Prez Sez - March 1, 2026

24 hours ago
5 min read

The Board's been busy!

We are making our way through the winter season with many of us starting to get a twinkle in our eyes as we are tempted to pull the cover off of our Corvette, put the insurance back on, and hit the open road! It won’t be long now. The Sioux Falls Corvette Club has been busy making plans for another great year of driving these fabulous automobiles. We are looking forward to sharing our love of the car with fellow enthusiasts, making new friends, traveling the countryside, attending car shows, and of course, attending the 55^th annual Black Hills Corvette Classic!

In just the first 9 weeks of the year we’ve had 4 great events for members to join in, including the pancake feed at the Alliance, a Drive & Dine to Dell Rapids for a movie and pizza, a social in Arizona, and most recently a chili feed and competition in Larchwood.

I want to share a few updates from the February Board meeting. The Board of Directors has recently approved revisions to the club’s bylaws, which will come to the membership for approval prior to implementation. Many of the revisions were simple clean-up changes. One of the most exciting changes to the bylaws is the creation of a Board position titled Member Activities. This position will essentially be a dedicated chair for Drive & Dines, and many other members events. We anticipate the role to be more of a committee structure, collective team work focused on member experiences. Past Prez Mike Skiles has done a phenomenal job coordinating the vast majority of our Drive & Dines and is very much looking forward to some additional assistance. The goal is to have 2 events per month for the active driving season, providing more opportunities for our membership to enjoy the car alongside fellow enthusiasts. This is in addition to our monthly membership meetings. The planning team will consist of Denny Robinson, Mike Skiles and Abdulah Delibasic and I can assure you they are working hard to plan some great Drive & Dines for you this season including adding in at least one multi-day driving trip each year. Be on the lookout for emails from the club for more information as plans are firmed up.

Other matters before the Board included work on the 55^th Black Hills Corvette Classic, including

bringing Hot Summer Nites back downtown; reviewing the initial 2026 draft budget; discussing the 2025 audit results; approving changes to the Board meeting format; and discussing plans for various member events for 2026. Through the support of our members and sponsors, the club is in a strong financial position and will continue to provide the benefits our members have enjoyed over the years. Regarding our financial position, I’d like to thank our Audit Committee for an outstanding job reviewing the finances of the Club and the manner in which our Treasure has so proficiently kept our club running and books accurate! At the invitation of Past Prez John Pesicka, Kathy Miller, Jen Jonke, and Sheila Reding stepped up to serve as the Audit Committee. Thank you Kathy, Jen, and Sheila for the time and guidance you provided for this year’s audit. They found that the books are in good shape but they did make some nice recommendations that will be implemented, primarily categorization suggestions. The Audit Committee met with Treasurer Elaine Robinson, who has served in that position for several years now, and has done an incredible job for us. Thank you Elaine for your steady hand on the checkbook!

As you know, our board meetings are always

open for membership to attend. The Board recently voted to move all future board meetings to online via ZOOM. This saves many of our board from driving in over 100 miles, some up to 150 miles, to attend a meeting. By moving to an online format, we will also save the club money by not having to rent a meeting room each month as well as save all members commute time to and from the meetings. Meeting in person can still take place as needed but the default will now be via a ZOOM meeting. These meetings are open to our members so if you’d like to attend, simply reach out to me and I will make sure to provide you with the meeting link to join the meetings. All meeting dates are on the Events Calendar on our website.

Lastly, please be sure and put our first general membership meeting of the year on your calendar. It will be held on Wednesday, March 25, at The Social, located at 301 S Thompson Ave, Sioux Falls. This is the same location as last year and Freddy’s Catering will continue to provide us with delicious apps beginning at 6:30 , meeting to start at 7:00. We need to have the membership vote on the revisions to the bylaws so please plan on attending if at all possible. In mid-March we will be sending out a copy of the revised bylaws to all voting members for review that will illustrate the changes to be approved. Regretfully I will not be able to attend this first meeting and will entrust the meeting to Vice President Tom Matthys who I know will do a great job and welcome you all in fine form to our first meeting of the year. I will see you all at the April meeting on the 29^th.

I hope you are all as excited as I am to pull the Corvette out