You Are What You Eat

[DuaneCollie <drcollie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Date: Mon, 10 Aug 1998 13:56:47 PDT
>From: "Tim Gergen" <m3gizmo@domain.elided>
>
>I am a member of the Sacramento Valley Chapter...I have been a memeber 
>only about 3 months...I attended two of the  meetings and have 
>not seen a "newsletter" in the mail.  At any rate, I came away from my 
>meetings with the impression that this chapter was not very organized.  

>So, I am going to "other" chapters events and schools because, well, we 
>have none....at least none I want to do , ie: wine tasting tour, etc.  I 
>guess we do not have the same "performace" interests.  Now, it is 
>importatnt to note that I am NOT flaming them, just expect different
things from a car 
>club...(My friend is in a Miata club and holy moly!, they do ALL KINDS 
>OF CRAP!). 
>
>Next meeting, I will try to be more assertive with what "I" think would 
>be fun.  However, I am new to this club and don't wanna piss 'em off 
>either!  For now, I will just piggyback on other chapters fun!

Tim,

Lemme tell ya here....you're lookin' at this all wrong.  What you will find
out is that the Sacramento Chapter is dying because of LACK OF INVOLVEMENT. 

This stuff is all volunteer run.  Trouble is, everyone wants to be
'entertained' by their Car Club and no one wants to step up to the plate
and do the work. Like the 'participants' who bitch because they have to get
to the auto-x site 'early' at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday for Tech Inspection. Who
do they think is out there at 6 a.m. dropping cones?  The PAID WORKERS -
that's who! Right!

So you can go to the meetings and tell 'em what you want to see for
activities, but until YOU offer to organize that activity and make it
happen then you're merely a whiner.  You may be a good guy and all - but if
you ain't part of the solution, then you're part of the problem. I
seriously doubt you would piss off the Elders of the Club - they sound like
they are all half asleep anyways. They give ya a hard time - then RUN
against them for President of the Chapter.  You won't get much of a fight
for the position.

Yeah...yeah...I know. Nobody has time - everyone is TOO BUSY to help out.
Interestingly enough, the ones in our Chapter that really make it work are
the ones that truly ARE too busy.  So you can sit around and
complain/bitch/flame about it - or take the bull by the horns and do
something to make it happen. 

TIP: When you volunteer to take on a project in an all-volunteer, no
compensation Club, there are not a whole lotta folks gonna tell you that
you can't do it.

You don't have an autocross section in your Chapter? Start one. No Driver's
School Program?  Start that up, too. It's not that hard if you are willing
to dedicate some time and effort to it.  Don't drive to another Chapter -
make yours work.  Just because you're a newbie doesn't mean you can't jump
in on it. You can get help all over the place (Like the Digest or BMWCCA
HQ). Nothing energizes a new club like new blood and enthusiasm.

20 turned up out of 500 members?  That's not too bad.  At NCC we have over
3,000 members and usually have only 20 core members show up at the
meetings.  But those twenty do 90% of the work.

Just merely paying your $ 35 annual BMWCCA membership fee does not get you
an action-packed schedule of fun car events to do. You gotta get involved.
Hell - most the good ideas we come up with for PizzaFest and some for the
NCC Chapter as well are done over one or more Rolling Rocks in a local
tavern or in the UUC garage.

<off soapbox>

There now...ready to set up Club Racing for the Sacramento Chapter <theme
music from PATTON playing in the background>?

Not flamin' you Tim - just tellin' ya like it is.

Duane Collie
Smilin' Vulture Racin'
Team Bubba / UUC / NCC

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