NWRFCA renewal?

It is time for me to consider renewing my NWRFCA membership, and I have a question before I do so. I have been unhappy with our region for some time, and with the exception of this past summers 2 events that Scott put on, the events seem to be overpriced and overproduced. Actually I should correct this by saying that the Portland events appear down to earth and simplistically normal, while the Seattle group has become something I haven't really enjoyed lately.

My question is...is there another car club here in the Northwest, be it Ferrari or not, that puts on events that a working person can afford to enjoy? Or perhaps maybe I should just start planning to go to Portland to take part in their events. Does anyone have any feedback?

 

What kind of events would you enjoy? Track days? Autocross? Rally? Wine tours? Drives on great roads/scenery? Open house at a restoration shop or car collection? Detail tips/Griot's Garage?

 

Come on down!

Cheers!

 

Bill,
I attended the first of Scott's two wonderfully organized drives this summer, but understand, neither of them had anything to do with NWRFCA. They were done outside the Club. And in Scott's defense, please remember he does all that on a VOLUNTEER basis, and is trying to appeal to the greatest number of people possible. I hardly found his drives expensive, he goes to extreme lengths to find moderately priced hotels and restaurants. I've organized the Vancouver, BC trip for years (it's coming back for 2011! ) and it is very hard to contain costs for group dinners and events, but we always try our best.

I'd hate to see you not renew, but you might want to simply stay on Scott's email list and skip the club? Or as you suggested, simply attend the Oregon events if that is your preference, since they are not much further from you.

Another suggestion (if you want to see some change), is to definitely let Eric the regional director and Janet the activities director know of your displeasure; changes cannot be made, unless the leadership knows there is a problem

 

I think he said "with the exception of Scott's two events" Dave. I could be wrong but I took that to mean he was happy with those events but not the rest.

I have to admit that since the annual meeting I have started losing interest in the club myself. To me it just seems like things were much simpler and more fun in years past.

I still renewed my membership and will again next year but I haven't been participating in much.

 

Maybe there should be the "Ferrari Club of Scott"? I know I would join!

 

Thats exactly what he said.

 

Expatriate, your mind will thank you

 

Put my vote in for some track time.

 

In a nutshell.

 

Sadly so was the world.

 

I suggest you renew your NWRFCA membership and be a voice and volunteer in the club for the changes you desire. If you are looking for other opportunities with car enthusiasts, here is a list of the 2010 events by another car club that has quality volunteer leadership over their various activities. Club membership is suggested if you attend more than one event.

December 30 Year end lunch at XXX Burgers
February 6 Annual banquet with Detlef Schrempf and charity auction
February 27 Track driving instructor clinic with Porsche club
March 20 All members meeting and car movie highlights
March 21 Consumer Rights & Collision/Body repair seminar
April 10 Hood Canal driving tour
April 16 Driving School & Car Control Clinic at Pacific Raceways
May 1 Open house and tour of Griot's Garage new HQ
May 16 Long Beach driving tour
May 27 Driving School & Car Control Clinic at Pacific Raceways
June 5 Dyno day and BBQ
June 6 Show and Shine event at XXX Burgers
June 19 Hurricane Ridge driving tour
June 24 Driving School & Car Control Clinic at Pacific Raceways
June 26 & 27 Annual E30 Picnic weekend at LeMay Car Museum with tech sessions at Griot's Garage (202 E30's attended)
July 3 Wenatchee Chumstick Run driving tour
July 2-4 Car Corral at Historic Races at Pacific Raceways
July 9 Rally NW
July 25 Annual Concours d'Elegance and BMW Heritage Picnic featuring the E39 M5 (115 cars attended)
August 4 Drag racing at Pacific Raceways
August 8 Olympic Peninsula driving tour
August 12 Driving School & Car Control Clinic at Pacific Raceways
August 22 M car day at Griot's Garage (170 M cars attended)
September 10-12 Walla Walla region wine tour and Walla Walla's annual car show
September 16 Driving School & Car Control Clinic at Pacific Raceways
September 17-19 Drive to Sunriver Car Event, featuring German cars
October 3 Dirtfish Rally School open house
October 13 Volunteer Worker's dinner party
October 17 Tour of Tesla Store

 

I echo Mark's message... volunteer to do an event that you would like... in case you missed it, the third page of the newsletter howled for more volunteers. You can be a critic, or you can change things by volunteering.... Acta non Verba!

 

I don't think it's a matter of not having volunteers.
I held the position of Activities Director in 2005.
The process was more "streamlined" back then and we had something going on almost every weekend. I could hardly keep up with it.
Group rates were established for lodging and dinning by the organizer. Everyone paid in to the event organizer and we were good to go.

