BoD Minutes – December 2022

NCR Board Meeting

December 21, 2022

Attendees: Kit Williams, Anna Crissman, James Shanks, Al Heatwole, Sam Fouse, Chris Severt, John Bodnar, Lee Hill, Stephen Miller, Bruce Dover, Paul Spencer, Blair Deffenbaugh (late)

Guests:  Chris Schimmel, Elizabeth Severt, Mark Senior, Libby and Frank Killian

  1. The meeting was called to order at 7:04 pm by Anna Crissman.
  2. Motion to approve the November minutes (Heatwole/Crissman). Approved.

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

Financial Report

Treasurer Sam Fouse had sent a copy of the financial report to Secretary Kit Williams.

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 Reports

Chris Severt, who has taken over from Shane Irving as the Cape Fear Chapter Coordinator, reported that they had a good meeting that was spent discussing the reorganization of the Solo program, with the goal being to separate Solo from the Cape Fear Chapter leadership. Chris noted that they likely will not meet again until February due to the Region banquet being held in January. Lee Hill said the West Chapter met with roughly 10 people, 2 of which were new attendees who seemed very interested in getting involved with NCR. Lee said they discussed the upcoming banquet in Wilmington and had a good meeting. James Shanks had uploaded a meeting report for the Triangle Chapter meeting, and said they met with roughly 13 people. James said they were not able to meet in their normal room due to another party happening at the restaurant, but they still had a good meeting. James said they likely will not meet in January as well due to the banquet.

Old Business

  1. Banquet Update: Elizabeth Severt gave an update on the planning for the Region Banquet, which will take place on January 14th, 2023 in Wilmington, NC at The Warehouse on Water. Elizabeth reported that registration is open on Motorsportsreg, and that she is currently working on parking details, which will be added to the event registration as soon as they are available. Elizabeth asked the Board to decide what the policy would be for alcohol at the banquet. There are multiple options and we have done several different things in the past. After a short discussion, the most popular option was to cover beer and wine for all attendees, and have a cash bar available as well. Motion to cover beer and wine for all banquet attendees until 9:30pm, and to have a cash bar available for other drinks (Crissman / Bodnar). Approved. Elizabeth said we would have access to the venue from 10am to 10pm, so we would have plenty of time for setup and if we needed to use the facility for anything else, such as a Board meeting or committee meetings.
  2. Awards Committee Update: James Shanks gave an update on the awards process for the banquet, saying that everything is moving along well and all of the awards have been selected. James said the awards committee had decided to cover the banquet fees of anyone receiving a major award, and that Connie Nyholm of VIR will be attending as a VIP guest and will be receiving a special award from the region. James and Eric Danielsen are working out the details of the awards presentation, and James has been attempting to contact all of the award winners to determine who will attend in person and who will need to be sent their awards so that they can open them on the Zoom feed during the event. James wanted to know the specifics of how the banquet will be broadcast and if the awards presentation will be recorded. Blair Deffenbaugh said he could handle the online feed, provided he had access to a laptop with a camera and an internet connection. Elizabeth said we would have both at the venue.

New Business

  1. 2023 Charities: Blair Deffenbaugh wanted to discuss which charities we would support during the lunchtime drive-arounds at our two VIR road races in 2023. We have supported many charities in the past, most recently the NCR Scholarship Fund. Blair requested we consider having Racing for ALS as one of the charities at one of our events next year. Blair said he did not know which event would work best for Racing for ALS, as he had not asked them about this before speaking to the Board. After working with Racing for ALS this year for Jim’s Race, the Board generally agreed that supporting them would be an excellent idea. Sam noted that we have two opportunities to get charity donations, one during driver registration online, and one for the lunchtime drive-arounds. The Board agreed to have Racing for ALS as one of the listed charities for 2023, and that Blair would reach out to the organization to see which road race they would like to come out to and support, and that we would make the drive-around benefit them during the event they choose to come out to.

Items Not Listed on the Agenda

At this point, Anna noted that the official business on the agenda had concluded, and before she closed the meeting for a personnel discussion, she asked for any other items that needed to be discussed at this time.

