BoD Minutes – April 19, 2017

Minutes of NCR-SCCA Monthly Board of Directors Meeting
April 19, 2017

Present: Heather Clark, Anna Crissman, Rex Deffenbaugh, Tricia Deffenbaugh, Bruce Dover, Jennifer Dover, Sam Fouse, Buddy Matthews, Joedy Pennington, Heather Powers, Mark Senior, James Shanks, Jim Toland, and via conference call, Matt Decker, Blair Deffenbaugh, Eric Danielsen, Brian Eldredge, Morgan Mehler, and Ben Tyler.

1. The NCR BoD meeting was called to order by RE Sam Fouse at 7:25 PM, on Wednesday, April 19^th 2017, at Piper’s Deli, 3219 Old Chapel Hill Road, Durham, NC,

2. Guests included Tricia Deffenbaugh, Jennifer Dover, Joedy Pennington, and Jim Toland in person, and via phone, Eric Danielsen, Brian Eldredge, and Ben Tyler.

3. Motion to approve the March minutes as posted on the Google drive (Senior/Clark).

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

Financial Report. 

Treasurer Heather Powers reported that our checking account held approximately $144K, and that we had raised $684 at the lunchtime drive-arounds during the Spring Sprints for our featured charity, Spirit Canine Rescue. Also regarding that race, she reported that the Chairman of the SOM had had his hotel bill for the weekend paid, something which we had recently found out was customary in the Southeast. However, he was not also entitled to worker credits as well.

Ms. Powers further indicated that she had looked into the matter of the Region getting a car loan, should we have to purchase a pace car or other vehicle, and discovered that according to BB&T and the national credit reporting agencies, NCR did not have a credit history. We have been doing business and paying our bills for decades, but we have never borrowed money. Therefore, we had no credit history and could not get a sizable loan. Sam then interjected that this had also come to light in his dealings with Sunbelt Rentals, which provided lights and generators on the skid pad at the Spring Sprints. He could not open a credit account directly with Sunbelt, for the same reason, lack of a credit history in the name of North Carolina Region. Instead, Sunbelt billed VIR and we paid them. Sam and Heather Powers indicated that they felt it was time that we opened a credit card account so that we could establish a credit history.

Changing the subject, Heather Clark asked how donations to the worker fund were handled. She had observed that drivers had given us $2065 in donations at Registration for the Spring Sprints and she wanted to know whether this money remained earmarked somehow or just became part of the general fund.  The answer is that it goes into the general fund. Sam pointed out that while such donations were helpful and always welcome, they did not come close to paying for volunteer expenses for the weekend. With an average of 150 volunteers being reimbursed $35 per day over three days, worker credits amounted to about $16K (150 x 35 x 3 = 15,570) for that race alone, and close to $40K per year, even though some people did not claim their full share.

Old Business:

1. May Meeting in Wilmington. It was announced that the May meeting of the NCR Board of Directors, scheduled for May 17^th , will be held at Elizabeth’s Pizza in Wilmington. This is the same location that the Cape Fear Chapter uses for their monthly meetings, 4304 Market St, Wilmington, NC, 28403, in the North 17 Shopping Center. The meeting will start at 7:00 PM, rather than the more usual 7:30, and Board members from the Raleigh area plan to car pool.

2. Super Tour Debrief. Sam reeled off a list of figures he had compiled from the past weekend. We garnered an actual 340 entries at $635 each, for about $216K in gross revenue. Out of that we paid SCCA $125.75 per car, or about $43K, and about half the remainder, or $86K, to VIR for everything they provided, including track rental, the lights and generators from Sunbelt, and their portion of the food expenses, which includes worker lunches and the 2 socials. Coopers, who did the party food, got about $6300, and the race chair spent about $800 on snacks and drinks.  The worker and driver gift, that gorgeous t-shirt with the likeness of Carroll Shelby winning the first race at VIR, cost about $3900. As noted previously, worker credits were estimated at almost $16K. The bluegrass band, Counterclockwise String Band, cost $1000, but that was offset by a contribution from SCCA National, which covered it.  The bottom line, Sam estimated cautiously, was that we may have cleared about a 25 percent increase over last year’s Majors. So our biggest race to date may have been our most profitable in recent memory. We will need some of that to cover our losses from the March event, of course, and approximately $9K to cover unallocated expenses.

3. SARRC/MARRS Preview. Sam indicated that we were a little behind on this event. We have 80 entries to date, but we have not yet sent out an e-mail ad, which would come later in the week, he said. 53 of the entries are MARRS drivers, so as usual, SARRC participation is lagging. Justin Deffenbaugh is the race chair and he is using essentially the same budget as last year. It was noted that the classroom in the North Tower will be closed to us for this event, due to scheduling issues with the pro events that both precede and follow ours, so drivers’ meetings will be held upstairs in the Pagoda. We will be renting the Synergy building again at $250/day for Registration. Test day Registration will be held there as well.

