I need your support to improve the DSCC

[Engineer Ed]

Ladies and Gentlemen of the DSCC.

First of all, THANK YOU for entrusting me with the leadership of your club.
In the coming year I will be concentrating most of my energy on improving attendance and member participation within the DSCC.
Presently I feel we need better support from and more area coordinators.
Each major populace needs a representative to motivate, organize and create opportunities for DSCC members to get together and share the enjoyment of owning their cars. We all have these beautiful cars sitting in our garage and need a reason to get it out and enjoy it. Lets stop selling our cars and start to enjoy them.
That was the main purpose for establishing the DSCC.

The area coordinator will be my contact in that area and will be responsible for all the members in your area. Trust me, I will be contacting you regularly!!!
I request that each state organize at least 1 main event per year and a few smaller events per year. This will be the responsibility of all the coordinators in their state to get together and plan that event.
I will be available for assistance in helping to organize those eventsm if needed.
A smaller event can be as simple as a car show, group dinners, auto-X etc…Something to “keep in touch” with the members in your area.
“Major event” being something that encompasses a full day of activities, hopefully you can plan a weekend worth of activities.
You need to entice members at the far end of your geographic area to come out and play. Also, if a majority of our members cannot make the trip to the annual meeting, at least they have an opportunity to meet the members in your area and enjoy belonging to the DSCC.
I request that all my area coordinators make the DSCC Annual meeting.

I will provide each area coordinator with a list of members for his/her area. The area coordinator is responsible for maintaining this list and making appropriate changes to personal contact info. We need a reliable means to contact our members.
I additionally request that you recruit new members that would enjoy and become beneficial to the DSCC.

At present, I have Dr Armando Lopez as the area coordinator for the Miami area and Manny Lopez as the area coordinator for West Palm Beach.
I will represent the Tampa area as well as perform my duties as President.

If you would like to become a coordinator for your area, please contact me.
Yes, we can have more than one coordinator for an area. Two people working to organize and promote member activities is a great idea.

Area coordinators, I am counting on YOU to support this club and request your help in improving the attendance of the DSCC. We must provide opportunities for our members to gather and enjoy our cars.

Our web site will have a list of all the area coordinators and their contact info once they have been selected.

Again THANK YOU for selecting me as the President for the 03-04 year.

Anyone interrested, please e-mail me at:
edward.kamptner@med.ge.com


Edward Kamptner
“Engineer Ed”.
FFR1997K

[Mike I]

Ed, count me in as the Jacksonville/Northeast FL area coordinator!

Mike

[CobraDan]

Ed,
With all the free time I will have as being the past President and past Vice President I will take on the Fort Myers and Cape Coral area. I only had 3 of my local area members at our annual event this past weekend but I know I can do better and I already did better than MikeI. Linda Gonzalves told Peter that she would like to make the Silver Springs weekend with their son. They spent Sunday at the Wild Waters for an additional $5.00 per person and returned on Monday to Fort Myers. I'm with you all the way, and thanks again Ed our newest President. I already sent an email to Reg who thought they would like to have BackDraftRacing located in Florida but there would not be many sales in this state. I told him to tell his over 40 sales in Florida where to contact the DSCC, because we need more members like the Lopez brothers in our club.
Dan

[Mike I]

Dan,
That was a low, low blow, even for you.....

It sounds like a challenge too, I'm prepared to pay my guys (or at least offer them show trophies!!) to show up at the next event, just to make you eat those words.....

Mike

[CobraDan]

So far I'm having my friends pay me. Jim O'Brien picked up the tab for the flowers for all the women present. My buddy Russ Lansky helped me finish my Cobra so I could actually bring it to the show, and the Gonsalves check is in the mail. He was going to give me his Red Unique Cobra but I told him my wife said NO!!!

Dan

[Mike I]

Don't boast Dan, it's not an attractive quality......

Mike

[CobraDan]

Lets get serious for a minute and I will start by saying that Brent Mills has 6,500 World Wide members of Club Cobra which most of our 345 members are part of. I think most of the Deep South Cobra Club wanted more than a forum to post at. This is a nice format for our club and others of the 6,500 to be able to read what I post all over the World at the same time. First we have to discuss before the body as we said we would do at our meeting this past weekend. There are a lot of directions that we can take as a club but it seems number one concern was should we be collecting dues. If dues are out of the question then should we have a drive for donations to help support our club? Rather then bring on many other things that need to be addressed lets go one at a time. Does are club need to be charging a small annual fee for expenditures that seem to be fall all clubs. I sure hope we get more response to this first question than the 3 that have responded so far. I will start off by saying I never wanted any dues but if we need a few bucks to keep us up and running it will not scare me away, I’m in.
Dan

[cobramandave]

Ed,

I Think your going in the right direction with area cooridanators.
If Keith is the coordinator for columbia maybe He and I can get together and coordinate some thing bewteen Augusta and Columbia.

