BoD Minutes – July 2019

Minutes of NCR-SCCA Monthly Board of Directors Meeting

July 17, 2019

 

Present:  Heather Clark, Anna Crissman, Bruce Dover, Nikki Edwards, Sam Fouse, Al Heatwole, Adam Miller, Stephen Miller, Heather Powers, Chris Schimmel, and James Shanks, attended in person; and via conference call, Eric Danielsen, Morgan Mehler, Ben Tyler, and Kit Williams. Rex Deffenbaugh and Mark Senior did not attend.

  1. The NCR BoD meeting was called to order by RE Sam Fouse at 7:30 PM, on Wednesday, July 17th 2019, at the Steel Spatula Burger Company, formerly Piper’s Deli, 3219 Old Chapel Hill Road, Durham, NC,
  2. Adam Miller, Stephen Miller, and Chris Schimmel attended as guests in person. Eric Danielsen and Ben Tyler attended as guests via telephone.
  3. Motion to approve the June minutes, as posted on the Google drive (Shanks / Heatwole). Passed.

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

Financial Report.

 Treasurer Heather Powers reported that the Region had a total of $141K in our money market (savings) account. The checking account has just under $10K at this time, with only a few items outstanding, the largest being the remaining year-end worker credits and SEDIV fees. Sam took time to explain that SEDIV has a new treasurer after it came to light that the outgoing one had sat on some checks, including one of ours, for so long that the bank would no longer honor them. After some choice words with Jim Creighton about this, it was determined that we had already paid SEDIV what was owed them so far, except for the check that was rejected. Ms. Powers will be sending a replacement soon. Sam reminded the Board that because of this same silliness last year, the Region had adopted the policy of not sending any checks to SEDIV until they first sent us an invoice. Sam said he hoped that the new SEDIV treasurer can finally get these problems resolved. Our total cash in the bank, less checks outstanding then, is approximately $151K. Solo has just over $11K in their account.

Old Business:

  1. Test Day Event Update. There are about 90 cars signed up to participate as of this writing, which is considerably lower than expected. The general consensus was that we will get more next week after the last two remaining Majors are run, and people start to notice that our event is huge bargain compared to what SCCA National has set for the week preceding the Runoffs. Their cheapest test day is $425, and they go up rapidly from there, whereas we are offering two days for $500. It was observed that we only need about 20 more entrants to break even. After a lengthy discussion, it was decided by consensus to remove the restriction on having only Runoffs-eligible cars participate in order to help generate the number needed. Anna will notify Chief Steward Morriss Pendleton and Bruce will make the change in MotorsportReg.com (MSR). Bruce noted that the charity for the event will be Lemons of Love in honor of the recently-departed Alana Long, and that Tom Long will be present on Friday, but then he will have to leave due to his professional racing commitments.  Glenn Long, Bruce said, would be there on Saturday. Sam indicated that he had ordered the white, short-sleeved, tee shirts discussed at the last meeting and that they would be delivered to Bruce Dover’s house by Thursday, August 1st.  Someone will have to get them transported to the track on Friday, as Sam will be away at the Boy Scout World Jamboree until Saturday morning. Sam also noted that he had told Rick Poore at Shirts 101 to save the screens as these would become a stock item in our Region store, since our wholesale cost is just about $8.50 per shirt.

New Business:

