BoD Minutes – December 2023

December 20, 2023 NCR Board Meeting

Attendees: Kit Williams, Anna Crissman, Bruce Dover, James Shanks, Megan Tyler, Lee Hill, Al Heatwole, Chris Severt, John Bodnar, Sam Fouse late,

Guests: Chuck Stanley, Eric Danielson, Elizabeth Severt, Ben Tyler

1. The meeting was called to order at 7:03pm by Anna Crissman, NCR RE.
2. Motion to approve the November meeting minutes (Shanks/Bodnar). Approved.

Financial Report

Sam Fouse called in to the meeting late and gave a financial report to the Board. He sent an email 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.

Sam said for 2024 VIR will require us to prepay a percentage of each event ahead of time and the remainder two weeks in advance, which will mean we will have a few weeks where there is more money going out than is coming in. He also said we will have to renew the loan on the Speed Suite in September 2024, but did not see any issues with us rolling the balance we owe over into a new loan. Anna pointed out that we have no guarantee that we will make our money back in 2024 and we need to remain very conscious about our budgets for everything we do next year. Sam said based on his projections we are likely to make far less money on the Super Tour than we have the past few years, and the money brought in by the Super Tour has been essentially paying for all of our events for several years now.

Chapter Reports

Chris Severt said the Cape Fear Chapter met on the 12th at their new usual location at Wrightsville Beach Brewery. They had 9 people and spent most of the meeting catching up with a few familiar faces who had not been to a meeting in some time. Chris said he is working with the owners of their new location and he may need to be a little flexible in the coming months as far as what day their meetings are held on. Lee Hill said the West Chapter met at Elizabeth’s on the 12th with 11 people, most of whom were regulars. They held their Chapter Coordinator election and Lee will remain in that position in 2024. James Shanks had made his report on the Triangle Chapter meeting and uploaded it. They had 8 people attend and spoke about the ARRC and worked out their schedule for their meetings in 2024. James will continue as the Chapter Coordinator in 2024.

Old Business

1. SEDiv Conference: Anna said the registration for the SEDiv conference is open, and we need to work out who will be going and how the Board will assist with rooms and travel. Anna said we typically assist Board members who wish to attend with their expenses, and she asked for anyone who is interested in going to get registered for the event now so that we can work out how we will assist at the next meeting. The banquet for the conference is being planned by Anna and Shellie McKee. The conference will be on February 3rd and 4th in St. Simons Island, Georgia. Anna said SEDiv did get funding from the SCCA National office to help offset the cost of the convention.

New Business

1. Time Trial Dates: Anna said we have gotten our 2024 dates scheduled for NCCAR for both Time Trials and for Solo events. The TT days are June 8th-9th and November 23rd-24th. The Solo dates are April 20th-21st and September 21st and 22nd. We are hoping to add events at Rockingham as well but those are not confirmed yet.
2. Annual Banquet: Elizabeth Severt said it has been very difficult to find a location in the Raleigh area within our budget. The first several that she approached had rental fees that were over what we wanted to spend. She did say she has found a few locations in the Durham-Chapel Hill area that are available on January 20th but we are getting very close to deadlines for renting a space and getting the rest of the banquet planned. Elizabeth said she would like permission to book a location in the next week or so. Sam asked what kind of budget we would be working with and how many attendees we would need to cover our expenses for this event. Elizabeth said she has been trying to keep to the same budget as last year, but is likely expecting a small increase in costs this year. Anna asked if we could look into dates in February and how that would work. Elizabeth said this could work, but also suggested we could possibly do a bi-annual banquet rather than an annual banquet and possibly look into doing a banquet in November of 2024 and not have one in January or February. Sam said last year we spent $8650 on the event space and food alone and brought back roughly $1900 in ticket sales for the event. He said he felt that we needed to try to avoid another loss like this as we are expecting our financial situation to get tighter in 2024. Elizabeth said she understood what Sam was saying, and felt that we either needed to find a way to bring more people to the event or raise the entry fee to try and cover ourselves. Sam said we only had 28 paying couples and 19 paying single attendees last year, and we gave away free entry to anyone who won a trophy that attended. Anna pointed out that other regions are doing their award banquets quite differently, such as the Atlanta Region having their members attend a pizza party at a brewery where the members pay for their own food and drinks. Elizabeth said something like this could work, and having members pay for their own food and drink would make a big difference to our costs for putting on our banquet. Sam asked if we could look into renting the Gallery at VIR. Anna felt this might work cost wise but would require us to bring in food of some kind, basically putting us in the same position as renting another facility closer to the middle of the state and finding catering. Elizabeth said there was one facility in Raleigh that would give us a sizable discount, but the catch was we would have to book the site tomorrow. After some discussion, the Board decided this tight timeframe seemed a bit too much to manage, especially without one of us visiting the site first. Al Heatwole asked if we could look into having a banquet at Rockingham. Anna felt like this could work out but we don’t have any idea on costs or their schedule. Al said he would reach out to Rob Wilmoth and see if they can get in touch with the track and get more information. Anna presented the option of finding a brewery or restaurant somewhere that Elizabeth would be familiar with where the attendees pay for their own food and beer, and we have our awards banquet after everyone eats. This seemed like a good idea and everyone seemed to think this could be a good way to reduce our costs for putting this on. Elizabeth said she could look into this idea, and would also look for information from Rob or Al about the potential for Rockingham. Sam said he felt our event last year was fantastic, but we needed to find ways to reduce our out of pocket costs. Al said he had spoken to Eric Danielsen about our awards and we would need them sent out within the next two weeks or so. Al said he had reached out to the Chapter Coordinators and members-at-large to help get the awards finalized and sent off. He said they would likely need to have one Zoom meeting as a group to get their final list and get it sent off. Eric said any additional time we can give him to make the trophies would definitely help but two weeks before the banquet would be the shortest deadline he could work with. Anna pointed out that the more time we can give people to plan for this event, the more likely we are to have better attendance, so if we can get something nailed down soon we are more likely to have a successful event. Eric pointed out that our banquet is the same weekend as a race at Sebring, making it less likely for us to get some driver attendees. Anna summed up the conversation by saying she felt we had plenty of options available to get something nailed down this week, and felt that possibly moving the banquet to February would open up some more options.
3. Ben Tyler asked if there was any update on the F&C situation with VIR, and Anna said there was no update at this time, but she and several others are still working on it. Sam pointed out that we do not yet have a contract with VIR for 2024. Anna said she would be reaching out to Eric Prill tomorrow.

Ben then asked about what was going on with Rockingham as he had seen another group will be having a race there in 2024. Anna said we are hoping to have at least a time trial at the track but we do not have any concrete plans with them yet.

Motion to adjourn (Tyler/Fouse). Approved at 8:05 pm.

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