[excelguru]

Dave,

Absolutely!

Keith

[Engineer Ed]

Ok, here goes.... I’m sorry it’s so long!

What is a club?
To me a club is a group of guys that want to get together and enjoy the fact that they all have something in common. For us, it's our cars.
Meeting new friends has been the best part of owning my Cobra. Sitting around a table at a hotel telling jokes, drinking a few beers and recalling past memories makes me forget all my troubles, work, etc…. Puts a huge smile on my face….
For that reason, I took on the responsibility of being the president. With it comes a huge task of trying to do something to motivate my fellow Cobra owners.

Why did you join this club?
I want to believe that you want to belong to a group that enjoys doing something "Cobra" related and have chances to legally drive your car in a fast manner.
Unfortunately, we havent done enough to provide that for you.

I’m hoping to change all that. I am going to recruit “Area Coordinators” and have them put together activities for you to attend. One reason for poor attendance has been excuses such as travel distance or low fund$ making it impossible to go to Florida for vacation (Silver Springs). Hopefully that will all change. Since Florida or Silver springs was too “far”, does that mean you will attend meetings in your area? OK, consider it done!

Hopefully, by doing this, It will get more guys interested in belonging to the “club”. If I / we are able to complete this task I hope you would participate. If all you want to do with your car is attend car shows, then I will hope you would attend our organized car shows. If racing were your bag, then I would hope to see you at the races. I know you may be unable to attend all of them, but please try and make as many of them as you can.

Dues are a touchy subject. Nobody wants to give away their money, especially in tough times. I agree with our founders that this club was originally formed with the idea that we “pay as we go”. This idea has been a good one, but it has created a dilemma. Lots of guys have joined our club due to its lack of dues, but could care less about what we do or would rather stay at home than attend our functions.
I feel they need to be contacted and determine their true intentions for the club.
Lets keep dues out for now and see how far we can get with this new area coordinator push concept.
We debated dues at the annual meeting for well over a half hour and got nowhere.
All the members of this club need to include their feelings towards dues. New thread??
I recommend we come up with an idea to generate funds to help with planning the annual meeting. This will take a huge burden off the shoulders of those that are planning it.
How else will we be able to place deposits for T-shirts, reserve banquet halls, trophies, etc?

Luckily I had the support of some of our members and local outfits for the “Reptile Roundup” so we could have T-shirts (Mike and Melissa), Trophies (Thanks to Advance Auto parts) and door prizes (Thank you Finish line). Many phone calls were placed to achieve the above. It can be done, but man it takes a lot of work and you have to dig deep into your own pockets.
I'm sure some of us have some creative ideas to genmerate some money without losing members.

Now that I have said my peace, I hope I still have your attention.
My area coordinators hopefully are listening because you will be answering to me! As always, I will be available to assist you in every way I can. I’m counting on you to help provide for the DSCC. If our friends want a club and we will provide one for them.

My $.02 worth.

Ed Kamptner
"Engineer Ed"
DSCC President.

[ToyCollector]

If Keith is going to focus on South Carolina and relinquish the Atlanta role, I would be happy to raise my hand as the Area Coordinator for Metro Atlanta/North Georgia.

P.S. there is an autocross being held by the Porsche Club this Saturday at 10AM at Hi Fi Buys Ampitheatre parking lot. Cobras welcome--it is how Dave Crace started his "Crace craves to race" journey in the last year. Great way to explore your limits with hopefully the worst whoops being a few knocked down cones.

[CobraDan]

Mike,
Since Georgia has Keith McFarland listed on our web site I think we need him to handle things closer to home also. When we get all the names and areas covered we will have Jerry change the names, for the 8 states we try and cover. Jerry will also post your events as of right now nothing is up and running on the web site. Contact Jerry Rowley at jerry@gulftel.com
I just sent a link to our reps listed now on our web site.
Dan

[jerry rowley]

I agree with Ed. Area coordianators that really plan events (or convince others to do it and then follow up) are what we need.
We have a need for coordinators to keep the overall club officers informed as to what is going on in the local areas also.

I also am not against a small dues just to seperate the "joiners" from the "doers". Several of us have put out mucho dinero to pre-plan events, both race type and meeting type events (I won't name them cause you already know who they are).

Let's all get behind our new leader and give him all the support we can.

Ed, I will continue to coordinate the Central Gulf Coast Area (lower Alabama, Florida Panhndle) until fresh blood comes along. I am ready to "retire" any time someone wants the job, just let me know.