New Business:

1. Partial Refund for Driver Who Could Not Stay for Rescheduled Group 8 Race. Mark Senior, as Race Chair for the VIR Spring Sprints, received a refund request, via Race Director Steve Pence, for a driver who had come to him after the decision was made to split Group 5 and add a Group 8. This driver had not attended the driver’s meeting where this decision was made. He said he had plane reservations for himself and his entire family and would have to leave before the Group 8 race. Mark forwarded that information to Bruce, who contacted Deanna Flanagan, head of Club Racing, and she confirmed that SCCA would not be returning any portion of this driver’s $125.75 Majors fee, as he had already participated in one race and had received credit for the weekend counting towards his participation in the Runoffs. Mark suggested that we should give him something in the interest of public relations, even though we were in no way responsible for his missing that last race. Sam suggested that.as he had received 80 percent of his allotted track time, that we give him back twenty percent of our remaining fee (approximately $510) or $100 even. Bruce indicated that he could make the refund via Motorsportreg.com (MSR) but he would like someone to write an explanation for the driver so that he would understand what he was getting and why. Secretary James Shanks agreed to do that, with Sam’s approval. Motion to refund $100 to this driver and send him a letter explaining our reasoning (Shanks /Senior). Passed.

2. Worker Gift for the SARRC/MARRS. Sam suggested that the Region give volunteer workers a $15 gift certificate to SCCA GEAR (sccagear.com). He said he was sure he could talk Rick Poore, the owner, into offering free shipping and discounted pricing as well. It was noted, however, that as there was nothing on the site which could be redeemed for $15, many workers would not see this as a gift since they would have to add their own money to that amount in order to purchase something. Heather Clark suggested that instead we give each worker an aerosol can of Fire Ade, the fire suppressant now in use at the track. They could use these at home or keep them in their personal vehicles.  She said we could obtain cans for about $10 apiece.  After discussion, the Board agreed by consensus to get the cans of fire suppressant.

3. Registration Changes. Sam said that if we had one flaw in our execution of the VIR Spring Sprints it was in Registration. He noted that at Road Atlanta they have several registrars and any one of them can process anyone. There are no separate lines for workers and drivers. Ben Tyler and several others spoke up and said that this often presented a problem for workers because they might find themselves in line behind several drivers on a Saturday morning and would therefore be late, or even miss, the morning meeting.  It was allowed that a better idea was an express worker line, open only in the mornings. Anna Crissman said that she had been discussing the hardware requirements for improving Registration in the Synergy building with Bruce Dover, and that they wanted to purchase 2 additional Chrome Books, an iPad, a laser printer, and a router for use there. She was confident that these would help alleviate the bottlenecks once they were installed and properly configured. She estimated that this new hardware would cost approximately a $1000 from Amazon. Sam said that they should cap the expenditure at $1200. Motion (Senior / R. Deffenbaugh) to authorize the expenditure of up to $1200 for new IT hardware for Registration.   

4. Building Space at VIR. Sam said that after looking at the two garages we now had at VIR, which were completely full, we should consider looking into leasing some larger space in the Raceplex, preferably some that was climate-controlled and had roll-up doors for easy access. Jim Toland indicated that there was such space available, complete with roll-up doors and climate control, on Ace drive, which might be suitable, at a reasonable price, perhaps as low as $1100 per month.. Sam directed Bruce Dover to consult with Kevin Massey-Shaw at VIR about the possibility of our leasing this or other suitable space.

5. Hospitality Report.  James Shanks gave a short Hospitality report. The folks at the tent started with 480 Spring Sprints commemorative t-shirts, and had only about 5 left, having given away 163 to workers and 268 to drivers.  The rest they sold, along with a few sweatshirts, patches and sticker. These sales allowed them to return $1182 in cash and checks to the Club treasury. There were a few credit card sales as well. They also gave away three tubs full of old t-shirts and paraphernalia that had been donated by Kaye Fairer on Friday morning. James indicated that he was looking at obtaining sunscreen, lanyards, and earplugs as give-away items in the future, as people had asked for those, and he requested that copies of the schedule, track map, and entrant list, be put in his Google drive print folder so that he could print those when people asked for them. Anna said she thought that was a good idea and would help make that happen.

6. Final Spring Sprints Item. Mark Senior, Race Chair for the Spring Sprints, took this opportunity to publicly thank all the volunteers for their contributions to the event, but especially Bruce Dover for his invaluable help.

Chapter and Committee Reports: As of this writing there were no reports posted on the Google drive under April for 2017.

Motion to adjourn at 8:41 PM (Shanks / Crissman). Passed.

Submitted by Secretary, James Shanks