Happy Thanksgiving Everyone,

By the time you receive this, the holidays will be upon us. As we all get very busy this time of year, we will NOT have a club meeting in December. Our next meeting is tentatively scheduled for Saturday January 10th, 2004 at a location in San Leandro to be determined. Additional information will be provided in the next newsletter. Due to the great attendance at this meeting, we voted at our last meeting to change the location as we have for the most part outgrown Bosco’s. Please mark your calendars for 01/10/04 now. This new facility if it meets with your approval quite likely will become our new East Bay meeting location as well. As many of you know, we have been looking for a replacement location in the same general area as the bar area at Harry’s is just too noisy for us. This new location offers a stand alone meeting room that will easily accommodate our group.

Our December event is coming up on Sat the 6th. It is the Santa Cruz Holiday Parade. Full details are provided in this newsletter. Should be a really fun way to spend a few hours. We will meet in Campbell and make a leisurely drive over the hill. Santa Cruz is always a great destination. Please note that this event benefits the Second Harvest Food Bank and there are certain requirements. Once again, please refer to this months newsletter for full details.

I will cover a few general business items now. At the last 2 meetings, our membership elected our existing Board of Directors to another term. Thank You for your vote of confidence. It is once again time to collect dues for next year. Please see Jim Lent’s article in this newsletter regarding dues payments. Dano and Chaz Savino have notified us that there will not be a Warm Summer Daze event for 2004. Details to follow.

Let us try a slightly different approach with Car of the Month articles. Any member that has not written one, is welcome to. Being that it is the Holiday Season and peoples schedules get really busy, if you have the time and would like to see YOUR car featured in an upcoming newsletter AND on our website, please submit your article to Jim Lent.

In last month’s newsletter, I mentioned that GTOAA for 2004 will be requiring that all affiliated chapters increase their membership % from 25 to 33%. Have had a fair amount of correspondence with GTOAA regarding this and we have printed the response we received from Tom Szymczyk, their Chapter Coordinator in this newsletter for your reference. As you will see when you read this, Tom took the time to explain their viewpoint, goals and objectives in a very candid manner. If you want GGG to remain an affiliated chapter and would like to help GTOAA build for the future, you need to join or renew your membership now. Please let us know that you have done this when you remit your GGG dues as we need to track this. This will be an ongoing process as I anticipate their going from 33 to 50% at some point in the future. Now is the time for each of us to consider supporting GTOAA. If we do not make the cut for 04, our affiliation will be a thing of the past. Please take some time to carefully consider this. In order to qualify, we need to have every existing GTOAA member renew plus have 24 additional members join. To quote the King of Rock and Roll " It’s Now or Never ".

At our most recent meeting, we began listing possible events for our 04 event calendar. See the listing in this newsletter. Thank You to everyone that made suggestions. We need more member input on this, more ideas and potential event selections. Please e mail any ideas you have to any Board Member. We will also begin our Jan meeting by taking some time for this. We have been contacted by Jim Wangers asking us if we were planning an 04 Wangers event. Mr. Wangers would LOVE to return for a visit. This is something we need to consider and will discuss in January. We have a clean slate to work with. VP Russ Louthian’s thoughts are that a Wangers event will be most successful if we combine it with something else and is looking into some possibilities. We welcome everyone’s input on this. Your response will determine how we proceed with this. If we step up and decide to do an 04 Wangers event, let us try for a GGG attendance record. Think about it, 2004 as you know is the GTO’s 40th Anniversary. A NEW GTO will be here. This tells me conditions will not get any better…..WHAT YA THINK GGG ?????

Till next month, see ya in the fast lane;

John

2004 DUES

2004 Golden Gate Goats Dues
You can pay us now - or 
pay us $5.00 more if you procrastinate!

PLEASE USE THE RETURN ENVELOPE 
INCLUDED IN THIS NEWSLETTER!

Your dues are payable now. You can use the envelope inside to return your dues to our club treasurer. Please help to make this process as easy as possible for our treasurer. Dues are again $30.00. Those members who joined in 2003 have their dues amount prorated. The amount due is listed on the return address of the envelope flap. The dues amount for dues received after the February 2004 club meeting will be $35.00 so please save the $5.00 and renew early.
We are also asking all GTO Association of America members to let us know your membership number. Our club is chartered with the GTOAA and would never have been formed without the national organization to provide list of members. GTOAA requires older chartered clubs to have 25% of their membership to be GTOAA members. Although we don’t receive direct benefits, supporting the National Organization of our favorite car should be of interest to all club members. National strength lets parts makers know that there is a market for their products and so they advertise and continue to make needed parts for our Original Muscle Machines. Please consider joining the GTOAA if you are not already a member. Please read the GTOAA Chapter Requirements article reprinted in the newsletter.


