The next autocross is on Sunday, February 28th! The event is held at the Houston Police Academy track at the corner of Rankin Road & Aldine-Westfield. Gates open at 8:30 am, and the event lasts until about 3:00 pm or so. See the Houston BMWCCA website for more details, and to sign up. The event costs $35 for non-BMWCCA members, and $25 for members. Contact Jeff Conley (Scooper) or John Scherwin (JCScooper) if you have questions. Also, anyone is welcome to come watch the races.

The date for the MINI Mod Day has been changed. The purpose for this post is to officially put this event on the club calendar. Click on this forum thread for more details on the event.

Houston MINI Motoring Society
February 6, 2010
Momentum MINI

Twenty-two members and guests came to the club meeting at Momentum MINI on this sunny Saturday morning. All our cars were parked, lining up along the drive separating the BMW and Jaguar dealership. I’m sure MINI customers arriving at the dealership were curious as to what was going on. The meeting started at 11:03 am.

Club Stuff

Call to Order and Club Stuff

There were no new members to announce, but we did welcome back Paul Dille after a long absence. He had learned about our pancake breakfast plans at Ronald McDonald house and didn’t want to miss attending.

Treasurer Juha (sikamini) gave the Treasurer’s report. The club had a starting balance in January of $1236. Deposits during the month were $306, and expenditures were $1229, with $781 of that being the polo shirts and $444 for club hats.  Balance for the start of February is $312. The club account will quickly be refilled as people pay for their polo shirts. So far we have 17 paid members.

The Vice President Jeff (Scooper) passed out spotter cards, and noted that the club website has over 50 subscribers, and passed 20,000 hit mark.

We have a few adult t-shirts left, and they are for sale at $12 per shirt. The youth sized shirts, and maybe also adult small size shirts, will be given away to kids at the Ronald McDonald House pancake breakfast. The club will now be giving to new club members baseball caps rather than t-shirts. The club hats have been made, and were shown at the meeting. Existing members can buy club hats at $10 each. Thanks to Ron Pickett (Ronsminnie) for his help in finding a vendor and coordinating the purchase.

The first group purchase of polo shirts is complete. The shirts look great and everyone seemed pleased. A second group buy has been started with about 6 orders already placed. We will continue to take orders until February 20^th, at which time we will place an order with our shirt vendor. The shirts should be ready before the March meeting. Shirt prices are $20 for S to XL, and $22 for XXL and larger. President Deb bought a light jacket with the club logo. These jackets are also available at $25 each. Contact Juha or Jeff to place your order.

Deb asked if people had an interest in magnetic badges with the club logo. A few people raised their hands. Since the minimum order for badges is 50 pieces for $200, we decided to wait until our club funds increased before considering this buy.

In regards to pull tabs, Paul Dille (Dillepa) talked about how RMH collects and sells aluminum pull tabs to raise money for their facility. He asked that we bring our pull tabs we have to the pancake breakfast. He is also looking for a large plastic pickle jar to keep pull tabs in. Read the rest of this entry »

The first order of polo shirts has been placed, and the shop says we’ll have them in time for the February meeting! We should also have the new hats, as well as the hats for the kids at Ronald McDonald House. Incidentally, the shirts that Jeff has mentioned for the kids are the old white logo shirts that we used to give out to new members. We’re replacing them with the less expensive caps because we aren’t locked into ordering large quantities by size. The only shirts left are smaller sizes anyway–on a $12.00 blow-out sale if you want one yourself.

At any rate, come to the February meeting to claim your caps (available in 3 colors), and pick up your preordered shirts, too. And no, you didn’t miss out–you can get “in” next time, as soon as we have 6 shirts to order.

UPDATE:  They’re here!  We’ll deliver preordered Polo shirts, sell logo caps, and take orders for the next round of shirts, all at the February meeting!

