His Holiness, Mr. Lee Putnam wrote:Howdy, Chi-FLU members!

Chi-FLU had it’s first ever annual planning meeting scheduled this past Saturday. It was a resounding success! We had over 20 people, including Grey Burton, 5 yr old future-Fiat-driver! We have one member who has owned Fiats since 1969, and another who just bought his a week ago. Chi-Flu now has three active X 1/9 drivers, a Scorpion, a 124 Sport Coupe, an 850, and Spiders ranging from ’69 to ’84.

We met at the Firewood Grill in McHenry, and the side-room they had reserved for us was PERFECT! About 15 members showed up an HOUR EARLY just to “meet and eat” before the meeting! For once, I was able to attend a FLU event, and not talk so much I ignore my food, or forgot to eat! We had members from Milwaukee, Sandwich, and...wherever in the boonies it is that Danno lives!

We spoke a bit about last year’s events, how our membership has grown (we DOUBLED over the winter to 44 members!), and how I now needed help running things.

So, we elected officers:

President – Myself (nobody else was dumb enough to take it!)
VP – Dan Naze
Sec / Treasurer – Jeremy Burton

We agreed to fill other positions with volunteers – including but not limited to Newletter Editor (Bob R?), Membership & Recruitment (Steve K?), Events Coordinator (Dave R?), and a “Photo and Technical Documents Wrangler” (Danno?). If our volunteers are ok (or not!) with these "positions", shoot me an email and I'll click the needed buttons on the MeetUp site.

By election vote, we also decided as a group to pursue official FLU chapter recognition right away. (Direction on "Next Steps" already sought from FLU leadership team)

Again, by popular vote, the group decided to instate (as of March 1st) a $15 annual Chi-FLU membership fee. It was determined by overwhelming vote that this would be best accomplished by charging each new Chi-FLU membership $50, and we as a club then purchase the new member’s $35 FLU membership, thereby ensuring EACH Chi-FLU’ster is 100% “FLU”. If an existing FLU member joins us, then the $35 FLU fee is waived.

Of course, we have no idea how to DO any of that, but it all SOUNDS very nice!

Bob Reigel’s wife, Laura happens to be a banker, and has offered to set us up a bank account. Then, questions were asked about whether we should incorporte, file for non-profit status, or do some other such as-yet undertermined course of action. What do other chapters do? If you know, please let us know! We are all about copying success, and NOT re-inventing the wheel!

We also discussed the FLU Day Memberships, and a zero-tolerance-rule was established for our tech and driving events. Our goal with the $50 up-front fee is to simply have no question that anyone in our club is FLU, but just in case, this option was also discussed. Additionally, we spoke about agreed-value insurance, the legal issues surrounding historic & antique tags, and the pro-cons of AutoCrossing for better driving experience and understanding what our cars can do in an emergency situation.

Bob Riegel (who works for Firestone / Bridgestone) offered to set up a tech event where member cars could be inspected up on a rack for suspension, brakes, and tire issues. The age and “gription”-deterioration of tires was discussed, many members not fully understanding that once tires are 5+ years old, they loose traction regardless of tread thickness. NOBODY in our club wants a repeat of last fall’s “Unfourtunate Incident”, and we are now being extra-careful with our strategy as we move forward.

As far as calendaring our events, the group decided that due to our diversity in membership locale and driving interests, we should plan SEVERAL events each month so that members can choose which event they may prefer, or that which better fits that family’s schedule. WM-FLU’s calendar of events was published to our group, and interest was expressed in both the covered bridges tour, and FUN. We spoke about Freak Out, the Great Cruise of ‘08, and what a unique opportunity this would be for a massive Fiat-convoy! Several members are interested in car shows, some in AutoCross. Most just want to be open for impromteu weekend “let’s get some ice cream” style drives. We all agreed to see how our membership grows & goes, schedule a bunch of different stuff, and we’ll see where the club evolves on it’s own during this inagural year.

Several members brought & donated examples of our first ever Chi-FLU promotional items. We now have white vinyl oval three color logo stickers in both a 2 x 3 size (vent window sticker) courtesey of Dan Naze, and a larger 4 x 5 sticker (SUV bumper) courtesey of Bob & Laura Riegel. Dan Naze has also ginned up some VERY nice Chi-FLU business cards, and he sent the word.doc out so that we can each modify for our own info & print ourselves. Danno brought a very cool jaket that his Mother In Law embroidered the Chi-FLU logo onto. I offered cash to have her do a shirt for me!

As with any gathering of Fiat owners, parts, stories, lies & tall tales were exchanged over food and in the parking lot. Tech tips were discussed, as were mechanic shops. We now have THREE local area member-endorsed mechanics!

March 29th we have a tentative first Chi-FLU event-of-the-year planned. Giovanni has offered to host us for an open house, but like many of us, he has to check with his wife to make sure that date is ok…

I hope this year to see each of you out on the road!

-Lee