  1. Al Heatwole said he had reached out to Rockingham Speedway again, as they had completed their repaving of their main oval. Al was not very confident that they would be enthusiastic to work with us again, given the events that took place forcing us to reschedule and relocate Jim’s Race earlier this year. Al noted that despite promises from the track, they have not repaved their infield section and it does not seem as though any of the safety measures we requested in order to hold an event have been carried out. Al noted that the response from the track to his message seemed to indicate that they have plenty of interest from other groups that do not have the same safety requirements that we do. Stephen Miller noted that there is a plan to do a site visit in January to reinspect the track. This led to a conversation about the safety requirements that need to be met in order for us to have an event at Rockingham. Ultimately, the track must make these changes, we cannot add the safety elements ourselves, as this makes the region directly liable should something occur. Stephen noted that Track Night in America is interested in Rockingham, and that group may be more effective in getting the safety upgraded at the track. The Board agreed we should reinspect the track and keep relations open, but we may need to be patient and wait for the track safety to be upgraded before we can pursue an event with them again.
  2. Mark Senior has set up a preseason meeting with Kerrigan from VIR. Mark asked the Board to submit any questions we have to him so that they can be sent to Kerrigan before our meeting. Mark noted that the meeting will be in person and will be held at VIR in January. Anna noted that the meeting will not be open to anyone who wants to attend, as was done previously when the meeting was held virtually.
  3. Two Board members, Blair Deffenbaugh and Paul Spencer, noted that this will be their last Board meeting as they are not running for reelection. Blair thanked the Board after serving in multiple roles over many years, and said that he would return to the Board in the future.
  4. Stephen Miller asked about the January Board meeting. In the past, the Board has met in person before or after the annual banquet. There was some confusion due to Stephen referring to this as the “Annual Meeting”. The Annual Meeting is a general meeting for the entire region that usually takes place during the Banquet, as outlined in the region bylaws. This will happen this year during the region banquet. Anna said she would like for the Board to meet before the awards banquet, if possible at the event venue. Anna noted that this has not been planned yet and would need to be addressed through emails.
  5. Stephen then asked if any planning had been done in regards to the SEDiv annual conference. Anna said she had not yet started the process, and thanked Stephen for bringing this up. Anna noted that the Board would need to decide how we will be financially assisting members who wish to go to the conference and how much we will be assisting them. Anna noted that last year we forwarded $500 to anyone who wished to attend, and she felt we should support any member who wishes to go, as we no longer need to pay for members to attend the SCCA Annual Convention now that it is entirely virtual. James Shanks noted that the Board has a standing motion to provide a pool of money from which members may submit for reimbursement, and that the Board must set an amount for that pool of money. Anna and Sam both noted that it was easier to forward money to people who wish to attend and then ask for reimbursement forms afterwards. It was also noted that several members will attend and be paid for by SEDiv as they are divisional officials. After more conversation, it was decided that Anna would send out an email to decide who wanted to attend the conference, and then an amount would be decided on by the Board in order to financially support anyone who wished to attend.
  6. Bruce Dover said he needed to know what we would be doing for door prizes for the banquet. Anna said we would be doing what we have done in the past, giving away race entries, shirts, and various other items from road racing hospitality. There was a question about how much we have given away in the past, and Sam Fouse said he would need to look into this as he did not have that figure available to him at the time. It was noted that last year we gave out a voucher for $250 off any NCR road race. At the November meeting, the Board voted to give away one free race entry as a raffle during the banquet. This race entry was originally given away at the SIC earlier this year. Anna said the Board would formalize what door prizes we would give away over email. Bruce then asked if the Board wanted to have name tags available at the banquet. The Board said yes to the name tags. Bruce then asked who would be working registration for the event. Bruce said he planned to check in people who had not paid but would want help checking in anyone who has paid online to make things quicker. Elizabeth Severt volunteered to help with check-in. Anna said we would work out more details for the banquet over email.

At this point, no other items for discussion were brought up. Anna officially closed the public meeting at 8:05pm.

The Board then met in a closed session to discuss a personnel issue. This lasted until roughly 9pm.

 

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.

Submitted by Secretary, Kit Williams

MORE REPORTS

All
  • All
  • BoD Minutes
  • Cape Fear Chapter Report
  • Triangle Chapter Report
  • West Chapter Report