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- Wrap up from visit to "The Hot Rod Barn" -

Our January meeting got snowed out on the 21^st, but the makeup date of the 28^th was a beautiful day. We meet at "The Hot Rod Barn" in Morris at 10am. There were a couple of different groups that went for breakfast at various locations before the meeting. I was late because of it and the almost 3 hour round about drive to get there. But it was worth the trip to see this world class facility.

The main building of "The Hot Rod Barn" is facing I80, and if you look at it closely you can see that it was a "Stuckey's" in its first life. This is a really nice facility that can do anything you need done.

First we got a short history of the shop, and a quick look at the speed shop where they sell anything you can think of that is auto related. Anything you can order from Summit or Jeg's you can get from the Hot Rod Barn, and they may have it is stock right now.

Then we went to the second building which is where they do sand and media blasting, bodywork and paint. They are currently working on several "frame off" Corvette's and a Charger. There are about 20 cars in various states in their shops.

After some looking around we went to the next building. There were lots more cars in this building. Many were closer to being complete, or they had not been started yet. In this building they do motor work, assembly, interior work and even have a dyno. They have all the shop tools to make anything they need. Milling machines to English wheel, it is all there.

They also had some finished cars, and one I hate to see leave. This GTX convertible is getting crated and sent to Australia. Guess other people want American muscle cars as bad as we do.

This 28' is a real steel body car that the shop built as a "for sale" car for the shop. It will be at "World of Wheels" later this month.

Once again we would like to thank Nathan and all the guys at "The Hot Rod Barn" for spending their Saturday showing us their facility. I know I had a great time and I bet everyone else did. I hope to be able to go back to see what is going on in future years. Also I am sure that the club will try to attend the annual "Hot Rod Barn" Open house on September 29th.

- Xmas party 2011 wrap up-

It was a great night, December 17^th , when the NICC got together for our annual Xmas party. This year's party was later in December than usual, but that did not seem to keep people from attending. There were 40+ members of the NICC that met at Tom & Peggy Gelardi's home in Bartlett for this event. Tom and Peggy have a beautiful home that was just the right size for our Xmas party. They had the food catered from a local restaurant and I believe there was more than enough for everyone. Thanks to everyone that brought a dish to pass.

 This year John Sonnefeldt got a few gifts from his employer (Holley) for us to give away as door prizes. Big winner of the night was Rick Montalto who won a new Holley carburetor that will look and run just great on the Chevelle. We expect to see it on there first thing in the spring.

 Once again we would like to thank Tom and Peggy for hosting the party. I am sure I speak for everyone that attended when I say we had a great time. Sorry there are no pictures, I forgot the camera.

- November business meeting recap -

We had our November meeting at Mr. Beef and Pizza in Mt. Prospect this year. Some years for our November meeting it is cold and rainy, but this year it was nice and actually warm and sunny. This place is quickly becoming our centrally located "go to place", that just happens to have great pizza and a large party room that you can use for free. The meeting was very well attended. Guess "free" pizza can do that. There were probably 25+ people there, which is great for an indoor meeting.

The meeting was intended to be a business meeting. I am trying to show people what it takes to run the club, so people who might be interested in running for an officer or board position have some idea of what it takes to do the job the club needs. I showed people the new excel spread sheet that is the official club roster. I explained how it was created and why it is the easiest way to keep track of info on all members. I also showed the address label list and the structure or the club hard drive. With this I believe that anyone that is interested could pick up where I leave off and run the club in an effective and efficient manner.

Second, I explained what it takes to create and publish a monthly newsletter. People agreed that without help I can't be expected to put any more in that what I have. I can't create things that have not happened. I ask for write ups of people cars and events and if I don't get them the newsletter will be very short. What we need is people to participate and send me "print ready" write ups about their cars with a few pictures and we can than have a monthly feature car and other items for everyone to read and enjoy.

 Next, I showed how the club website is created and maintained. I did not have an internet connection, but was able to show the local copy of the site that I keep on the club hard drive. I explained the steps needed to download pictures, name them, resize them and then get them onto the site itself. I will admit that I was doing something wrong for over a year and that made it more difficult to keep the web site up to date, but now that I know the problem it will be easier, but will still take hours every month to keep it up to date.

