NCR Board Meeting

April 17, 2024

Attendees: Anna Crissman, James Shanks, John Bodnar, Kit Williams, Megan Tyler, Lee Hill, Chris Severt, Matt Decker, Rob Wilmoth, Ryan Lohrman, Sam Fouse.

Guests: Ben Tyler, Bruce Dover, Al Heatwole, Chuck Stanley, Heather Powers, Stephen Miller

1. The meeting was called to order at 7:02pm by Anna Crissman, NCR RE.

2. Motion to approve the minutes from the March meeting (Wilmoth/Lohrman). Approved.

Since The last Board meeting, there have been some changes to the makeup of the Board. Al Heatwole resigned his member-at-large seat during a closed session after the March meeting. The Board appointed Ryan Lohrman to take over Stephen Miller’s member-at-large seat, and Matt Decker to take over Al Heatwole’s seat.

Financial Report

Sam Fouse had sent an email to Kit Williams with a financial summary.

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

Lee Hill said the West Chapter met last week with 11 people, all regulars. He said they mainly discussed the Super Tour as most of the attendees had been there. He also said Tony Edward had attended and wanted to be put in touch with Al to get more involved with tech. James Shanks said the Triangle Chapter met last week and watched several videos from the Super Tour and from CMP. They spent most of their time discussing the Super Tour and had a flagger report they had a positive experience working with VIR flaggers at the event. He also said some of our flaggers were there and said they did not attend due to too much drama with the flagging situation. Kit Williams said the Cape Fear Chapter met with three people, two of whom are Board members. They were expecting a new member to attend but they did not make the meeting.

Old Business

1. Super Tour Debrief: Anna wanted to avoid a large conversation about the Super Tour as we still have several important meetings to have first. Anna will be meeting with the stewards tomorrow and she would like to have a full meeting about the Super Tour after that meeting. She is hoping to have that larger conversation as a Board soon. There are several items that need major attention, including the relationship with VIR and our flaggers.

2. SARRC/MARRS Planning: Anna said she and Sam Fouse submitted the Exhibit B form to VIR earlier today. We were told at the Super Tour we would need to request fire bottles on pit lane if we wanted them, but Sam was told we would need to sign them out and be responsible for them if we use them, and we would be responsible to put them out and bring them back in. Anna said she was told they would put them out for us if we asked in advance, but Sam says he was told otherwise and felt we should simply provide our own fire bottles for pit lane, and that we should retain a larger stock of fire bottles for this purpose. Ben said with this requirement we would need to rescind our offer of giving away fire bottles to Buccaneer region for their flagging school in order to keep a large surplus. We do not have enough spare fire bottles to cover the pit lane and our normal supply to stock the corners, grid, tech, etc. if we go forward with our plan to donate fire bottles to Buccaneer region. We will be fine for the May event as we still have roughly 90 fire bottles in our inventory, but we will need to make a plan for October and beyond if we need to continue to put our bottles on pit lane. Anna said we will need to bring up an issue with VIR that was brought to her attention that one of their ambulance drivers at the Super Tour apparently did not know how to get to the closest hospital. Sam said he has started planning a social at the Pavillion rather than at the Gallery, and the flagging meetings will be in the South Tower classroom again. Sam told Bruce he will need to get in touch with Brian at VIR to request access for individuals who need to get into the track before our event registration opens on Friday. There was some more planning talk, then Al mentioned he believes Chris Schimmel will be at the May event for tech and he would be happy to get to the track early on Friday before our event. Sam said he will have fewer race chairs and fewer trucks for this event, so Rob Wilmoth volunteered to help Sam if needed, and Rob is now an assistant race chair. Sam has reserved two golf carts for us to use, one for tech and one for the stewards. Ben said he will need gas for the ATV before the event, and Sam said he will need to go get non-ethanol gas for it outside of the track. Sam said he is working on t-shirts for this event as well.

New Business

1. June TT at NCCAR: Anna said registration is open for the event, but we have not started advertising for the event yet as it is still a little while away. She said we are trying to raise interest in the open wheel community to allow those drivers to bring their vehicles out to our event. If we get enough interest, we will have an open wheel group for this event. Anna said Ryan Cheek has been trying to get people to sign up for this as she is hoping to drive her open wheel Pikes Peak vehicle at NCCAR. John Bodnar is already starting the conversation about transponders. Stephen Miller said we already have 20 drivers registered, which is good considering how far out we are. We have a slightly later date than normal for this event, but we are hoping for good weather. Ryan Lohrman said he would make a video promoting the SEDiv TT points series which is a program he has been heading up. Rob said he would be promoting our event at the Morrisville Cars and Coffee the weekend before the TT, which is also the weekend of the NCR autocross at NCCAR.

Megan Tyler said some Atlanta Region members attended the Super Tour and asked Al if they had been at the Super Tour in tech. Al said they had been at tech and that one of them was going to be at our May event. Al said they were very helpful and seemed to enjoy being at the event. Megan said she would love for some more information from Al about their experience at the event to see if there is anything we can use to try and entice some more young people into volunteering at our events. Rob said he also had a few new volunteers attend the Super Tour and he had some detailed feedback about their experience during the event. Rob said two other first timers he invited did not have a great experience during the event. They had not registered beforehand, showed up on Sunday morning, and had to have MSR accounts and weekend memberships set up. Rob said they then went to try and help in grid and were told to leave by a steward as they did not have the correct armbands to be in a hot area. Anna asked Bruce about this and he said he did not remember the specifics of what happened or why they got blue armbands instead of red. Rob said he spent the weekend at the Super Tour doing multiple different jobs and said he felt more people should get this kind of experience as it was a great way to get to know what took place during a race weekend.

Motion to adjourn the meeting (Lohrman/Wilmoth). Approved at 8:05pm.

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