Next Person Up! by section president Don Klug
Greetings on behalf of your outgoing Finger Lakes Section president. It has been a pleasure to serve as your section president for the past four years. Thanks for the opportunity and thanks for your support. Each year of our Mercedes Benz cars events has helped to foster new and wonderful friendships.
Our “Annual Meeting” is on Saturday November 19th at 1:30PM, at Warfield’s Restaurant in Clifton Springs (please note details on page 4). This meeting will be a social one as well as an election of 2023 officers. We plan to hold a schedule session for our 2023 events calendar. Bring your best ideas. We will be seeking candidates for president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and web master.
This past year we celebrated seven events as well as two invitations: our annual garage tour/tech session at Bill Wayman’s home in Ontario on May 15th, the MBCA Performance Driving School on June 1st at historic Watkins Glen International Raceway shared with the North American Lotus Club, two ‘Cars and Coffee’ invites to Tobin Motor Works, Horseheads in early June and early fall, the annual Fathers’ Day Car Show at Sonnenberg Gardens, the annual picnic at Red Kosinski’s in Scottsville in July, a new and very successful visit to The Ardennes Brewery in Geneva in August, followed by the October Fall Color Tour along Keuka Lake ending up at the wonderful Bully Hill Winery in Hammondsport. Our annual meeting follows. A joint outing in September failed to materialize for Utica with the Hudson Mohawk Section. A suggestion for next year may be to team up with the Seneca Falls Rotary Club to participate in their jazz fest by providing a Mercedes Benz car club display. We last did this in September 2019.
The medallion pictured above represents our sections ’s participation in the Mercedes Benz Club of America National fundraising event held for the benefit of the Alzheimer’s Association. Our club presented a $100 donation in October; at least $8,400, representing all 84 USA club sections, will be donated by National to the Association. Additional member donations are welcome at our annual meeting towards this fundraiser.
I want to thank my fellow section officers for their challenging work over the past four years. VP Obed Opare-Sem has helped organize events and written articles for this newsletter while attending regional directors zoom meetings. Oscar and Peggy Lopez Raffo have faithfully served as our webmaster and treasurer as well as our newsletter editors, however they will retire after this issue. Oscar and Peggy are willing to train or guide the next person up. Our regional director Drew Webb has commented often that our section newsletters are extraordinary. Bob Harradine has served as both section secretary and membership chair this year and previously as vice president before work caused him to step away for a year. Bill Wayman and Red Kosinski have opened their homes for club events for several years. Ethan Fogg has coordinated multiple events that have resulted in fun for all. Thanks also to Dave Tobin for his Coffee and Cars events. Whatever success we have had as a car club is the result of our volunteer officers and club members. Make sure that you thank them for their service when you see them.
Now, as stated above, our section needs you as the ‘Next Person Up!’