Fellow MINIac Ron Pickett has arranged for us to have our February club meeting at Momentum MINI! We will meet at the Fuel Cafe’ in the dealership. Food will be available for purchase at the cafe’. Ron has also arranged for us a Q & A session with a MINI technician. Think of good questions to ask! Among other things, we will talk about the upcoming Valentine’s Day pancake breakfast we are putting on at Ronald McDonald House. We’ll also give an update on the club hats and polo shirts.

We have been asked to park along the road that leads up to the MINI dealership, between the BMW and Jaguar buildings. Also, Momentum wants a head count, so please post a comment below letting us know if you are coming to this meeting.

Update: If you ordered a polo shirt, you can pick it up at this meeting.

HMMS gets involved in the community!

HMMS is continuing what is becoming an annual event: hosting a Valentine’s Day meal at Ronald McDonald House in Houston. Wouldn’t you like to help warm the hearts of these kids with a tasty breakfast? This year we are planning a pancake breakfast for about 20 kids and their families, for a total of about 65 people.

The date is Sunday, February 14th. We will meet at RMH at 9:00 AM, start cooking around 9:30 AM, and serve starting at 10:00 AM.

We need volunteers to help prep the food and flip pancakes, to serve and keep the buffet line stocked, and clearing tables. Per RMH rules, we can have a maximum of 15 volunteers, all 16 years of age or older. Also, for the kids’ protection, no one is allowed in the House if they have been sick or exposed to any infectious disease within two weeks prior to the event.

As has been the tradition, we also would like to round up paper towels and aluminum pull tabs to donate to RMH. These items are on their wish list, and are greatly welcomed. HMMS will also be giving away HMMS caps and t-shirts to the kids.

Not only do we need volunteers, but we also need members to donate the following items for the breakfast:

Pancake mix
Syrup (including sugar-free)
Butter
Chocolate chips
Sprinkles
Whipped cream
Fruit to put on pancakes (strawberries, blueberries, bananas)
Yogurt (single serving sizes)
Juice
PAM cooking spray
Electric griddles
Warming trays
Paper plates & cups
Napkins
Plastic utensils
Flavored coffee creamer
(Coffee & cereal to be provided by RMH)

Please indicate your willingness to help by voting on the poll below. Use this thread to indicate what you would like to do, and food items you will donate.

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Any other ideas are welcome! Put this one on your calendar!

Houston MINI Motoring Society
January 9th, 2010
Berryhill
702 East 11th Street

To start off the New Year, HMMS returned to Berryhill in the Heights for the January 2010 monthly meeting, which got underway with President Deb’s (daffodildeb) call to order at approximately 11:12 AM. We had 23 members/guests brave to frigid weather and come to the meeting.

Club Stuff

Call to Order and Club Stuff

We welcomed new members: Warren attending for the first time with Sammy, his new PW/B MCS, and Andrea with Sasquatch, her DS/B MCS.

Treasurer Juha (sikamini) gave the Treasurer’s report with an HMMS account balance for the beginning of January of $1236.00, following our subsidized Christmas Party. Dues are now due for 2010 and, as of the beginning of our meeting, there were six paid memberships for 2010. Membership cards for 2010 will not be distributed until dues and signed waivers for 2010 are received by the Treasurer. The waivers can be downloaded from the website and mailed to the Treasurer or brought to the February meeting.

As usual, spotter cards were made available to members (after the meeting), our website continues to function and attract Miniacs from other parts of the country, including those moving to Houston in the near future. VP Jeff (Scooper) and dragooned Secy John (JCScooper) circulated copies of MC2 magazine with our Adopt-A-Beach article. Speaking of Adopt-A-Beach, John gave most of the pertinent info on our upcoming winter pickup which we have scheduled for 1:30 PM on Sunday the 24th of January. Please refer to the announcement on hmms.org for details and to indicate your interest in participation.

A diminishing inventory of current HMMS white t-shirts is available at $12.00 per shirt. (first one is free to new members if size is available). Contact VP Jeff. HMMS logo window stickers are available for $2.00 (first one is free to new members). Contact Treas. Juha.

