Hello Everyone,
We hope you’re all doing well, and enjoying winter as much as possible, whether skiing, snowmobiling, curled up in front of the fireplace, vacationing in warm southern destinations, or doing other activities. We’re now closer to putting our Vipers back on the road than when we put them away, which is very encouraging!
Happy 25th Anniversary!
The Viper Club of Ontario has reached an impressive milestone. The VCO was formed in 1997, and we’re pleased that we’re still going strong in 2022! We hope every member will help us celebrate our friendships in style all season long with our events starting on April 30th!
This is going to be an incredible year for our members, and your directors are still making more plans to outdo ourselves for even more fun! Be sure to join us on May 15th for our Annual General Meeting to learn all about it!
2022 Event Calendar
Every member from Windsor to beyond Kingston now has at least one event that is local to them every month, and a few more within an easy drive. This was a major challenge and commitment by your club directors with our membership spread out over 7 hours and 700 kms!
You’ll find 30 social events plus many track days listed on our Event Calendar. We expect a few more events to be added. And we hope everyone will be able to attend this year’s Signature event, ONVE2022 Niagara Falls & Surrounding Area, Sept 16-19! Check out all the events at… https://www.viperclubofontario.com/events
Area Directors Make the Difference
Over the next month or so we will have a club director living in every area covering where our members reside, to provide the unsurpassed Viper Ownership and Club Experience that we’re committed to. In some larger areas we also have Event Coordinators and Event Planners to assist in that effort!
An Annual General Meeting like never before!
We hope you’ll all attend our AGM on May 15th. It will be held in Burlington at the Hagerty Garage + Social. We haven’t been able to hold an in-person AGM since 2019 due to Covid, and we’re really hoping we can this year. We have a fun morning planned with some other exotic car clubs, and then we’ll have a casual lunch and our AGM at noon.
We’ll be introducing you to our 2022 Board of Directors and Event Coordinators, and sharing our exciting plans for 2022. Our Treasurer will be presenting our 2021 Financial Report. Spoiler alert…our club is in excellent financial condition thanks to strong membership and sponsorship support, and very capable financial leadership for the last 25 years!
Board of Director Nominations & Election
Our annual election will be held next month. Each year half of our Board stands for election. Most directors are now responsible for members and events in specific regions to ensure those area’s needs are being fully addressed. This year the following 4 directors are standing for election, plus we have an opening for the Niagara region now.
Enio Parete, Windsor-London Jeff Kormos, West of the GTA
Bruce Hadfield, East GTA Jay Leslie, Eastern Ontario
Niagara Region, open
The club encourages the participation of members on the Board and in other capacities, including event planning. This is a great way to get involved, for new members to meet others, and to share the effort needed to run an active and expanding club like ours. You must be a member in good standing, and secondary members are also eligible for director positions. Many hands make light work, so please step up if you can spare some time! We may also have an additional director position available later in the year for anyone who might like to be considered then.
Nominations are now open until March 10th for those who are interested in serving on our Board or committees. Please contact Bruce Hadfield at vcotracks@gmail.com to discuss director duties.
Candidates will be announced in the March newsletter, and voting will take place online, using Survey Monkey, from March 15-31st. Election results will be announced in the April newsletter.
National Viper Event 5, Colorado Springs, Sept 6-10, 2023.
Every other year the Viper Owners Association plans a major national event where all who renew as a VOA member can attend. NVE5 is going to be quite the party, and a great driving vacation! Although the event is in Sept 2023, early registration could be opening as early as this April 1st.
Watch “A Rocky Mountain Viper High” … https://driveviper.com/nve5/.
Membership Growing
No other Viper club came even remotely close to our growth last year, and we expect that strong growth to continue as more Ontario Viper owners discover the enjoyment our club offers. New member enthusiasm is over-the-top, and so contagious! We love it, and look forward to meeting all of you!
Viper Owner Association Update
The new 2022-23 VOA leadership team is making headway in addressing the VOA’s financial and other challenges. I attend weekly VOA committee meetings and monthly Board of Director meetings. The relationship that the VOA will have with international regions like Ontario, and the assurances that our club is looking for, won’t come together for some time, unfortunately. We’re hopeful that they will, and that we’ll be able to fully support the VOA with our Ontario 2023 membership renewals this fall. The VOA serves an important function of bringing together members of 34 regional Viper clubs like Ontario, and provides resources and national events available to all VOA members.
Viper Club of Ontario 2022 Renewals are now due
Members have two options to renew with the Viper Club of Ontario for 2022, and we encourage you to kindly renew by March 15th when our annual election voting opens.
1. You can renew with the VOA at https://driveviper.com/join/. Choose Standard
membership for $150 USD or Mamba for $195 USD, noting each's benefits. Our Ontario club will receive $55 USD from your membership dues to fund our club and local events.
2. Or you can renew with VCO Direct for $125 CDN, all of which goes to fund our club and local events. You can pay by e-transfer to vcotracks@gmail.com, or by cheque made out to: Viper Club of Ontario, c/o Bruce Hadfield, PO Box 282, Cannington, On, L0E 1E0.
If you have any questions about renewing please contact Bruce at vcotracks@gmail.com.
2022 Track Program
We’ve added another 2 tracks to our program for our high-performance driving enthusiasts… Grand Bend Motorplex west of London, and Shannonville Motorsports Park east of Belleville. We must have more race tracks local to us than anywhere else in the world. Canadian Tire Motorsports Park Grand Prix Track, CTMP Driver Development Track, Calabogie, Mont Tremblant, Shannonville, Toronto Motorsports Park and Grand Bend. More tracks, more events, more skill training, more fun!
Ian Law Track School, May 1st. Be aware that this school typically sells out in advance. If you’d like to register for this or the Lapping Only event, please contact Bruce to arrange for your club price.
Mont Tremblant Track Day, Friday September 2nd. The “Advanced” driver run group is almost full. If you would like to register for it you must do so right away. The “Novice” driver run group has several spaces available.
A Little Viper History
And we wrap up this month’s The VCO Times with a little Viper history provided by Jay T for those of you who didn’t see it on our club Facebook group … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFuliNugY0A
Stay safe everyone, and we’ll see you this time next month when the candidates running for election to the Board of Directors will be announced. Voting will be from March 15-31.
On behalf of your club directors,
Bruce Hadfield
President, VCO
The open communication and information-updates in this group is like night and day since we joined 4 years ago. I love reading all of the upcoming info and am thrilled the group is getting even more members. Looking forward to our club doing some fun cruises and being part of our communities this coming season. Keep up the great work Executives 😁
Thanks Bruce and all Board and committee members for putting together a great calendar of events. Looking forward to attending and renewing friendships with old and new members. Bruce your recruitment efforts have been outstanding. Always look forward to seeing 20+ Vipers together and out on the road!