The remarks below were given by your Shenandoah Region President at the Farmington Country Club on December 7th at our Holiday Party.
Good evening, everyone and welcome to our annual holiday party here at the beautiful Farmington Country Club. Farmington Country Club has knocked tonight’s event out of the park. We hope that you all enjoy this lovely venue and the decorations and we would like to thank Wade Hampton of Hampton & Everett, CPAs, for hosting us at this beautiful club.
As I was writing up my remarks for this evening I checked with Chat GPT and they said the Shenandoah Porsche Club had a good year… not sure how they reached their conclusion but I concur, so let me spend a few minutes talking about my first year as your President, the high, the lows and what we are looking to accomplish for our members in 2026.
Our premiere event of the year (co-sponsored with the First Settlers Region) was the Richmond Porsche Meet with lunch attendance of 320 people along with over 175 Porsches of all generations. The Dover Hall event was a smashing success. Folks who attended the RPM autocross were so impressed with the organized manner of the event.
Some of the other well received 2025 events were:
The CPM (Charlottesville Porsche Meet) driving tour from Crozet to Bold Rock as well as the Porsche Charlottesville Cocktail Party
- The Glenmore Cruise-In
- The Bedford and Mulka tours
- The Snake and Dragon drives
- The Richmond Raceway RPM autocross
- The Augusta County Government Complex autocrosses
- The fall Shenandoah Region 30th Anniversary party at Southwest Mountain Vineyards
- Tech Session at Powderworks
- Porsches and Pups
We are also pleased to announce that we have a better working relationship with First Settlers Region (FSR), and you can now join FSR as a dual member for $20 and their members can do the same with our region. The President of FSR, Richard Cao, was a great help in moving both clubs forward together. Also, Cecile was instrumental in our club having better working relationship with Charlottesville Porsche.
Our members have spoken. As we move forward to 2026 we’re planning at least one event per month with drives, autocrosses and social gatherings being our focus. For 2026 some of the events we are planning include:
- A train ride from Staunton in our own private dining car
- Drives from Nellysford to Farmville as well as others
- Autocrosses
- Porsches & Ice Cream at Stonefield’s
- A Vesuvius Glen Falls driving tour
- Brunch at Hotel 24 in Staunton on 2/21/2026
- The Lexington Oyster Festival with Porsches on 4/4/2026
- The Annual Cruise-In on 5/23/2026
- The Fall Shenandoah Region Anniversary Party on 10/17/2026
We want to add some technical sessions to the schedule as well. If you or any of your contacts have suggestions, please let us know.
Our 600-member region faces challenges moving forward. The greater Charlottesville area has approximately 40 wineries and 20 breweries. Unfortunately, we cannot use many of these venues due to long gravel entrance roads, food services not available, lousy food, inadequate parking for 60 to 70 cars, venues having no interest in hosting a large group, or venues having restrictions on open dates. That leaves us with very few venues to choose from. As we pile into a venue for a meal, we typically tend to slow down service which has been an issue. If you know of a venue that might be workable, please let us know, and we will be glad to check it out.
We are open to new event and venue ideas. For example, Halloween 2026 falls on a Saturday. Please share any event ideas and venues for such a Porsche Halloween gathering.
In terms of our region’s sustainability, we rely on two factors – cash flow and volunteers. First with our cash flow. The greater part of our region’s support comes from cash flow of annual and event corporate and individual sponsorships. Let us know if you have any prospects or sponsorship prospects for our board members to follow up with.
SRPCA members do not pay dues directly to our region but benefit from subsidized prices for most of our events. Some regions are now charging direct membership dues, separate from the PCA annual dues.
Pre-COVID, many venues were willing to work with us regarding pricing. Now most venues are charging facility fees ranging from $800 to $5,000. Food prices have risen and discounts are no longer being offered. Then there are add-on fees such as mandatory service charges, sales taxes and local meal taxes. Add-on charges can be as high as 34% in certain counties. While our region does subsidize some of our events, the sad truth is that the good old days of inexpensive venues are pretty much gone. For example, the subsidy for tonight’s (12/7/25 Farmington Country Club) holiday event is approximately $50 per person. Moving forward, we may not be able to subsidize all our events.
Now let’s talk about something positive – VOLUNTEERS!!!! Our volunteers make it possible for us to put on amazing events which run smoothly. (You know who you are!) The Board and I are so grateful to have such wonderful volunteers. I want to give a shoutout to another group of volunteers – our lead tour drivers. They take their responsibility seriously and usually drive a new route 2 or 3 or more times before the actual tour takes place. This takes time away from their families.
We do need more volunteers to be project volunteers who can handle a task and run it with minimal supervision.
Again, we want to thank all volunteers! We can never have enough volunteers, so please help us out.
Finally, I want to thank our Board and our Committee heads for all your outstanding work this past year. In 2027, every position on the Board will be open. If you want to have direct input into how our club is run and to ensure the best future for your club, this will be your chance. Filling these 2027 board and committee positions will be vital to keep our club running.
We wish you all a fabulous 2025 holiday season and tons of motoring in 2026.
Thank you,
Jonathan Perelman,
President of the Shenandoah Region
