The University of Maine Automotive Enthusiast Club Meeting

ORONO, MAINE—That time of year again when UMaine Automotive Enthusiast members gear up for their annual Maine Day cruise; they’re biggest event of the school year.

Members met at their so called “club house” which is the Wendy’s in Orono, ME on March 24, 2010. They used to meet at the Bear’s Den on the University’s campus but with the cut back on hours they serve dinner members have joined at an older, more familiar meeting place.

No new members showing up left only ten active UMaine members present along with two officers of the group. With more members leaving than coming into the club, new elections have not been held this school year due to lack of student effort. It was decided at the meeting to keep the already elected officers elected for the rest of the school year and talk of re-elections in the fall. Hopefully with new members drawn in from the Maine Day cruise elections can be held as planned.

A more common topic was discussed on when the club does get potential new members the alumni scare them away by making rude comments towards them on the first class folder. Some new members have stated that the folder isn’t friendly, there is constant name calling, pointing fun and mean remarks about the member’s intelligence and vehicle. It’s the classic scenario of seniors in high school picking on the new freshmen. There is no one solution to fix this problem, all the officers and moderators can do is continue to enforce the folder rules by deleting un-friendly posts and banning members if they continue to break the rules. This topic is always up for discussion at every automotive meeting.

The important top at the meeting was creating a plan for Maine Day. The date is already set but there is still much to decide. Members talked about which roads to take, places to stop, eat and ride go-karts. It was concluded that it will take on the plan as the years before it did. Except for the go-karting, last year the usual place in Brewer wasn’t open and a panic attempt was made of finding a mini-golf that had go-karting was open. Calls will be made once a rough estimate of people attending is known to see which places are open and could accommodate whatever sized group.

Another meeting is looking to take place between today and April 28 to finalize Maine Day plans but otherwise much of the groups’ topics were discussed and met. Head counts will start to take place for the event which promises to be a bigger turn out than Maine Day 2009.