|
Hi Stu:
I think I met you years ago when I first got a 2 Liter Touring Spider & joined the club. Never did much with the club until I did a driving school and then started time trialing & racing, and am now a Board member. I owe a lot of that to Charlie.
We have had lots of discussions about some of the things you bring up. Charlie always had an interesting perspective about the club & time trials money, and in general, I agreed with him. Unfortunately, over the last couple of years, his demon really got the better of him, and he stopped participating on the Board. I really felt bad about that because I think it was one of the things that kept him responsible & functional to a degree. When he no longer had the Board, he seemed to go downhill faster. Then again, I haven't known him as long as many of you.
I have to differ with you about the type of people in the Alfa club - at least the AROSC people who come to the track. Not a pretentious bone in their bodies! Can't speak for the rest of the clubs. We work real hard to make the track events as great as they are. I also don't have any qualms about keeping two accounts - one for TT and one for the club. Crap, I have to listen how we made $1.17 on donuts & lost $3.72 on the raffle at the monthly meeting, and I collect $15,000 to $25,000 per track event. We don't always make money at the track, and sometimes we take a big loss. Our annual budget is 20 to 30 times that of the "club". I believe it was Charlie who insisted on the two separate accounts, and I agree 100%.
The "club" needs a good shot in the arm in my opinion. I don't go to the Friday night meetings because they don't offer much that I am interested in, and there doesn't seem to be a "champion" to make interesting stuff hapen there. Norm is making a difference, but there is a long way to go in my opinion. Charlie was certainly controversial at times, but he always made for interesting times. I am sure that when he was involved with the regular club, it was more fun than today. Who else could ever get that many packs of cigarettes into a briefcase???
__________________
Terry
|