Members were reminded to save aluminum can pull tabs for Ronald McDonald House. Please bring whatever you have to the February meeting so that we can give them to RMcDHouse when we host our Valentines Day meal as discussed below. Read the rest of this entry »

Having found a new vendor with a smaller minimum order requirement, we are now taking pre-orders on HMMS racing polo shirts! We need at least six commitments for shirt orders. The shirts are quality pique polo shirts with racing trim and an embroidered HMMS logo as shown below. The logo will be embroidered on the left chest area. The shirts are available in red, black and white, in sizes adult sizes S, M, L, XL and XXL.

We’re selling them for $20 each. Place your order by adding a comment to this post, or by sending an email to our Treasurer, Juha Nolo, at jnolo@noloarchitects.com. You must note the size and color for each shirt you want. Payment will be due at delivery, which will be at one of the future club meetings.

Non-members of HMMS may purchase shirts too! If you live in the state of Texas, there will be an additional $3.50 charge to cover shipping costs. Please give us your name, shipping address and email address or phone number, along with the size and color you want. After we have placed the group order with the shirt vendor, we will ask you to send a check, made out to HMMS, before we ship your shirt to you.

The Houston BMWCCA 2010 autocross season starts Sunday, January 31st. If you have been thinking about doing autocross, this is a good opportunity to get started. The event is held at the Houston Police Academy track at the corner of Rankin Road & Aldine-Westfield. Gates open at 8:30 am, and the event lasts until about 3:00 pm or so. See the Houston BMWCCA website for more details, and to sign up. The event costs $35 for non-BMWCCA members, and $25 for members. Contact Jeff Conley (Scooper) or John Scherwin (JCScooper) if you have questions.

Hey all you HMMS beach combers, er, “Beach Guardians”, believe it or not it is just about time for our winter Adopt-A-Beach cleanup!

If you recall, HMMS has a commitment to pick up trash three times annually on the beautiful stretch of beach fronting Galveston Island State Park, located about 8 miles west of 61st Street on Galveston Island. In addition to the mandated dates for statewide pickups in September and April, we have a winter pickup, with optional date of our choosing. We had tentatively selected the weekend of January 23-24th as just about halfway in between. I think I am safe in saying that those of us who participated on the statewide pickup last September had a fun time, followed by a very nice lunch at Mario’s Ristorante on 61st St of the island.

Weather permitting, we would like to meet in the same Galveston Island State Park parking lot as last time, at about 1:30 PM on Sunday, January 24th, so that we can be in action on the beach by 2:00 PM. We should allow up to three hours for our pickup but, if it is cold and windy, we can cut it short or take breaks to warm up.

If the weather forecast is really ominous, we will postpone, probably to the same time on the following Saturday, January 30th. We will post a final decision based on weather by 9:00 AM on the morning of the scheduled pickup, on both hmms.org and metroplexmini.org. However, as long as the forecast is for at least 50 degrees on the island by 3:00 PM, without rain, we will plan on proceeding.

There are picnic grills on site and we might bring charcoal to have a small fire for warming us up and S’mores fixings and, if the club will spring for it, a canister of hot Starbucks coffee. We also will bring MoTW bottled water.

Our primary pickup targets are cans, plastic, styrofoam and paper trash, and other man made objects… nothing too heavy to lift. (Some of us may have gone a bit overboard last time.) There are barrels along the beach every few hundred feet for our trash bags. We have pickup sticks, as well as gloves, trash bags, pencils and survey forms to record our findings which have been provided by the state. The person with the oddest finding, as voted by those present, will win a $25 gift card.

After we are done, for those who have worked up an appetite, we can return to Mario’s for a nice Italian dinner before heading home. Sorry, no buffet served on weekends.

To give us a head count, please take part in the poll that is part of this post, whether or not you are able to attend.

John (JCScooper) Scherwin

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