From the President’s Desk

FromThePresHappy New Year to all our members! 2015 turned out to be a very good year for the club. We had some new events blended in with our favorites that have been going on for several years now. Below is a recap of the events that occurred in the fourth quarter of 2015.

On October 3rd, we again had the BMW Foundation Street Survival at Sky Tavern. We had a total of 16 students signed up for the event this year but only 11 showed so we had more than enough instructors. Jeff Warner did an amazing job again this year. This will be Jeff’s last year as event leader so Steve Polimeni will be taking over in 2016. Jeff is trying to secure the NVHP vehicle training facility for Street Survival 2016. We found that the Sky Tavern facility is too small for some of the exercises. We had one incident that resulted in a car being damaged which prompted the change.

We had our very first Fun Rally on October 31st. Steve and Anne Marie Polimeni created a rally using golf courses. Photos were provided for each course. Points were given for certain facts that you had to acquire at the course. It turned out to be an exciting scavenger hunt of sorts. When all the dust settled, Paul Hollenbeck came in third, John and Anne Marie Utter took second, and JoAnn and yours truly won the top prize. There were a total of 11 cars on the rally which we considered a very good turnout. In 2016, we want to continue the Fun Rally but will have to create a new venue. Stay tuned.

Our Holiday Party was held at Brick’s Restaurant again this year on December 3rd. Members were invited to De and Joyce Sharp’s house for cocktails and appetizers prior to heading over to the restaurant. A total of 54 members attended this year which broke all records. Bill Pearce again donated several raffle gifts. De Sharp provided some fun raffle gifts and I had some nice wines to donate.

As I mentioned last quarter, the 2016 Oktoberfest in Monterey will be held from August 23rd to the 28th. The website is still not complete due to hotel signup links not installed yet. This year, you will be able to sign up for the Festorics, Legends of the Autobahn and Oktoberfest from the same site. This is what Steve Schlossman of BMWCCA had to report: The Oktoberfest website continues to be ofest.bmwcca.org We also have celebratebmw.com When will it open? As soon as we have the registration and some fees finalized. We just aren’t there yet. We are expecting +1500 overall in attendance over the week ½. It’s very important that the registration goes smoothly. For my sanity at least. This year’s registration will include Legends, Festorics and Oktoberfest. You will also be able to book your Oktoberfest hotel using a unique link. Personally I’m hesitant to pick a date for the sake of picking a date. The registration form is just about done. We have weekly meetings with a company working with us through the process. Still need to finish up some integrations. Look to Roundel Weekly. That will be our primary members of communication.

Happy motoring,
Pat McGoff