BoD Minutes – April 2021

Minutes of NCR-SCCA Monthly Board of Directors Meeting

April 21, 2021

Present:  Cameron Conover, Anna Crissman, Blair Deffenbaugh, Justin Deffenbaugh, Bruce Dover, Nikki Edwards, Sam Fouse, Joe Lyons, Stephen Miller, Chris Schimmel, Mark Senior, James Shanks, Paul Spencer, Chuck Stanley, Ben Tyler, Kit Williams and Rob Wilmoth, all attended via video conference, due to the ongoing threat of the COVID-19 virus. Joe Lyons joined late.

  1. The NCR BoD meeting was called to order by RE Anna Crissman at approximately 7:34 PM, on Wednesday, April 21st,
  1. Joe Lyons, Chris Schimmel, Chuck Stanley, Ben Tyler, and Rob Wilmoth, attended as guests.
  1. Motion to approve the March minutes, as posted on the Google drive (Shanks / Williams). 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 Sam Fouse promised to e-mail a financial report on the Spring Sprints to the Board members as soon as possible, and he estimated that our surplus on that event would be enough to pay for all of the things we do which have no other income stream associated with them. In his opinion, we have just about covered our unfunded expenses for the year on this event. There were no outstanding accounts payable left for the Spring Sprints, he said, save for the VIP payments to those who opted to wait until the end of the year to receive it, which amounts to about $2000.  Sam also indicated that the track costs for the Time Trial, of just under $13K, had been paid. As of this meeting, the scholarship fund is growing steadily and stands at just over $4000. Mark raised the question of whether there was any money made on the CMP event, and the answer is yes, but quite little. Anna said she thought we should just let SCR keep whatever small amount remained for themselves, and the Board agreed by consensus. Cameron Conover interjected that at the Spring Sprints the drivers were all commenting favorably about how easy it was to get stickers and patches at our event versus others, where people are charged up to $5 for each one. Anna explained that we budgeted for these things and if we partner with SCR again, we will help them deal with that.

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:

 As before, all Chapters held Zoom meetings last month, with just a small fraction of their usual pre-pandemic attendance, although attendance is up at all Chapters. No Chapter reports were posted on the Google Drive as of this writing.

Nikki reported that the West Chapter had a meeting but nothing much happened. James reported that he hosted the Triangle Chapter meeting in Mark’s absence, but nearly missed it and had to be reminded of it by Al Heatwole and Bruce Dover. He said they discussed VIR’s decision to start charging all the SCCA members who choose to camp both for camping and for electricity. Anna interjected that there were a number of unclaimed camping passes left over at the Spring Sprints and that VIR has agreed to let us use those next month. If more people decide to camp than we have passes for, she said, then those who have to pay should provide us with some proof, such as their used camping pass, after the event is over and we will reimburse them. Sam said that they could even send him a photo of it instead of the pass itself. Anna then said she would prefer to discuss the actual reimbursement process offline and come up with something consistent for everybody to announce to their volunteers. Chuck emphasized that we needed to do this as soon as possible so that the volunteers are not left wondering how it will work.

Old Business:

