Der Gasser- Letter to Editor

[TwentySix]

catchacab wrote:

I got home today, and read Mr. O'Connell's letter. WOW, what a letter. For my own piece of mind I need to respond to much of the letter that has not yet been commented on here.

Congratulations on being a 20 year member of the E-Board. You were on the E-Board as Immediate Past President when I joined PCA in 2002. As a member who at that time, regularly attended membership meetings, thank you for not making any effort to personally introduce yourself to me or any other new member that I know.... snip.....I agree that a new region should be created. This new region should consist of members both new and old, who are interested in their Porsches as well welcoming and getting to know all members of the club, just not the same old friends that they have had for the past 20 years.

+1

I have been running with this club for 20+ years and a member going on 15. In all that time Bill O'Connell never greeted me once. I know I introduced myself several times to him and those encounters left me with the feeling that I didn't know the "secret handshake". I am glad those days are over, and we have a new, friendly, inclusive board who are sensitive to what is going on in the real world, instead of mourning the loss of days gone by.


I also find the timing of his tirade to be curious in that the Executive Board elections are coming up, and his employer is one of the past presidents' who are currently trying to push through their "recommended slate" which, for the first time that I am aware of in the history of the club, does not put forth the willing incumbent for President . I'm not sure what's up with that, but since no one has given me a straight answer yet as to why this has happened, I have concluded that the fossils are trying to preserve their way of life. I think this has been a tough year for the club, and given the previous administrations actions which left Graham a virtual Pandora's Box of trouble, I for one would like to keep moving forward.

[ccm911]

All right, now I have to weigh in on this.  While I ultimately got to be Ok with Bill, my impressions are the same as the rest of yours.  Bill was president when I joined, and he was really aloof.  I took my father with me for a run to the Hershey swap meet, and he was not at all friendly.  In fact my father had commented on this as well.  And then when I tried to get a buddy of mine to join the club, I had him come to a meeting.  Bill then had the new members stand up and introduce themselves.  So my friend got up and said that now that he had a Porsche, he would like to join the club.  To which Bill replied "It is pronounced Por-Sha", and then condescendingly said that it is all "part of the learning process".  Needless to say, my friend left and never returned.

In fact, now you all know the reason why I refuse to say "Por-Sha".

[Darren]

Aren't we the Volkswagon club now? VCA?

[Larry Herman]

I haven't read the article, but I am not surprised.  I have seen this happen before where the "old guard" wants to stay in power and old-timers in the club want things to stay the same.

For the record, I am a fossil and I support Graham and think that he has done a fine job in the face of a declining economy (and it's effects on our club) and extreme criticism for uncovering an unpleasant situation.

[catchacab]

Maureen,  You have permission to publish my response to Bill in the next dG.

George,   You just like seeing your name in print

[George3]

catchacab wrote:

Maureen, You have permission to publish my response to Bill in the next dG.

George, You just like seeing your name in print

Ya know, come to think of it.... I haven't seen
"From The Tailpipe" in the dG lately.

Care to elaborate??

[bobt993]

ccm911 wrote:

All right, now I have to weigh in on this. While I ultimately got to be Ok with Bill, my impressions are the same as the rest of yours. Bill was president when I joined, and he was really aloof. I took my father with me for a run to the Hershey swap meet, and he was not at all friendly. In fact my father had commented on this as well. And then when I tried to get a buddy of mine to join the club, I had him come to a meeting. Bill then had the new members stand up and introduce themselves. So my friend got up and said that now that he had a Porsche, he would like to join the club. To which Bill replied "It is pronounced Por-Sha", and then condescendingly said that it is all "part of the learning process". Needless to say, my friend left and never returned.

In fact, now you all know the reason why I refuse to say "Por-Sha".

If that had happened to me, I would have gone right to the BMW club since it easier to "pronounce". The stigma attached to the mark is that of being a bunch of snobs. Hard to argue that with a greeting like that to a new member(prospective that is).

[Lainey]

Not sure I'm qualified to have an opinion here, but as a brand new DE student I thought my perspective might help.

I was amazed at Summit Point when I was watching Fred my instructor jump from car to car (his included) sweating like crazy (sure it was hot but...) and I thought "why does he do this?" We talked about jumping in a car with someone you 'don't know' and drive around at relatively high speed. It takes a special person to do that.. hopefully there is some satisfaction watching a student try hard and progress - the essence of a real "teacher" who gives back. I'm inspired to do the same sometime.... thanks to George, Darren, Paul and the Sensei (Bru).

If there is a shortage of DE instructors and getting them to sign up means letting the instructors admission for free then do it. But is it about the money? Or the time?

What about the pipeline of "new" instructors coming up? Its hard to rely on the top instructors all the time, so is anyone from White being promoted to instructor level?

[George3]

E-

Instructor-ship is not a promotion.  It is a progression from run-group to run-group and you have to be invited to join a particular Clubs' Instructor Corp.  I was fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to have a lot of seat time at a lot of different tracks.  I also run with many different clubs, so they see you out there and see how you're doing.  You don't have to announce yourself.... you are being watched.  Fortunately,  I was asked by several clubs to join their Instructor Corp. 

You are right.  We jump into cars we don't know... students we don't know... and basically put ourselves at risk. 

However, we also get a certain satisfaction watching you guys put this huge smile on your face when you finally get it right! 

[Brian Minkin]

New instructors are selected and trained every year.  This is what got us to the 1 student per instructor level a couple of years ago.  Now we no longer get enough instructors to have a 1 to 1 ratio even with the new recruits.  As I said earlier we need to find out why instructors have stopped coming to events and this data will help the speed council make recomendations to address this.

For me the cost of tires, brakes, fuel as well as maintaince costs to maintain a dedicated track car far exceed the cost to register for the events.  This expense did cause me to cut back on track events this year but it was other regions who suffered the loss of me as an instructor as I have participated in all the RTR events except the Lightning event.  For that event I was the Zone 2 DE chair at a VIR event and could not attend the RTR event.