Month: May 2019

On April 6th, I posted the following to the region Facebook group, “I ate dinner with Hurley Haywood tonight! What did you do?”

Thinking back over my 20 years of PCA membership, I am amazed atthe people I have met, the experiences I’ve had and the doors the club has opened for me. Hurley Haywood and Sean Cridland were only the most recent celebrities introduced to me through PCA. I’ve met several other drivers, most notably Vic Elford, through the region. Wolfgang Porsche, several Porsche (NA and AG) executives, some long-time national club personalities, including our fearless leader, Vu Nguyen, and many passionate Porsche owners from around the world are people I’ve met at Porsche Parades Gail and I have attended.

I know many local dealership executives, managers, salespeople and technicians. I’ve met local and national automotive journalists, well known driving instructors, coaches and TV stars. I’ve met “C”-level corporate executives, doctors, attorneys (thanks for the help with my tickets!), other professionals, business people, contractors and salespeople like me. All of whom share a common love of our favorite brand, whether a sports car, a sedan or an SUV, as long as it carries the Porsche crest.

Most importantly, I’ve gotten to know many of you, the over 1000 members of the St. Louis Region, PCA, and I’m the better for it. The club slogan is “It’s not just the cars, it’s the people”. My experience shows that to be the truth! I hope your club experience is, and continues to be, as rewarding as mine.

Thanks of the good times, and the great friends – let’s keep it going!

If the recent daytime temperatures and the lack of snow storms for the last few Fridays are any indication, winter seems to finally be loosening its grip on the St. Louis area – and it’s about time!

After several region recent events were cancelled due to weather, snow storms specifically, we managed to get together for a couple of great events. The Jim Singler Memorial Drive on March 10th from the Sappington Lounge to the Boat House in Forest Park was well received and well attended. I really wanted to be there for this drive to salute Jim, his friendship and his contributions to the region, but I was in Independence, MO (where it rained all weekend), with other presidents and vice presidents, for the annual Zone 10 President’s Meeting.

Then on Saturday, March 23rd, with cooperation from Mother Nature who held the rain off till Saturday night, Nancy and Greg Goodman hosted the first Porsche Only Cars and Coffee at The Place, a garage condo facility in Chesterfield. This event was also designated as our New Member Appreciation event. With over 100 Porsches, many owned by our new members, this was a phenomenal event. I had such a great time meeting so many of our new members and visiting with old friends that I never really got the opportunity to see all the cars or even spend time in Nancy & Greg’s garage.

If you missed these events, there are plenty more coming soon. Just check out our region calendar in this Die Plauderei or on our website at https://stl.pca.org/st-louis-region-calendar/. By the way, did you know that you can add the region calendar to your personal calendar on your smartphone, computer or tablet? Follow the instructions at https://stl.pca.org/add-region-calendar to get regular notifications and have easy access.

The first weekend in April will be a big one for the St. Louis Region! On the schedule is the sold out driver’s education event at Gateway and our region’s 60th Anniversary Party at Porsche St. Louis, featuring special guest, 2-time IMSA GT Champion and 3-time 24 Hours of LeMans, 5-time Rolex 24 at Daytona and 2-time 12 Hours of Sebring winning Porsche driver, Hurley Haywood, and co-author of his book “Hurley – From the Beginning”, Sean Cridland. Hurley and Sean are also scheduled to sign copies of their book on Saturday, April 6th at Gateway Motorsports Park from 12:30 to 2:00 pm and at Porsche St. Louis from 2:30 to 4:00 pm. See the article later in this Die Plauderei for information to attend the party or reserve your book for the signings.

On a completely different subject, over the last few years, with the introduction and continuous upgrades to our website, both internal and external Facebook groups, Instagram and Twitter presence, and an online version of Die Plauderei, the region has taken many steps into the world of digital communications. These steps have not been without problems and controversy, but I believe they have greatly helped improve our member communication.

We have, and are continuing to address, the many issues of our members’ online privacy and safety. To this end, among other things, we have introduced masked e-mail address forwarders for the region leadership and have closed our Facebook group so that only group members, whom the administrators must review for membership, can see your posts. In addition, we have several moderators that review every Facebook group post to make sure it does not violate our region’s social media policy.

For our members’ convenience and in a continuation of the goals of digital privacy and improved communications, we are now in the process of rolling out a new online registration / RSVP system for all club events. Over the next few months you will be able to RSVP or register for all of our tours, social events and HPDEs from the region website. Our new registrar, Marek Parafiniuk and our webmaster, Ted Zimmermann, are hard at work building and testing the system now. Many of you are already using the engine that will drive this registration system, Motorsportreg.com at https://www.motorsportreg.com. Watch your emails and region communications for updates on our progress. In the meantime, go ahead and set up your profile at Motorsportreg.com – https://www.motorsportreg.com/index.cfm/event/register.start.

That’s about all I’ve got for this month. I look forward to seeing you this spring and summer at one of our St. Louis Region events!