  1. Spring Sprints Debrief and Wrap-Up. Mark said that, overall, the comments he had received were positive, especially from the National Office staff. He thought the food was good, and most people agreed, but that we were paying too much for it, and we needed to address that going forward. There were concerns about the amount of track damage and the length of time that some groups ran under full-course yellow flags, but there was little we could do about that unless the National Office were to adopt the Code 35 procedure. Mark praised all those who contributed to the event, especially his assistant race chairs, who did a great job. Anna echoed Mark’s praise for all the volunteers, and said that the on-track drama was caused by the drivers themselves and that there was little we could do about it. Ben Tyler praised VIR’s EV team as being faster than he had ever seen them before. He added that he had also seen them training one another on how to properly pick up a Spec Racer with a wrecker. He also said that they welcomed input and assistance from the flaggers to help speed things up. Later, Ben added that they were a lot more effective in laying down oil dry than in years past as well. Sam interjected that the bill for track damages came to $8455, including $900 for oil dry, and although we will be reimbursed for all of it except for first $1000, it shows the magnitude of what EV had to deal with. Mark said that it was unlikely that K&K Insurance would continue to pay for damages of this magnitude and that we should start thinking about how we will handle them should they become our responsibility. Chuck Stanley said that he was really pleased with his crew at Start and that things went well from their perspective. As Race Chair for May, Sam asked how the flaggers felt about having lunches delivered to the stations, and he was told that they were very happy and that we should do it again the same way. He also asked about delivering other people’s lunches to the Hospitality tent for distribution and Anna said that was the way to go. Sam said he would pursue that plan for May. Speaking of Hospitality, James added that they had sold a considerable amount of merchandise and given away event freebies to 135 volunteers (who got umbrellas) and 235 drivers (who got t-shirts). It was clear, he said, that not all drivers were picking up their free gifts and that we made a bit of money selling them instead.  Mark reiterated his thanks to all who volunteered to make things work so well. Anna pointed out that next year would be even bigger and she said we should start putting plans in place for 2022 no later than December, since could be looking at 500 cars for the Spring Sprints. 
  1. SARRC/MARRS. Anna said that after a few hiccups, Registration was finally open, and that all we needed now were more entries. Sam had sent out one e-mail to drivers this morning, and said he had another planned for next week. He hoped to see a bump in registrations then, because WDC Region had an event this very weekend, and many racers would be waiting to see how they fared in that one before deciding on whether to come to ours. Justin said he would like to insert something in Sam’s next e-mail, explaining the changes imposed by the National Office on the fee structure for enduros. He wanted to be “overly communicative”, he said, since so few drivers read the Supps but were quick to complain that they had not been told about upcoming changes. Anna said that they could make that happen. [Note: the discussion about camping passes and reimbursement, which occurs under “Chapter and Committee Reports” above, should really go here, since it pertains to how we will handle things for the SARRC/ MARRS.]
  1. TT at NCCAR. Stephen said that the weather appeared “hit or miss”, with an 80 percent chance of rain on Saturday afternoon. He hoped it would be brief and light. We have 74 unique drivers signed up, and Registration will close within an hour of the end of this meeting (at 9:00 PM Wednesday, April 21st). We are close to the track limits for three groups. After MSR fees, we have taken in $18K, so we will make some money. Blair added that we had spent not quite $300 on social media marketing, and for that we had a little over a thousand clicks, which represents people who went right from our ad to MSR, and that the vast majority of them were in the desired “25 to 34” age demographic, which is much lower than what SCCA events usually get. Blair said he wished he had a way to determine where these people came from and where they went to afterward so that he could better understand how to be more effective in reaching them, but this was a good start for now. It was suggested that we could gather the actual ages of those who registered via MSR. Blair said he planned to look at that, but for now we should be satisfied with knowing that we got a thousand clicks, at 27 cents per click, for our money. Stephen added that 43 percent were also weekend members, so either new to SCCA or perhaps lapsed weekend members, possibly from last October. He explained that giving weekend members a permanent number was something the SCCA had been doing to see whether people were weighing the cost of a full membership versus stringing together temporary ones. Anna then added that we had a full complement of volunteer workers and that this should allow us to do some training, so that more than one person would know how to do that job in the future. Stephen confirmed with Sam that he would serve as advance coach and with Mark as intermediate, since Mike Spencer had been forced to drop out for personal reasons, and with that, he said we were good to go. 

New Business:

  1. Autocross Returns. Kit announced that we have a signed contract with MCAS Cherry Point for a pair of autocross events the weekend following the SARRC /MARRS, May 15th and 16th. Insurance is in place, and Registration is open for both on MSR. Everything else is in place for these, and hopefully this will herald the start of a full season. Kit said the Saturday event already has about 50 drivers signed up.
  1. Go-kart Enduro at the SARRC/MARRS. Justin and Paul Spencer have planned for a kart enduro, similar to the one held prior to the COVID pandemic, at VIR for Saturday night, May 8th. They have reserved the kart track and 12 karts for $2000, and are asking for about $2500 to run the event. Trophies will be done by F&S, like last time. Justin doesn’t think food is necessary but ne would like the Race Chair to drop off a cooler of drinks, just sodas and water. Paul said he would prefer that we add a couple or three pizzas from Millie’s and that this would not be a big expense, as they were not planning to feed everyone, just those who may have missed the social. An additional $200 should cover that, he said. They plan to charge $250 per team, or about $62.50 per person, assuming 4 drivers per team, which would yield $3000 in income. The entry fee will be collected in MSR, and they will pay for everything with the Region debit card (Anna, Bruce and Sam each have one) on Saturday; though Bruce said he would check with VIR to see whether they would prefer a check for the rental fee. Motion to provide $2700 to fund this event, as discussed (Williams / Senior). Passed.
  1. Updating the Nomination Process. James brought up the fact that last November there was much to-do concerning the process for nominating officers to run for NCR Board positions. The current Bylaws provide for this to be done in writing with three other members adding their signatures, either on the same document, or separate documents. This proved very cumbersome because of the pandemic and several members expressed frustration at this antiquated mechanism. James asked whether there was any interest by the Board in amending the Bylaws to streamline this process, such as making it purely electronic. The Board agreed by consensus and James said he would look into the composition of the current Bylaws Committee to see who was on it and whether new appointments should be made. He also suggested that the Board start thinking about what they wanted the new Bylaws to say, besides allowing for electronic submission, such as whether confirmation by additional members were necessary, and if so, by how many.

Motion to adjourn at 8:34 PM (Shanks / Edwards). 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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