yokohama not calling back.
• B Line Body Shop in nascent stages – it’s a possibility for late Fall or later.
• Sadukin continues to bug Ramon Le Francois… perhaps another ladies tech
session?
Vice President's Report:
• Goebel has already vented. Nothing more to see here.
President’s Report:
• Cowan got an email from Dennis Harrold, our area rep in SLO.
o He has reached out and done some fact finding with the local Mini club to
try to both involve the community and expand his events.
o If they come and sign the waivers, are we cool?
• If they aren’t members, they are covered, regardless of
membership status. Since there is no revenue associated with these,
we are cool.
o Cool?
o Cool.
o Cool!
• Everything else is well in hand.
Social Events:
• Zampecini is not here. His report is, though.
• Zampecini will write up a report on the recent driving tour. Apparently it was well
attended by the local gendarme. Exciting.
• Zampecini has a lead from Amanda Topper about a car collection in Marin. Could
it be Jim Smith? We don’t know.
• Zampecini will be working on hosting an event for October or November.
Delightfully vague.

• Brian Ghidinelli is interested in putting together a summer picnic barbecue thing.
He should know better than that!
Festorics
• Quick update: going quite well, numbers are on track even without the BMW
vintage group. Budget is in the black, but we remain conservative with our
spending. If there is an opportunity to add to the experience, we may.
• Tent is expanded this year.
• Getting print and artwork.
• Racecars from BMW NA have been canceled due to a conflict– no Mobile
Tradition cars, again.
o Only privateer racing BMWs will be in the event.
• The Festorics committee is actually being run less and less as a separate
committee from the rest of the Chapter/board, and that’s a good thing.
Area Reps:
Peninsula, Breton
• Has an event this evening. Open house. He plugs it.
• Scott’s Seafood in Palo Alto event on September 11.
East Bay, Sandkohl
• She contacted the Oakland A’s for an event. We get our logo on a billboard there
for the last game of the season. Tailgating (no alcohol provided by the Chapter, of
course!) and a game on September 21.
• 50 tickets reserved at $22, we can let them go a week in advance.
• We need a proposal for budget from Sandkohl.
• Meet & Greet in Alameda also planned for August 28.
Meeting was adjourned at 1:09 p.m.