Ten members prayerfully began our meeting at 7:00 p.m. Lory Wolf read her treasurer’s report. Currently we have 80 Garden State Chapter members. Mention was made of the generosity of the sponsors of this year’s car show which did not take place because of inclement weather. It was decided to carry these sponsorships forward to our 2017 car show in the form of re-labeled trophies. Our web designer charges $ 50.00 for a moderately sized update. We discussed increasing our yearly membership dues from $ 12.00 to $ 15.00 and changing the month of our car show from October to either May or June. We will put forth these proposals to all chapter members via upcoming newsletters. Inasmuch as our 2016 car show was canceled, we will determine if the Masonic Lodge in Clifton, the show venue will credit the paid rental fee towards next year’s show. A favorable response will enable us to host the show at the Lodge; otherwise we will search for another show location. We established Sunday, January 22nd as the date for our next annual After-the Holidays party. We will announce the time and location after researching several restaurants. Our next meetings will be held on Thursday, November 17th and Thursday, December 15th. Our meeting was over at 7:57 p.m.

Meeting Minutes July & August 2016

JULY 21, 2016– Twelve members began our meeting with a small prayer at 7:06 p.m. Bill Wolf read Lory Wolf’s treasurer’s report. Freshly printed flyers announcing our Sunday, October 2nd car show were passed around for each of us to hand out. It was mentioned that 21 of us (including members’ spouses) attended the POCI annual convention in Bettendorf, Iowa in July. MaryAnn Schwedhelm informed us that an order for our chapter T-shirts has been placed. The style of our popular black, red and white “dress “chapter shirt is no longer available. Therefore, we will decide upon a new design. MaryAnn will bring sample shirts to our next meeting from which we may choose. We discussed the facilities and parking available to us at our new car show location in Clifton. We will send our car show flyers to neighboring POCI chapters and also post it on our website. We will consider placing an announcement of our show in local Clifton newspapers. Car show ads will also be placed in Smoke Signals and Hemmings Motor News. We will soon be arranging for car show insurance and dash plaques. We have consulted with a Clifton pizzeria and will seek out a food truck as a possible source of nourishment for famished entrants, spectators and of course chapter workers at the car show. It was noted that in the May-June issue of Metro News incorrect dates were given for members to select from in deciding upon a chapter outing in October on the Warren County Winery Train. A correction will be made in the next newsletter. It was proposed that we increase the number of newsletters printed for each bimonthly issue. Our web designer will be paid for her services on an as needed basis. She will soon be placing photos from the 2016 POCI convention on our website. Car show sponsor forms will be made up in time for our next meeting and they will be mailed with our July-August Metro News. Our next meetings will be held on Thursday, August 18th and Thursday, September 15th. Our meeting concluded at 8:18 p.m.

AUGUST 18, 2016 – Eleven members began our meeting at 7:21 p.m. by saying Grace and The Lord’s Prayer. It was noted that those who came to our picnic at Silas Condict Park in Kinnelon last Saturday had an enjoyable afternoon. Several members briefly talked about local car shows they recently attended. Seven of us went to the new location of our car show at the Masonic Temple in Clifton shortly before this evening’s meeting to acquaint ourselves with the facilities. Special attention was given to the parking lot since the placement of the various car classes will be different from last year’s arrangement. We have been in contact with the owners of a few food service trucks. One will be selected to provide lunch at the show. Vice President Greg Pavan will be submitting a design for this year’s car show dash plaque. Members are always curious as to which Pontiac will be displayed on the dash plaques come show day. Inasmuch as several members will be away for our next regularly scheduled meeting, September’s meeting will take place on Thursday, September 22nd. Our meeting concluded at 8:17 p.m.

Steve Sanguino

MARCH 17, 2016– Our meeting began prayerfully at 7:03 p.m. with 10 members in attendance. Our chapter membership totals 72 as of March 10th. It was mentioned that all but 7 of us are current with our annual chapter dues. MaryAnn Schwedhelm delivered new hooded chapter sweatshirts to those who had placed orders. The next fermentation steps in our wine-making venture will take place this Saturday, March 19th at 11:30 a.m. and on Saturday, April 2nd at 10:30 a.m. Our chapter was re- cently notified that the VFW post in Franklin Lakes, New Jer- sey will no longer be available for our annual car show in Oc- tober. Therefore several of us are searching for another venue. Requirements for our new show location include : parking for approximately 100 show cars, several show car trailers, and spectators’ cars. Adequate restrooms are also a must.

Several Garden State Chapter members attended and thorough- ly enjoyed the Long Island Chapter’s breakfast recently. Well- known member Lou Calasibetta will host the ever-popular spring open-house at his Old Stillwater Garage on Saturday, May 7th at 9:00 a.m. We will also announce this favorite event in Metro News. The 38th Annual North Jersey Auto Show pre- sented by the Restored Rusty Relics Antique Automobile Club will be held on Sunday, May 15th at Bergen Community Col- lege. Convention Activity Packets for the 44th Annual POCI Convention to be held in Bettendorf, Iowa in July will be mailed out around or about March 15th to those who previously regis- tered for this gala.

