Gary Stromfeld, one of the main characters in another intriguing Sven Olafbrorsson (a.k.a. Gene Bellegarde) Volvo resurrection tale, joined the SDVSA at the General Meeting on the second Wednesday in November. The story begins on page 7. Including Gary and the author, we had 11 enthusiastic Volvo fans at the meeting. The total membership in the club now stands at 68, and the financial situation is stable at the end of 2002. We don’t foresee any increases in dues in the immediate future. Richard Pattee, our club’s Museum Car Club Council Representative, relayed to us that a calendar of major car club events will soon be available on the Auto Museum’s web site, www.sdautomuseum.org. Also, the Car Club Council (CCC) was asked by the Association of California Car Clubs (ACCC), the only lobby group that we have in Sacramento, for more participation of local car clubs. To raise money for lobbying efforts to fight discriminatory laws against the car hobbyists, their proposal is to asses each club member $5. In view of severe financial impact this would place on most car clubs’ budgets, the CCC members made various other proposals. We’ll report any further developments in this newsletter. Ulf Brynjestad was the winner of Bob Skoog’s 50/50 raffle, but Ulf was not one of the meeting attendees, so he forfeits the prize money. By the way, we haven’t seen you in a while, Ulf.

     November’s event, the "Return to Santa Margarita Winery," coordinated by Del Skoog, turned out to be a truly interesting outing, especially the visit to Diamond Valley Lake. At our designated meeting location, the ARCO station on Winchester Road in Temecula, we managed to gather three 1800Ss, one 122, and two 240s. A gentleman, who had seen the announcement of the tour on www.sdvsa.org, came all the way up from Chula Vista, just to see and get some more information on the 1800ES, a model he is contemplating on buying. Unfortunately, we could not furnish him with an example, but he promised to attend December’s SDVSA General Meeting, and become a member. The drive to our first destination, the Diamond Valley reservoir dam, took us through some picturesque backcountry roads. Due to heightened security to protect our water supply, we had to show our I.D.s at the 

entrance to the west dam and pumping plant. Once past the gate, our little caravan clawed its way up to a vista point way above the west, 1.7-mile long, earthen West Dam. From there we could see the entire West Dam, the San Diego Canal, the pumping plant and the inlet/outlet tower; and, through the haze, the 2-mile long East Dam, and the Saddle Dam to the north. We were given a run down of all the particulars of this project by a little too overzealous and easily distracted lady docent. We were all surprised that most of us had never even heard about this massive, ten-year, project. Randy Blum and Richard Hunt, arriving in Randy’s 122 wagon, joined the tour at this point. We’ll let Randy pick up the story from here, starting on page 5. 

     The next club event, on Sunday, December 15, is the SDVSA Holiday Party! By the time you have this newsletter in your hot little hands, you should have already RSVPed to Richard Pattee. If you haven’t, do it now! All the information you need is on the next page. This is the 22^nd Holiday Party put on by the SDVSA, and it promises to be as much fun as all the others! We’d like to see you there!!

     The first event for 2003, is a Tech Session at the Bilstein shock absorber factory in Sorrento Mesa, just north of Miramar Air Station, on Saturday, January 18. It should prove to be an interesting field trip, arranged by Randy Blum.

      During the last several years, the participation of local SDVSA members in our activities has steadily dropped. Luckily, we have been able to count on the members of the new Orange County Volvo Club (OCVC a.k.a. OCVSA) and So.Cal VSA to make up the numbers. For that reason, we have decided to have a SDVSA sponsored event only every other month during 2003. We have coordinated our dates with the OCVC and So Cal. VSA, so if our members want to attend an event each month, there is still plenty of Volvo activities. Hopefully, this measure will increase the attendance of local members at the SDVSA events. Any thoughts on this subject will be greatly appreciated!

     Happy holidays and best wishes for a great new year!