From Der Prez

Gazing out the window at Maine's magnificent fall color gives me time to reflect on DER’s variety of successful club tours, car shows and track days--basically two or three dates monthly-- between May and November.

The best part of this potpourri of events is that many new members have participated this year. I feel like we have drawn renewed interest in the club and its offerings, which has been great fun. It's obvious from our full calendar that we continue to be blessed with dedicated, active, and energetic club volunteers willing to organize, run, and enjoy our various events.

I'm also pleased to announce an addition to the club's assets; 4 hand-held walkie-talkies. They generally work very well when caravanning to and from events and we'll use them for driving events in the future. Please contact me if you have a club-oriented need for these.

If you haven't already visited DER's newly revved-up website recently, then fire up your computer and log onto www.derpca.com at your earliest convenience. Linc Avery, a long-time club member, racer, and an avid driver education participant, has taken over as our Webmeister and is doing a tremendous job. Just recently, Linc received an e-mail
on the site that said, "DER Website vastly improved. The tone and feel of the site is very attractive. Most sites are informative...yours is informative also but, more importantly, it is alive. You have raised the bar, so to speak." We couldn't agree more!

There's talk in the Porsche Club community at several levels that a well-organized, continually updated, informative web site goes a long way towards supplementing and perhaps even replacing a hard copy, conventionally mailed club newsletter. Though we fully realize that not every PCA member has Web access, the success at boosting event attendance thru our DER e-mail directory shows the power of this tool.

We'd be interested in hearing from you as to the feasibility of an electronic version vs. a hard copy newsletter. This could potentially reduce the club's postage and printing costs. So check out the web site, add your e-mail address, post your comments, and give us your ideas!

As to my own reflections of my Porsche experiences this year, I enjoyed driving at two new (to me) tracks this year: Mosport and Pocono. I have 4 driver education days left this season at NHIS, all the more to savor teaching the basics of car control, safety, and the general enjoyment of the fine automobiles we are all so fortunate to own. I can't wait till next year to do more of the same.

Good ol’ NINE44T (Don’s trusty ’86 951— Ed.) has remained dependable and a bundle of high speed fun…except for my botched hydraulic clutch-line-bleeding fiasco, which is a story for another time.

Guess I've rambled on long enough--easy to do when looking at the continued success of our club. I look forward to seeing all of you at future events, or otherwise hearing about your ideas for improving DER. Have a great fall season…get out and enjoy what Mother Nature provides, and be sure to give your Porsche one last spin before its annual hibernation. See you out there on the road!

Don