BOD Minutes – December 18, 2013

Summary of the Minutes of NCR-SCCA Monthly Board of Directors Meeting
December 18, 2013

PRESENT:  Rex Deffenbaugh, RE, Buddy Matthews, Bruce Dover, Vern Harrison, Jerry Pell, Steve Keadle, Ginny Condrey, Clayton Condrey, Josh Lyman, Steve Rose, Sam Fouse, Heather Powers, James Shanks, Blair Stitt, and, via telephone conference call, Eric Danielson, John Lindquist and Mark Senior.

1.  The NCR BoD meeting for December was called to order by Rex Deffenbaugh, RE, at 7:39 PM on Wednesday, December 18, 2013, at Carver’s on Elm Restaurant, 106 West Elm Street, Graham, NC 27253 (Exit 147, I-85/40).

2.  The RE introduced guests in attendance:  Clayton Condrey, Josh Lyman, Steve Rose, Heather Powers, Blair Stitt and Bruce Dover.

3.  Motion (Shanks/Fouse) to approve the minutes of the NCR BoD meeting of November 20, 2013, as amended to reflect the correct month as May, instead of April, in the 4th line of paragraph 2 under Old Business; Passed.

FINANCIAL REPORT:

Treasurer, Steve Keadle, presented to the Board a written financial report including a Profit & Loss Budget vs. Actual, for the period January, 2013 through November, 2013. On a cash flow basis, for said first 11 months of 2013, the actual net loss is $21,363.61.  Steve pointed out the major over budget item was that track rental cost, food service cost, and merchant fees.  Tech was over budget by an amount approximately equal to the cost of the unanticipated, but necessary, repairs to the scales room.

Steve also presented to the Board a proposed Profit & Loss Budget Overview for the year 2014.  Steve pointed out that certain budget numbers in the overview have been adjusted, from the previous year, including a reduction of projected income of approximately 13%, to reflect the lack of a NCR March race event at VIR, the increased track rental per day in 2014, over the rate(s) charged per day by the track last year. John Lindquist pointed out that in 2014 we will not have the cost of the repairs for the scales room and will have a lower advertising expense, because of the use of our own email blast program, as our Region’s primary communication method with SCCA drivers with reference to soliciting their attendance at our 2014 race events at VIR.  Motion (Shanks/Fouse) to accept the proposed 2014 budget; Passed.

OLD BUSINESS:

1.  Enduro Series.  Steve Keadle presented to the BoD information about the Atlantic Enduro Cup (“AEC”) series.  Robert Mays is a steward for this series.  It was pointed out that at no cost to the NCR (except for trophies) we can include this series in our 13 Hour enduro race, by adding the AEC series 5 classes (groups of SCCA car classes) in our 13 Hour enduro event.  The Board discussed the fact that this series could potentially increase our total entries for our 13 Hour event.  No funds would be paid by the NCR to the AEC series, but the Region would provide the trophies for the 5 “classes”, that constitute the AEC series.  Motion (Lindquist/Keadle) to add the AEC series to our 13-Hour enduro event, beginning in 2014; Passed.

2.  Free Admission Passes:  Ginny Condrey outlined the issues of free admission passes that were given out to allow an entry of a spectator to one of our Region’s races at VIR in 2013, which passes failed to specify the requirement that the holder of a pass must register during our scheduled Registration hours for the event, and she indicated some other issues with the passes.  The Board discussed the matter and feels the Board must control issuing of free passes, and that no one may issue any free passes without prior Board approval and that all passes that are authorized shall specify thereon that the person in possession of a pass must present themselves to NCR Registration during its normal event registration operating hours, in order to gain admission to the track, for our VIR race event, pursuant to an authorized pass as provided by the NCR, with prior Board approval.

3.  Worker Lunches.  John Lindquist, Comp Board Chairman, advised the Board of the Comp Board’s suggestion that workers be given a “ticket”, for use in purchasing their lunch at the track. There was some strong feeling that the track would expect to keep the ticket at its full value.  After a long discussion by the BoD of the various options regarding paying for workers’ lunches at VIR, Mark Senior offered to talk with the track to try to negotiate with the VIR food service unit, at the track, a method to use a lunch ticket for workers, which would limit the Region’s dollar exposure.

4.  Insurance for Pace Car.  John Lindquist inquired as to whether the liability insurance provided by National SCCA to the Region for its sanctioned race events would cover physical property damages to a pace car provided by a third party, to the NCR, and being used by the Region as a pace car at its races.  It was suggested that we will need to talk with National SCCA (Insurance Department) about the SCCA liability policy coverage it provides and obtain their opinion as to whether the SCCA policy covers a pace car (liability for physical property damage to the car and any related personal injury) owned by a third party, but being used by the NCR at a sanctioned NCR race event.

