Sacramento

President’s Message  – November 2018

Until such time we produce a Club Newsletter more frequent that Quarterly, a monthly President’s Message will be sent via Email and also posted on our Website.

Our Club had a very successful meeting on October 20 with our special guests and co-hosts, Steve Ross – National MBCA VP and our own Lance Taylor-Warren – Regional Director.  This hosted luncheon’s cost of $610 was offset by MBCA Regional’s subsidy of $350 resulting in a net cost to our Club of $270.

At the meeting our election of officers was held with the following members elected for 2019:

President – Creighton Fong

Vice President – Michael Proctor

Secretary – Bobbie Wiesner

Treasurer – Pamela Janssen

Additionally three members have volunteered for our Club’s very important positions:

Bill Brandt – Newsletter

Allen Wren – Historian

Anthony Funaro – Roadmaster

With the above positions being filled, the Club still needs volunteers to assume the following areas:

Director of Communications

Webmaster

Membership Chairman

Social Director

MBZ Dealer Liaison

Photographer/Videographer

(Contact me to volunteer or to obtain more information)

Upcoming Club Dates

Saturday, Nov 10              -First Annual President’s Drive/Lunch (Please see following map and

                                                detailed route directions – these are normal roads and part of either the Placer

                                                County Wine Road and/or Placer Mandarin Orange Trail).  This information is also

                                                available on our Website.  Again, we meet at Peets Coffee in Granite Bay and conclude

                                                at Kristen’s Biergarten in Rocklin.

Wednesday, Nov 14       -Membership Meeting – This meeting will principally be our Planning Meeting

for 2019.  We already got a jumpstart at the October meeting with volunteers

for some driving events, however, we still need to complete our 2019 Schedule

of Driving and other Club Activities/Events including a minimum of two dinner

venues, one for next December’s Holiday Party and another mid-year.  Each

Mercedes Club has a Planning Meeting to put together a calendar that must

be submitted to their Regional Director by year end so that the RD can schedule

and plan a Regional Event and advise other clubs in his region of their events.

If you are interested in something to do or somewhere to go – chances are at

least one other member is also interested and we can possibly make this a Club

function!  Additionally, we will need to fill out the remainder of our volunteer

positions/committees again, more than one person serving together as a

committee can fill the position – and be more fun!  So come to the meeting which will

be held in the conference room at the Mercedes of Rocklin (Von Housen Dealership)

4747 Granite Dr. in Rocklin beginning at 10:30 a.m.

                                                -Board of Directors Meeting.  Members of the Board will have a short meeting

                                                after the General Membership Meeting.  The Board will be discussing a revision

                                                to our outdated By-Laws that will have our Club conform with other MBCA Sections

                                                which will be brought to a membership vote no later than March 31, 2019. 

We will also discuss the distribution of our Newsletter – Capitol Star, planning  

additional events for our 50^th Anniversary and reviewing our financial position.

Saturday, December 1   -Holiday Gala Dinner at Marriot Hotel in Rancho Cordova.  Information on

                                                Website/Newsletter.  Again, there will be a no-host bar and corkage, passed

                                                hors d’oeuvrers and hosted wine on the table with your selected entrée.  If more

                                                information is needed, please contact Bobbie Wiesner (916) 952-9171.

Update Your Membership Profile with MCBA

Associate Members – A MBCA Member is defined as an Active Member, however, a Family (Associate) Member

                                                (over 18 and residing at the same residence) can be added at no cost and have all the

                                                privileges of the Active Member.

Email and Address   – Please insure that your Email is correct as Club information will be sent to the Email on File

Mercedes Ownership – If you bought or sold your Mercedes, this information should be updated.

To make any of the above changes, or to change other areas in your profile, please contact the MBCA National Office at (800) 637-2360.

To: My Fellow Members

Since the beginning of the year, there has been an absence of Section information to our members through all means of communication; our Newsletter, our Website and Emails.  Additionally, our Section has had only one 2018 Event which was held in January that was reported in The Star.  This is changing immediately with this issue of our Newsletter and announcement of Events scheduled for the remainder of the year.

Our Section’s Newsletter should be our most important means of communication between the Board and the Section’s Membership.  It is anticipated that additional Section announcements and information will soon be available on our Website and communicated to members through Email.