At the risk of stirring up a hornet's nest, I believe Scott approached the Club with both of "His" summer's driving events and tried to meet the criteria that the board required, (which included itemized expense reports for each event). I was told that he proposed these events well in advance of the dates offered.

For reasons I am not privy to these events were not approved by the board.

The events were held independently from the Club with great success and the participants were happy with the outcome.

 

You're really comparing apples to oranges here. The Puget Sound region BMW Club probably has 2,000+ members, compared to the NW Ferrari Club's 200+ members.

Scott has done a really great job in organizing the big weekend events, but MORE PEOPLE need to step up to the plate and get INVOLVED in planning all kinds of different activities. We can't put it all on Scott's shoulders.

If you don't like the way things are going with the club, consider running for a position on the board. Elections are coming up in April.

 

^^ If you read my post no comparison was intended or implied. Bill liked Scott's events. Bill said he is looking for auto-related activities which are not over-priced or over-produced. There are plenty of auto clubs in the PNW that have several activities throughout the year that would fulfill that request. I presented one of those options that he could consider while keeping his NWRFCA membership.

 

I wasn't trying to put anyone down in my post and also didn't mean to insinuate anything either. I have scaled back my participation with the club for my own reasons. It just seemed to me that the mood and comraderie of the club took a big change at the annual meeting. Not blaming anyone on or off the board. From my uninformed opinion it seems like the big changes at the national level trickled down and kind of upset the comfortable apple cart that was the Northwest Region.

I'm not going anywhere soon though.

 

It seems to me that the club may be a victim of its own success. All of the hard work of past and present volunteers have set the bar high. I personaly enjoy the diversity of all the different club events from the inexpensive garage tours to several day tours were we get to live it up. Having run several volunteer organizations in the past and present I can appreciate the countless hours of work it takes to put on any event large or small. I feel guilty at times because I have not stepped up to host an event as of yet, but I hope to in the future. Until then I want to thank all those who have given up countless hours making owning and enjoying a Ferrari even better. My two cents D

 

You might find organizing an event, or volunteering may give you a sense of accomplishment, but change things?? You’ll be whistling past the grave yard.

 

Thanks dinogt4guy I have been giving that a lot of consideration. It is a few more miles to head south, but with the heavy Puget Sound traffic it will take a lot less time.

Thank you too Mark, I have heard great things about the BMW club. That will be something I need to look into. Plus I am sure there would be more members in my local area for the small impromptu events like coffee meetings.

As far as volunteering to organize an event, hopefully the people elected for that position will strive for more “across the board” success rather than just the enjoyment of those with deep pockets. Maybe I saw things wrong, but I would swear that Scott did put together 2 awesome events, and the club refused to sanction them. Now the club is soliciting for someone like Scott? Seems like there is something behind the scenes not working correctly to me. Not that I would not sign up to volunteer at something, but I don't think I have what it takes for activities organization.

If so many of us are crying out for reasonably priced, fun activities, why isn't the NWRFCA taking notice?

 

We started Exotics at Redmond Town Center to try and bring more exotic owners together. We're brand-agnostic, however our core is exotics. The Northwest isn't really that big of a place to hold events frequently enough to match most people's needs. Each club seems to do a few things each year and so we're turning into sort of a jump-off point for all types of activities each week. Tomorrow we're hosting SSC's unveiling at Boeing Field, the Carz song release party at RTC on November 13 and we hope to have a few interesting events this winter. We will have a lot more drives in 2011 and we're just working up the plan now.

We're also working on a master calendar for all of the car clubs to make it easier for each club to plan their own events without conflicts from other clubs. The development of that site has been in the works for a while now. It will be cool.

 

Kudos, as that is a lot of work! Looking forward to it and thank you in advance.

 

Check out Google Calendars (http://www.google.com/intl/en/googlecalendar/about.html). It'll do what you need and can be embedded in the various clubs websites if desired. Multiple moderators (one from each club?) allowed. Invitations and reminders supported.

 

We're doing something a little different. It will be cool when it's done. We know we need a solution to the problem because it's made planning anything at RTC very difficult. We have about twenty organizations to confer with every time we want to plan an event. As it was, we had to drop a few ideas because we just couldn't find the dates that would work and not conflict. E@RTC almost doubled in size over 2009 and we expect to see similar growth in 2011. No one brand is growing more than the other and the cars vary every week so it's impossible to say where the primary growth is coming from.