SDR President’s Message – September 2020

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What’s happening in PCA San Diego Region?

PCA-SDR activities are still significantly reduced due to world circumstances – BUT – things are changing. CA Governor is allowing more businesses to open – some at limited capacity, and more public areas are opening with the restrictions on large groups still in place along with wearing facemasks and maintaining social distancing. Most of us are fully aware of how restrictions are gradually loosening, and how PCA-SDR events are slowly being permitted to return. Again, we still need to make a concerted effort to try and ensure that we avoid a return wave of increased virus occurrences.

SDR is hosting our first track event in quite a while this month which will be a Time Trial at Willow Springs International Raceway on Sep 19thand 20th (please see calendar on the club website). This event is for licensed solo drivers only and will not permit students to drive as we are still maintaining only one person per car and no students because instructors cannot be with them. This event will be managed differently from pre-COVID19 events with several regulations in place per a plan put together by Dr. Greg Phillips and his TT management team that was approved by the SDR board and submitted to, and approved by, PCA National.

The nominating committee has put together an excellent slate of six candidates for the four open positions for the 2021 Board of Directors. All of the candidates have been involved in several positions within SDR management and each has committed to try hard to help make things better for our membership during their two-year term. Please go to 2020-Ballot for 2021 Board to review candidate biographies and vote online, if you haven’t done so already (you are required to provide your PCA membership number).

PLEASE VOTE for next year’s Board before Sep 20th!

We have another opportunity for members to vote on our website whereby it has been suggested that SDR change our region Logo. It is possible to vote as to whether you feel it would be a good idea to come up with a new SDR Region Logo, or to keep our current “Sun Setting into the sea +  German colors + seagull” (as seen at the bottom of this and every monthly president message).

Voice your opinion! Go HERE to vote!

Having had no idea what kind of response we would get from our Virtual Food Drive, we initially estimated that a reasonable goal would be $3,000. The drive began on Aug first and continues until Nov first and, amazingly, we exceeded that initial goal by mid August so the drive coordinator (past SDR President Bev Gould) raised the goal to  $10,000.

(as of Sep 1st)

If you’ve already donated – thank you very much, but ….   I request that you please consider donating again. If you haven’t done so yet – please do, if everyone contributes, our individual amounts soon add up to something significant. We have tried to make it as easy as possible for our members to donate food using our website. Click HERE. Don’t forget to print your receipt as this donation is tax deductible.

We are eager to demonstrate how SDR can show you ways of getting more enjoyment out of your Porsche, but have had our opportunity hampered by current circumstances. Rest assured we are still planning on having a GRAND New Member Welcome event at which all are welcome to attend and meet and socialize with members who have joined recently. Please watch out for e-mails from the club and check our calendar regularly.

For those interested in short videos, the following link is to an 3:20 minute video of Porsches driving the curves in Southern Germany  HERE

What has recently happened in SDR?

On Tuesday Sep 1stthe SDR Board of Directors will hold the monthly Board meeting. One of the items on the agenda is from the SDR Driving Tours Chair Rick Richardson and his team. Due to the loosening of restrictions on events, caused by COVID-19, the tours team did a careful study of current limitations and came up with a proposal for new Driving Tour protocols, which, if approved, would allow Driving Tours to be added back onto the calendar. The first DRAFT of these event protocols will be reviewed and voted on by the Board at the Sep meeting and, if accepted, a request will be submitted to PCA National for Event Insurance. Once Insurance is approved based on the event plan, SDR will be able to run Driving Tour(s) once again. Watch your e-mail for the results of the Sep Board vote!

Goodie Store!! More new items are now available from the goodie store  –

Get your drink on with a PCA-SDR tumbler from the PCA-SDR Goodie Store!

Our reusable and refillable tumblers keep your cold drinks cold for up to 24 hours and your hot drinks hot for up to 8 hours.

Coffee mugs, skinny tumblers, and stemless wine tumblers – perfect for the track or a Sunday drive.

Head over to the PCA-SDR Goodie Store and order one today!

              

What’s about to happen in SDR?

NEW EVENT We have our first ever Virtual Tech Session Hosted by Völlig Autowerks who invite you to attend their shop from the comfort of your own home via a Zoom meeting. In order to do so, attendees must have ZOOM software loaded onto their computers or mobile phones. Registration is required via Motorsportreg.com (click HERE) where the ZOOM meeting invitation and login data will be provided.

The return of Driving Tours (as detailed above) could signal the beginning of the return of SDR outdoor activities where social distancing, facemasks, etc. would remain in play. However, we will be very careful to do everything possible to ensure that we are minimizing the possibility of a recurrence of the spread of the virus.

The SDR monthly “Cars and SDR” on the last Sunday of every month (which is currently cancelled) will then be next to be targeted to have a set of protocols developed (based on the SDR Driving Tours protocols and being accepted by the Board) and, once they are in place and approved, we should be able to get back to meeting at Jessie’s Bake Shop (home of the best pastries known to man, woman and child!!) in the Carmel Mountain Ranch area for our informal monthly Porsche car show.

The monthly Last Tuesday Socials however, which are basically friends getting together at a different restaurant every month, are indoors which obviously makes them more difficult to manage in terms of social distancing. Consequently, it appears that they will remain temporarily CANCELLED until regulations permit.

The NEXT Monthly Board Meeting will be Tue Oct 6th and will be a conference call in order to comply with social distancing regulations. Board members and committee chairs will receive conference call details with dial-in numbers etc. The Board will again reassess all upcoming events, depending on current affairs.

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For all SDR events, please see our region website calendar HERE

CURRENT SEPTEMBER events:

Now thru Sep 30 – Vote for four new SDR board members for 2021. CLICK HERE to read each candidate’s respective bio and Vote – Vote – Vote (for up to four candidates, actually) before Sep 30th – DON’T MISS IT!

Now thru End Nov – PCA-SDR Virtual Food Drive, in conjunction with San Diego Food Bank (SDFB), go to SDR Webpage  HERE  – If you can help, please do!

12 (Sat) – Virtual Tech Session at Völlig Autowerks 9:00am – 12:00noon registration is required at HERE at Motorsportreg.com(at the time of writing this MSReg.com event Is not completebut is imminent) – so if it is not functioning when you attempt to register, please log back in to motorsportsreg.com – select the “Dashboard” tab at the top of the page and register – (if not please try again later). Further event details will follow in an e-mail.

 19 – 20 (Sat – Sun) TT at WSIR – limited to drivers with a solo license – please see the event registration at    Sep TT on PCASDR Calendar 

As the situation changes regarding Government restrictions on holding “non-essential” events and it becomes possible to have PCA-SDR events once again, e-mails will be sent to SDR members.

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I hope to see you soon at an SDR event (as they are opening up again) and, when you do attend, please be sure to introduce yourself.

Keith Verlaque

PCA-SDR 2020 President

Who are we?………………….WE ARE SDR !!