Hope all are well enjoying the latter stages of summer and some great weather this week. Appreciate all who have come forward to be part of the future of Team Somerset’s leadership, and also everyone’s nominations. Very excited for what this will bring to an established/revered team into the future. As we worked through issues during this nomination week, I snagged an old email to Bob Perlee asking him if he could join us to build our website. That was 2010 and my 3rd year as Team President. Something I’ve both known and thought about for quite some time, my tenure as President has reached it’s end and I am pulling myself out of that choice, or board positions. Close to 17 years and very convinced that there are both better individuals who were nominated and other areas the team needs to explore with energy and enthusiasm. Without discussing those who will be actually on the ballet for most of the board positions, it’s fairly clear that we’ll have a new team in all of the key positions. The only piece I will share is that I nominated Dan Dalfonzo for President, as did several others, and fully believe he is an excellent choice and will build areas that I either couldn’t or didn’t have the capability. It’s the right time and right choice. We will let these elections play out in fair choice of course! My selfish plug! Nominations end this week and our election is next week. Once completed, the changes will take place quickly, but we all realize appropriate transition is necessary. It is important to get started on 2025 and the next election will be end of 2026.

For me, I fully intend to be engaged in the activities of the team, our events next year, planning and strategy of course. We discussed a better balance of workload for the events as it’s been a heavy load on a few people. I didn’t add it, but the bylaws say the last sitting President is part of the board. I also intend to work with John Sedlak, Tom Mains and others on the TT Cup Committee and NJBA to build more races in NJ and restore our Cup to what we are all looking for. My contribution to Somerset is a small subset of the team history, so always thanks to the Saling’s who have been the real stars here, and all who I learned from as a rider, racer and then team organizer and administrator. Never thought that encouragement from Brooke Wilson, Brian Rosenblatt and others to run the team would translate into an awesome 17 years of my life and all the time I’ve been in Hunterdon County. I’ll be both racing with Team Somerset and working with others to make this team a continued success, so I hope all will take our elections coming up seriously and continue to be the great supporters you are. There are always areas for contribution.

Thanks so much and look forward to seeing all at our September 15 event and/or at one of our Sunday rides sooner.
Chuck