For this Newsletter,  I want introduce the current Board.;  I’m Creighton Fong and with Nancy, my wife, have been members of the Sacramento Section for the last seven years and previously members of the San Francisco Section.  My past involvement with Car Clubs and Classic Cars has been as President of the Jaguar Clubs in both San Francisco and Sacramento, a docent for the Blackhawk Auto Museum and involvement in many Car related events.  In past Section driving events, we have driven our ML500, SLK350 or C230.  I became your President in September upon the vacancy of the President’s office.

Our Section’s Treasurer is Don Wiesner who has been a Member of our section since 2013.  Previously an owner of a SL550, his wife, Bobbie, now has the only Mercedes in their family – a GLC350.   Don joined the Board as our Treasurer at the beginning of the year.

Additionally, our Region has a new Regional Director, Lance Taylor-Warren.   Lance has been a member of our Section since 2009 along with being a member of the Reno Section in the past.  (Lance also served as Regional Director in 2011.)  He currently resides in Reno with his wife, Lori, and their C300. 

By now, each of you should have received in the mail an invitation from Lance regarding a Hosted Luncheon on October 20.  If you have not received the invitation, please contact Lance (775-722-3274 or [email protected]).  The Club Pheasant restaurant will have a no-host bar available.  This hosted luncheon will be jointly funded by our Section’s Treasury, and in part subsidized with funds from MBCA. 

The luncheon will begin with an introduction of Steve Ross, VP MBCA and possibly others from the MBCA National Board, Lance will continue and make a short presentation relating to MBCA, Section Clubs – their operations and the importance of being active by participating in Club events and involved in the operations of the Club.  Comments and Questions/Answers will follow as time permits before lunch being served.

After lunch, our Director of Elections, Bill Brandt, will then introduce the candidates he has received nominations for our 2019 Board positions and will then accept nominations from the floor.  We do need volunteers to step up and become candidates for these four positions of leadership within our Section.  Any member can nominate themselves or nominate another member, however, please confirm with that person that they accept the nomination.  Thanks Bill for spearheading our election process.

The following Officers are our Section’s elected Officers: 

1. President
2. Vice President
3. Secretary
4. Treasurer

Following is our Election Timetable:

Up to October 19 – Nominations for our 2019 Board received by our Director of Elections

                                    Please either email Bill ([email protected]) or by mail with all nominations

October 20 - Announcement of Candidates at the Luncheon.  Nominations will then be accepted from the floor.  (Note: By precedent over the years, a quorum is not required for an election, so voting will take place at this luncheon unless an objection from a member is made.)

In addition to the above elected offices, the following voluntary positions/committees are needed by our Section immediately:

1. Webmaster (includes Section Emails)
2. Membership (includes Welcome and Sunshine)
3. Newsletter Editor (currently process of mailing done by an outside source; and can continue)
4. Historian
5. Social
6. Others as needed

(If anyone can step up NOW and assume any of these positions for the remainder of 2018 and also 2019, please contact me as soon as possible at [email protected], you do not have to wait for the luncheon meeting!)

Our Section has accomplished and enjoyed being together as a Club since 1966 with active members sharing a common appreciation of Mercedes vehicles.  Through my conversations with National, Regional and previous Board Members following are what this Section should be doing as a Club again:

1. A minimum of a Quarterly Newsletter.  In the interim, additional communication will be sent via email or updated on the website relative to our Section, Mercedes and/or MBCA, once a responsible person assumes this very important position in our Club.
2. Lunches and dinners; one being a gala holiday get together and one or more during the year, perhaps a Chinese New Year Banquet, a Spring or Summer Solstice Picnic or barbeque, Octoberfest, or other themed holiday/seasonal social gatherings. Again, please see the announcement of our Gala Holiday Party on December 1 in this Newsletter.
3. One or more scheduled driving events each calendar quarter in addition to the resumption of our First Sunday Drives.  A possible driving event that may include an overnighter to a coastal location to escape the Hot August Nights in the Sacramento area.  Again, please see the announcement of our next scheduled drive, The First Annual President’s Drive on Saturday, November 10.
4. Possibly a joint Regional Event with San Francisco and/or Reno Sections.

