Upcoming Changes

Details

Published: 24 July 2018

By September's end, our driving events for 2018 will be over.

Looking to the future, we'll work at teaching new drivers how to handle their responsibilities and their vehicles at another Tire Rack™ Street Survival school at the begining of Ocotober.

Behind the scenes, the records of the Chapter are being organized and scanned. Operational information will become available to the Board via electronic storage by the year's end.  An appropriate archive for inactive print materials is being sought and should be found by that time as well.

We have access to the web site template; transfer of pictures and information shall commence in October.  Rollout of the new site for members is expected in early 2019.

The year-end transition will include a  go-karting "trial run" and plans to visit the March 2019 Cleveland Auto Show.  Expect the unexpected in 2019 from the Chapter, because you never know where the road will take you.

Origins of Northern Ohio Chapter

Details

Published: 09 October 2016

When early BMW Car Club of America members joined the national organization in the mid-1970s, they became members of a local entity which was rather unique at the time. While most chapters were located around metropolitan areas, Ohio had one of the first—if not the first—statewide chapter, Buckeye.

After attending meetings and events in the Columbus area for a time, our lifetime member John Franklin contacted members in Cleveland, Akron, and other northeastern Ohio areas and created the Cleveland/Akron Area to have more localized events and management. At approximately the same time, members in the Cincinnati region also organized regionally as an Area within Buckeye.

Cleveland/Akron monthly meetings initially were held at the Franklin home and later in area restaurants. To pull members from Cleveland’s western suburbs, later meetings were held at the Elegant Hog—the current location of the Windham Hotel.

In the early 1980s, the Columbus Area turned over management of Buckeye Chapter to the Cleveland/Akron Area.  In the late 1980s-early 1990s, the Cincinnati Area became the managing force for Buckeye.

After Buckeye Chapter hosted their first BMWCCA OktoberFest, members of the Cleveland/Akron Area requested secession from Buckeye Chapter. The intention was to concentrate activities and governance in a more localized area, believing this would better serve local members. This request for secession was one of the first of its type for the national organization.

In late fall 1991 with agreement from the remaining Areas of Buckeye Chapter, Northern Ohio Chapter was formed, encompassing Ohio postal zip codes from 44000 to 44999, which corresponds to the northeastern quadrant of the state. The general territorial area covers from Castalia-Sandusky to Galion-Mansfield to Dover-New Philadelphia over to the Pennsylvania border and northward to the shores of Lake Erie.

25th Anniversary Summer Social Wrap-Up

Details

Published: 01 September 2016

Sunday, August 7, 2016, marked the Chapter's twenty-fifth anniversary social in the Waterside Room of the Emerald Necklace Marina in Cleveland Metroparks’ Rocky River Reservation. 

Old and newer members enjoyed a picnic buffet and the background music of Found Sounds’ steel drums. Door prize donations as well as some Chapter logo materials sent most members home with a memento of the day. Many lingered on the terrace outside the room or took a walk along the marina and the Rocky River before heading homeward, ready to start our next twenty-five years.

Particular thanks goes to the following for prize donations:

• BMW of Westlake for a custom detailing certification
• BMW Cleveland for a weekend with a 228xi convertible
• Dave Walter BMW for a weekend with an i8
  

Click for event photos.