From The Staff
Finally, an Events Calendar You Can Count On (Pretty Much)
By David Marin & The CruZin' Staff

OK, we are notably late in getting this, the February issue to you. Our bad. Not to make excuses, but, it came down to, do we make it fast or do we make it right? We’re talking about the 8-page pullout Calendar of Events which you’ll find in the center of this issue. We’d like to make it fast, and right, but, it’s the same every year, only worse. Why worse? Well, there are a number of “circumstances beyond our control” that cause us great consternation.

We start making contact in September by sending “Send in Your Event” listings to every event previously listed in the calendar. That’s like 1,000 postcards. We let them know that there is no charge to have their event listed, and, to please send their event date(s) as soon as possible, but no later than our deadline of December 10.

Events then begin to trickle in, some in the mail, others via e-mail. If we get no response within a few weeks we send e-mails and make phone calls where we can. Mostly we’re working with car clubs. Great people, but, clubs generally meet once a month, and, they aren’t always prompt to respond. Too, we call and often hear that event dates haven’t yet been set, or, they aren’t even sure if they’ll be having a show, or, we’ll be referred to another club member. It becomes a real merry-go-round, telephone tag, e-mails, messages, voice mail, on and on. We don’t take event listings over the phone, we need to have written verification to insure the integrity of our calendar.

Which brings us to another of the “circumstances beyond our control”. As you probably know, there are other calendars out there that operate a little differently. Some simply take the event dates from the previous year and roll them back or forward to the same time the next year. Such tactics are a quick and inexpensive method of accumulating a long list of events, but, what good is it if the dates are wrong and/or the contact phone numbers have changed.

CruZin’ may not list an event you are looking for, an event that we have listed in the past, but, if we can’t get verification we aren’t just going to guess at when an event is scheduled or if the prior year phone number is good.

So, we make calls, four of us, non-stop. We’re committed to producing the most accurate and comprehensive calendar possible, and we hope you’ll be pleased with the job we’ve done.

No doubt, there will be events we’ve been unable to contact, for whatever reason. Many events have come in so recently that they aren’t included in the calendar within. Be assured, the complete and updated calendar will be included in each ensuing issue.

Meanwhile, we’re planning to start earlier on the 2011 calendar and if we can get some grease on the gears that turn the wheels, maybe we’ll be fast and right. Thanks for your patience, and, if you’re a club member, do us all a favor and get your event listings in as soon as you have a date.

Onto an entirely different subject. As the parent of a teenage daughter (my old age adventure), I receive a newsletter from the local high school. An interesting headline caught my eye with, “Hot Rod Shop/Applied Math… Students in Mr. Felgar’s “Metals” class decided to take on the building of a hot rod, “the way it was done in shop classes around the U.S. in the 1950’s”. The students use the parts they have and build the coolest thing they can with the least amount of money.

One discovery they made is that after an older vehicle is torn down to build a new one from the ground up involved a surprisingly large amount of math.

We’re going to explore this and will let you know what they consider a “hot rod”.

Stay low in the turns and Keep CruZin’,
David Marin & the CruZin’ Staff