BoD Meeting – July 2020

Minutes of NCR-SCCA Monthly Board of Directors Meeting

July 15, 2020

Present:  John Bodnar, Heather Clark, Anna Crissman, Eric Danielsen, Blair Deffenbaugh, Justin Deffenbaugh, Bruce Dover, Nikki Edwards, John Lindquist, Sam Fouse, Al Heatwole, Stephen Miller, Heather Powers, Mark Senior, James Shanks, Ben Tyler, and Kit Williams, all attended via video conference, due to the ongoing threat of the COVID-19 virus.

  1. The NCR BoD meeting was called to order by RE Anna Crissman at approximately 7:34 PM, on Wednesday, July 15th
  2. John Bodnar, Eric Danielsen, John Lindquist, and Ben Tyler, attended as guests.
  3. Motion to approve the June minutes, as posted on the Google drive (Senior / 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.

 As the details of our finances are confidential, NCR members who wish more information should contact either the Office Manager or any member of the Board of Directors. They are also invited to attend a Chapter Meeting, where such matters are discussed in detail.

Chapter and Committee Reports:

 Nikki Edwards, West Chapter Coordinator, had posted a Chapter Report of their meeting on July 7th to the Google Drive under July 2020, but no other reports were posted at the time of the meeting. Al Heatwole, Triangle Chapter Coordinator, said that their experiment of having one at Mac’s Tavern, a local restaurant, along with Zoom Participation, had not been successful at increasing participation.  Attendance was extremely low. At the end of the meeting Al added that they would be holding the next Triangle Chapter meeting at White Oak Shelter at Lake Crabtree in Raleigh on August 12th to see whether a picnic-style event would draw more people.

Old Business:

  1. Goblins Go Format and Schedule Update. Anna had posted a tentative revised schedule on the Google drive under July 2020 and she circulated a link to it during the meeting. She said she had been making changes to the original May SARRC / MARRS schedule, incorporating the Prod Fest and the V8 series cars, and was looking for other people to examine it and figure out what she might have missed. Suggestions were made to include the GT Pinto and Legends cars in appropriate groups and to alter the ECR time limit. Anna further said changes would have to be made to the Supps for COVID-19, and that she and Heather Clark would be working on those before making them available to the Comp Board for review. It was noted that we would like to open registration as soon as possible so that word gets out that we are serious about holding this event.
  2. Payment to SCR for March Into Spring. Sam reminded us that we still owed South Carolina Region their fifty percent share of the profit we made on the March Into Spring race, and now that the profit and loss statements were up to date, we should pay them. It took Treasurer Heather Powers a few minutes to come up with the figure of $1500 for that profit, after all the SARRC fees were deducted, so that would mean that we need to send them a check for $750. No one was surprised by this and Sam said that, quite honestly, SCR would probably be very happy to receive even that small amount, given the state of affairs we all are in due to the restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

 New Business:

  1. NCR PayPal Account. John Lindquist, who administers the NCR Scholarship Program, was on hand to request that the Region establish a business account with PayPal so that prospective donors could use that as a means to donate to the Scholarship Fund completely online. Anna was concerned about the fees we would incur doing that. John said that they would be about two to three percent of the amount plus 30 cents per trans action. In discussion, those assembled seemed to feel that these fees were not excessive, but Anna pointed out that there were other applications, such as Cash App and Square, with smaller fees, which could be accessed via a smartphone; and if we were going to accept one, then we should look into accepting others as well. She also added that the NCR Scholarship Program needed a Facebook presence, which could then offer a link to make a donation. John asked that at least a PayPal business account be opened as soon as possible. Motion to have Heather Powers and Bruce Dover investigate and implement suitable online donation applications for the Scholarship Program by July 31st (Crissman / Senior). Passed.
  2. Joint Solo Event. Kit Williams said that an organization called Motorsport 4the Masses, out of Summerfield, North Carolina, had contacted him about the possibility of putting on a joint solo event at Rockingham Speedway. Kit advised that he was going to turn them down because, based on the YouTube videos they were posting, what they were doing did not look very safe. Apparently, they were trying to implement lapping day activities on an autocross course, with no EVs or ambulances, and cars passing in opposite directions at speed with nothing between them but cones and some short stretch of asphalt. Kit said he did not see how an SCCA Solo Safety Steward could possibly sign off on any of this, so he was turning them down. He added that there were some alternatives that he was looking at to try to get Solo going again while the base at Cherry Point remained closed.  One was getting a Pro Solo event locally and the other involved mirrored courses.  He promised to apprise the Board should anything appear workable.
  3. August Time Trial Update and TT dates for 2021. Stephen Miller reported that as of tonight, one month out from our currently-scheduled TT at NCCAR, we had 16 entries for the Time Trial, 4 for the Track Event, and 6 volunteers. So, we are well short of our break-even point of approximately 50 entries. In discussion it was agreed that what we needed was more exposure, but no one advanced any new ideas about how to get it. In subsequent discussion of his recent test session at NCCAR, however, Sam Fouse said that we would be the first group to use the new cut-through pavement, which considerably shortens the long carousel turn, and Kit Williams suggested that we might talk that up on social media as a new reason to attend. Otherwise, we are just hoping that, since there have been 2 successful Track Night in America events at Charlotte, that the demand is out there and that the seed has been planted. Switching to next season, Anna said that she and Stephen had put their heads together and looked at the TT and racing schedules for 2021, and had come up with 2 pairs of weekends which did not conflict with anything else currently scheduled. Those were the last weekend in April or the first one in May, and either the second or third weekend in October. Those pairs of dates they had given to Sam True at NCCAR and asked him to reserve one of each pair for us to hold a TT at NCCAR in 2021. With regard to the possibility of pairing a TT with an SCCA driver’s school, or even holding just a driver’s school by itself, it was noted that SCCA now requires an FIA-certified inspector to come out and certify the facility, at a cost of approximately $3000. This was deemed too expensive. Sam Fouse noted that WDCR says they lose money on every school they have, despite the fact that their average entry is 48 drivers. Between them and the SEDIV school at Roebling in February, he argued, it does not seem that there is sufficient demand for a third one. By consensus, then, the board agreed to drop the idea of a driver’s school at NCCAR. In subsequent discussion of his recent test session, Sam Fouse mentioned that when running in the counterclockwise direction, the first turn can be pretty intimidating, since there is very little run-off room when you are at speed. Kit observed that this should not be a problem for the TT because they will have to pass pit in and pit out before getting there.
  4. Possible Changes to ECR for 2021. Sam Fouse is one of three members of the SEDIV ECR Committee, with Paul Roney of Florida and Jim Creighton of Atlanta, being the other two. They have agreed in principle on some changes to permit longer enduros under the ECR umbrella to better compete with the offerings of Champ Car and World Racing League. The final wording is still being worked out, but basically a Region may have either 2 ECRs of at least one hour but less than 3 hours in length, each earning single points, or 1 ECR of greater than 3 hours but less than 6, for double points, in a single race weekend. The new rule will go into effect January 1, 2021.

Motion to adjourn at approximately 8:40 PM (Senior / Heatwole). Passed.

Submitted by Secretary, James Shanks.

Please note that all NCR members are welcome to attend NCR Board of Directors meetings.

If any member should have a question about the Region or its activities, please contact the Office Manager or any member of the Board.

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