The year is just flying by. September is here, school is starting and hopefully the heat is backing off. I don’t know about you, but I’ll take the heat, over the icy cold any day. Our Club is still in a heat up mode, with the September 10^th-11^th DE coming up and more driving tours from our activity chairs. I would like to push the Huber Winery drive on October 15^th. It is only seven weeks away and it will be our 15th continuous anniversary meet up with three to four other PCA Regions. It’s always a good time and it’s really close. Please plan on attending. Let’s try to have the largest gathering of KyPCA members ever at Huber’s that day!

I would like to thank the new members for getting involved and going on the drives and especially doing the DE events. The monthly meetings are attended by at least two new members each month. I feel it is very important for the existing membership to make the new people feel welcome and a part of the Club. Our Region is growing and with new people comes new ideas. So I ask this year’s new members to help us out with some new ideas and suggestions. Maybe you might want to do a drive or even a tour of your business. We’re blessed to have some very talented people as members, why not share those talents with the membership? We haven’t preformed any Tech secessions, or helpful events, even if it isn’t directly Porsche related. I ask you just to give it a thought and think outside the box. Maybe, just maybe, some of us would be interested and attend an activity, demo, presentation, or what ever (as long as you’re not selling something). We’ve never promoted that and we can start now.

Also keep in mind that our Officer elections happen at our November meeting. So if you would like to run for office please let us know. I will need a nomination chair volunteer for gathering candidates for 2017 offices. Please let me know at the September meeting or email me if you are interested. As a side note, I would love to return as president for a second term, if you will have me. But remember, all positions are open.

Keep getting involved with the Club. We are in the best position we have ever been with activities, dinner meeting, DE events, and most important of all, great car people.

See you at the September meeting:

Mammas, Mustard, Pickles & Barbecue
102 Bauer Ave.
St. Matthews

Steve McCombs, 2016 President

In this June’s President’s report, I would like to thank our DE Chair Jeremy Miller along with Mark Bos and Richard Darnell for another fantastic DE event June 5th and 6^th.  It was a huge success. I would also like to thank our entire crew (Jason & Jim Miller, Gene & Peggy Hoffman, T.H. Morris, Chuck Hicks, and Dan Stewart) for their endless time and effort. But most importantly I would like thank Randy Biery and his crew at Bluegrass Motorsports Porsche for everything. You guys are very special to the success of the KYPCA DE events. And to think, in just a little over three months, we’ll be doing it all over again! Awesome.

The Club has also been very busy with drives and events here in May and June. T.H Morris and Edward Hessel have already completed six wonderful drives with many more to come. And Joe and Jane Galownia hosted a totally outstanding wine party that gets bigger and better each year. Thank you all so much for your hard work to make it so. There is really something for everyone. 2016 is truly the most active year in the history of this club.

Over the past three months I have received notices each week from National on new members. That’s twelve and counting. I ask the new members to get involved and go on some of these drives and events. I assure you will have fun. Our auto detail tech session went well and I believe the club will have a new advertising sponsor from it.

 From National:

Caren Cooper was voted in as the 2017 President. I have met Caren and she is a huge plus for the Club. Other offices were voted in on this past Sunday by a teleconference vote.

National has moved forward with purchasing the next door office condo to assist in the growth of PCA National offices. And the property was paid for in full ($400k) from excess funds. Great things are in store for the future growth of the Club.

Sad news, Pete Stout, the editor of the Panorama, is moving on. Pete has been responsible for making the magazine what it is today. But thankfully, Pete has trained an excellent team on how to publish this wonderful magazine. So we shouldn’t see any changes to the look and feel of it.

National membership count total as of May 2016 is 116,611. Only thing to be said is, wow.

Porsche AG updates: 2016 sales year-to-date is up 7.3 % over last year. And a interesting fact—Porsche doesn’t build a car until it is sold. The Factory doesn’t have room to store unsold cars like the US manufactures do. So year-to-date, Porsche has built in total 22,226 cars and SUVs. Maybe the US auto makers should take notes from Porsche on inventory control. Just saying…

For next month’s meeting we’re heading to a completely different part of Louisville than we usually do. We’re heading to Mike Linnigs on the river. So we’ll enjoy outdoor eating and really good fish dinners.

See you then.

Steve McCombs, KYPCA President

 

Wow, Spring is really here, and we have an outstanding list of events planned. Both T.H. and Edward has gone out of their ways to put together a fun and interesting list of Drives and events for this 2016 Driving calendar. I just want to thank them for spending the time and effort to put this list together and especially for taking their personal time away from their families to head up these Drives each month. Next month is our Spring DE and by the time this letter is read by each of you the event just may be completely filled up. But check anyway. It’s aways a great time, weather it’s your first time or 100th time. The fun, food, driving experience and the friendship is second to none. There are 71 Regions across the country that holds DE events each year and the numbers are growing. And I would put ours up against anyone’s as the best. And as always, we want to deeply thank Bluegrass Motorsports Porsche Dealership, Randy Biery and the entire Bluegrass team for their continued support.