  1. Runoffs and NCR. Sam asked Bruce to check with VIR that they will honor their earlier promise to rent us three rooms at the Lodge during the Runoffs, so that we may provide a base for our volunteers who might need a place to freshen up or even stay temporarily. Then Sam explained to the Board that he had received a second letter from the National Office detailing what services they were requesting that NCR provide. Discussing this was complicated because the letter contained language which indicated that it should be kept confidential even from Board members who were not involved in providing those services. Sam promised to edit that document to remove all the confidential parts and circulate the remainder, so that we all could see just what was being requested. He subsequently did so, and that edited document is now on the Google drive under August as “NCR Runoffs Request”, and presented as an addendum to these minutes. Sam said he is recruiting drivers with pickup trucks to tow a multi-passenger tram. The tram would need an additional volunteer to act as tram conductor while in operation. It will be in operation 12 to 15 hours per day, so several volunteers will be needed. In addition, Sam needs to find drivers for a pair of multi-passenger golf carts that would run around the paddock during those hours as well. Chris asked about the scales and Sam indicated that he should have them certified and have the bill for that service sent to Deanna Flannagan. We will also be providing flags, brooms, and fire bottles, including those needed on pit toad, in Tech, and elsewhere. There was a lengthy discussion about how many fire bottles would be needed and where we could get them. In the end it was decided that we had 45 and that at least 54 would be needed, so Sam would contact WDC Region about borrowing or renting 20 of theirs, and that Heather Clark would contact our vendor in Danville to ask about renting or buying that many from them.  She was also to ask about whether they could provide quick turn-around on recharging discharged bottles during Runoffs week, October 5th through the 13th. There was also a discussion about the Region putting on a party, even though the letter did not request that we do so.  It was decided by consensus that Friday night might be the best day for this as there seemed to be nothing scheduled once the racing started, Sam said he would ask Mark to check with VIR about us using the Gallery as a venue at little or no cost, since SCCA National would be using it on Thursday night. No other costs for this party were discussed at this time,
  2. 2020 Schedule. Sam reported that the following schedule had been delivered to Sharon Rollow, who keeps the SEDIV calendar, as of the Mid-Year Meeting.
    • March 8 – 9                       “TDB”
    • April 10 – 12 Spring Sprints Majors
    • May 9 – 10 SARRC / MARRS
    • June 13 – 14 TT at NCCAR
    • August 8 – 9 * SARRC / ECR
    • October 10 – 11 Goblins Go

The asterisk on the August date indicates that we have asked VIR for this weekend but have not had confirmation yet.  If we do not get it, then the SARRC / ECR will move back to the traditional March date.  If we do get it, then we will put a Time Trial on the March date, along with some other activities, which will be required to make that weekend profitable, probably an enduro or two. We also plan to hold the Time Trial at NCCAR in June no matter what, as it will draw a different crowd than the one in March. It was observed that if we have more than one national Time Trial in a season, then we will be the only Region in the country to do that. Sam noted that we could justify having two, since we seemed to be the only Region in the country which had two perfectly good venues on which to hold them. It was noted that the Goblins Go date for next year is right on top of the national Runoffs, which are at Road America in Wisconsin that weekend. Several people observed, however, that this conflict had happened many times in the past and had not hurt our entries.

  1. Publishing the Board Meeting Agenda in Advance. Anna said that the agenda for these meetings is being published too late and that she is always being contacted by the people who participate by phone during the meeting because they have difficulty downloading it from the Google drive. She wants it published at least a day early and an e-mail sent containing a link to the document to aid in access. After discussion, Bruce agreed to publish it on the Monday preceding the meeting, though any agenda he published early might not be up to date. It was agreed by all that an incomplete agenda was preferable to a late one. Anna also said, she wanted Bruce to consolidate all the Time Trial items under one heading and he agreed.
  2. Website TT section and Reports. Bruce reported that Jeff Eng had made major updates to the website so that new pages for Time Trial schedules and results had been added, as well as old pages updated with the appropriate links for navigation. He urged everyone to take a look at the new pages now the he, Bruce, had added content, to bring them up to date. Bruce further said he would be happy to add more content or links to other sites or pages that would make these new pages more useful. Bruce also reminded the current Chapter Coordinators, and the RE, that he used to get regular reports to post on the website to keep the membership informed as to what was going on. Several people promised to do better next month.
  3. November TT at NCCAR. We still do not have an answer from anyone at the National Office about what modifications would be necessary for us to run NCCAR in both directions, which we are calling “dual rotation”, and even more unfortunately, they do not want to pursue or even discuss the matter until after the Runoffs. As this will be too late for us to do anything, given that our event date is November 9th and 10th, Sam plans to reach out to Heyward Wagner again to see whether he can be persuaded to help move things along. Stephen Miller reported that adding worker runs as discussed last time is going to require more groups and thus a schedule change. There may even have to be two worker groups, so that one can drive while the others volunteer. Stephen said he was working with Anna on the schedule changes and the required changes to the Supps, but that he hoped that everything could be wrapped up by the end of the month. Then we could open registration as soon as we had a signed contract with NCCAR. Motion to proceed with the November Time Trial, provided that a contract with NCCAR can be negotiated for less than or equal to what we spent in June (Clark / Crissman). Passed.

Chapter and Committee Reports: As of this writing, there were no Chapter or Committee reports for June 2019 posted on the Google drive. As noted above, there is a document called “NCR Runoffs Request” in the August folder accompanying these minutes.

Motion to adjourn at 9:10 PM (Senior / Heatwole). Passed.

Submitted by Secretary, James Shanks

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