While I was showing the web site there were questions and comments. Mary Clark who does all the web site work for the "Old Gold Cruisers" made a comment that the way our web site is structured and created is "very old" school. She has several sites she maintains and they are basically "cut and paste" and include all the software needed to maintain the site. Ours is not like that. I have to have my own software and our site is more programmed, than cut and paste. She suggested that we seriously look at moving our site to one of these service providers. For a little more money each year we could make it simpler and make it so someone else could take over by simply knowing the log in and password to the site.

As of the writing of this newsletter I have not had the time to go off and look for different web site providers. I do know that our current site comes up for renewal in early December. We will not be ready to move by then, so I will pay the yearly fee to our current provider. That will then give us several months to look for something new and different to see if we can make it easier for someone to take over as web master. I will have a recommendation for the new officers in April at the elections meeting.

We also discussed how we all get information, and what we really need. Back when the web site was first created it was an information source to go and look at what was happening in the future and what had already happened. Now, I believe that a few simple emails actually do a better job of keeping people up to date on meetings and events that are about to happen. Most, if not everyone in the room agreed that we are well informed using our current email chain. Some still look at the web site for that kind of information, but they could just as easily look at their email and get the same info.

What people do think the site should be used for is to help attract new members and to show a short history of what we have done. Most people that attended thought that a 3-4 month history of events was more than enough. Trying to keep stuff that is 1-2 years old really was not a selling point, and after a few months nobody looks at the old stuff anyway. It was also suggested that we not keep hundreds of photos in this section of the web site. A few select shots from each event with a short write up should be enough for everyone.

Our next topic was brought up by Ron Clark. Ron has volunteered to help the club hold an "All Chevelle" car show, similar to ACES regional show. He can get a location that will hold several hundred cars, will help advertise the event, and will help with the voting and judging. Basically, he is offering us a way to do a simpler regional Chevelle show similar to the ones held in Ohio, Washington, Kansas and other places.

One of the main difference is we would not be partnered with a hotel, so there would not be any financial downside for us. We can get and pass on hotel info to people coming from out of town, but we would not have reserved blocks of rooms that we would be responsible for. We would not have to lay out any real money in advance, maybe some printing charges for flyers, but that would be it. Most of our work would be organizing and running the event. Yes, Ron does want to be paid for helping us, but he is the one taking most of the chance here. He would get the location and have the trophies. If for some reason it was a complete wash out we would both lose money, but he would have the most to lose, but if it is a success once we hit the "break even" point, we would have the most to gain. He discussed his "break even" point and with as few as 100 cars we actually start making money.

We will have another meeting in late January to further discuss this and make a decision. Please let us know what you think by sending a note to the club email box. I will read and keep them for everyone to see and consider.

Lastly we talked about maybe changing the way we have monthly meetings. Way back when I first joined there were several monthly meeting points and we had meetings every month on the same date, even if it was not a cruise or show date. Just a monthly meeting on the same day/date every month, no matter what else is happening that month. It allows people to plan on attending, but means that we have lots of business only meetings during the off months. We stopped doing these a long time ago, but maybe it is time we started doing this again. Let us know what you think. I am sure we could get a date at Mr. Beef and Pizza if we really want one.

I plan on having another business meeting in February. At that meeting we need to make some hard decisions about our future. Please take some time and think about what we have brought up. Let us know what you think and then plan on attending the meeting so we can all discuss this stuff and make a group decision.

-2011 FALL "CRUISE IN THE COUNTRY" RECAP-

By Rick Montalto and Paul Mueller

The NICC showed up in force for the fall "Cruise in the Country" on Saturday, October 8. We met at the home of Rick & Carol Montalto in Sugar Grove at 10am for a quick continental breakfast and took off promptly at 10:30am. There were 37 people in attendance with a total of 18 cars in the procession. The weather gods were smiling upon us as the cool sunny morning turned into a perfect sunny 80 degree day. The first part of the ride took us on a 35 mile journey through country back roads intermingling the farm fields being harvested, heavily wooded areas displaying the bright fall foliage, streams running along side of the road, and the quaint country feel of a few of the small country towns as we passed through. The traffic on this portion of the ride was almost nonexistent so the group had a pretty easy time staying together.  It was almost as if we had gone back in time and were actually cruising in the 1960's because there were long stretches where we never saw a car newer than the ones in our procession. The cars got a great welcome from the locals.  Many were waving and taking pictures as we passed by. At one point in the ride, surrounded by corn fields, a 1950's Chevy Suburban rounded a corner going in the opposite direction and couldn't believe his eyes.  He gave a high sign out the window as we passed each other.

