Hello Everyone,

December is finally here! Back in August I didn’t think I could survive until mid October! But here it is the Holidays. I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing this last year with all of you. Our family keeps growing and growing. I know Joan will be mentioning our renewal count, and I believe you will be pleasantly surprised.

The new board will be meeting sometime in January to discuss the SOP’s and By-laws. If you have any suggestions in this area, please bring your ideas to the next meetings. And when we decide on a date and place, you all are invited. I do think we have gotten all of the loose ends together this year. Now we need to make improvements and look forward to the future.

We will also be determining how much more we can donate to Mrs. Russell. After the Christmas party and all outstanding expenses are covered, we will need all of your input to make a wise decision. This will be discussed at the 16^th’s meeting, so come out for some pasta at Michael's.

I want to take this space to thank all of the 1999 board members. You did an outstanding job this year. No president can do this job alone. You are all very important, and I couldn’t have done it without you.

Remember: Our December 16th meeting will be at Michael’s on east 50. Meeting time 7:00 – 7:30.

www.cfca.net is out there for all of you to enjoy. Hutch and Susan have done a great job! Remember to send your pictures to Hutch so he can update the web page.

Thanks to all of you, it has been ‘The Best Year Yet!’

Merry Christmas and a Happy Y2K!

Save the Wave

Lisa Lafferty

Happy Holidays!

December has arrived and so has the cold weather....

BURRRRR… This has been quite a year for CFCA! Our membership has grown steadily, the number of events held during the year were incredible. Our website is doing fantastic and looks great, and the VetteLine continues to ring. Our homecoming season was a total success thanks to all of you and that translates to some very large donations to the Russell Home. My second goal, membership renewals, was very, very high, and the friends we have made are priceless.

As Y1K comes to a close, here is how CFCA will start the New Year:

WOW! 109 Members! As far as I can tell from the history records, CFCA has never started a year with over 100 members!

I want to say a very special Thank You to everyone who served on the board with me this year. You folks are great! You all made doing the membership director job a whole lot of fun! I also want to thank those folks who have gone above and beyond just being members and volunteered to chair different events and activities: John Hutchinson & Susan Barton, for the countless hours spent keeping our website up, running, and looking great. Shelley Schwartz, (what can I say, girl?), your efforts chairing the homecomings this year were outstanding. Due to Shelley’s hard work and perseverance, we raised over $2000 this year! Shelley also coordinated the Christmas party! Dan Dragonetti and Willy Theiss did a wonderful job putting the anniversary party together for us – if you didn’t attend, you missed a great time! To my husband, Gary, our newsletter editor, you have taken the CFCA Review to new heights. The time and effort you put into publishing the newsletter month after month shows with every new edition. Susan Barton coordinated the greatest caravan of the century for Florida. What a great time we had making our way to Bowling Green over the Labor Day weekend.

To all of our members who came out and joined us during the year at our events, a heart-felt thank you! You are the ones that keep this club going.

The holiday season is upon us once again. Time to get the lights & decorations out of storage. Ah, the smell of fresh pine is in the air! To those of you who brave the malls over the next few weeks, please keep these thoughts in mind:

• don’t drive your vette
• don’t leave your newly bought gift exposed in the back seat of your car
• don’t carry a purse; put your money and credit cards in your front pocket
• park in a well lit area of the parking lot

For those of you who will be shopping over the Internet, read the security disclosures and any other statements that tell you how secure the site is to protect you from credit card fraud. If you’re shopping by phone, remember, don’t use your cell or cordless phones – these lines are insecure – anyone can listen to your call and pick your credit card number up! Everyone have a safe holiday!

Don’t forget about the New Year’s Eve party on 12/31! Patti and Hutch have been so gracious opening their house again this year to us! It promises to be a great time. If you haven’t signed up to bring something, please give Patti a call. Also, remember to bring a Y2K-compliant candle with you! We’re gonna party like it’s 1999 – Hey wait – it IS 1999! I hope my vette starts on New Year’s Day! As I bring this, my last article of 1999 to a close I want to wish everyone a very safe and happy holiday season and a prosperous New Year. See everyone in Y2K!

Save the Wave

Joan

Wow, the last newsletter of the year, not to mention the century. Reflecting back sometimes is good and this seems like a very appropriate time.

Firstly, and of more recent vintage I remember the thrill early this year of doing the lap of Daytona Speedway prior to the Rolex 24 Hr. While this event was sponsored by the C5 Registry, there was still a very good representation of all Corvette years in attendance. On top of that, in September I got to watch several of my friends do hot laps at the Atlanta Speedway as part of the Corvette Museum’s Labor Day Celebration. Impressive! While I’ve mentioned the Museum, that Labor Day event was very profitable for the museum and the city of Bowling Green. The museum’s gross take that weekend was $1 million, and the economic impact on the Bowling Green area was $7 million. Additionally, a Corvette raffle brought in $200,000 for the museum. The first Corvette Labor Day Celebration of the new millennium will take place Sept. 1-4, 2000. Mark your calendars now.

OK, I got off the subject. All our new members are great. I especially, think that its neat (phrase from the 60’s) that we have in Bubba and Becky Winn, very early club members that have come back to us after a period of raising kids and such. In addition the number of other member sign-ups continue to grow. The great participation for all the drive outs, homecomings and parties is another good memory. And can you believe it, we had twenty two cars from our group drive down to the Keys. All great moments. For those that know me, Pat and I are in such amazement of all the friends we have made since buying a little white 74 Corvette. Can you say lucky?

As we finish out 1999 the National Council of Corvette Clubs is doing very well. The new board of Directors has been set and membership is showing good numbers. The NCCC and affiliated clubs have staged over 1800 events nationally, during 1999. Your club, as well, is doing very well and your board is intact and has its act together. It promises to be another great year with even more events planned.

Jon Gardner