by Dave Pratt
Velocissima Editor

AONE Director Brian Shorey gave a presentation at our Winter Party outlining a proposal that AONE bid to host the AROC National Convention here on our turf in 2004. Wouldn’t that be slick! Our club has been growing progressively stronger in recent years, to the point where it appears that we have what it takes to pull this off! Hosting the Convention will do a lot for our chapter, in terms of recognition, prestige, revenue, and countless other measures. It’s been over two decades since AONE last hosted a Convention, and AROC members from all over the country will welcome the opportunity to return to New England after all that time. Putting on a Convention, of course, entails a lot of planning and effort, and we’ll be calling on all of you to pitch in and lend a hand to make the dream a reality. To get things started, we need some volunteers to help plan and put together the presentation we need to make at this year's National Convention, which is just a few short months away. Click here to find out how you can help!

Several of the Winter Party attendees handed over their recipes for the delicacies that they brought to be used in the forthcoming AONE Cookbook, but if you weren’t one of them, please do! While it’s fresh on your mind (and palate), send it via email to webmaster@velocissima.com, via fax at 603-907-8186, or via US Mail to AONE, 300 Westfield Street, Dedham, MA 02026. For those of you who couldn’t make it to the party, we want your recipes too! Submit as many as you’d like! The emphasis is Italian, of course (hey, this is an Italian car club, after all), but mainly we want your favorite dishes (we can always give them Italian names). Send ‘em along! See your recipe and name in print!

The National AROC Board of Directors has recently approved a motion immediately raising the annual dues for all new members to $60 (plus the $5 AONE additional dues). Existing members have the option to extend their membership for up to two years at the current rate of $45 (plus $5) but only until March 31, 2002. After that date, AROC membership renewals will be $60 (plus $5). So renew now! Call 877-399-2762 toll-free or renew online at www.aroc-usa.org.

If you’re not on the AONE email list, then the first you heard about the AONE January Thaw Tour was by reading about it after-the-fact in this issue. Don’t let this happen again! Email is the way that AONE lets you know about late-breaking events, and is also the way we let you know about changes or cancellations to published events. If you’re not receiving occasional email announcements from AONE, then you’re not on the list! You can remedy this dire situation by sending a quick note to webmaster@velocissima.com. Your address will not be given out to any commercial entity!  Attention Mediaone / AT&T Broadband users: Make sure to notify the Webmaster as soon as your email address changes to attbi.com this month!