Mama take this badge from me; I can’t use it anymore. There’s a new sheriff in town- Bryan Hollenbaugh is now the law in the blogosphere.
Two years ago I answered the call for someone to fill the vacant position of club newsletter editor. I looked duty straight in the eye and said, “Howdy Duty.”[Sorry, I’ve been looking for a way to use that for a long time.] I took on the task thinking I’d be reviving, in some way, HCP’s quarterly newsletter. Instead, I found myself maintaining a blog that made it possible to shatter the limits imposed by a pdf document. Beyond offering a wealth of searchable and archived written content, our blog, Open Roads, is able to house hundreds of images, display video, and link to sites across the web- on devices ranging from cell phones to desktop computers.
I’ve put a great deal of time into Open Roads and I’m deeply grateful to those Club members who have supported my efforts with their contributions. Ultimately, though, the blog could not flourish under my tenure. Blogs exist in a world which I don’t inhabit. Each day, Facebook accounts for one out of every five internet page views in the United States; every minute 510,000 comments are posted and 136,000 images are uploaded to the site. And there’s Twitter- over 500 million tweets a day. [That’s 200 billion a year.] I won’t dwell on Instagram, Snapchat, Whatsapp or the almost countless other social media platforms that exist. I don’t have an account on any of these sites and I don’t tweet. Without integration with social media, our blog was destined to wither and die. I’m not the person to oversee that integration. Bryan is.
Bryan and I have been working on a smooth transition to his blogship- and he’s ready to go. Less than a day after meeting me over coffee, he put up a great post describing a day of driving through the Adirondacks. More importantly, as many of you know, he’s linked Open Roads to the unofficial Club Facebook page. As a result, viewership of the blog has soared. He emailed me, that within a day of creating the link, seventy-four people viewed the blog.
Those of you who have the good fortune to know Bryan know Open Roads is in exceptionally capable hands. I’ll help Bryan in every way possible; I urge all of you to support Bryan’s efforts as well. Send him photos, write about your cars, your trips, your projects, your favorite roads, your time at the track. Write about your passion for Porsches. One Club member has already answered the call. Bob Michalek, armed with deep computer knowledge, will help keep things running smoothly. Among other things, he’ll make sure the blog calendar is up to date and accurate- giving you a place to check on the wealth of activities HCP offers. A sincere thanks to Bob for his interest and willingness to help out; and, of course, thanks to Bryan as well.
Creating Open Roads allowed the Club to reach members in a powerful and unique way. Judges in 2016’s PCA newsletter competition found it difficult to evaluate our blog because it was so different from what other clubs were doing. Never-the-less, one judge wrote, “I feel the need to add a comment about your blog and this score: I think your blog is FANTASTIC. It is difficult to judge in terms of this competition and the elements we are to judge on, and in it not being a cohesive website. Your blog is an amazing, interactive newsletter. I’m very impressed.” That was the beginning. Under Bryan’s guidance, with Bob’s help, and with your contributions, Open Roads will set the standard for PCA “newsletters”.
G. Richards