BoD Minutes – July 19, 2017

Minutes of NCR-SCCA Monthly Board of Directors Meeting

July 19, 2017

Present:  Anna Crissman, Heather Clark, Rex Deffenbaugh, Bruce Dover, Buddy Matthews, Joedy Pennington, Mark Senior, James Shanks, and via conference call, Sam Fouse, Blair Deffenbaugh, Eric Danielsen, John Lindquist, Morgan Mehler, and Ben Tyler. Heather Powers and Matt Decker did not join.

  1. The NCR BoD meeting was called to order by Assistant RE Anna Crissman at 7:33 PM, on Wednesday, July 19th 2017, at Piper’s Deli, 3219 Old Chapel Hill Road, Durham, NC,
  2. Joedy Pennington, in person, and on the phone, Eric Danielsen, John Lindquist, and Ben Tyler, attended as guests.
  3. Motion to approve the corrected June minutes as posted on the Google drive (Senior / Clark)

Financial Report.

Treasurer Heather Powers had informed Bruce Dover that she has no new information to present after the extensive reports that she had provided last month.

Old Business:

  1. IMSA Event August 24-27. Bruce reported that he had paid the VIR vendor fee and the insurance waiver. John Lindquist, who is heading up the event, reported that he had volunteers lined up to bring their cars to the track and others to staff the booth all three days. Load-in occurs the day before, on Thursday, August 24th, and those bringing cars may leave their trailers behind the Gallery for the duration of the event, which concludes at 4:00 pm Sunday, August 27th. John indicated that he could not be there himself, but Sam Fouse and Brian Hooper would be jointly responsible for running things at the track. He also said that he had cleared the membership discount with the SCCA National Office and that he was requesting that Bruce prepare some sample membership forms that would show the volunteers exactly how to prepare a regular, a family, a first gear or active military membership form properly, so that all they would have to do was copy the sample. Bruce agreed to provide those. Everything seems to be coming together well, John concluded.
  2. 2018 Schedule. Sam announced that he had participated in the SEDIV Mid-Year Meeting via phone, using South Carolina Region’s RE, Melanie Murray, as his vote proxy. He texted her “yea” or “nay” as appropriate during the meeting. Sam also sent a copy of the tentative 2018 SEDIV schedule via e-mail to all the Board members at the conclusion of that meeting. A copy of that document resides on the Google drive under July for 2017 of the Executive Board folder. As noted before, the annual Runoffs (to be held in Sonoma, California for 2018) have been moved forward from the end of September to the week of October 13- 21, which causes chaos with the traditional schedule for the end of the season in SEDIV. Our Goblins Go will remain the weekend of October 13-14, even though this is a conflict. Meanwhile. Jim Creighton, on behalf of SEDIV, is trying to move the SIC to Daytona, the last weekend in September (September 28 – October 1), but failing that it will occur on October 6-7 at Roebling Road as usual. Sam indicated that he was in favor of the move to Daytona, as that would give us a kind of mini-Runoffs in the Southeast, and the earlier date would be better for our car count at the Goblins Go. Only time will tell how all this plays out. NCR’s tentative 2018 schedule is
  • March 10 – 11             March into Spring
  • April 13 – 15               VIR Sprint Sprints Majors
  • May 5-6                       SARRC / MARRS Challenge
  • October 13-14             Goblins Go
  • October 21                  PDX

Sam said that he did not pursue the idea of dropping our March date in favor of trying to get one in June because CCR indicated that they were in negotiations with the SCCA National Office to host a Conference Majors at Charlotte Motor Speedway on June 8 – 10 of next year.

  1. SEDIV Meeting Highlights. Sam said that the only other noteworthy thing that happened at the SEDIV meeting, other than hammering out this tentative schedule, and discussing the possibility of having the SIC at Daytona, was a short, informal address by SCCA’s new president, Mike Cobb. There were also some minor SEDIV bylaws changes that were voted on as well.
  2. Annual Meeting. Buddy Matthews said that he had contacted the Vailtree Center and that we only had to pick the exact date in January that we wanted to have the annual meeting and awards dinner. After determining that the SCCA National Convention was the third weekend in January, January 18 – 20, and the SEDIV annual meeting was the first weekend in February, the Saturday of the second weekend in January, January 13, was chosen. This is our traditional date, but unfortunately it conflicts with the opening Super Tour Majors at Sebring, just as it has in the past. Buddy said he would confirm the date with the Vailtree Center and let them proceed with the arrangements.
  3. Code 35 Survey Update. Morgan Mehler had recently posted to the Google drive (under July 2017), and circulated to the Board members, the final results of the Code 35 survey. He produced several documents of complete responses to the questions, including the written comments, one for just Code 35 respondents, one for Full Course Yellow (FCY) respondents, one for respondents who had experienced both procedures, and a huge compilation of all the responses. More importantly, he produced a graphic summary of the results. The results so far indicate that Code 35 as currently implemented, is not popular among drivers, and that 55 to 60 percent of them prefer the FCY procedure. Accordingly, the Code 35 committee, Morgan said, recommended that the FCY procedure be the primary procedure used at the Goblins Go, with the Code 35 procedure held in a reserve as a backup for when EV needed to get on track very quickly. There was a lively discussion emphasizing that our current Code 35 procedure was a work in progress and that what we needed to do was to produce a document so that all stakeholders, driver, stewards, workers, and EV, would all be on the same page. The Code 35 committee will continue working towards this end.
  4. Speed Suite Purchase. Bruce raised the issue of logistics if we were planning on using the soon-to-be-purchased Speed Suite at VIR for Registration at this year’s Goblins Go. Sam said that would not be feasible, and that in fact it might never be feasible, given the parking situation, but that we would have to see how it worked out in the future. We would also have to remodel the suite first to provide a bathroom inside the unit. Initially it should be considered as secure storage and a potential meeting place for F&C. Sam added that the Speed Suite purchase is underway, and that we have made a deposit, and we are now just waiting for the bank to get the mortgage arranged. It appears that we are still on track to complete the purchase by August 1st but that will depend on how quickly BB&T can get its affairs together.

New Business:

  1. Supps for Goblins Go. Anna said that her preliminary review is underway and that she hopes to have a draft copy for the Comp Board to review by August 1, pending new language about Code 35 and Full Course Yellow. A Race Chair is still needed for this event.
  2. Supps for PDX. Mark Senior reported that the SCCA National Office is still in the dark ages regarding PDX events, and has not updated their requirements along the lines of what others are doing, or even along the lines of how their own much-streamlined Track Night program works. They still require a sanction number, supplemental regulations, and whole list of officials, just as they do for a race. Required officials include an Event Chair, a Chief Instructor, a Chief Classroom Instructor, a Safety Steward, and Chiefs of Pit and Grid, Tech, Registration, and Flagging and Communications. Mark is working on some Supps by reviewing some from other organizations, as well as our own from 2009 and earlier. There will be 5 groups total, 4 for students, Green, Yellow, Red, and Blue, based on experience, and one for the instructors. The plan is for three 20-minute sessions each and a total cost for the entrant of just under $200. The event is to be called the Harvest Moon Hot Laps and Bruce will create an event on MotorsportReg.com for it. Blair Deffenbaugh has agreed to be the Event Chair for this event.

Chapter and Committee Reports: As of this writing there was only the Cape Fear Chapter report for June and July posted on the Google drive under July for 2017.  As noted before, there were also the Code 35 survey documents, the tentative 2018 schedule, and the minutes from last month.

Motion to adjourn at 8:21 PM (Senior / Clark). Passed.

Submitted by Secretary, James Shanks

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