Imagine if you will my shock and dismay upon returning home today to find a telephone message on my answering machine from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Secretary Paulson chided me, in rather harsh terms, for my failure to submit the August Membership Report in a timely matter. In some sharp language, The Secretary opined that he holds me personally liable for some sort of confusion on Wall Street, which has resulted in a vague, barely-comprehensible national crisis. Apparently the timely submission of this Club's monthly report has National Security implications. Who knew?

I returned the Secretary's call, leaving a message on HIS machine, detailing the horrendous details of my past month: vacation, three weekend-long birthday parties, returning a teenager to school, pulling the front end off my 240Z to repaint the grille, rechrome the bumper and refurbish the horns, the day and night burden of being Bob Sharp's Presidential Campaign Manager under the Open-Road-Wind-in-the-Face party, trying to decipher and memorize all 312 pages of a GT-R owner's manual, drafting and sending countless CTZCC New-Join Welcome letters, trying to erect one of those huge heavy-duty car tents in the yard during tropical storm wind & rain, and helping the occasional member with the odd request or information. In short, I whined that I have been busy.

Well, today is not that bad, so before the month of September expires, here is the Monthly Report for August, with apologies to anyone whose finances I screwed up by being late!

August 2008 was about the "laziest" month this club has ever experienced. Almost everyone went somewhere for vacation, if they could afford the record gasoline prices. This cut into our usual fervor of activity, but that's NOT to say our month was by any means uneventful.

Sadly, beloved Z car racing icon Paul Newman was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He was able to make a final appearance at Lime Rock Raceway during August, slowly touring the track he had blasted his way to so many victories on in Bob Sharp's Z cars. Some of our members attended and saw Paul waving to the crowd as he made what everyone knew was his last lap at Lime Rock.

Several members represented the CTZCC in a cross-country caravan into the foreign soil of New Jersey, where they participated in a car show of grand proportions! They came back to CT with a truckload of pictures and great stories, bragging about how well they had been treated by our Brother Z Owners in the Garden State. Our member Tom Wasney took home a trophy for his beautiful ZX car, and member Jersey Joe had the most-original 240 anybody had ever seen. Even President Ross got acknowledged for his Black Pearl, before driving home with his gas door open on the Parkway. During the final weekend of the month, many members attended the vintage races at Lime Rock Raceway Park, returning with some of the greatest action photos our club members have ever submitted (including a Datsun Roadster which chased a real, Honest-to-Goodness Ferrari GTO all the way to the checkered flag).

Upon returning home to their respective garages, the members began chatting on the Website again. Inadvertently, Tom Wasney again took a trophy, by Posting the 1,000th article in this club's history! The CTZCC Officers had seen this magic number approaching and had hidden silently behind a billboard, waiting for the unsuspecting driver who would set this Club landmark. Along came Tom with his great report about the NJ car show, and we all jumped out and awarded him with a beautiful, valuable Gold & Platinum Cyber Trophy for his Cyber Mantel. (You can see Tom's trophy in this Forum, under HOORAY! WE HAVE A WINNER!). In addition to the trophy, we considered awarding the winner with $1,000 cash or 1,000 gallons of free gasoline. But when the winner turned out to be Tom, we sadly realized he wouldn't have accepted such an elaborate gift, so we unanimously conceded that Tom's first 1,000 hotdogs at the 18Oct picnic will be FREE! (Watch for Tom at the October picnic ~ he'll be the guy with both arms full of hotdogs, giving them away as quickly as possible!)

We happily welcomed two New-Joins during August, Quinn Bannon and Ken Lewis. That boosted our rolls to over 70, and the Member Rides gallery grew to show more than 60 cars. John Kish's PERFECT 1971 240Z won the people's choice CAR OF THE MONTH contest. John is the original owner of this immaculate 240, which boasts an original ANSA exhaust system and "Mr. K's" signature on the rearview mirror! (Better keep those doors locked, John!).

Reminding everyone of President Ross' goal to display 100 cars in the Gallery by the 18Oct picnic, we began beating the drum to urge members to send in pictures of their cars. Much excitement has been generated in anticipation of having Bob Sharp personally award a large, framed, autographed picture/painting of his race-winning Z car to the lucky winner of the FREE raffle to be held at the picnic. We ended the month with more than 1,200 Forum Articles, 75 members and 63 cars in the gallery!

EXCELLENT WORK, FOLKS!
And you're gonna be even more impressed by our achievements during September!

Z ya later!
Frank T
MbrshpDir

I wish my life was as relaxing as yours , Soooo, are you going to have Septembers report done by tomorrow.

No.


I plan to have a nervous breakdown first, then complete the September report by the first weekend in October. Quit pickin' on me!

Now now Frank, getting a little senstive are we?? Great job!! We picked the right man for the membership czar!!

Phil

No, Frank, Really, good job, thanks, take your time.

Frank,
Thanks for the very informative membership report. Can't wait to see September! Ross