BoD Minutes – August 16, 2017

Minutes of NCR-SCC Monthly Board of Directors Meeting

August 16, 2017

Present:  Heather Clark, Anna Crissman, Rex Deffenbaugh, Bruce Dover, Sam Fouse, Mark Senior, James Shanks, and via conference call, Eric Danielsen, Matt Decker, Blair Deffenbaugh, and Ben Tyler. Buddy Matthews, Morgan Mehler, and Heather Powers did not join.

  1. The NCR BoD meeting was called to order by RE Sam Fouse at 7:32 PM, on Wednesday, August 16th 2017, at Piper’s Deli, 3219 Old Chapel Hill Road, Durham, NC,
  2. On the phone, Eric Danielsen and Ben Tyler, attended as guests.
  3. Approval of the July minutes was inadvertently omitted.

Financial Report.

  None, as the Treasurer, Heather Powers, was on vacation.

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

Old Business:

  1. PDX Event Progress. Mark Senior had sent two documents to the Board members shortly before this meeting. One was a spreadsheet with an updated schedule. The other document was his work-in-progress notes for our event at VIR, October 21st. He is modifying those as he makes progress on settling the issues, such as the officials and the schedule, in order to produce Supps to be posted. Bruce created a folder called PDX on the Google drive, under 2017 of the Executive Board, where these are now stored, along with the Supps that Buccaneer Region has published for their event at Roebling Road September 9 – 10. Mark noted that the tech sheet suggested by SCCA National is to be filled out by the participants in advance and signed. This makes each participant responsible for the safety of their own vehicle, rather than the tech inspector, who will only check for obvious things. like seat belts being present, and that there is a signed tech sheet on file. There will be five color-coded student groups based on experience, as follows, with 4 twenty-minute sessions per group:
    •  instructors
    •  red – experts – race drivers and students with significant experience
    •  blue – advanced – students that have 6 or more schools
    •  yellow – intermediate – from 3-6 schools
    •  green – novice – 0 to 3 schoolsMark said he had floated the idea at the last Tarheel Sports Car Club (THSCC) meeting and it was well-received. Blair Deffenbaugh was consulted as to his plans for a social media campaign to our non-traditional participants (particularly car clubs). Blair indicated that he just needed a location on our website to link to in order to get started and Bruce agreed to provide that soon. Blair also indicated that we should use our Constant Contact e-mail system to announce the event to our racing drivers for any who might want to use the event as a test and tune opportunity. Motion (R. Deffenbaugh / Crissman) that the entry fee be $195 before October 6th and $215 afterward, with a $10 discount to any SCCA, THSCC, and active military participants. After considerable discussion, passed.
  2. Speed Suite Purchase. Sam announced that the appraisal and title search have been done and he is checking on insurance for the structure and contents. He said that it still looks like we might be able to close by September 1st and that we will start paying approximately $30 per day for facility after that.  The current plans call for the flag meeting Saturday morning to be at that location for the Goblins Go and that Bob Brookfield will be registering workers there that morning because of the early start time.
  3. Website Updates. Bruce demonstrated some improvements to the NCR web site look-and-feel which Jeff Eng had recently done. The organization was much improved, he said, making it more intuitive to use. Jeff will be doing more in the future, per item #4 under New Business below

New Business:

