Atlanta Car ClubAtlanta Car Club

Annual Winter Dinner

January 18, 2014

Each year in January the Allante’ Atlanta Car Club starts the new year’s Events Calendar with our Annual Winter Dinner. We celebrate and remember the fun and travels we enjoyed in our Allante’ in the past year, as well as looking forward to the events and new explorations planned for the new calendar year. This year our Annual Winter Dinner was held at McKendrick’s Steakhouse with twenty-three members participating.

It was great to see so many of you participating in the event this year! It makes such a positive statement about the success of our club when members outside of the Atlanta area make the effort to participate in a one evening event. We had members from Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina attend this year’s annual dinner event. A big thanks to each of them (you know who you are!) We cherish you as members and are so thankful to have the opportunity to catch-up with each of you after the busy Holiday season.

As member’s arrived each posed for the traditional “official” portraits taken by our now infamous club photographers Norman and Linda Penfield. Those of you who participate in club events know that many of the photographs’ on our clubs website are directly attributable to their willingness to document club events with a wide variety of state of the art photographic equipment. At this years’ winter dinner Norman provided us with a glimpse of his newest toy, the Sony Cybershot DSC-QX100. This is an incredible lens that can be remotely controlled vis-à-vis your Android or IOS smartphone. This camera features a lens by Carl Zeiss. Lenses from Zeiss have helped to create distinctive images in many famous movies, e.g. «Lord of the Rings», and have recently received three Technical Academy Awards.

We started the evening in our private dining room with hors d’oeuvres of baked oysters, crab cakes, and chicken satay enjoyed with wine and cocktails. Based on evidence, "the sheer number of bare oyster shells on Norman’s plate", were able to surmise the oysters were a big hit with at least one member. Our club President.

After the horse d-overs each member enjoyed their dinner entrée ordered from the menu. Our head waiter Paul performed his tasks beautifully making our dining experience most enjoyable. For those of you who’ve not had the opportunity to dine with McKendricks Steakhouse, they offer a very complete menu of steaks, chicken and seafood. Judging by the empty dinner plates no one appeared to be disappointed. Dinner was followed with the traditional club sponsored deserts (the horse dovers were also paid by the club). Desert included Key Lime Pie, Cheesecake and death by Chocolate. Each a culinary delight in their own right.

After dinner, the club officers each received a generous gift for their ambassadorship and leadership contribution to the success of the club. Gifts were presented to Norman & Linda Penfield for their outstanding leadership and contributions of their time and efforts. Linda as many of you know is a collector of decorative rabbits and was tickled pink to receive a beautiful rabbit whose legs’ had the uncanny ability to adjust from short too long. We are referring to both the left and right legs only. The sex of the rabbit remains undetermined. Our Vice President Paula (and her Husband Russell) were presented a nice gift for their contributions that include taking ownership of the club newsletter, being a major contributor to generating club content that includes the club newsletter, providing content for the clubs website, club surveys, coordinating hotels, restaurants and the planning of club trips. Paula is lovingly referred to as our "Trip Queen". A task that certainly requires a great deal of her time and effort.

In 2013 the baton of the Club Treasurer was passed from Bernice Kniffen to James Sebastian. Thank you Bernice for your contributions over the years. Special thanks to Jim for managing club membership, club expenses, payments, collection of club dues and the myriad of other responsibilities as treasurer. Also Jim for going above and beyond in preparing our clubs taxes, financial statements and ensuring we are meeting legal commitments as they relate to the management of our non-profit organization. Jim received an original California Car Duster and we presume this gift will not only serve in the maintenance and upkeep of his originally maintained Allante’, but may also be useful in the general dusting and upkeep of his and Sandy’s pet Iguana.

In addition to club officers, gifts were provided to Art Sevelius for taking on the responsibility as our “Tech Corner” writer for the clubs newsletter and website. Be sure to check out his most recent articles on the club website. Thomas Boyland was presented a gift for growing our web presence and in re-developing our club website to a modern look and feel and for his efforts to extend our online presence with the addition of an online Facebook group for Club Members. If you haven’t already joined the Facebook group we encourage you to do so. One advantage to becoming a member of this group is the ability to get notifications of website updates. It’s an easy way to learn about new articles, club events and website updates without always’ checking the website to determine what’s new and what’s updated.

Click HERE for the Link to our FaceBook Group.

After saying our goodbyes and wishes to all for a safe journey home (or to the local hotels for the weekend), everyone departed with their appetites well satisfied and well served

In closing we would like to encourage your continued contribution, participation in club events and membership in the AACC- Allante’ Atlanta Car Club. We have a number of members’ who pay club dues that seldom participate in club events and we are hopeful this is the year you can find time to join in on the fun. Regardless of your level of participation, we hope you continue to support the oldest chartered Allante’ Club in the United States in the form of membership dues in 2014.

To all members, “Thank you”. It is through your ongoing support and sponsorship that we can continue to grow and expand our club to the enjoyment of yourself and new members alike.

See you next time!

Paula Vopelak - Vice President