The NW SAAB Owners Club Board of Directors met yesterday in Seattle, and decided to host a national SAAB owners convention next August at Crystal Mountain Resort. This club last hosted a national convention in 1991, also at Crystal.
I have contacted Dan Orzano, Vice-President of the SAAB Club of North America, and requested that organization officially recognize our planned event as the 2004 SAAB Owners Convention.
To summarize what was discussed, we decided on a three-day convention, starting at noon and Friday, and concluding at noon on Sunday.

Anticipated highlights of the event will be:
Friday welcome barbeque, Saturday car show and People Choice awards, Saturday driving event, Saturday evening awards and banquet.
Ongoing events Friday and Saturday will include swap meet, seminars and presentations, vendor booths, and perhaps even a SAAB parts tent provided by SAAB USA. We also hope to line up a fleet of test drive cars either from SAAB USA or local SAAB dealers.

I feel very confident in our club's ability to pull this off. However, we are starting a little late in the year compared to past efforts, so we do not have a lot of time to spare. In order to make this work, I feel we need to focus our efforts as a group, but also need people to take the lead in certain key areas.

Making this event will require a lot of help from the membership. All of the Board Members will be devoting a significant amount of time to the effort, but we also need assistance from the membership at large. Please let me know if you are willing to help in any of the following ares, or in other ways.

Meal Planning
This group will work with Crystal's staff to negotaite the best combination of food and beverage service, while still keeping the effort cost-effective. Meals are especially important in this event, as there are no on-site vendors or restaurants other than those we arrange, and the drive from Crystal to the nearest town (Enumclaw) is about 45 minutes.

We are looking at the following meals at this time:
Friday Lunch - Box lunches available for purchase by early arriving attendees.
Friday Dinner - Welcome Barbeque or Buffett
Friday Evening - If we want a no-host bar available, we will to to make arrangements and pay for staffing

Saturday Breakfast - Buffet style breakfast
Saturday Lunch - Box lunches available for purchase for those who are staying on-site
Satuday Dinner - Awards banquet
Saturday Evening - If we want a no-host bar available, we will to to make arrangements and pay for staffing

Sunday Breakfast - Buffet style breakfast

Promotional Gear
This group will research and recommend what gear we should have made for sale at the convention. T-shirts are a given, but past conventions have had healthy sales of such things as: polo shirts, sweatshirts, baseball caps, pins, stickers, mugs, and so on. This sub-committee will not only recommend what gear to have made, but will also research and communicate with vendors to find the best deal. Remember, the more money we make off of gear sales, the lower we can make the registration fee.

Seminars and Presentations
The Program Committee will contact and and schedule presenters for Friday afternoon and Saturday morning and afternoon. They will also work on the Satuday car show and awards banquet.

Driving Event
We are planning a group driving event for Saturday afternoon, but what type of event shoul it be? Suggestions made yesterday included a TSD Rally, A Poker Run, a Gimmick Rally, or simply a scenic drive. This committee will research different options, and once the format is decided, work to make it happen.

Please think about which of these areas you would like to work on, as well as suggesting any areas I may have missed.
Our next planning meeting will be open to all NWSOC members who want to work on the Convention. It is scheduled for Saturday, January 10, time an place to follow.
Please contact me or any of the Board Members if you have any questions or want to talk about the event.

Good SAABn'

Jon Kjaerulff
President,
NW SAAB Owners Club