  1. FV Anniversary event in 2018 at VIR. Sam announced that he had had more communication with the folks who put on the Formula Vee Anniversary events. He reminded us that last year he had been approached by Fred Clark of that organization to pursue putting on the 55th Anniversary event at VIR in 2018, and when Sam said we would be willing to host it, Fred gave him $500 as a good-faith deposit. Later he had conversations with Stevan Davis of the group, who indicated that they would want a stand-alone event at VIR for just their drivers and that they would be willing to pay no more than what they did at Roebling for the 50th Sam told him then that this would not be possible due to VIR’s much higher costs. And at that point negotiations broke down. Recently he was contacted by someone who handles Formula Vee for SVRA who wanted to discuss specifics. Sam said that he explained that VIR track rental for two days was over $32K, and that with insurance, sanction, corner workers, food, and so on, he estimated that such an event would cost about $52K total for the two days. With an estimated 130 cars, this would work out to about $450 per car, or $225 per car per day, which was at least as good as could be had at any major facility in the country, in the same ballpark as test day rentals, Sam said.  Still the FV people were not happy and they have asked for their $500 deposit back. Sam indicated that he had directed Treasurer Heather Powers to send them a check. In his view, we are done with them.
  2. Supps and Other Needs for Goblins Go. Anna had circulated her latest copy of the Supps and it was up the Board to accept them and the proposed schedule. Eric Danielsen had stepped up as Race Chair and Sam indicated that there would be pressure on us to provide a really nice social, since the MARRS folks had agreed to forego their usual $25 per car fee on Sunday as their contribution to our expenses. They still get $25 per car for Saturday. Because we were also honoring the V8 Series drivers, Sam indicated that he wanted to hold the social in the VIR Picnic Shelter and he was exploring whether the Prod Fest guys would throw in with us to make it all-inclusive, especially if we offered to sweeten the deal for them. Those negotiations are still ongoing. It was noted that the Supps now contain language which indicated that Saturday’s grid will be determined by date of registration in MotorsportReg (MSR) and that people pre-gridding or racing to the grid might be penalized for doing so, with expulsion from the event possible for the most serious offenders. The Board gave tacit approval to this.  With regard to the schedule, there was a three-part Motion (R. Deffenbaugh / Senior) to the effect that the ECR would be the first race after lunch both days, but that on Sunday it would be shortened to 45 minutes, the same as the Tarheel and Carolina Cup races, that SM and SSM would be combined as one group but with the possibility of a split-start if the drivers requested it, and that SRF would be the last race of both days.  Passed after considerable discussion.
  3. Code 35 for Goblins Go. The Code 35 Committee has agreed, after reviewing the results of the driver survey, that the standard GCR-specified full-course yellow (FCY) procedure will be our primary procedure for getting EV on course during the Goblins Go. Sam said he has been reviewing event Supps from all over the country and we are the only ones which even mention Code 35, or any procedure like it, despite what people have told him about it being tried other places. In his view, the Code 35 procedure should be reserved for an actual emergency, such as an ambulance needed immediately or a fire on course. Its sole reason for being called should be to get the EVs out faster. In descending order of preference, but ascending in order of severity of the situation, the procedures should by FCY, Code 35, Black Flag All, and finally Red Flag. Language to reflect that will be made part of the Goblins Go Supps.  Flag Chief Ben Tyler would like to test his idea of ending a Code 35 procedure with a Full-Course Yellow procedure at the Goblins Go. It was tried at the recent Chump Car race at VIR with mixed results. Discussion are underway about making time for that test at lunch on Sunday or perhaps at the end of the day Sunday (which is projected to be about 3:00 PM). Alternatively, Sam offered test time at the PDX the following week. This issue will have to be worked out, but for the actual racing, FCY will remain the primary procedure.
  4. Compensation for the Webmaster. As promised last month, Sam had spoken with Jeff Eng about hiring him in a professional capacity. Jeff offered the Region a discounted rate of $50 per month or $600 per year for the same service he gives to his other web-hosting clients. Motion to hire Jeff in this capacity at this rate (Senior / Clark). Passed.
  5. Goblins Go Charity. Bruce brought up the fact that we had not settled on a charity to receive the funds collected at the lunchtime drive-arounds at the Goblins Go. It had been the NC Raptor Center, championed by Clyde Kiser, but as he was no longer with us, Bruce had suggested the American Cancer Society, as he had lost family members to breast cancer. Motion to adopt the American Cancer Society as the charity for Goblins Go (Senior / Clark). Passed.

Chapter and Committee Reports: As of this writing there was only the West Chapter report for August posted on the Google drive under August for 2017, along with the minutes from last month.

Motion to adjourn at 9:00 PM (Senior / Shanks). Passed.

Submitted by Secretary, James Shanks

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