October 2003, Volume 6, Issue 9

General Meeting-October 7 th, 2003
The meeting was called to order by Sgt. At Arms Frank Brown. President, Theo Bechtel, President presiding.

Guests:
Mervin and Leslie Ory. They live in Lincoln and drive a 2002 red Trans Am. They met the members of the Club at the car show a few weeks ago in Vallejo. (Note: Maybe it was the Vacaville car show.) They have joined the club. Randy Castro from Grass Valley. He came down to join the Club. He has had seven Trans Am in all but now he is down to two. He has a 1976 455 four speed he uses for auto cross, (Note: Look out Ted and Dave). He also has a 2002 yellow Collectors Edition convertible. Isaiah Nunes also was a guest but no info on a car.

Minutes were accepted as printed in the Trans Script. J.O. did admit that he made a mistake in the cost of the Christmas dinner. In the Trans Scripts that were mailed he had the price at $23195. Pretty expensive huh? For those who do receive their news in the mail that cost is only $23.95.

C. C. Coppage, a long time member of our Club, was our Membership Director for several years. She was well known for tracking down and stopping Trans Ams, Firebirds, etc. and talking to them about our Club. Over the years we picked up several new members just because of C.C. After a long illness, C.C. passed away on Thursday, October 7th. She will be greatly missed. The Club will be attending her funeral tomorrow, October 8th. Meet at the Elk Grove Funeral Chapel, 9101 Elk Grove Blvd. We will then caravan, Trans Am style, to the Hilltop Cemetery. The Club has already sent flowers.

Old Business: Past Events;

Marine World - 9/13:
There were six cars for this run. En Route we met up with Mike and Christy Smith, (in a Monte Carlo). Dante' and Frankie met the Club at Marine World. According to Leo, it was the hottest day of the year.

Keith spent most of his time on the kiddy rides. He claims it was because he was watching over the kids. We just don't know who had the most fun, the kids or Keith!!! Several shows were attended and with all that heat the water rides were "the thing". At the close of the day it was time to chow down but they couldn't make up their minds where to eat. So they drove all the way from Vallejo to the truck stop just west of Sacramento on Hiways 5 and 80. Couldn't have been to hungry, could they?

Vacaville Car Show - 9/20:
Nine cars entered this event. We had several winners from our Club. Terry Trimble, Keith Thorson, Don York, Dave Gershon, Jaime Perez and Carmen Luci, Gary and Gail Vollstedt, Charlene Thompson, Troy Nunes and, of course, our very own Leo Brown. TACA also won the Club Participation award. Leo said we pretty well cleaned up on the raffle prizes also. Every time one of the Club members won they would yell "Bingo" and send Carmen up to collect the prizes. The DJ and the people handing out the prizes kept saying, "Here she comes again."

Kragen Car Show - 9/27:
The Club members went, sat around for a little while, and then found out the show had been cancelled. Never fear - TACA always has a Plan B. Hit the road and find a place to hang out. The finishing line was at Jim Boy's Tacos in Loomis.

Jim Boy's Tacos Nite with/trophies - 10/4:
There was a total of 14 cars. Out of the 14, six of them were from TACA. Out of the six cars no one received a trophy. (Must be a 1st). The Egg Plant Festival was also going on.

Sunrise Car Show - 10/:
Cancelled. The Mall required a $2,000,000 insurance policy for this event and the cost to the Club would have been over $3,000 . In the past the coverage was always $1,000,000 with no additional cost to the Club because of the coverage we already carry.

Cops and Rodders - 10/18:
This is held at the CHP Academy, 3500 Reed Ave., in West Sac. It is the sixth annual fund raiser for the CHP museum. They are expecting 700 cars. Entry is $20 for registration and T-shirts are available for $15. Entries must be in by October 10th.

Great America - 10/19:
Meet at Levitz on Watt Avenue at 8am, leave at 8:30am. Thanks to Carmen and her employer for the opportunity to attend this event for the cost of $10. It is closed to the public and is for the use of other companies and guests.

Kragen Toys For Tots - 10/25:
Meet at McDonald's and caravan to the Treasurer Trove which is just a short way down Harding. That way we can all be parked together. Entry fee is just an unwrapped toy for kids. There will be a 50/50 raffle along with other raffle good prizes. Toys will be distributed to under privileged children in the area.