NEW BUSINESS:

1.  VIR Contract.  The Board discussed the proposed 2014 track rental contract with the NCR and some of its issues. The Board decided that the May race event would remain a two day event in 2014, being the SARRC/MARRS event, but that the Board intends to include two TCPS races in this May weekend event, by extending the hours of track rental time, and paying VIR for the extra hours, in order to provide needed track time for two TCPS races at our May 2014 event.  Further, the Board decided that it is not able to hold a March race at VIR this coming year (2014) because of the SCCA National Convention date in Charlotte in March and the track repaving schedule, which situations prevent the race from being run on a date in March which is available to both the Region and VIR.  As part of the VIR track rental contract discussion, the issue of minors being corner worker was discussed and Mark Senior pointed out that, as before, said track contract provision, which appears to prevent minors from participating as corner workers, is not going to be enforced, as the intent of the track is really to prevent minors from driving or being in the hot pits, but again as in the past, the track has permitted our authorized minors who are licensed SCCA drivers or workers, with proper minor waivers in place, to participate in our races at VIR.  Further, minors working in timing and scoring are not a problem.  Mark indicated that he will talk with VIR again and obtain clarification of the contract provisions regarding this “minor” issue.  The Board discussed signing the VIR track contract for 2014, but because the track contract, in its present form, needs to be adjusted for the changes in our VIR schedule and the extra track hours to be added in May, it will not be signed until a revised contract is obtained, by the Region.  The Board, however, authorized Ginny to now send to VIR our track rent deposit check for our four races, now scheduled in 2014 at VIR.

2.  Majors Fees/LOI.  The Board discussed the increase in the fees to be paid to the SCCA in conjunction with our Majors event in April at VIR, and the issue of our now signing a letter of intent (“LOI”) with SCCA for this event.  The RE will talk to Butch Kummer about the 2014 SCCA fees; however, the Board authorized the RE to sign a letter of intent, as the NCR will again in 2014 host a Majors event at VIR in April.  The issue of the driver entry fee for our Majors race event, however, was left open for further consideration, as the Board recognizes that in view of the substantial net loss in 2013, increase in the track rental fees in 2014, the increase in the SCCA sanction fee for the Majors in 2014 and the addition of another Majors race event by SCCA in front of our Majors event in April, 2014, may well negatively affect our entries.  Therefore, the amount of the Majors race entry fee needs to be further considered, and probably increased, to cover these increased costs and to avoid additional operating losses.

3.  Recommendations from the Competition Board.  John Lindquist advised that the Competition Board recommends that two TCPS races be added to our May 2014 event at VIR, one on Saturday and one on Sunday, by adding one hour to our rented track time each day, in order to accommodate adding these two TCPS races during May’s SARRC/MARRS event at VIR.  As the Board had already considered this issue, when discussing the track rental contract, no further action is necessary to include these two TCPS races, as the rental contract with VIR will include the extra hours that weekend to accommodate said two TCPS races.

4.  Incident.  Mark Senior advised the Board of an incident during the 13-Hour enduro race in 2013, wherein a beer bottle was tossed and hit one of the competitor’s cars after the checkered flag.  The Board discussed the difficulty of trying to determine who threw the bottle, which team member of what team was involved in throwing the bottle and how the NCR can deal with this serious matter.  The RE will talk with the team that made the complaint about the beer bottle hitting their car, and will try to determine the identification of the guilty party and the team of the guilty party.  An appropriate letter will be, thereafter, drafted as to the NCR’s efforts to eliminate such dangerous and totally improper conduct in the future and our Region’s intent to punish the guilty party, if sufficient proof can be obtained as to who threw the beer bottle.

REPORTS:

Because of the late hour (9:30 P.M), except for Publicity, all reports from the Chapters and Committees were deferred to the next BoD Meeting.  With reference to Publicity, James Shanks requested and received authority from the BoD to place one ad in Grassroots Motorsports (“GRM”) in the early spring of 2014, at a cost not to exceed the cost incurred by the NCR for its one page ad last year in GRM.  If the full page rate has gone up then less than a full page ad will be taken to publish our Region’s 2014 race schedule at VIR, again at a cost not exceeding the cost incurred last year for a one page ad in GRM.  James pointed out that he needed to get this authority tonight, as he must confirm this advertising with GRM within the next few days.

Motion to adjourn at 9:38 P.M.; Passed.

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