On March 19th I attended the Zone 13 president’s meeting in Springfield, IL. Caren Cooper (National president) and Greg Halverson (National Tour Director) attended. The theme of the meeting was to review National changes and to review each Region successes and challenges. I do have to say after attending several of these meeting in the past years this was the best and most informative meeting ever.
I want to take a few minutes to highlight items concerning National and the behind the scenes actions that go on with PCA North America. Hopefully you’ll find this of interest.

What is the PCA 10 year Plan

1. To provide a professional evolution of the National Office to support the growth and expansion of the Club. ( By 2020 PCA will have 100,000 members with an operational budget of $10 million)
2.  Communications in all directions to be consistence. And using all forms of digital communications with a common look and style including all print forms as well. Hiring professional in these areas for support these efforts. (i.e. the Panorama chief editor and publisher was Excellent Magazine editor. He now works for PCA with 6 other professionals).
3. Dealing with the Club’s aging membership. (more then 60% of the membership are over 55yrs of age) Plans of bring new, younger people to become members and developing plan of getting them involved.

Other bits of information

Porsche Club of America as of the end of 2015 has 73,000 members. 144 Regions with an annual budget of $8.4 million. On average 60% of all new members sign up online. The National office has 14 employees and will be expanding with in the next several years requiring more office space. That’s why they are purchasing additional offices next door to the existing PCA office condo.

The Raffles, they are a PCA event but is not PCA budgeted. It is held solely on its own merits. If the Raffles were stopped today it would not affect the running of PCA at all. Cars are not purchased until the money is in hand. So if they over sell they add additional cars. That is why there were 6 cars given away in 2015. These Raffles are a big success and will continue with special car being put together by Porsche AG for these Raffles. All extra moneys are going back to each Region in forms of rebates.

One other note the younger generation uses Twitter and the newer forms of instance communications. They consider facebook for old people and email is seldom used if at all by them. The newest members found out about PCA through friends. So it is very important that we all represent the Club is a favorable light when you meet other Porsche owners and encourage them to join.

PCA is growing and is one of the largest car clubs in the world. We should be proud of the Club and the people who run the operation because 90% of them are volunteers. If there is anything you would like to see or do here in the Kentucky Region please let us know. So we can help make this your club and one that’s worth belonging to.

That’s all for now, See you at the next meeting.

Regards,
Steve McCombs (2016 president)

Well we’re off to an exciting start in January by changing the monthly meeting restaurant at the last minute due to a fire. But it didn’t seem to deter very many since the turn out was better than average. Thanks to all for dealing with this inconvenience, we’re shaping 2016 into a get out there and get involved year. Whether it’s the two DEs in June/September or the monthly driving tours/events, T.H. has put together a large list of things we could do. He handed out a list, asked for the 33 members attending the January meet to select what interests them, or to write in anything else which wasn’t on the list that Kypca could do in 2016. If the rest of the 200 plus members should have any other ideas of something different, interesting and fun to do, let us know either through email or Facebook posting (see page 10).

Some other items of interest we should plan to do are several Tech sessions at Bluegrass, Tony’s shop (Stuttgart Specialists) or at someone’s home garage. I’m looking for inputs from the general membership, on what they would like to see in these Tech sessions. A fun thing we’re planning is to have a “Garage Envy” contest. Most likely will do this starting in May after the Derby. If any of these things sound good to you and you would like to help out, let me or T.H. know so we can get it on the calendar.

We as “The Kentucky Region” are in good financial shape with the strong help from the DE events. If it wasn’t for these events we wouldn’t be able to have the fun, food and fellowship meetings we’ve been having. So, if you’re interested in learning more about your car’s performance and you as a driver, you should sign up for one of these DE events. Yes it can be a little pricy, but it’s cheaper than a speeding ticket on the streets. Most people know things that are worth having and doing usually have a premium price tied to it.

As we all know this is an election year. Huge decisions are being made or planning to be made either for or against our way of life. As for my two cents, I strongly suggest you study the candidates. Know as much about them as you can. Share that knowledge with others and be an educated voter. Vote on what you’ve found out not what someone on TV is telling you to do. VOTE SMART. This will be all I have to say about this in these newsletters.

Our February meeting will be at Rafferty’s on Dutchman Pkwy at 7.

See you then.
Steve McCombs

The Holidays are here, and with them comes my last President’s Report – at least for now.  The last two years as your KYPCA President have truly been an honor.  Holly, Grace, and I love our KYPCA family and promise to stay involved.  The friendships we have created will last a lifetime and extend well beyond the cars.

The growth in club participation over the last two years has been wonderful to see.  I challenge each and every one of you to stay involved, or take the leap and get involved.  Remember this is YOUR club.  It can only be as good as each of us choose to make it.

I want to personally thank all of my fellow officers, board members, and Presidential appointees for leading the club with enthusiasm and passion.  From our always top notch DE’s to the many exhilarating drives, we work hard to provide something for everyone.

2016 brings back a familiar face.  Steve McCombs will step back into a familiar role, for his fourth term as our President.  Steve has worked tirelessly over the years to lead our club and I have no doubt he will continue to build on recent momentum.

Our December meeting will be Monday, December 14 at Mellow Mushroom St. Matthews.  The meeting starts at 7pm, but many arrive as early as 6:30.

Mark your calendars and don’t forget to RSVP for the After Holiday Party Saturday, January 23, 2016.  Look for your postcard invitation in the mail soon.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays,

Jason Miller