NCR SCCA Board Meeting

August 16, 2023

Attendees: Kit Williams, Anna Crissman, Stephen Miller, Megan Tyler, John Bodnar, Al Heatwole, Chris Severt, James Shanks, Lee Hill, Rob Wilmoth late

Guests: Chris Schimmel, Frank Killian, Doug Piner

1. The meeting was called to order at 7:03 pm by Anna Crissman, NCR RE.
2. Motion to approve the minutes from the July Board meeting (Hill/Heatwole). Approved.

Financial Report

Treasurer Sam Fouse had sent the financial report to Kit Williams, Secretary.

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.

We did get the bill for the garage doors (about $3,600), and will be paying that next week.

Chapter Reports

Chris Severt said the Cape Fear Chapter met with 4 people on the first Wednesday. Chris said they are planning to move the meeting to a different location in the hope of attracting more people to attend and make the meeting more than just a few regulars. James Shanks had posted his meeting report and said the Triangle Chapter met with 11 people. They had another automotive trivia contest and discussed road racing scheduling for 2024. Lee Hill said the West Chapter met with 9 people at their usual location and time. They also discussed the VIR dates for 2024.

Old Business

1. 2024 Schedule: Anna said that Mark Senior had negotiated changing the September date to October, back to our traditional Goblins Go date. She said our March date is the same weekend as the Road Atlanta Super tour but will only be for the weekend, not the full three days. The October date will be four three days, which we have to fill with something on each day. This will be a huge challenge, especially given that there is no concrete Enduro program at the moment. She said an option would be to put on our own enduro event, or possibly using the Enduro program to support an event of our design. Getting enough entries to cover three full days of rental will be extremely difficult. Mark Senior had sent out an email saying he did not want us to give up any dates in 2024, so long as we can remain financially in the black for the year. Anna said she doesn’t want to give up any days unless we have to, but she believes that we will need to combine our events with other forms of motorsports and that we will not be able to rely on only road racing to support us for these events. Al said the later October date was a positive and felt that since the event is after the SIC, that would be the first date for the 2025 calendar. Al said he would reach out and see if the Prod Fest group would be interested in returning to the event, possibly just as a social event during or after the racing. Al pointed out that other SCCA regions are starting to charge for their social dinners. Anna said this is not something we want to pursue if we can avoid it, as we don’t want to be seen to be nickel and diming our attendees. There was then a long discussion about Roebling Road Raceway and Buccaneer region. Megan Tyler then asked a question about a group running open wheel cars at a TT event at Barber Motorsports Park and if anyone would be able to go see what they are doing. This led to a conversation about open wheels cars at TT events. Anna said it is likely we will have to have a TT event be a part of our road racing events in order to help pay the bills. Anna said discussions with VIR are still ongoing and have not been fully finalized as far as how workers are going to be handled. Megan and Al asked if we would be sending out surveys to workers and drivers about our events to help inform us on our decisions, and Anna said we would do something in that respect once we have more information. Kit pointed out that Sam had said at the last meeting that we would have to put out roughly $150,000 before the April event due to VIR requiring prepayment. Anna then stopped the conversation.
2. Rockingham: At this point, Anna stopped the VIR conversation to let Rob talk about Rockingham. He went to an autocross event there last weekend. He said it was a good event that took place on the Little Rock track. He said he had looked at the main track and saw that they had a large amount of tire bundles and bolted together jersey barriers. Almost all of the light poles on the Roval course have a tire bundle in front of them. Anna broke in to point out that Rockingham had installed light poles all across the infield grass since the last time we were there. There are roughly 30 of these light poles. Rob said Racing for ALS is going to Rockingham sometime soon for a full event, likely within the next two months. Rob said he had talked to the track manager Kim who said that Rockingham is unhappy with us and that if we want to use the track or inspect it we have to commit to doing it. She said they are a business and can’t mess around with us unless we commit to a date with them and keep it. Anna said we need to promise to come make more tire bundles for the track as a peace offering. Rob said he thought this was a bad idea and instead we should come up with a list of dates so that we can have a track inspector come and look at the track. Stephen explained that we had multiple missed dates due to multiple issues, including some illnesses. Rob said the track manager had told him that they were no longer using our safety recommendations and were focusing on a NASCAR event in 2024. Stephen felt we should still approach them to try and get amateur road racing back to the infield. Al agreed that we need to come up with a list of dates that we can get a group of people to go down to the track and build tire bundles and inspect the track for safety. Anna said she wanted to empower the people who are in contact with Rockingham to do what they need in order to get us back on track with the facility and to schedule when we can get back in the track’s good graces. Rob said we need to pick four days this fall, poll the membership to see when the most people are available, and get with the track to see when we can come down and work on the track and build tire bundles for them. Rob said he thinks the track feels hard done by us not coming to build tire bundles for them earlier this year, and that their priorities have shifted to NASCAR and their events. He said that he will be getting in touch with the track manager Kim tomorrow to work out some scheduling for other events and other groups.
3. 2024 Schedule Again: Anna brought us back to the VIR racing conversation and said we would have difficulty paying the bills unless we can get creative or guarantee some level of interest in our events. Sam had sent an email to the Board during the meeting saying he was not sure we could stay in the black in 2024 and that he doubts we would be able to cover all of the upfront costs that VIR now requires of us.

Stephen Miller said that we need to start thinking about elections for the Board for 2024, rather than wait until we get closer to the end of the year. Anna agreed and said we would start this conversation to see who is interested in running for their seat for next year.

Stephen then said he wanted to see if we could arrange for the next meeting to have an update from the autocross program. Anna said she felt this was a good idea and would reach out to them.

Lee asked what the term limits and election process was for the Chapter coordinators. James pointed out that it is up to the individual chapters, that there is not a specific term limit, and that an election can be had at any time that a chapter so desires. Lee clarified that he is not looking to give up his position, he is just wondering what the process is.

New Business

There was no new business on the agenda.

Motion to adjourn (Hill/Miller ) at 8:13 pm. Approved.

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