_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Patio Ramblings with the President

Spring is here!

Spring signifies a Fresh Start. Now is the perfect time to give your car a "fresh start". Call 759-1100 and speak to Gary. He will oversee the renewal of your car.

Thank You to all who helped to make this year’s "International AutoShow" another successful event. Participation again exceeded our goal. I hope all had as much fun as I did. The NEW Saturn display made a huge difference. How many CarClub members, have made reservations for a 2002 VUE? The folks from Carlson, were super and very helpful. Any comments or suggestions about the Autoshow, should be sent to our Voice or E-Mail or bring them to the next meeting.

Shortly, many will be receiving invoices for renewing their CarClub membership. PLEASE look at your membership card for the expiration date. It takes between 6 and 8 weeks to process and send out the new membership cards. In order for you to receive Local CarClub benefits, it is a must that your card is up to date. Any questions call our Hotline at 614-470-3517 and leave a message for our Membership team.

I want to thank ALL of you who participated in the recent Member survey that we had. The data that we have collected is being reviewed and we will implement some of the ideas, to improve your CarClub.

We have many CarClub items for sale. T-shirts, mugs, can holders and sweatshirts are just some of the things we have. Let us know and we will arrange to get the items for you.

The National CarClub has a NEW Team Leader and we will have some information about her at the next meeting. Our National CarClub Team has suggested another Road Trip. We will have more information in May’s Newsletter and at our April Meeting.

Want to take advantage of the "Active" member benefits? Attend meetings and join us on the many events/activities that we have. We have tried to arrange things that almost anyone can do.

See you April 12^th at 7:00 p.m. at Saturn/West!

Remember, you are not just IN the Club, you ARE the Club!

Al Clapsaddle

...And Now a Word from the Membership

Well, at least the man that takes care of the membership records. I'm Phil Carter. Some of you have met me and a few of you have heard from me. I have been working long hours to get the data files in order and make it easier for you to know where your membership stands.

We currently have about 225 members, about 78 of these members have let their memberships lapse, and therefore may not seeing this message. We hope that all of you will want to continue your club memberships to take advantage of all that our relationship with Saturn provides. What a deal for $10 per year!

You will notice that starting this month your expiration date is the first line on the mailing label, for those of you that get the newsletter by mail. This will make it easier for you to remember what your expiration date is. For most of us, this was confusing, as there was no indication of this anywhere except on the printouts that I have and the membership card that you have. Your card would just say "April". To me and most people that would mean the end of April, however, according to Saturn and our records, it actually meant April 1. Therefore the expiration dates have been backed-up one day. Instead of expiring April 1, you would expire on the last day of March, just like all those "other" cards we can't seem to live without.

Since I have the files in order now, for those of you that have a renewal date coming up, you will see a letter from me prior to that date. To renew all you have to do is mail me a check payable to the Saturn CarClub and send it along with the letter (if you want) to the address you will find on the letter. You don't have to send the letter back if you haven't had any changes, AND if you put your membership number on the check. Be sure to make any address, phone, or e-mail changes on the letter so we can keep the files current. Would you believe we have members without addresses? Yep! I will get your updates processed ASAP and you should get your new card from Saturn a few weeks later.

Please keep me posted on any changes to your membership, including membership numbers and e-mail addresses. If these are incorrect in the database, you sorta disappear and may not hear from us like you should.

I am always reachable by e-mail at pcarter@gcfn.org (please use SATURN for the subject as I get about 250 e-mails per day), or if you need you can call the Car Club Hotline (614-470-3517), leave a message and I will return your call.

Enjoy the Spring...'You'll be hearing from me'.

Phil

Adopt-A-Highway

I would like to first put an end to the rumor that I have died and gone on the the BIG parking lot in the sky or that I have become an inactive member of the CarClub. Both are untrue! The fact is that I have gone on to become VICE-PRESIDENT. But with the upcoming season ahead of us for the Adopt-A-Highway clean-up, I’ll be active again.

I’ll be presenting a mini-program at the April 12^th meeting; showing a video and soliciting volunteers for our first go-around. We will be going out on Saturday the 21^st of April starting at 9:00 a.m. Our rain date is always Sunday starting at 1:00 p.m. We meet at the GRAND HOST EAST on east Broad Street, just across the Franklin County line. Hope to see many of you there as possible.

Any questions, please call our Hotline at (614) 470-3517.

Pete

The Date has been set, the celebrities are being contacted, the agenda is being reviewed and the special activities are being finalized. What we need now is to hear from YOU, the members!

We have reserved two tour sessions. Each session will hold 30 people. Each CarClub member will again receive a special discount, to be used as they see fit.

We hope to again get a chance to meet with some Saturn folks and have a Q & A session.

When does this happen? The Date is June 19^th for the plant tour. We will leave Columbus on, Monday June 18^th in a wagon train or two for Spring Hill. Mark your calendars and let us know how many people will be attending. By our May Newsletter we will have the details of the things that are planned.

Our events team will have more information at our next CarClub meeting.

On March 24^th at 10:00 a.m. at Saturn/North, we held our first Saturday CarClub meeting.

We were encouraged and look forward to our NEXT special Saturday meeting, on June 23^rd at Saturn/West.

A special Thank you to Lowell Lutman and Ruth Albert who made my job easier by helping out at this meeting.

The once a quarter Saturday meetings, have been started because of requests from YOU, our CarClub members. You have said that our normal Thursday evening meetings were inconvenient because of work, school or home conflicts.

Hope to see more of you at our next Saturday meeting.

Suggestion Box

Some members have indicated they would like to make anonymous suggestions. To accommodate this request we will have a "Suggestion Box" at the rear of the room starting at our April CarClub meeting.

The Box will be placed there right before the Board meeting. This will allow an hour before the CarClub meeting to make suggestions. The Box will remain in place until the meeting has been completed and everyone has left.

We hope that this will be another means to hear and implement items that you the Members want.