Halloween Party - 10/25:
Jaime spoke on this event. It will be at Leo and Susan's home. This is a great place to have fun provided you can get past all the creepy crawlers and goblins leading up to the front door. There will be a costume contest, a scavenger hunt, door prizes, and plenty to eat and drink. This is a family event and it's a fun evening.

Veteran's Day Parade - 11/8:
We received a flyer regarding this event. It will be at 11am downtown Sacramento. It will be pretty much the same as the parade we participated in last year when we made the trip around the Capitol building. It was decided that we would like to do this and the paperwork will be submitted.

Dave spoke about the P.O.C.I.'s, (Pontiac Oakland Club International) Western Regionals that will be held next year in Reno. Dates are September 17th, 18th and 19th. It will be held at the Atlantis Casino on South Virginia Street, just a couple of blocks down from the Peppermill. It will be supported by the Reno Club. The Atlantis if offering rooms at $79 for this event and those who would like to attend should get their reservations in as soon as possible. Although it is a year away, the rooms will fill up fast. Dave said they are expecting around 350 cars, all Pontiacs. At this point, we don't know if they will need help from our Club but they have supported us in the past with Trans A Rama and it would be fun to support them with this event.

It seems we have lost our message board on the net. The guy who owned it got a real good deal and sold it. The exchange only took a couple of hours and the board was shut down. Jim is working on finding a new site and hopefully our message board will be back up and running in the near future.

Dennis reported on next year's Autorama. We should have spaces for 14 cars. It will be held February 6th, 7th and 8th of 2004. Entry fee will be $35 and they would like photos of the cars.

Gordon talked about the I-Hop car show on Hiway 99 in Yuba City. It is every Saturday night from 6pm to 9pm and they run about 60 cars showing. There is no charge for the event but they just do it for fun, no trophies, etc. They usually have raffles but not always. It's just a 'get together' and a fun time.

Nominations for 2004 Officers went as follows: President: Theo Bechtel and Keith Thorson. Vice President: Keith Thorson, Terry Trimble and Leo Brown. Secretary: Irene Raff. Activities Director: Leo Brown, Jaime Perez and Terry Trimble. Ballots will be in the mail to all members no later than one week from this meeting. All ballots must be mailed to the T.A.C.A. post office box and received no later than the November meeting. Ballots will not be available at the meeting Ñ They must be mailed in accordance with the Club By Laws.

Meeting adjourned at 8:30pm.

Respectfully submitted - Irene Raff, Secretary.



In Memory of CAROLE CORRINE COPPAGE.

C.C. Joined our Club in January of 1996. She had a 1992 Firebird that was her pride and job and from the very first, she was enthusiastic about the Club. As Membership Director, she would literally chase down the Firebirds that she spotted in order to tell them about the Club.

C.C. is no longer with us. She was born in Los Angeles, January 1, 1950, 53 years ago. She graduated from St. Francis High School and eventually went to work with the Civil Service. She was working at McClellan AFB when she joined the Club but at that time was concerned about McClellanÕs closure.

Her work took her to Beale AFB but she was eventually required to take a disability retirement. Her health problems started last year and seemed to compound. Whenever she was visited at the hospital, her goal was to get well and get out so she could drive her car. It had been almost a year since she was able to drive it but she was sure the battery was charged and little problems were taken care of.

She died peacefully at 5:40 AM on Thursday, October 2nd, 2003. C.C. truly enjoyed being a member of the Trans Am Club of America and she will be missed.



Club Sponsors.


We, the members of The Trans Am Club of America, Golden State Chapter extends our gratitude to the following sponsors for their financial and logistical support for Trans-A-Rama XV and their encouragement of the Club in general.

RELIABLE PONTIAC CADILLAC
CALIFORNIA GENERAL TIRE
KRAGEN'S - ROSEVILLE
MAGUIRE'S
MORLAS BUILDING AND ELECTRIC
JERRY'S PAINT and SUPPLY
DENNY'S DINER - ROSEVILLE
SCREAMINGBANSHEE.COM
ALL AWARDS
ZINFANDEL GRILLE
ROCKLIN PARK HOTEL
DIECAST CITY REPLICAS
LES SCHWAB
LEO BROWN