BoD Minutes – November 2018

Minutes of NCR-SCCA Monthly Board of Directors Meeting

November 28, 2018

Present: Anna Crissman, Justin Deffenbaugh, Rex Deffenbaugh, Bruce Dover, Jennifer Dover, Patrick Gilligan, Sam Fouse, Buddy Matthews, Joedy Pennington, Heather Powers, James Shanks, and via conference call, Heather Clark, Morgan Mehler, Ben Tyler, and Kit Williams. Blair Deffenbaugh did not attend.

  1. The NCR BoD meeting was called to order by RE Sam Fouse at 7:28 PM, on Wednesday, November 28th 2018, at Piper’s Deli, 3219 Old Chapel Hill Road, Durham, NC,
  2. Elizabeth Severt and Ben Tyler attended as guests via telephone. Justin Deffenbaugh, Patrick Gilligan, and Joedy Pennington attended as guests in person.
  3. Motion to approve the October minutes, as posted on the Google drive (Senior / Crissman). Passed.

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

 Financial Report.

 Treasurer Heather Powers reported that the Region had a total of about $143K in the bank at this time, $86K in the money market savings account and $56K in checking, which includes about $10K already received in entry fees for the rescheduled Goblins Go in December. Solo has about $11K in their account. She said she anticipated an additional $25K still to be paid out in worker credits for the year. Ms. Powers agreed with Sam that we could anticipate that our December event expenses would be considerably less that the $35K deposit we paid to VIR at the start of the season, so we should expect a surplus to carry over for 2019. It just remains to be seen how much that will be. Regardless, they both agreed that next year would be very tight until revenue started to flow in for the Spring Sprints Majors.

Old Business:

  1. New Conference Phone. Bruce apologized to everyone that there would not be a new conference phone as he had promised. It turns out that the one he was looking at with the remote microphones required a dedicated hard line and thus would not be suitable for us. Our current phone connects via Bluetooth to someone’s cell phone and calls are made wirelessly on the owner’s cell plan.
  2. Goblins Go Final Details. Upon a question from Sam, Joedy reported that he thought we had the pace car situation covered but just barely. He said he thought he could meet the minimum required of three, but not likely more than that. Mark Senior brought to the Board’s attention the trouble he was having staying within the food budget for the event. VIR was still having its Brewfest on Saturday but now they were very much hoping that we would be part of it, since they did not anticipate much of a crowd from outside. So, we would be having a barbecue plate from them for Saturday’s lunch, though those not wishing to have barbecue could choose a ticket good at the Pagoda window instead. Our Saturday social would be either upstairs or at the Gallery where VIR was hosting their event, and in that case, attendees would get one or two tickets to obtain free beer samples. The real issue was Sunday lunch. Mark favored a hot meal of lasagna upstairs in the Pagoda, given the likely weather conditions, but this would be about $16 per person as opposed to the usual $11 per person sandwich and chips at the window. The problem was that this would significantly increase his cost and exceed his budget of $42000. He said that realistically it would be over $4500, including the increased amount of hot chocolate and coffee he would be serving Saturday morning, though he thought he could work with VIR to bring that down. Sam indicated that the profit margin for the event was razor-thin, no more that $800 to $1000 over break-even at that moment. After much discussion, the Board voted. Motion to have lasagna upstairs on Sunday instead of the usual sandwiches (Senior / Shanks). Passed. Ben Tyler indicated that we were desperately short of flaggers, as many as ten. Sam indicated that we would have to cancel the event if we were reduced to hiring folks from VIR as that would destroy our budget. Kit Williams volunteered on the spot since his time trials car would not be ready. Others suggested that the stewards should man station three. Anna and Sam told Ben that if we go ahead, then we will have to beat the bushes and find more people. On a different topic, Justin Deffenbaugh reported that he had about 25 drivers for the time trials portion of the event.

