Hi Everyone - Below is Simon's recap of 2018 presented at the 2018 Annual Meeting and Run in Santa Cruz.
First of all thanks to Steve and Tina Sandke for hosting the run today after Tara could not attend.
Well, what a year the club has had! A great year so far - with some exciting stuff yet to come.
When I was voted in as Vice President at last year’s meeting – I was honored to be taking up the position knowing I was joining a fabulous team. Little did I know at the time that I would be heading up the group after Rick Sherman, who was the voted in President stepped down from his position before his term even started. This left the officials of the club with a decision on how to proceed for 2018. It was unanimously voted by the Officers and the Directors to operate without a President for this fiscal year. I am very happy to say that this has not affected how the club has run and developed. At first – the thought of me heading the group was quite daunting – but I have really enjoyed it. I could not do it alone and would like to thank the wonderful team who has supported me so far to date:
Dolores Quintero-Sanchez – Treasurer
Bayley Mah – Social Media
Anita Weemaes – Membership secretary who stepped in at a moment’s notice when our secretary also had to step down from the role due to personal reasons.
And the other directors of the club: Christine and Michael Toibin, Tara Hunter, Brian Dotterer, Crystal Tucker, Steve & Tina Sandke, Christoph Fritsch, Rick Sanchez, Vickie Casacca, Mick Brown, Anne & David Sitter and Gordon & Allison Lee, Sharon & Richard Stevens & John and Carolyn Mifsud.
Also – special thanks to Sharon Stevens for her support in handing over the financials to Dolores and Christine for being my go-to person when I needed advice from a former President.
So why has 2018 being a great year so far…….
- Our subscription membership has grown from 101 in 2017 to 166 in 2018. This growth continues to prove that we are Northern California’s Premier MINI club.
- Successful runs throughout 2018:
- January gave us our run to the Auto museum in Sacramento which was jointly supported by Silicon Valley Minis and MOASF. We were also joined by some members of Capital City and Shasta Minis at the museum. Overall we had over 50 Mini’s there from some of the oldest classics all the way to the latest F series cars.
- February was a charity run to the Napa Valley to raise money for the victims from the Oct 2017 fire.
- March was due to host our annual Absent Friends run to Mt Hamilton. This had to be postponed on a number of occasions due to the bad weather and actually took place in early April. Future runs for this will be set at a better time of year to reduce the risk of bad weather.
- April brought us to Solvang as our first overnight run of the year. It was great fun visiting this unique place. Thanks to Christine for arranging the A-MINI-zing race which was super fun. Don’t think Solvang has seen as many MINI’s racing around the town at such an early hour on a Sunday before.
- May was the Hike for Hope. Sadly – this was not supported as well as I would have liked. But the small team we had still raised a good amount for Hope Hospice.
- June took us up to Gold Country where we managed to have some real fun on the twisties getting there whilst seeing some of the history of this great state.
- July was our annual picnic (well not quite – a BBQ for this year). Hosted for us by East Bay MINI – a great time was had by all. We started with pastries and coffee followed by a run and then back to East Bay for our BBQ lunch. July also saw a group of our members out on MTTS – some doing the East route and some doing the West route. We even got noted in a report for our attendance.
- August took us our second overnight run to Tahoe. This was a beautiful drive into a fabulous part of the country. The roads were super to drive on and the scenery was amazing.
We still have 3 more exciting official club runs to go:
- Oct 13th takes in Highway 198 to Coalinga. This has the option to be an overnight for those interested. The Harris Ranch has some rooms held at a preferential rate for NorCal members.
- Nov 3rd will be a drive up north on Highway 1 to Bodega Bay.
- Holiday Run on Dec 9th – details of this are being finalized.
- Also, there is a non-official club event on Oct 21st being organized by our friends at MOASF. This is the All British Car Show at Blackhawk Museum. Viewing is free. There is a charge if you wish to display your car.
Thank you to all the Officers and Directors who have all taken their role in organizing and hosting the club runs. They would not have happened without their support. Please remember that all the runs have write ups about them on the web page.
- 2018 was a fabulous year for the club supporting charities.
- Napa run raised $452 from members
- Absent Friends $253 from members
- Hike for Hope $1775 between NorCal and SVM from members
- MTTS Feeding America $2648 of which $1000 was donated from the club funds
- This gives total donations from the NorCal club and its members at $5128
- 2019 is also looking to be an exciting year for the club.
- New membership database using Motorsportreg.com. Currently we use Google – but this has now reached a point where a purge would be such a big job that it isn’t worth it. The new system will provide new member numbers to everyone. Subscription payments will now be via Motorsportreg rather than PayPal. FB and the web pages will still be maintained though for communication. This will be rolled out over Q4 leading towards the 2019 renewals.
- New credit card style membership badges will be issued to all paid members.
- We are purchasing a club sail flag which can be used on events when we park up to highlight who we are and where to find us.
- We will be introducing a tiered membership pricing. Good news is Renewals for existing / consistent members will not be raised and remain at $25. New or delinquent memberships from 1/1 will pay $35 in their first year.
- We have approval from CA for our 501c3 “Not for Profit” status and are awaiting federal approval. Once fully approved – we will cascade to the membership.
I would like to say a huge thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the support, help and guidance I have received in my first year as leading this wonderful group. You aren’t just people I know – you are like an extended family and all brought together by one interest – the MINI!! I am sure that in 2019 – the club will continue to grow and get even stronger. Motor On my friends!!