At the end of the first leg of the ride we stopped at Kuiper's Apple Orchard and Pumpkin Farm in Maple Park. They have a large facility that draws a huge crowd this time of year but were nice enough to have a roped off parking area for us to park along the road.  We spent the next hour checking out the shops and buying everything apple or pumpkin related that we could find.

The next leg of the ride took us a short distance down the road to Acquaviva Winery in Maple Park for lunch.  It was a little more upscale than the hot dogs and beer that many of us are used to but when we showed some of the members how to use the silverware and cloth napkins, we fit right in.  The food was good and they had reserved a whole section of the restaurant for us so we were able to sit at various tables as a group.

After lunch many of the members broke off for other family obligations, but those that were left drove another 10 miles down the road into Saint Charles for the annual Scarecrow Festival where we walked the streets and parks lined with the competing Scarecrows, crafters, food venders, music, etc.  We finally wrapped up the day around 5pm and headed home sunburned, tired, stuffed, and most of all with smiles on our faces.  What a great last weekend for the 2011 summer season!!!   Check out some of the photos below and put this event on your calendar for next year.

NICC PICNIC WRAP UP

By Paul Mueller

 We had a great turnout and awesome weather for the annual NICC picnic held on September 17th at Dennis and Connie Grondin’s house. The Grondin’s live in a cul-de-sac at the end of a street, so it was a great place to park the Chevelle's.  There were about 10-12 cars there for us and the neighbors to enjoy. The day was sunny, light winds, and the upper 60’s.  The head count was about 30-35 adults and kids. The Grodin’s have a big back yard and back-up to a school field where the kids could play some ball. 

 We had a surprise visit by Jim and Jill Karg.  Jim looks great and really enjoyed visiting with everyone.  New member Tom Gelardi showed up with his red 72' SS Chevelle.  Bob Reichenbach drove his “new” 64' Chevelle.  The car received good comments on the paint and wheel combination.  Andy Marchiando drove his 66' for the first time since he changed back over to the original 4-speed transmission from automatic.  He will need some time to condition that “clutch-calf”.

 There was plenty of food and drink for everyone at the picnic. Dennis Grondin and Paul Mueller cooked cheese burgers and hot dogs on the grills. There was a tray of BBQ pulled pork from Gordon’s Food Service for sandwiches. A special "Thanks" goes out to my brother-in-law Dave Olson for the burgers and pulled pork.  Dave drives for GFS and got us a 10% discount on the food.  There were also salads and desserts.  Some of the favorites were homemade German potato salad and upside down rhubarb cake.

 After the picnic we drove the cars to downtown Oswego for their cruise night.  Oswego blocked-off some main streets where classic cars could park.  Dennis had reserved spots for our cars prior to going there.  When we arrived, we occupied about half of a block with Chevelle's.  Downtown Oswego offered some restaurants, ice cream, and a few shops for everyone to enjoy.

We have two winners from Chevellebration 2011

I am pleased to announce that we have two winners in the club from Chevellebration 2011. They are Dennis Grondin and Rick Pauley. If you see the guys congratulate them on their achievement.

Dennis got his in the 64' modified class.

Rick got his in the 69' stock class

- Recap of April meeting at The Roadster Shop in Mundelein -

On April 9^th about 100 people from 3 different car clubs converged on "The Roadster Shop" in what was the best garage tour I have ever been on. The owners of the Roadster Shop made us feel welcome. They provided all kinds of food and beverages for everyone that attended and gave us free range of their facility, and what a facility. What can I say but "WOW"! The Roadster shop is an absolutely beautiful facility and looks like they can do absolutely anything that you can dream of, and even some stuff you can't imagine.

 It is a very large facility, with a show room, a finishing room and then a very large shop. There were many different cars in different forms of restoration or customization on the shop floor to look at.

After eating and visiting we had a short introduction from Phil Gerber of the Roadster Shop. Then we divided into two groups so the NICC could have officer elections. After we had elections it was time to go and view the cars and the shop.

One of the cars there is Chris Jacob's 66' Chevelle hardtop. Seems his Schwartz chassis could not handle the autocross that he has been doing, so a brand new custom frame is being made for his car. The new frame looks like it matches the shape of the original frame and will make the car sit even lower than it already did. I bet this car will really hug those corners now.

 We would like to thank the Gerber's for opening their facility to us and we hope we can come back for another visit during the winter months.