FROM THE VICE-PRESIDENT Heinz Holzapfel, Vice President/Webmaster
Holyday Season
T
he last quarter of every year
drives. In addition, we also had a new
is like the fall storms of the
first-time garage event, where we
Pacific Northwest that are
invited a well-known Porsche specialist,
blowing our way in rapid succession.
Nathan Merz, to give a tech talk on
The last quarter is filled with holidays:
the valuation of Porsches. Last but
Halloween, Dia de los Muertos, Thanksgiving, our club’s Holiday Gala,
The most gratifying achievement of our 2023 drives was the rescue of the October Northwest Passage.
Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year’s Eve. It’s also a good time to look back at the soon-to-be past year. Our club had a very successful 2023. We gained 74 new members, had many, many great driving adventures, including several first-time events. And we had new social events like the Formula 1 watch party in addition to our traditional gatherings. In November we held our yearly planning meeting to schedule the events for next year and set the club calendar. In 2023 we had a total of 48 driving events, up from 36 last year. Quite an achievement! It all happened because of our dedicated and creative volunteers. The increase in drives came mainly from new event types that we tried out and have shown to be very well received: we had the first Ladies Drive, the first Boxster drive, the first Air-cooled drive, the first EV drive and two Summer Eve drives. We also increased the number of Midweek and Saturday
not least on the social calendar we added a Formula One watch party and a monthly social in a higher end restaurant as requested by many members. The most gratifying achievement of our 2023 drives was the rescue of the October Northwest Passage. Seven days before the tour began, we learned that the main hotel, the Marcus Whitman in Walla Walla, had shut down due to a gasoline leak in their basement. Within five days the Northwest Passage Committee was able to find new hotels in Richland, replan two dinners and two receptions, update the routes and reprint the route book. Just amazing. For 2024 we are planning to increase our driving events to 55. This will require more volunteers going through Drive Lead training. If you attended three or more drives, please consider signing up for the training to become a Drive Lead. It is fun and very rewarding. Also expect to see a few first-time social events! While my baby is dreaming in the
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