BoD Minutes – January 19, 2016

Minutes of NCR-SCCA Monthly Board of Directors Meeting

January 19, 2016

Present: Sam Fouse, Mike Spencer, Steve Keadle, James Shanks, Rex Deffenbaugh, Blair Deffenbaugh, Mark Senior, Buddy Matthews, Heather Clark, John Lindquist, Bruce Dover, Jerry Pell, and via conference call, Morgan Mehler and Eric Danielson.

  1. The NCR BoD meeting was called to order by Sam Fouse, RE, at 7:40pm, on Tuesday, January 19th 2016, at 307 S. Swing St, Greensboro, NC, 27409.
     
  2. Guests in attendance included John Lindquist, Jerry Pell, and Eric Danielsen.
     
  3. The December 2015 minutes were amended in 2 places. First to include the word “West” in the sentence in the West Chapter report, “Discussed at the meeting was the West Chapter’s desire to see the region cancel the 13 hour event.” Second to remove the sentence “The series is known as the AEC or Atlantic Endurance Cup” as incorrect. Motion (Spencer/Keadle) to amend and approve the minutes of October 2015. Passed.

Financial Report: Treasurer Steve Keadle presented a 4-page document update to the 40-page comprehensive one he presented in December to bring us up to date as of December 31, 2015. This new one includes totals for Solo. After paying VIR the $34K for our deposit for 2016 and the $5K for the new transponder decoder for T&S, our cash in the bank is at an all-time low of just $18K. Steve said that if we have a loss in March we will have trouble meeting our obligations for the Majors, and that we should increase our entry fees immediately. In response to questions from those present, he also indicated that we could not afford to wait to charge an entrant’s credit card until after the event and therefore could not use the deferred payment option in Motorsportreg.com (MSR) as we had done in the past. It was noted that the race chairs and specialty chiefs need to be told that our financial situation is dire and that they should restrict their spending as much as possible.

Reports:

  1. Cape Fear: Morgan Mehler reported that the Chapter meeting was spent on Solo business. See the Solo report below.
     
  2. Triangle: James Shanks reported that there were 24 attendees and that the major topic was the election of a new Chapter Coordinator to take his place. Mark Senior volunteered and was unanimously elected.
     
  3. West: Buddy Matthews indicated that no Chapter meeting had been held since his last report.
     
  4. Membership: James Shanks reported that we have 751 members, a little below our normal count for this time of year.
     
  5. Competition Board: Mike Spencer reported on the Comp Board meeting held on Sunday, January 17th at the same location as this meeting. He highlighted items in the minutes of that meeting which were distributed via e-mail to all members, save Johnny Dunbar, who was also not present for the meeting. There was a discussion about combining classes and it was noted that B-Spec, which normally runs in the Prod group, should be moved to IT when Prod group is combine with GT, as it will be in March. Mike indicated that the Supps for March and the Majors were essentially completed except for the fee structure to be discussed tonight. The request for a sanction for the March race is due at SCCA National by January 27th. There was more discussion about combining classes and it was noted that we might combine classes even further if people left early on Sunday.
     
  6. Solo: Morgan Mehler reported that Solo committee have hammered out the 2016 schedule and that they are in the process of trying to acquire a new site.
     
  7. PDX/Time Trials: Morgan Mehler reported that he had been in contact with the new management at Rockingham and was sounding them about the possibility of holding a PDX there. There was a discussion about whether or not a recertification of Rockingham as an SCCA racing venue was needed before we could use it and Morgan agreed to find that out. He plans another report at the February meeting.
     
  8. Marketing: Reorganization to be handled under New Business.
     
  9. Charities: No report.
     
  10. Banquet: No report but the consensus was that the event was “awesome”. Buddy Matthews will verify by the next meeting that Heather Powers and Nancy Wentz are planning to head up the event for this season and that it will be in the Greensboro area.
     
