FIRST TURN

Peter Olliviere , President

When the COVID pandemic was at its height the Board of Directors was forced to curtail a number of the events and activities normally enjoyed each year by Gold Coast members. Among the things cut were all meetings or gatherings for which we could not easily establish a six-foot separation between attendees. Moving forward with events where we could comply with the requirements, we managed maintain some structure of a functioning Club.

Three of the events that had to change included our monthly Board of Directors meetings, Concours competitions, and Driver Education outings. Well, while the pandemic has had its impacts on our membership and a number of events have returned to pre-pandemic levels, those that mentioned above have not. It’s now time to get those events on track. When I was first elected all Board meetings were open to any member who wanted to attend. During the pandemic we moved the meetings to Zoom, and you had to be invited to the meeting. As a result, unless some one had a specific reason to attend a meeting we had only one or two guests in attendance.

Don’t get me wrong: there is plenty of value in holding the Board of Directors meeting on Zoom. It’s a lot easier for the Board members to attend rather than driving from the far reaches of the region. But the personal touch is lost and the easy accessibility of the membership is also impacted. To counteract the effects of all Zoom meetings, going forward, one meeting each quarter will be held in person. To that end the membership meeting scheduled for March 25th will be an open meeting, Cars-and-Coffee-style, held at Porsche West Broward. Come out and meet the Board; see how the Club functions; learn what’s going on and what’s on the horizon. Have your questions asked and answered, and make your suggestions. Watch your email for details.

Not a week goes by without the question of concours events and when we will we hold them again. The first thing we need to decide is whether members want a wash and shine, or a judged concours event. A wash and shine event is just that: the only judging required is directed to the eye appeal of the cars’ exteriors and interiors. A judged event means that a qualified person judges your car and rates it against established criteria. The difference between the types of events is that the concours requires qualified judges. We are willing to revive our Concours College judge training classes, if we have members who are willing to volunteer to take them. Since PCA Concours are judged by class, we would need at least 10 judges to judge the 10 separate classes. If you would like to be undergo training, please contact me at polliviere@gmail.com to help bring back Concours events.

As for Drivers Education, take note that DE has already undergone a restructuring under the guidance of Mark Johnson and is in the process of training first timers in what is required to get their car on track at Homestead. If you have an interest, contact mark at mjsailing@hotmail.com.