Vito was at the Museum today to pick up his car and we got to talk for over an hour. When he gets back to New Jersey, he will do an post and update the group. From my perspective, we had an excellent meeting. He permitted me to do some venting as quite honestly, some of the private emails and posts had disturbed me greatly.
I want to attempt to answer some of the questions that we have seen on the discussion board.
I have never claimed to be a car guy or a Corvette guy. With the interaction we have with Corvette enthusiasts daily, the primary resource we refer people to get their questions answered is www.ncrs.org. My knowledge of the Corvetteand its history is very limited and probably always will. I am learning a lot, but it is the people side that is what appeals to me and the primary reason I am here.
My knowledge of the Corvette Museum and its history is considerably different. My involvement does not go all the way back to the first serious meeting that NCRS had concerning a Museum, but it does go back to the first meeting that the community of Bowling Green had on having it located here.
I say all of that not to brag, but to point out that I know from first hand experience much about the NCM and the role of NCRS in its founding.
My membership number is Founding Member # 786 and is dated in 1990. My wife and I gave $500 to the NCRS Foundation during the fundraising campaign. The bank where I worked donated $75,000 during that campaign. I served on the fundraising committee to raise funds for the NCM and my targeted area was the Bowling Green community. I was the lone Bowling Green repreentative that attended the January 1989 NCRS board meeting. The bank that I worked at was the lead bank in the loan ($6.6 million) that was used for the construction of the NCM. As the volunteer Chairman of the Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce, I personally made the presentation to the Bowling Green Tourism Commission for their pledge of a portion of the debt service on the $4.3 million bond issue. I personally made the presentation to the City of Bowling Green for the same reason. The County of Warren did not want a formal presentation so we visiting the magistrates at their homes and farms.
We had many interactions with Ray Battagalani, Dan Gale and Darrel Bowlin to make the dream a reality. We had many brainstorming sessions with them as seemingly times had come to a stop.
My point quite simply is yes I know the history of the NCRS with the NCM.
Current NCRS Display - that display has not been up from the beginning. It happened 2-3 years after we became the Executive Director. Will it be permanently removed? The answer is yes and the entire atrium area will undergo significant changes plus it will be the main point for the existing Museum to bridge into the new addition. With the numerous presentations that was made to our board and also to the general public, the fact that all of the existing displays/atrium would be coming out should not have surpised anyone.
Future Displays to Recognize NCRS - yes, there will be something. We have done very little planning concerning this and 2-3 other exhibit/display areas of the NCM. We know the location of the exhibit/display, but not what will make it up. We believe there is plenty of time to do the planning and it will probably be this fall. Right now getting the construction started timely and staying on target and within budget along with normal operations keeps our extremely busy.
Make-up of the cars we have on display - I went back today and counted the cars and what generation they were. With my memory not being as good as I would like, I left that information at the office. My recollection is that we had 11 C-1's; 11 C-2's; 12 C-3's; 15 C-4's; 8 C-5's (with the majority of them being Pace Cars) and 12 C-6's with most of them being delivery cars. In addition, we had the rolling chassis for the C-5 and the ZR-1 out of display. We had three concerpt cars, the Nurburdring, the sitter car and the raffle car all out on display. Please keep me in mind that being a living museum, most of the cars will change out every 12 moths or so.
There are several more points that I want to discuss with you; but quite honestly, I better go to bed as I am struggling staying awake. So please fire back with any questions/comments that any of you have. We will address them in a timely manner.
Thanks for listening!
I want to attempt to answer some of the questions that we have seen on the discussion board.
I have never claimed to be a car guy or a Corvette guy. With the interaction we have with Corvette enthusiasts daily, the primary resource we refer people to get their questions answered is www.ncrs.org. My knowledge of the Corvetteand its history is very limited and probably always will. I am learning a lot, but it is the people side that is what appeals to me and the primary reason I am here.
My knowledge of the Corvette Museum and its history is considerably different. My involvement does not go all the way back to the first serious meeting that NCRS had concerning a Museum, but it does go back to the first meeting that the community of Bowling Green had on having it located here.
I say all of that not to brag, but to point out that I know from first hand experience much about the NCM and the role of NCRS in its founding.
My membership number is Founding Member # 786 and is dated in 1990. My wife and I gave $500 to the NCRS Foundation during the fundraising campaign. The bank where I worked donated $75,000 during that campaign. I served on the fundraising committee to raise funds for the NCM and my targeted area was the Bowling Green community. I was the lone Bowling Green repreentative that attended the January 1989 NCRS board meeting. The bank that I worked at was the lead bank in the loan ($6.6 million) that was used for the construction of the NCM. As the volunteer Chairman of the Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce, I personally made the presentation to the Bowling Green Tourism Commission for their pledge of a portion of the debt service on the $4.3 million bond issue. I personally made the presentation to the City of Bowling Green for the same reason. The County of Warren did not want a formal presentation so we visiting the magistrates at their homes and farms.
We had many interactions with Ray Battagalani, Dan Gale and Darrel Bowlin to make the dream a reality. We had many brainstorming sessions with them as seemingly times had come to a stop.
My point quite simply is yes I know the history of the NCRS with the NCM.
Current NCRS Display - that display has not been up from the beginning. It happened 2-3 years after we became the Executive Director. Will it be permanently removed? The answer is yes and the entire atrium area will undergo significant changes plus it will be the main point for the existing Museum to bridge into the new addition. With the numerous presentations that was made to our board and also to the general public, the fact that all of the existing displays/atrium would be coming out should not have surpised anyone.
Future Displays to Recognize NCRS - yes, there will be something. We have done very little planning concerning this and 2-3 other exhibit/display areas of the NCM. We know the location of the exhibit/display, but not what will make it up. We believe there is plenty of time to do the planning and it will probably be this fall. Right now getting the construction started timely and staying on target and within budget along with normal operations keeps our extremely busy.
Make-up of the cars we have on display - I went back today and counted the cars and what generation they were. With my memory not being as good as I would like, I left that information at the office. My recollection is that we had 11 C-1's; 11 C-2's; 12 C-3's; 15 C-4's; 8 C-5's (with the majority of them being Pace Cars) and 12 C-6's with most of them being delivery cars. In addition, we had the rolling chassis for the C-5 and the ZR-1 out of display. We had three concerpt cars, the Nurburdring, the sitter car and the raffle car all out on display. Please keep me in mind that being a living museum, most of the cars will change out every 12 moths or so.
There are several more points that I want to discuss with you; but quite honestly, I better go to bed as I am struggling staying awake. So please fire back with any questions/comments that any of you have. We will address them in a timely manner.
Thanks for listening!
of fresh air. I see that FINALLY....the door is open to fresh new communication.
on the door step. The NCM NEEDS NCRS........and NCRS NEEDS THE NCM.
......like the old days.
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