Frank Sena, the new chair of social media, plans to enliven CVR’s presence on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  He wants to improve the interface between social media and other club sectors.  To that end, a productive meeting on January 16 took place among several club leaders:  Mike Keller, webmeister; Paul Roth, chair of the CVR Photo Club, Eric Richmond, editor-in-chief of Challenge; Shelley Krohnengold, graphic designer for Challenge and executive vice president; Phil Capella, past president; and me.  I was pleased that Dan Kocse, a new CVR member, accepted my invitation to attend the meeting.  Dan is a professional videographer who is interested in posting videos of club events on diverse media.  After a discussion with Linda Goodman, the club’s historian and a Panorama editor, Frank is planning to send her photos of club events with related text for her monthly Panorama column, “From the Regions.” It will be nice to see news about CVR in the national publication, with attribution to the many volunteers who ensure the success of our activities and events.

With help from Phil Capella, Shelley Krohnengold, and Eric Richmond, Mike Keller intends to replace the current website this year with one that is more attractive, more navigable, and overall, better in communicating information to club members.  It is a complex undertaking that began last year.  Mike is building on the exceptional work that Phil did as the originator of the website and as webmeister for many years.

The members of the CVR Photo Club are essential to the region’s ongoing success.  In general, subscribers of virtually all media are more attracted to photos than to text.  A result of this preference can be seen, for example, in Panorama’s column, “From the Regions,” which has evolved from a text-centric to a photo-centric feature of the magazine.  Recognizing the popularity of photos, Eric Richmond has set a goal of publishing more of them in every issue of the magazine this year.  Photos are also important to Frank Sena’s work on social media.  He is working closely with Paul Roth, who is planning coverage of many 2021 events with his fellow photographers.  The initial Photo Club meeting of the year was held on January 16; Paul was joined in discussion by Jay Harder, Walter Hyjek, Joe Kunecki, Joe Morrow and Bob Reinckens.

The pandemic is causing pervasive hardship throughout Connecticut.  Approximately 400,000 (1 in 7) state residents, including 120,000 children (1 in 4) are experiencing hunger or food insecurity, many for the first time in their lives. People are suffering.  Food banks are overwhelmed by demand.  To help the neediest in our communities, board members are planning a first-ever, regionwide food drive with Susan Young, chair of community service, at the helm.  The drive will occur from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 13, with a rain date of Saturday, March 20.  The drop-off sites for food donations will be most of the venues that host Monthly Meetings.  Details will be sent to you soon.  In the meantime, please mark your calendars and plan to make a positive difference in the lives of many of our neighbors, of all ages, who are in crisis.

More information about the food drive is available on this page.

Even during the pandemic, club membership has remained relatively stable.  The largest percentage of membership remains the owners of two-door Porsches:  Boxsters, Caymans and 911s.  The demographics of Porsche ownership, however, are changing.  The number of four-door Porsche owners is increasing significantly.  The combined sales of Macans and Cayennes in 2020 were almost three times the combined sales of Boxsters and Caymans.  In its first year of availability, there were nearly as many Taycan sales as there were Cayman sales.  Lisa Parker, membership chair, will be working closely with Eric Richmond in implementing a membership campaign with the objective of expanding the number of four-door Porsche owners in the club.  The intention is also to redouble efforts in reaching out to those owners whose membership has lapsed.  Lisa and Eric work well together.  Lisa is a former president of the club. (She is the only person in the club’s history who has served two terms as president.)  She has extensive knowledge of members and membership patterns while Eric has impressive competence in analytics.

The Nominating Committee is intensifying its focus this year on identifying potential club leaders and on succession planning, both of which are essential to CVR’s future success.  To do so, Roger Funk, former president of the club and chair of the Nominating Committee, and I invited two more club leaders to become members of the committee:  Paul Kudra, a former CVR president and current vice president of autocross, and Phil Capella, the current past president.  They will join the other members of the committee:  Bob Napoletano, Lisa Parker and Roger. The committee will implement a plan to identify potential leaders and to encourage their interest in club involvement.  The committee’s work on leadership succession will be expanded to a full-year focus to maximize smooth transitions in elected offices and other important positions.

I plan to propose new policies to facilitate the management of club functions.  Don Phelan, club treasurer, is convening a committee to review and, if warranted, to modify the club’s insurance policies.  Members of the committee are Tim Beckwith, who will succeed Don next year, Christine Beckwith, who as club secretary coordinates Certificates of Insurance for moving car events, and Dick Kretz, who preceded Don as treasurer.