[Dr_lopez]

Dan and Ed
Thanks guys for the wonderful time at Silver Springs!!! I feel sorry for all those that missed it...
Congrat's to our new pres!!! Farewell and a job well done to Dan. BUT, this doesn't mean you off the hook, you still have lot's of work to do there Danny boy!!!!

[excelguru]

TC,

No problem! I know you'll do a great job with the Atlanta area. Thanks for the info on the phone today. I managed to get home just fine. Now I need to find that missing part.

Keith

[Jerry Cowing]

You people sound like the club is broken. There is nothing wrong with the DSCC club and the club charter doesn not need to be changed.

Our current DSCC charter asks for volunteers to orgainize events in their local areas and once a year attend an annual event - if they are not busy (don't be nieve to think that just because you scheduled an event that everyone is going to take vacation or quit their jobs to attend). This club structure is working very well. As more people join the club, it is logical that maybe the regions should be divided into smaller sections for even more localized events. When the club grows, then ask for more localized representatives, but don't re-charter the club.

Poor attendance at this year's annual meeting was not caused by lack of interest, it was caused because the meeting was not held in a central location this year. This problem was discussed at length, but the meeting was held in South Florida anyway, so there shouldn't be any surprise at the low attendance. Again, this doesn't mean the current club charter is broken. It only means a bad choice was made on where to hold the annual meeting. The meeting should have been held in Northern Florida, Alabama or Georgia which are all locations more central to all the club members' homes.

Dues are not required to fix a growing club. Those that propose collecting dues (taxes) sound like our Congress whose only solution is to throw money at things, most of the time at things that are not broken. We don't need our club to turn into a welfare, socialistic orgainzation to redistribute our wealth. Everyone can and should pay their own way -- its the capitalistic way. If someone wants to donate money towards an event, then it should be just that -- a donation -- no strings attached or they shouldn't donate. I was taught that if you intend to give a gift to someone, don't expect anything in return - not even a thank you. If you're expecting something in return then sell it to them or trade for it, then you won't be disappointed and upset.

Dues take the fun, spontaneity and volunteerism out of a club and put the burden on the person holding the purse strings. I've seen dues ruin fun clubs over and over again. It's a natural human tendency to expect those holding the club money to give the club members something in return. Many dues-paying members subconsciencely or consciencely think they don't have to volunteer anymore because they paid their dues for someone else to do it for them. If you want to ruin our club, start charging dues.

[Gatorac]

Maybe the problem with low attendance was confusion on the location. I consider Ocala to be central to North Florida. Even at that we have something like 168 members in Florida alone. I don't believe the location alone is the reason that less than 30 cars showed up. Members that lived less than an hour away did not attend.

[Dave Crace]

Originally posted by ToyCollector


If Keith is going to focus on South Carolina and relinquish the Atlanta role, I would be happy to raise my hand as the Area Coordinator for Metro Atlanta/North Georgia.

Yes, I second TC as area coordinator and I think we should meet every other Saturday at his garage to plan our next track event

Dave C Race

[Spyderman]

Originally posted by Jerry Cowing


You people sound like the club is broken.
Our current DSCC charter asks for volunteers to orgainize events in their local areas and once a year attend an annual event - if they are not busy (don't be nieve to think that just because you scheduled an event that everyone is going to take vacation or quit their jobs to attend). This club structure is working very well.

You people , you people, ? My grandma used that phrase and often at the Ellis Island visitors center. Like wth the people from India putting herfinger on the dot saying " you people go back to India"


If you want to ruin our club, start charging dues.

sir, I am not an Indian, but I know one and he aint going to like this.

[CobraDan]

Actually Jerry Cowing, and I know if you had not had other plans you would have been at Silver Springs. When we discussed location I only had one taker to throw the party if we held it in his home town Atlanta. He expected all the Floridians to come back up to Atlanta to our 3rd annual event but he was not at Silver Springs either and the first place I met this gentleman was in Fort Myers when he came down as one of the many snowbirds do each year(I'm really not angry at him at all it's the people who live across the street from Silver Springs.) With the poll so far I wish I had really heard more about I can't come because its mothers day. The location is really the one that will come in last place if you really want to come. Ask the guys from all over the world who have made it to the DVSF the past two years. I knew that because I was president at the time I would have to be the one putting on the 3rd event for our club, it was about 4 hours for me each way plus I made one more round trip to set things up. I will be in Ohio next month driving 1,100 miles each way to go for the 3rd time to DVSF because my wife wants to go, hell I'm still kinda pissed off about our event, and Ed Combs could have that event in Cape Coral this year because I have traveled to London Ohio the past two years damn him. I have never wanted dues but it will not make me run away.
Dan