Gregg D. Merksamer
PCS Life Member / PCS Publicity Chairman / PCS Ele
Next Sunday, October 28th, 2012, the Potomac Region of the Cadillac & LaSalle Club will be offering the Professional Car Society and its members a truly-outstanding "red carpet" opportunity to promote our organization's dedication to authentically-preserved and presented vehicles to a wider audience when their Annual Fall Car Show takes place at Capitol Cadillac in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Having officially selected "Professional Pride" as this year's theme, the organizers have established three special judging classes for 1902-1942, 1946-1970 and 1971-up Cadillac or LaSalle-based professional cars, and asked me way back in June to serve as the keynote speaker for the awards ceremony that will take place in Capitol Cadillac's showroom around 3 PM. Despite the driving distance involved - let alone the fact that I'm a Lincoln driver who sold off his last Cadillac a decade ago - I did not hesitate for a minute to accept the Potomac Region's generous invitation, as I have always believed that good relations with the C&LC, its officers and its members are ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL to the long-term growth and vitality of the PCS.
Given that more funeral vehicles and automobile-based ambulances have been built on Cadillac platforms than any other, I'm confident that even PCS members who are partial to other brands will agree the C&LC represents, by far, the MOST IMPORTANT relationship we maintain with another car club. An awareness this feeling is mutual is manifest in the C&LC-sponsored Cadillac & LaSalle Club Award that former PCS National President and longtime C&LC member Mike Barruzza has presented at our International Meets for more than a decade (that it typically goes to the Best-in-Show winner only serves to enhance its prestige) as well as all the ink that's been devoted to pro-cars and PCS activities in the pages of the C&LC national magazine THE SELF-STARTER and various C&LC regional publications like the Potomac Region CADDIE CHRONICLE edited by Vince Taliano.
Despite several months of energetic promotion by Vince Taliano, Bee Hamlin, & myself, we are stunned and greatly disappointed that the C&LC's October 28th Professional Pride Show in Greenbelt, Maryland has attracted only a handful of pre-registrations from PCS members. Unless this is rectified with a large turnout of spontaneous, last-minute attendees, I am much worried that I'll wind up making a speech about how grateful the PCS is for the C&LC Potomac Region's hospitality with few other members or pro-cars on the premises to give true substance to the assertion. Having purused our registry to remind myself of all the Cadillac and LaSalle-owning PCS members who reside in nearby parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Maryland & Virginia, I'm urging everyone who reads this appeal to examine the event specifics at http://www.professionalcarsociety.org/forums/showthread.php?t=10413 or http://www.professionalcarsociety.org/forums/showthread.php?t=9682, and seriously consider making the most of what well might be the last good autumn weekend in the area by packaging the Greenbelt show with the PCS Mid-Atlantic Chapter's 1-4 PM gathering at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum on Saturday, October 27th. In case the Holiday Inn Greenbelt (301-982-7000) has filled the block of rooms it's offering C&LC and PCS members at $94 nightly, I trust there are other hotels in the area with vacancies we can fill.
- With Thanks For Your Attention and Consideration, GREGG D. MERKSAMER, PCS Publicity Chair
Having officially selected "Professional Pride" as this year's theme, the organizers have established three special judging classes for 1902-1942, 1946-1970 and 1971-up Cadillac or LaSalle-based professional cars, and asked me way back in June to serve as the keynote speaker for the awards ceremony that will take place in Capitol Cadillac's showroom around 3 PM. Despite the driving distance involved - let alone the fact that I'm a Lincoln driver who sold off his last Cadillac a decade ago - I did not hesitate for a minute to accept the Potomac Region's generous invitation, as I have always believed that good relations with the C&LC, its officers and its members are ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL to the long-term growth and vitality of the PCS.
Given that more funeral vehicles and automobile-based ambulances have been built on Cadillac platforms than any other, I'm confident that even PCS members who are partial to other brands will agree the C&LC represents, by far, the MOST IMPORTANT relationship we maintain with another car club. An awareness this feeling is mutual is manifest in the C&LC-sponsored Cadillac & LaSalle Club Award that former PCS National President and longtime C&LC member Mike Barruzza has presented at our International Meets for more than a decade (that it typically goes to the Best-in-Show winner only serves to enhance its prestige) as well as all the ink that's been devoted to pro-cars and PCS activities in the pages of the C&LC national magazine THE SELF-STARTER and various C&LC regional publications like the Potomac Region CADDIE CHRONICLE edited by Vince Taliano.
Despite several months of energetic promotion by Vince Taliano, Bee Hamlin, & myself, we are stunned and greatly disappointed that the C&LC's October 28th Professional Pride Show in Greenbelt, Maryland has attracted only a handful of pre-registrations from PCS members. Unless this is rectified with a large turnout of spontaneous, last-minute attendees, I am much worried that I'll wind up making a speech about how grateful the PCS is for the C&LC Potomac Region's hospitality with few other members or pro-cars on the premises to give true substance to the assertion. Having purused our registry to remind myself of all the Cadillac and LaSalle-owning PCS members who reside in nearby parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Maryland & Virginia, I'm urging everyone who reads this appeal to examine the event specifics at http://www.professionalcarsociety.org/forums/showthread.php?t=10413 or http://www.professionalcarsociety.org/forums/showthread.php?t=9682, and seriously consider making the most of what well might be the last good autumn weekend in the area by packaging the Greenbelt show with the PCS Mid-Atlantic Chapter's 1-4 PM gathering at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum on Saturday, October 27th. In case the Holiday Inn Greenbelt (301-982-7000) has filled the block of rooms it's offering C&LC and PCS members at $94 nightly, I trust there are other hotels in the area with vacancies we can fill.
- With Thanks For Your Attention and Consideration, GREGG D. MERKSAMER, PCS Publicity Chair
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