Minutes of NCR-SCCA
Monthly Board of Directors Meeting

January 16, 2018

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

1. The NCR BoD meeting was called to order by RE Sam Fouse at 7:30 PM, on Tuesday, January 16th 2018, at Piper’s Deli, 3219 Old Chapel Hill Road, Durham, NC, 27707.
2. Eric Danielsen and Ben Tyler attended as guests via telephone.
3. Motion to approve the December minutes, as posted on the Google drive (Senior / Fouse). Passed.
4. Motion to amend the November minutes, to correct the spelling of Heyward Wagner’s name, (Fouse / Senior). Passed.

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

Financial Report.

Treasurer Heather Powers had produced an end-of-the-year balance sheet and a more detailed financial report that she gave to Sam at the recent Annual Meeting and Awards Dinner. Sam felt, however, that the Speed Suite was not correctly listed as an asset on the balance sheet, and the two of them, he and Heather, were working on resolving that issue, as well as on some others. They plan to have something more definite to share with the Board by next month. Using Heather’s report as a working document, Sam estimated that we made a surplus for the year of about $15K, which is very good, but not as good as the approximately $65K we made the year before. Sam attributed much of this to our losses in March, and to our loss on the PDX in October. We lost money in March due to two factors. First was the fact that Atlanta moved their Majors on top of our event; and second, there was the constant threat of snow here, as well as actual snow in the Northeast. He expects that we will do better this March as long as the weather holds.

Old Business:

1. Appalachian Tire Vendor Fee. Bruce reported that he had contacted Appalachian Tire and told them that we would not be paying their vendor fee ($225) going forward, but that they did not have to reimburse us for past fees. They did so anyway, sending us a check for $1500, but asked that we add a link to their website (http://www.racetire,com) on our Registration form in MSR with the notation that entrants who wanted to purchase tires phone in their order three weeks in advance in order to guarantee availability. Bruce indicated that he could do that, and the Board agreed by consensus. Bruce also noted that our Supps already list Appalachian Tire and Sasco as tire vendors typically in attendance at VIR.
2. March Into Spring Supplemental Regulations. Bruce reported that he had finally received the new Atlantic Pro Cup (APC) logo to be added to our March Into Spring Supps, and that they were being circulated for final approval. The only other changes, he said, were a request by Jim Creighton that we provide a link to the SEDIV Regional-only class rules, and a request by Chief Steward Chris Current that we make sure that was extra time was available between the race preceding the ECR and the ECR, so that drivers in that race who wanted to do both could clear impound in time. The latter had been anticipated from the beginning and Bruce had added the link, so now we were just waiting for final approvals before submission to the SCCA National Office in Topeka.

New Business:

1. F&C ATV and Fire Bottles Update. Heather Clark reported that the F&C ATV needs a check-up as the transmission appears to be slipping in and out of gear. Sam volunteered to go up to VIR and bring it to Rex, who will do the diagnostics and possibly attempt the repairs, after the SEDIV Convention in early February. Sam said we should be looking for a small pickup truck for F&C to acquire as well. Ms. Clark said that Mike Sperber, who is a Ford dealer, had offered to help them locate whatever they needed. She will talk to him about it. Ms. Clark also reported that we had 14 of the jumbo fire bottles that need to be gotten rid of, as they are too large for us to really use effectively, and 13 smaller ones which need service. She estimated the service cost at $15-$25 each. The consensus of the Board was to get all of those serviced before the March race. Sam thought we should try to sell the big bottles at the March race, since he himself would consider buying one for his trailer. We just need to establish a price.
2. Awards/Photography/Video. Sam announced that he had been contacted by Art Sinnot of F&S photography, who was upset that Eric had asked for some photos without a watermark for use in the creation of the year-end awards. Art felt hat this was a conflict of interest because F&S could also make awards. He also brought up the video that Eric had made, saying that F&S could make video too. After much discussion the Board reached a consensus that, while F&S was our official photographer, since both Art and Eric were members, the Board should not be forced to choose one provider over another, and that we should be able to grant business to whomever we thought was best suited for the job. The Board further agreed that we would compensate F&S for any of their photos that were required for other uses, if that was desired. It was pointed out that any member could take whatever photos he wished for his own use, and that as long as we as a Region are not selling any photos, we are not in competition with F&S.
3. Financials and Entry Fees. Sam brought up the issue of our entry fees in light of two developments. First is that our track rental at VIR has increased just over 4 percent for 2018. The second is that both Homestead and Sebring are seeing a decline in their Majors attendance of about 20 percent over last year. In our case, this is important because it is the Majors which pays our bills. Since those tracks had already raised their fees this year, Sam suggested that we ought to consider doing the same for 2018, since there was an outside chance we could lose one of our dates at VIR in 2019 if we should get the Runoffs. Motion to raise entry fees at least 5 percent beginning in April (Senior / Crissman). Passed.
4. Need for a PA system. Mark Senior brought up the fact that the expensive in-house sound system at the Vailtree Center had given us problems at the Annual Meeting and Awards dinner and that the one VIR had at the Gallery last year was inadequate. He thought we should invest in a quality portable PA system to use at such events, since counting on others had not worked well. He said that he thought he could get an adequate system for as little as $700. Ben Tyler said he thought it would likely be more. Motion to authorize Mark to spend up to $1000 on an adequate PA system, or come back with a proposal to spend even more or a suitable system (Shanks / Crissman). Passed.
5. Open Registration for March Into Spring on February 2nd. Eric asked that we open registration for March Into Spring on Groundhog Day for marketing purposes, and Bruce said he could do that.

Chapter and Committee Reports: As of this writing there were no Chapter or Committee reports for December 2017 or January 2018 posted on the Google drive. A recap of the Annual Meeting and Awards Dinner was being prepared for publication, by James and Eric, however.

Motion to adjourn at 8:35 PM (Shanks / Clark). Passed.

Submitted by Secretary, James Shanks