Dear Members,
Welcome to my last Report for the year and what a year 2019 was! I could bore you with the stats but in short, we have run over 80 events this year, with over 50%-member participation. By that I mean that around 50% of our membership have been to at least one event in 2019, many of you a lot more than that. This is amazing, as to us it means we are doing the right thing in the way of events. Most clubs like ours would be lucky to run at 20% member participation and we are very happy that you keep coming and supporting the club we have all built together. We are still growing, with nearly 430 members in our less than 2 years and new members coming along all the time, quite a lot from recommendation of existing members or looking at how great our events are and wanting to be a part of the our club. Thank you all for making it such a great club to be a part of and also welcome to all of those of you that have joined us to make it even better in 2020.
December started with a our annual Multi Club Weekend away, which took us into NSW with a 2-night stay in Merimbula. It was great to see so many Vic, NSW and ACT members and also young ones on the long weekend too.
This is an event we plan on doing each year with varied destinations and the date may vary slightly, but it will be at the end of the year so keep a look out for this weekend. We always include great driving roads, great exploring, fabulous food and accommodation. Thank you again to Peter Williams for the amazing driving routes and Jo who always manages to get it right with accommodation and venues for meals, etc.
Our movie night in December was supposed to be at the Drive In, but due to circumstances beyond our control, we all met up at Village Cinemas at Karingal to watch Ford v Ferrari. This was an awesome film with something in it for everyone - tears, laughter, heartache, great cars and fantastic driving and just another different type of event to add to the list. We may be a car club, but we are a very social bunch and it’s nice to do some different events, sometimes not in our cars.
Our last Members Meeting of the year was held at Strike Bowling in Glen Waverly and this was a really great way to finish off the year with some pretty varied styles, but all members had an absolute ball. Again, just a fun social night out with a great bunch of friends. In amongst the bowling fun we had our Christmas raffles too. I am pretty sure nearly everyone who attended came away with some great treats, thanks to Ross from Celebrations in Clarinda.
As I am writing this the weather is searing hot, with wild northly winds and a storm on the way, so I urge you all to take care this holiday season and stay safe and not only drive carefully on the roads but also be mindful of the weather. We do live in a beautiful country but one that has extremes we need to live with, and with summer time and the lack of rain everywhere it brings the threat of fires and extreme heat. So please have a great holiday if you are off somewhere but stay safe and made sure you have the Vic Emergency App on your phone.
Look out for our events calendar for 2020. It will be updated and added to over the next week or so, as we finalise what will be a huge year, beginning with our yearly trip to Mount Panorama to support the BMW teams at the Bathurst 12 Hour. With some great drive events and not to forget our Yokohama/Traction Tyres Drivers Championship in 2020 which will be at some really mind-blowing tracks and an unprecedented number of events to suit everyone!
Take care and I wish you all a very safe and Happy New Year and I look forward to seeing you at an event in 2020.
Graeme Bell | President
BMW Drivers Club Melbourne Inc.
P.O. Box 81, TYABB, VICTORIA. 3913
Incorporated in Victoria #A0102695G
BMW Drivers Club Melbourne Inc is a member of:BMW Clubs Australia and the BMW Clubs International Council
CAMS Affiliated Motorsport Club