If your name does not appear below, we do NOT have you listed as a GTOAA member. Please contact Jim Lent if you are a member and are not listed. 510-799-6096 or jimlent@comcast.net

GTOAA MEMBERSHIP REQUIREMENT

MEETING MINUTES

Date: Wednesday, November 5, 2003

Note Taker:  Barb Davis

  Date/Location:     Harry’s Hofbrau, San Leandro , CA. 7:00 PM

1. Russ Louthian gave us information on the December 6, 2003, parade event in Santa Cruz. 
   We will meet at the Breuners parking lot (take the Hamilton Ave. exit off of 880) at 8:30 in the morning. 
   Caravan to Santa Cruz. Bring a food item to donate to Second Harvest. Each person in the car should have a food item. Decorate cars between 9:00 and 10:00 Am. Parade starts at 10:00. Rain or shine event. More details in the newsletter.
   

2. John Mekisich talked about the GTOAA. We do not have enough club participation to be part of the GTOAA. They want us to have at least 33% of our members to participate. We will put the information in the newsletter. Skip Hendricks reminded us that the GTOAA does have insurance for club events. If we do not join we won’t be able to take advantage of the insurance if we need to.
   

3. GoodGuys is this weekend November 8th, and 9th. Weather forecast is rain. 
   
   

4. Elections for new 2004 board members. Let John Mekishich know if you would like to nominate anyone for a position. If no nominations, the board will remain the same in 2004.
   
   

5. John Phillips found a new meeting place in San Leandro. The name of the restaurant is the Englander. It was suggested to have the January 04 meeting there. This might be an option for future meetings. More details to follow in the newsletter. Jim Lent will try to book the Englander for Saturday January 10th, 2004. It is not far from where we meet in San Leandro.
   
   

6. Bob Doten invited Rob Robinson, to our meeting. Rob talked about his business, California Customs. He specializes in antique auto body and paintwork. He painted Bob Doten’s car. He will give a 10% discount to any GGGoat club member. If you are interested his phone number is 408 244-6776. Rob is a participant of our Vendor Club program.
   
   

7. We will not have a December meeting.
   
   

Here’s the kind of holiday event you’ve been looking for - - a simple, rewarding event that takes little time and even less effort and is guaranteed to make you feel good!

Rain or shine the parade will go on (but it has only rained once in the history of t his parade, and last year it was 70-degrees with plenty of sun)!

This event takes place right in the middle of the Holiday Season, so we have done all we can to make it simple, easy and fun.

1. Bring your family and friends in your car along with at least one container of canned or packaged food to donate for each car occupant. If you’re alone, no problem, just bring one item and you are in the event. If you have five in the car, each person must have a food item to donate. Yes, you can bring more that one item per person if you wish.

2. If you hate to shop, or forget to bring the donation, you can donate cash in the form of a check made payable to Second Harvest Food Bank.

That’s it. No need to RSVP, you can make up your mind at the last minute to join us. We want as many member cars as possible to take part. But, if your car just can’t make it, don’t let that stop you. Bring your item to donate (or your check) and meet us at the Brueners parking lot in Campbell. Then hitch a ride with one of the club members to the parade and donation stand and you too can get the great feeling that comes from taking part in a good cause and knowing you did your part to help.

The parade lasts about an hour, and will be a nice easy cruise through the heart of Santa Cruz with plenty of people to admire your car and plenty of media (radio, TV, newspapers) coverage as well. So please feel free to decorate your car in the Holiday Spirit!

8:00AM - 8:30AM

- Gather at Breuners Furniture Store parking lot on Hamilton Avenue in Campbell.

- To get there take 880 South toward San Jose. When 880 crosses 280, it becomes Highway

17. The next exit is Hamilton Avenue. Go right on Hamilton one block, Breuners will be on your right.

8:30AM - 9:00AM

- Food Drive from Campbell to Parade staging point in Santa Cruz

9:00AM - 10:00AM

- Prepare /Decorate cars for parade

- Deliver donations at the check-in stand

10:00AM - 11:00AM

- Cruise in the Holiday Parade, making sure to wave to the crowd and to the media.

11:00AM - ? Options:

- Head home

- Park the car, have lunch and do some shopping in Santa Cruz

- Cruise down the coast to Capitola for lunch and shopping

Hi All, Don & Linda have forwarded the yummy recipe for the Caramel Brownies that we all enjoyed at the club anniversary picnic held at Del Vale. Just in time for the holidays! YUMMM!
Thank you Linda and Don, and please send our best to Ed.

Caramel Brownies

1 Cup Flour
2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Salt
3/4 Cup Shortening
2 Cups Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
2 Teaspoons Vanilla
1 Cup chopped nuts

Measure and mix flour, baking soda and salt. 

In a separate bowl melt shortening and then add sugar, eggs, vanilla, and the mixed dry ingredients with the nuts. Spread thinly in a well oiled and floured pan 10X15 inches.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Cool and cut.

It's really so easy to make up in a few minutes. We found it also good while warm to be topped with a scoop of Vanilla ice cream and drizzle caramel topping on top when you want to be really bad. I know you will all like it either way you have it.

Ed's Mom Linda