[Engineer Ed]

Ok, here goes.... I’m sorry it’s so long!

What is a club?
To me a club is a group of guys that want to get together and enjoy the fact that they all have something in common. For us, it's our cars.
Meeting new friends has been the best part of owning my Cobra. Sitting around a table at a hotel telling jokes, drinking a few beers and recalling past memories makes me forget all my troubles, work, etc…. Puts a huge smile on my face….
For that reason, I took on the responsibility of being the president. With it comes a huge task of trying to do something to motivate my fellow Cobra owners.

Why did you join this club?
I want to believe that you want to belong to a group that enjoys doing something "Cobra" related and have chances to legally drive your car in a fast manner.
Unfortunately, we havent done enough to provide that for you.

I’m hoping to change all that. I am going to recruit “Area Coordinators” and have them put together activities for you to attend. One reason for poor attendance has been excuses such as travel distance or low fund$ making it impossible to go to Florida for vacation (Silver Springs). Hopefully that will all change. Since Florida or Silver springs was too “far”, does that mean you will attend meetings in your area? OK, consider it done!

Hopefully, by doing this, It will get more guys interested in belonging to the “club”. If I / we are able to complete this task I hope you would participate. If all you want to do with your car is attend car shows, then I will hope you would attend our organized car shows. If racing were your bag, then I would hope to see you at the races. I know you may be unable to attend all of them, but please try and make as many of them as you can.

Dues are a touchy subject. Nobody wants to give away their money, especially in tough times. I agree with our founders that this club was originally formed with the idea that we “pay as we go”. This idea has been a good one, but it has created a dilemma. Lots of guys have joined our club due to its lack of dues, but could care less about what we do or would rather stay at home than attend our functions.
I feel they need to be contacted and determine their true intentions for the club.
Lets keep dues out for now and see how far we can get with this new area coordinator push concept.
We debated dues at the annual meeting for well over a half hour and got nowhere.
All the members of this club need to include their feelings towards dues. New thread??
I recommend we come up with an idea to generate funds to help with planning the annual meeting. This will take a huge burden off the shoulders of those that are planning it.
How else will we be able to place deposits for T-shirts, reserve banquet halls, trophies, etc?

Luckily I had the support of some of our members and local outfits for the “Reptile Roundup” so we could have T-shirts (Mike and Melissa), Trophies (Thanks to Advance Auto parts) and door prizes (Thank you Finish line). Many phone calls were placed to achieve the above. It can be done, but man it takes a lot of work and you have to dig deep into your own pockets.
I'm sure some of us have some creative ideas to genmerate some money without losing members.

Now that I have said my peace, I hope I still have your attention.
My area coordinators hopefully are listening because you will be answering to me! As always, I will be available to assist you in every way I can. I’m counting on you to help provide for the DSCC. If our friends want a club and we will provide one for them.

My $.02 worth.

Ed Kamptner
"Engineer Ed"
DSCC President.