  11. Awards: No report but the consensus was that the awards given were appropriate and of excellent quality.

New Business:

  1. Opening statement by RE:
    Sam Fouse welcomed new members Heather Clark and Morgan Mehler.
     
  2. Fill vacant Member-at-Large seat:
    Sam Fouse nominated John Lindquist, who was unanimously approved.
     
  3. Discuss 2015 finances and general conclusions:
    Sam presented an analysis in which he explained that, after examining figures with Steve, he came to the conclusion that our budgeting problem stemmed from having a lot of expenses which had to be paid from the revenues from racing, everything from worker credits to new radios, but which were not being charged back to the individual events. He determined that those totaled approximately $38K, which explained needed to be spread over the 5 events or 11 race days in order to get a true picture of what our events actually cost, an additional $3500 per day. The general conclusion was that we were not charging enough for our race entries.
     
  4. March entry fees and proforma for the event
    Sam presented another document he created, using data provided by Blair Deffenbaugh, which compared our rates at VIR with those of CCR and SCR for 2015. That document showed that our rates were substantially lower than those other Regions, at tracks which probably cost them less to rent.

    Sam then presented another document he created, a proforma, which analyzed the effect of his proposed changes in entry fees on the bottom line of the March event for 2016. His proposed changes were modest increases designed to allow the March event to break even. His plan was to make larger increases to the May and subsequent “regional” events to assure a positive cash flow. Motion (Shanks/Keadle) to accept Sam’s proposal for March was modified after discussion to raise the entry fees to those proposed for May and beyond, so that the event might actually make money. Passed. Sam promised to provide numbers and wording for Bruce to complete the Supps this week and to circulate a new proforma showing the effect of the increased fees.
     

  5. Finalize March Supps and schedule:
    There was a lengthy discussion over the practice, now included in the March Supps, of requiring all drivers in the ECR to make 2 pit stops, one for 2 minutes within the first 45 minutes, and one other for 5 minutes, in order to simplify things for Timing and Scoring so that some competitors could run both Carolina Cup, or Tarheel Cup, concurrently with the ECR. Anna Crissman had reported at the Comp Board meeting that this was doable, and that at Charlotte, as many as 20 percent of the competitors had run both CCPS and ECR, making this an important source of revenue. Heather Powers had determined that Atlanta as well as CCR was following this procedure and that it seemed generally acceptable.

    Steve Keadle asked for an addition to the March Supps as recommended by the Comp Board, that drivers who stop on course during the event remain in their cars unless there is an emergency or directed to get out by the corner or emergency workers.

    Motion (Lindquist/Keadle) to accept the March Supps with these additions. Passed.
     

  6. Re-organization of Marketing Committee:
    Sam asked that the Board accept his changes to the Marketing Committee. He appointed Eric Danielsen as head, and added John Lindquist, Morgan Mehler, Heather Clark, Rex Deffenbaugh, and Blair Deffenbaugh, who was to concentrate on giving us a viable presence on social media. Sam is also a defacto member. He charged the Committee with three specific missions:

a)      Define and expand the role of the Hospitality specialty and the tent
b)      Sell sponsorship on our web site, races, and e-mails
c)      Figure out how to improve our food service at races at a lower cost

  1. EZ-Up for the Region:
    Sam investigated the purchase of a custom 10×20 EZ-Up canopy for use as the Hospitality tent. He determined that one with our logo could be purchased for around $1500 but felt that given our financial situation that decision should be postponed until after the Majors. Regardless of whether a new canopy is obtained, it should be located across from the victory stand in the center of the paddock.
     
  2. Signal lights for 13-hour:
    Rex Deffenbaugh brought up the need for a new solution for signal lights at the corner stations for our Enduro if it continues. He said that they are currently 2 stations short of a full complement of lights and that he needed the Comp Board to decide what an acceptable alternative should look like, especially one yellow light or two. Buddy agreed that he could help provide a cheaper alternative if one were chosen. Sam took this under advisement for discussion at a later time. Also postponed was a discussion of who needed a Sam’s Club membership card.

Motion to adjourn at 9:38 pm (Spencer/Clark) Passed

MORE REPORTS

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  • BoD Minutes
  • Cape Fear Chapter Report
  • Triangle Chapter Report
  • West Chapter Report