With General Motors' unfortunate decision to shutdown Saturn, the need for venues that enable owners and fans to communicate is greater than ever. In an effort to foster that communication across as many mediums as possible, SaturnFans.com can be followed via Twitter, RSS, ImSaturn, and now there's a fan page on Facebook. It's another place for Saturn owners — past and present — to socialize, share experiences, and offer support to each other in the wake of Saturn's untimely closing.

Today was supposed to be the first day of SaturnFans.com's week-long SaturnFest celebration. Just like in the past, it was going to be a happy time, with this year's virtual gathering of owners from around the world (I've received e-mails from as far away as Taiwan) cheering Roger Penske's acquistion of Saturn. But, alas, with GM's decision to suddenly begin the process of shutdowning the brand at the end of September, preparation for the online festival screeched to a halt as news of the impending closure dominated this site's front page.

Of all the letters I have written this past year, this one is the most difficult. I want to begin by thanking all of you for your support over this last year. Your loyalty to Saturn motivated my team to work very hard to try to find a way for this brand to continue. The many e-mails, calls and personal notes provided the inspiration to all of us at Saturn. By now I'm sure you have heard that the sale of Saturn to the Penske Automotive Group could not be finalized. As a result, the Saturn brand will now be phased out over time.

For the second time this month, SaturnFans.com has been knocked offline due to the surge of Saturn owners and enthusiasts flocking to the Web to read more about GM's decision to shutdown the Saturn brand. This time damage was much more extensive. While the primary site database has been reconstructed, there is still some work that needs to be done.

The server crash caused extensive damage to the database; it took a lot of time to troubleshoot and reconstruct. After working on this for two long nights, everything should be back to normal now. I apologize for the inconvenience. If you notice anything still acting strange, please send me an alert.

SaturnFans.com is currently looking for musicians who want to showcase their talents at the upcoming SaturnFest virtual homecoming celebration. SaturnFest '09 will take place online October 26th through the 30th on the computer-generated grassy fields of the Saturnalia Fairgrounds. Among the events previously announced will be a nighttime concert, which is where you come in.

Mark your calendars! The gates to SaturnFans.com's virtual homecoming celebration - SaturnFest 2009 - will open on Monday, October 26th and will run through Friday, October 30th. Opening ceremonies will begin at 7 o'clock Monday morning and will set the stage for what promises to be a week of fun filled festivities that you won't want to miss! Saturn fans from around the world will join together to interact, share experiences, and learn about Saturn.

With this week's confirmation that General Motors and Penske Automotive Group plan to close down Saturn in Canada, SaturnFans.com has created a new support forum to give Canadian owners a place to ask questions, get help, and share experiences. My hope is that our friends "north of the 48" will get the same level of service and support for their cars from their local GM dealership as they had come to expect from Saturn. But just in case, feel free to use this dedicated forum as a place to post messages if you have any issues getting your Saturn vehicles serviced.

Last month's announcement about SaturnFest returning to SaturnFans.com this October spurred a lot of questions from visitors who were interested in learning more about what the event was all about. I created SaturnFest ten years ago as a way for folks who could not attend Saturn's real homecoming to gather together - virtually - to celebrate the cars and company we all love: Saturn.

Many years ago I kept a log of all site changes on one page, so folks could easily keep track of site updates. As the site grew to include several disparate applications, manually tracking and cataloging increasingly more dynamic updates efficiently became an impossible task. Until now.