Our meeting was over at 7:54 p.m.

APRIL 21, 2016 – Fifteen members prayerfully began our meet- ing at 7:17 p.m. Lory Wolf read her treasurer’s report and handed out chapter rosters. All 71 of our members have paid their annu- al dues. The Garden State Chapter recently sent its yearly report to POCI. Several of us paid Lory for the new hooded chapter sweatshirts we received at our last meeting. Our chapter is still looking for a location to hold our fall car show. A few members made suggestions and we will decide soon.

We reminded ourselves of Lou Calasibetta’s annual open-house at his Old Stillwater Garage on Saturday, May 7th at 9:00 a.m. An announcement of this enjoyable event will be made via e- mail and also on our website. Our web designer will be doing website updates and we hope to post several photos from Lou’s open-house.

Maryann Schwedhelm gave us an account of clothing items in our chapter store and announced plans to fill out our inventory prior to the October car show.

Lory passed around mock-ups for the 2 different wine labels we will need on Saturday, May 14th at 11:00 a.m. when the final and most exciting step in our wine-making adventure will take place – the bottling of both red and white selections. After a brief discussion, the design of 2 labels was agreed upon.

Board member Steve Kiellar distributed new POCI membership applications. We are encouraged to give others the opportunity to join the Pontiac Oakland Club International.

Our meeting ended at 8:18 p.m.

Steve Sanguino – Secretary

JANUARY 21, 2016- Fourteen of us began the first meeting of the New Year with a small prayer at 7:04 p.m. Lory Wolf read her 2015 treasurer’s report. We then discussed our newly designed website and gave consideration to maintaining it ourselves or having our web designer do it for a modest fee. Several members expressed their approval of POCI’s monthly magazine, Smoke Signals with its new editor, Tim Dye.

Maryann Schwedhelm brought two different weight sweatshirts as samples to help us decide upon our new hooded chapter sweatshirt. We agreed that we will offer a blue full zipper hooded sweatshirt with our familiar logos on the front and back in two different weights. The 8 oz. version will range in price from $ 25.00 to $ 29.00 depending upon the size and the 9.3 oz. version will vary from $ 30.00 to $ 34.00 . Some of us put in preliminary orders and a special order form will be included in our newsletter. Maryann also gave us an inventory of our chapter apparel. We decided to order more T-shirts in a variety of sizes and to take orders for our popular black, red and white short sleeve sports-style “dress” shirt. Members will be able to order these snazzy shirts on the same order form as will appear the new hooded sweatshirts.

It was suggested that we increase our yearly dues from the current $ 12.00 to $ 15.00 to help cover the cost of color printing and postage of our newsletter. We will consider offering an e-mail version of Metro News in addition to the regular paper version. A survey of our members will be taken.

We talked about future chapter activities such as a trip to the AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, the America on Wheels Museum in Allentown, Pennsylvania, the Lyndhurst Castle in Tarrytown, New York and the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Holmdel, New Jersey.

Several members said they were looking forward to our next wine-making venture on Sunday, March 6th at Your Own Winery in Riverdale, New Jersey. Lory Wolf who once again made all of the arrangements for this very popular activity mentioned that it was not necessary to RSVP. We may just “show up”.

Our Fall car show date was set for Sunday, October 2nd.

Our next meetings will take place on Thursday, February 18th and Thursday, March 17th – Saint Patrick’s Day !

Our meeting was over at 8:19 p.m.

Eleven members began the last meeting of the year with a brief prayer at 7:05 p.m. Dianne Lennox, our chapter president, read the treasurer’s report. Our members currently total 73 strong. Our new website is now live for us to explore. The domain is : gardenstatepoci.org . Dianne also brought in flyers announcing our After-the-Holidays party on Sunday, January 17th. After some discussion, it was decided to modify the flyer slightly prior to mailing it out and then including it in the next newsletter. Sunday, March 6th has been chosen as the first day of our next wine-making adventure. Details will follow in our November-December newsletter.

We discussed other future activities such as a joint trip up to the Rhinebeck Aerodrome with the Long Island and Nutmeg Chapters. Additional possibilities would include a trip to the AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania and the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Holmdel, New Jersey.

MaryAnn Schwedhelm provided an inventory of our chapter apparel. We talked about offering a hooded sweatshirt. MaryAnn will bring sweatshirt material samples to the January meeting for our consideration.

We spoke about Don Keefe’s new magazine, Poncho Perfection. Don is the former Editor-in-Chief and Creative Director of Smoke Signals, POCI’s monthly publication. We all wish Don many blessings in his new venture.

Our next meeting will be on Thursday, January 21st  2016. As our time together drew to a close at 8:05 p.m. , we exchanged many best wishes for a blessed and happy holiday season.

Steve Sanguino

Secretary