New Business:

  1. Annual Banquet Update. Elizabeth Severt reported that our annual dinner would be held Saturday, January 12th, at a new venue in downtown Wilmington, The Brooklyn Arts Center. She had arranged for the same caterer as the last time the dinner was in Wilmington, so the menu would be about the same. There would be a cash bar available, with drinks ranging from $5 for beer and up the $7 for wine or cocktails. She planned to purchase some tickets for these in advance, so that all guests could have one or two free drinks. She estimated that we could keep the costs about the same as last year, $35 per person or $60 per couple, depending on the Region’s contribution to the event. Anna and Sam asked her to e-mail her projected budget to the Board members, so that we could vote on that at the December meeting.
  2. Election Procedure Details and Committee. Sam had appointed James and Bruce to the Elections Committee and was looking for a third volunteer. There being no takers, he opted to accept the position himself. It is the Elections Committee’s job to oversee the election of officers and announce the results. Bruce is the chair, as he has the lion’s share of the job to do. The process will be via the Survey function in MotorsportReg.co (MSR). Both Tarheel Sports Car Club and Washington DC Region use this method. MSR will validate each voter against the SCCA’s master database to determine eligibility to vote. One must be a member of both the SCCA and North Carolina Region. Bruce will prepare a ballot and then each member will be sent an e-mail giving them a link to the ballot. He will construct a separate, smaller version of the survey (ballot) for dual members who are not North Carolina Region of Record voters and tabulate the results together. First, he is going to use Constant Contact to inform everyone of the pending election and to introduce the candidates. The Bylaws indicate that the ballots should go out, or in this case, balloting should begin, by the first Wednesday in December and conclude on the 31st. This timeframe puts an unfortunate strain on Bruce to get everything underway very quickly, since we postponed the November Board meeting by a week.
  3. Nominations for The NCR Board of Directors. Per the Bylaws, nominations are due in the Secretary’s hands by the end of the November Board meeting. James announced that he received nominations for Anna and Heather Powers to continue in their current roles, Assistant RE and Treasurer, respectively. They will be running unopposed. For the two Member-at-Large positions there were a total of three nominees, Rex Deffenbaugh (an incumbent), Joedy Pennington, and Mark Senior.
  4. Volunteer Incentive Program. With the prospect of at least $25K in worker credits about to hit the expense side of our ledger, the Board took up the future of the Volunteer Incentive Program. The current system of reimbursement seems antiquated, given that other Regions are giving cash or gift cards directly to their volunteers at the events for which they volunteer. This would greatly lessen the burden on the Office Manager, Bruce said, and he advocated that we adopt a similar strategy. Sam was also in favor of an “at-the-event” approach as this would simplify our bookkeeping and eliminate both the uncertainty of how well we are doing as each event completes as well as the large expenditure all at once, which plagues us now. Heather Powers said, however, that she had spoken with our professional accountant about this very subject, and he was of the opinion that cash or gift cards constituted wages and that we would have to issue an IRS Form 1099 to each compensated volunteer at the end of the year. There was much discussion and several people who are independent business owners took issue with the accountant’s claim, since each volunteer receives less than $600 annually, which is some kind of IRS cut-off point for 1099’s. In the end, the issue was tabled until the next meeting. Sam will check with other Regions, to ascertain their practices and whether they have had professional advice about them or have been audited, before we make a decision.
  5. National Convention Arrangements and Advances. Heather Powers indicated that she had sent checks for the expense advances in the agreed upon amounts ($1000 each to the RE and ARE, $500 to all other official attendees) to their respective recipients, with the exception of Christina Peterson. Bruce gave her Christina’s address so she might do that and Sam tasked Mark Senior with contacting Christina and making sure she knew how to make all the other arrangements she might need. Ben said he wanted to be the Region’s free “newbie” attendee and Ms. Powers agreed to send him an advance check as well.
  6. Time Trials Chair for 2019. Sam indicated that he had been asked by Shane Finlan, the Time Trials head for Southeast Division, who our official representative would be for 2019. Sam suggested Justin Deffenbaugh or Stephen Miller, or both as co-chairs. Justin said that he and Stephen Miller had discussed it and that he was comfortable with Stephen doing the job. He indicated that Shane and Stephen already knew each other, so this was a plus. Justin added that the entire Time Trial rulebook had been rewritten for 2019 so that would mean that Stephen would be busy trying to figure out how we could participate. In response to a question as to why our event, little though it was, was not on the SCCA Time Trials website, Justin said that those events were part of the national tour, and that other lesser events, were not mentioned nationally. It was observed that perhaps one order of business for Stephen Miller in his new role would be to try to change that.

Chapter and Committee Reports: As of this writing, there were no Chapter or Committee reports for October 2018 posted on the Google drive.

Motion to adjourn at 8:50 PM (Powers / Shanks). Passed.

Submitted by Secretary, James Shanks

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