Maintaining a viable volunteer based viable organization with a shared interest (Mercedes vehicles) should not have to entail the work of only ONE or A FEW, but participation of many members working together as a team. Therefore, please consider and submit your name as a candidate for one of the four Board Positions or for one of the very important voluntary positions/committees - you will enjoy the fruits of your participation and appreciation of the Club’s membership! 

I would like to thank Bill Brandt for being our Guest Editor for this issue of our Newsletter and securing the venue for the October Luncheon and to our Treasurer, Don Wiesner and his wife Bobbie for arranging our Holiday Dinner.  We have been working very hard over the last week to insure that there will be a Sacramento Section Event for each month remaining in 2018 for our members to participate and enjoy.

In closing, please again remember to:

1. Submit your RSVP, with menu selection to Lance for the Luncheon on October 20
2. Submitting your name as a candidate for our 2019 Board
3. Plan on joining our Inaugural President’s Drive on November 10
4. Join us for our Gala Holiday Party on December 1

Regards and hope to see you at one/two/or all of our upcoming events – I will be there!

Creighton

Reply to a Letter to the Editor published in the September/October issue of The Star

For those that read in the Letters to the Editor section in the latest issue of The Star, I believed that a reply was warranted and wrote the following reply immediately to any and all.  I trust that this reply will be published in the next Star, but wanted to share it now with our Sacramento Section Membership. 

Additionally, I contacted both National and Regional asking if the Editor even advised them receipt of this letter, and that he would publish it – The Answer was NO!  I then asked National to place this issue on the agenda for their next meeting as to the responsibility of the Editor to give the National Board a copy of any and all complaints, whether to be published or not for review and possible action.  I believe in the First Amendment, however, if you are the Editor (and paid employee?) of an Organization, you should have the substance to know that some action needs to be done by National and Sectional about the issues raised, in this case by Mr. Nissari,, while also blindsiding the Section Club.  If this were done, the possibility that this negative letter would not have been published.

Dear Mr. Nissari:

My name is Creighton Fong and on behalf of the Sacramento Section of MBCA apologize to you for the problems you endured in trying to become a member of our Section.  There has been a lack of communication, not only externally, but internally within our Section with communication non-existent from the previous President and other Officers.  Yes, we have not had a Newsletter, nor any postings to both our Website and Facebook page, for yes, again as correctly stated in your letter - For Over a Year!  In fact, not even a "Welcome to our Section" has been sent from the Board to our new members which number almost 25 in 2018.

**

Both the Treasurer and I were just informed late last week that the President over this period had left our Section earlier in August.  The Section is now under my leadership, albeit only for the last five days, until we hold our elections for the 2019 Board for which I have stated my candidacy to continue in the Office of President.

**

I have discussed The State of the Section with our new Regional Director and also others back at National Office.  We expect to correct all the problems we have had over the past few years in due time, with the first item on my To Do List - "Begin lines of communication between the Officers and Membership".  This includes resuming our Newsletter this month, having a lunch with our Sacramento membership also this month, acknowledging our new members on a monthly basis while also communicating by email to members.  However, our Section's Facebook and Website will be dormant until we find someone that is knowledgeable to assume the responsibilities to maintain our internet presence with a target date of January 2019.

**

The problems you encountered gives me mixed feelings; glad that you are enjoying your membership in the San Francisco Section, but still upset that these external problems were not addressed by anyone and your frustration leading to your Letter to the Editor, which was your prerogative. I do know that your issue, and possibly other similar or different incidents were never advised to other leaders of the Sacramento Section as no one at the Regional or National were aware of any of the updated contacts for the Sacramento Section. Now that both Regional and National have our updated Officers and Contact List, this should rectify the issue and not being repeated in the future.

**

In closing, Mr. Nissari, I just want to remind you that a member from any MBCA Section can freely attend an event, driving or social, schedule by any other MBCA Section.  Lou will again be getting our Newsletter so he can advise you and others in the San Francisco Section as to the Sacramento Section Events, and I invite you to drive an hour less and join us in 2019 for at least one of these Sacramento Section Events.

**

Regards,

Creighton Fong

President - MBCA Sacramento Section”