BoD Minutes – January 2024

January 17, 2024 Board Meeting Minutes

 Attendees: Kit Williams, Anna Crissman, James Shanks, Bruce Dover, Megan Tyler, Same Fouse, Al Heatwole, Lee Hill, John Bodnar, Stephen Miller late

Guests: Ryan Lohrman, Eric Danielsen, Mark Senior, Ben Tyler

1. The meeting was called to order by Anna Crissman, NCR RE, at 7:01 pm.
2. Motion to approve the minutes from the December meeting (Hill/Fouse). Approved.

Financial Report

Treasurer Sam Fouse has sent the financial report to Kit Williams, Secretary before the meeting.

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.

Chapter Reports

James said the Triangle Chapter had met on the first Wednesday of the month. James had made a written report of the meeting, and said they watched some in car racing from the ARRC, and they also toasted and had a remembrance for Natasha Euliss-Uftring, who suddenly passed at the end of December. Lee Hill said the West Chapter met at their usual day and location. They also discussed Natasha, and the upcoming SCCA National Convention, which was virtual. Cape Fear Chapter did not meet in January due to weather forcing Chris Severt to cancel the meeting.

Old Business

1.  Annual Banquet Update: Elizabeth Severt had sent her notes to Anna before the meeting. She is waiting to hear back about catering from one venue, who has told her they will get with her tomorrow. Anna said something that had been discussed would be doing a brunch event somewhere near Raleigh at a restaurant. This would make renting a venue much cheaper, and would allow us to do awards earlier in the day, allowing people to travel back home by the end of the day. Anna said one venue they looked at had a minimum food and drink purchase amount of $4000. The venue Elizabeth is looking at is Tobacco Road Sports Cafe & Brewery, which has a capacity of 125 people. The date they are looking at would be February 18th. Sam asked if we would allow award winners to attend for free as we did last year, and Anna said we would not be doing that this year as we lost quite a lot of money on the banquet last year. Al said they had almost finalized their awards for the end of the year and expected them to be finished up very soon. James made the Board aware that Devin Anderson, the 2023 T4 National Champion, was an NCR member. James had reached out to him to find out about him, and he would be making a post about Devin on the NCR website sometime soon.
2. SEDiv Conference: Anna asked if everyone who is interested in attending the SEDiv conference had reached out to Sam yet. The Board is assisting with expenses for Board members who wish to attend. There are multiple options for places to stay around the conference, and Sam said that any Board member who attends can simply send them an expense report after the event and he can help with getting people reimbursed.

New Business

1. Super Tour Planning: Anna said she and Megan Tyler have been hard at work on the Supps for the April Hoosier Super Tour at VIR. SMX is a new class for this year at Super Tour events so they have added them to the grouping lists. Anna said we expect less people than previous years, and we are not doing a camping buyout this year. She was not sure who is renting the track the days before us and how that will work out with test days and load in, but we have time to work that out before the event. She also said that VIR has bought out the Quantum building and is using it for something undisclosed, so we will have to find somewhere else to host registration. Anna said we have just received a contract from VIR, which we will go over soon, but we still need to work out the details with workers for the event. Sam said the proposed schedule has us finished by roughly 4:30 pm each day, which would be fantastic if we can keep to that time line. Megan said they had reorganized the lunch times to make it more efficient each day. Anna said they were still planning the worker social and would need to do more planning as we get closer to the event. Al offered to grill some food for our workers by the Speed Suite at the end of the day, which the Board felt could be a great option. Sam pointed out that there is a race at Summit Point one week before our Super Tour, which could also dampen our attendance. Anna said we had looked at the entrance fees for the other Super Tours across the country and they were all at or above our entry fees from last year. Lee said Sebring had a large number of entries, which could bode well for our event. This then led into a discussion of our VIR contracts for the year, which we received yesterday. Anna said the Board should be receiving a copy of the Supps soon, and she asked everyone to look them over and provide feedback once they get them.
2. VIR Contracts: Sam said the new contracts are asking us for a deposit up front for all of our events at the start of the year. This would mean we would have to pay our October deposit 9 months in advance, and that deposit alone is $21,000. Sam said this would put us out over $100,000 in deposits, which is more than we have in the bank. We also need to pay our deposit for NCCAR. Sam has asked Mark Senior to get back to VIR and ask them to defer the full deposit requirement. Sam pointed out that we are giving our March event to SCCA Time Trials, which does reduce our cash flow out at the start of the year. Sam felt it would be very tight, but we could make things work as long as we can defer the October deposit. Lee, who is the SEDiv treasurer, pointed out that the SEDiv does have a bank balance and they could help the region out if need be. Lee said they had done this in the past with other regions for their events and expenses. Sam thanked Lee for the offer, but said he expected us to be able to make do. Sam and Lee discussed ways to set up a way to help regions, NCR included, with event expenses in the future. Ben Tyler pointed out that in the contract section of Exhibit B, we are now required to rent two grid workers, one pit out worker, and one radio controller. He also said that the worker fee is now $200 per person per day, with an additional fee if we go over 8 hours of work in a day. The workers provided do not include the Start stand, Tech, the Paddock, Timing and Scoring, Pace Car, Stewards, and Grid. The grid workers VIR requires us to rent will not be working in grid as we would define it, they will be traffic control and will allow track access, not grid cars. The pit out worker will do a similar function, so we will still have to have our own people in Grid and Pit. Eric pointed out that we will still have to work Hospitality and we will need to have a solution for trophies. Eric said he has been asked to work as the trophy chair for our events, and would do so.

Motion to adjourn (Miller/Fouse) at 7:56 pm. Motion passed.

There was a closed session after the meeting to discuss a personnel issue.

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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. See NCR Contact Directory here.

Submitted by Secretary Kit Williams