Greetings fellow MBCA Finger Lakes Section members and a Happy New Year 2022.
We all thought Covid would be in the rearview mirror( or rear-view camera for some) by now. Fortunately, we can better visualize now than at this time last January what events can successfully occur. We want to schedule events that most will feel safe attending. We were successful this past year with events that followed masking and social distancing during our gatherings. We chose to accommodate as best that we could by holding events that were more driving and outdoor gatherings that respected the current environment. We closed out the 2021 Events Schedule by holding our annual meeting in the beautiful small village of Clifton Springs at Warfield’s Restaurant & Bakery ( pictured above) in their separate banquet room, a room offering pleasant and ambient surroundings closed off from the other diners in our effort to respect social distance requirements.
It was at this meeting that event ideas were considered by using the past years’ schedule as a beginning point followed by members brainstorming ideas. Currently our schedule includes a June 1st FL MBCA-Western New York Lotus Club Joint show Driving Education and Driving Event, the Sonnenberg Gardens Fathers’ Day car show, the annual picnic on July 10th at Red Kozinski’s home and a fall color tour in early October, sponsored and organized by Peggy Lopez Raffo. Our 2022 annual meeting will fall in early November (possibly Nov. 12 or 13th) at a time and place to be determined. The annual car shows in Syracuse and Rochester are on the agenda for February 10-13th and March 3-6th respectively. Other suggested ideas are a late spring tech session and a summer driving tour in August. The Seneca Falls Rotary Jazz Festival appears to be off the agenda at this point in time. Several of our own club members over the past years have volunteered to organize and coordinate such events as Ethan Fogg did with the Ontario County Historical Driving Tour, the Cars and Coffee gathering by Dave Tobin and our Fall Color Drive along Skaneateles Lake sponsored by Doug and Bea Archer in 2020 and by Don and Oscar in 2021. A tech session was suggested to be held at the Mercedes Benz of Rochester. Volunteers need to be found to sponsor and coordinate such.
Our club has succeeded the past two years because of the effort and commitment of our loyal members. Do you have an idea? Contact one of the club officers ( contact information found in this Tri-Star issue) with your thoughts about such an event. Please consider becoming more active in our section for all or some of our 2022 events. Mercedes Benz club members are wonderful people to spend time with.
Of additional interest we held elections during our November annual meeting. Long- time member Mel Dillon nominated Don Klug as president, new comer member Obed Opare-Sem for vice president, Peggy Lopez Raffo as treasurer and Bob Harradine as secretary. As no additional nominations were received Jan Driscoll motioned for the nominations to be closed and a unanimous vote be cast for the slate. A unanimous show of hands confirmed the election. Oscar Lopez Raffo has offered to continue as our web page guru and Oscar and Peggy will continue as our news- letter editors. Thank you! We want to again thank retiring past secretary-treasurer Judith Handzo for many-many years of service. Bob Harradine was gracious to record our annual minutes and has been (and continues to be) busy with club membership efforts. I also want to thank all of our new officers for volunteering to help our club as we strive to meet your club expectations.
Of course, we all are able to see that 2022 will be much improved in allowing gatherings as we see the pandemic devolve to allow greater social interaction. I, along with your fellow officers, look forward with great enthusiasm to an entertaining event filled FL MBCA year.
Happy and safe driving,
Don Klug, FL MBCA Section President
