BoD Minutes – March 20, 2019

Minutes of NCR-SCCA Monthly Board of Directors Meeting

March 20, 2019

Present:  Heather Clark, Anna Crissman, Bruce Dover, Nikki Edwards, Sam Fouse, Al Heatwole, Heather Powers, Mark Senior, and James Shanks, attended in person, and via conference call, Chris Schimmel, Eric Danielsen, Frank Killian, Stephen Miller, Ben Tyler, and Kit Williams. Morgan Mehler and Rex Deffenbaugh did not attend.

  1. The NCR BoD meeting was called to order by RE Sam Fouse at 7:31 PM, on Wednesday, March 20th 2019, at Daniel’s Restaurant and Catering, 1430 W Williams St, Apex, NC 27523.
  2. Eric Danielsen, Frank Killian, Stephen Miller and Ben Tyler attended as guests via telephone. There was considerable background noise in the restaurant, which made their participation difficult. Chris Schimmel called in later, after receiving call-in instruction from Bruce, during the discussion about the scales (Item 2 under New Business). There were no guests in person.
  3. Motion to approve the February minutes, as posted on the Google drive (Shanks / Fouse). Passed.

Order of items below reflects the order of discussion, as nearly as possible; not necessarily as they appeared on the published agenda.

 Financial Report.

 Treasurer Heather Powers reported that the Region had a total of $93K in the bank at this time, about $46K in the money market account and $47K in checking. Payments for the April race were being delayed, Sam explained, until April 1st, after the final paddock assignments have been made. An e-mail will be sent out to all participants at that time informing them that we will begin charging their credit cards.

Old Business:

  1. Spring Sprints Planning. The planning has been split between Mark Senior, who is the Race Chair and Sam. In addition to the normal Race Chair duties, Mark has portajohns, lights, and golf carts for the volunteers. Sam has everything to do with the load-in. Mark said that VIR does not want to be involved with renting golf carts to competitors, though they have done so in the past. Instead they want prospective renters to contact the golf cart vendor directly. This information will have to be included in the next e-mail to the competitors. Mark further indicated that the Saturday night social would be at the Gallery, as it was last year, but that Friday night was planned for the Pagoda. Eric suggested it should be at the Gallery too, as this would be easier for the competitors to understand, since both would be in the same place, and that it would not require any additional set-up of the chairs. Mark will look into that. As far as load-in goes, Sam announced that he would come up with a list of people who would be helping with the load-in. So far, his list includes Frank Killian, Robert Mayes, Johnny Dunbar, Al Heatwole, Heather Powers, Chad Bacon, Brian Hooper, and a new recruit named Larry. There followed a lengthy discussion about how to handle those prep shop renters and crew people who arrive in their personal vehicles, not those who actually come in the rigs towing trailers, on Wednesday morning. At issue was whether they should come through the main gate with the big rigs or whether they should be routed through the raceplex to Ace Drive, where the non-prep-shop teams will be queued up until Wednesday afternoon. And if through the main gate, whether they should be shunted off to the skid pad immediately or allowed into the paddock. This discussion also included what kind of passes should be used to indicate those who could park in the paddock and those who could not – should they differ by shape, by color, or both—and how many would be needed. In the interests of time, and because the restaurant environment was quite noisy, it was decided to continue this discussion offline. Later in the meeting, Frank Killian asked where and when the load-in crew should report, and Sam indicated the Speed Suite, probably about 7:00 AM on Wednesday, though this would be covered in an e-mail to the load-in crew that he was preparing. He also indicated that the load-in crew would all be on an advance list to be given to VIR security, so there should be no problem with their access to the track.

New Business:

  1. Spring Sprint Group Size Issues. The sizes of the race groups are unbalanced. At this time, Group 1, Production cars, has 69 entries, while Group 2, high-powered formula and prototype cars, has only 25. Medium-powered formula cars (Group 6) has only 29. Spec Miata (Group 3), has 63, Spec Racer Ford (Group5) has 61. But Group 4, big-bore GT cars plus GT3, AS, and T1, has a whopping 74. Anna said she had wanted to combine Group 2 and Group 6, and split up Group 4, but her plan was shot down by the National Office. So now when someone complains, she sends them to Steve Pence, the Majors Race Director, since it is not an issue that we as a Region can decide. Sam pointed out that we might be able to insist that if the number of cars in a race group reached the maximum allowed per the GCR (25 per mile), which is 82 at VIR, that a waiver not be given for more cars to be allowed unless the groups are reshuffled first. Mark said that, when the final numbers are in, we should make our recommendations known even if the maximums have not been reached. Perhaps the folly of their groupings will be obvious by that time.
  2. Load Cells for Scales. It was reported that due to problems with the scales, all the weights determined at the March into Spring race had been thrown out and that the scales would need to be recertified before the Spring Sprints. When Chis Schimmel joined the meeting by phone, he reported that the recertification had been done, thanks in large part to work done by Jeff Lengel. A faulty load cell had been replaced with our single spare, and Jeff had recommended that we purchase two more, so as not to be in this position again. Chris was seeking permission to obtain them before the Spring Sprints. He had found an on-line source which would supply them for $265 apiece, but our local service company had them at $295, and they would let us have them on account until after the race. Those Board members present unanimously agreed by acclimation that Chris should buy them from our servicer as soon as possible, so long as the bill could be delayed. Chris also asked from some printer ribbons for the printer attached to the scale, and he was assured that he could just expense those.
  3. SARRC/MARRS and Test Days Planning. This issue, as reported last month, involves capping the number of entries at 400. Sam and Anna agreed that they would pursue this offline and make a further report next month.
  4. Time Trials Budget Report. Stephen Miller indicated that he was calling from out-of-town while away on business, and that his Time Trial report to the Board, with a proposed budget, could be expected sometime next week. In response to a question by James, he said that he had received the quote for photography services from F and S, and had found it reasonable. That would all be included in his report.
  5. Promotional Announcements by the Track Announcer. Eric Danielsen reported that he had taken the initiative as Race Chair at the March into Sprint event to solve a long-standing problem concerning recognition of those businesses which serve us well at the track. Our new partner Quantum wanted to get the word out to drivers about the needs they could fulfill, and Eric came up with idea of having the announcer interview them about that. Then he did the same thing with Bridgette Sinnott of F and S about their photography business. Both vendors seemed quite pleased and Eric suggested we should do this at future events as well. The Board commended him on his initiative and service.

Chapter and Committee Reports: As of this writing, there were no Chapter or Committee reports for February 2019 posted on the Google drive.

It was noted in closing that this venue, Daniel’s Restaurant and Catering, was definitely not suited to hosting a meeting such as ours and that the search for a venue alternative to Piper’s, which had lost our reservation for this month, should continue.

Motion to adjourn at 8:43 PM (Shanks / Crissman). Passed.

Submitted by Secretary, James Shanks

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