NCR SCCA Board Meeting Minutes

Attendees: Kit Williams, James Shanks, Bruce Dover, Anna Crissman, Stephen Miller, Lee Hill, Chris Severt, Al Heatwole, John Bodnar, Megan Tyler, Sam Fouse, Rob Wilmoth late
Guests: Rex Loden, Elizabeth Severt, Mark Senior

1. The meeting was called to order by Anna Crissman, NCR RE, at 7:04 pm.
2. Motion to approve the minutes from the October Board meeting (Hill/Shanks). Approved.

Financial Report

Sam Fouse has sent a copy of 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.

Sam also reported that we have received a check for $2600 from the SCCA Foundation grant for the purpose of covering the VIP expenses of anyone participating in the Scholarship Program presentations. Sam then said that the Scholarship Foundation has been issued a tax ID number and is now officially a 501(c)3 entity. They will soon take over the balance of the scholarship fund into their fund, and donations to the foundation can now be tax deductible. NCR will still be in charge of the scholarships that are awarded, as we have been doing up to this point.

Chapter Reports

Chris Severt said the Cape Fear Chapter had met the previous night on the second Tuesday at Wrightsville Beach Brewing Company in Wilmington. They met with 13 attendees. There was not much business to discuss, but they watched several racing videos from the SIC and had a nice time. Chris said the December meeting may either be at a different location or may not occur due to a conflict with the vendor for that night. James Shanks said the Triangle Chapter had met on November 1st with 11 attendees. He said they watched several in car videos from the SIC and had an automotive trivia contest which was very fun. They discussed the election and the NCR banquet. Lee Hill said the West Chapter met with 13 people, most of whom were regulars. They discussed the time trial at CMP and the NCR banquet, as well as the election.

Old Business

There were no agenda items for Old Business. Anna briefly recapped the Time Trail that happened at CMP on November 11th-12th. She said it was a good event despite the weather, and while there weren’t quite enough drivers to meet the expected break even number, it was still a very good event. Anna then gave a quick update on the April road race at VIR. She said after looking into the numbers in detail with Sam Fouse and the SCCA National office, they came to the conclusion that having a Super Tour on that weekend would be the best chance to make a positive weekend both in terms of attendance and from a financial standpoint. Anna said we would likely be publishing our schedule soon after the SCCA makes their announcement that they will be taking our March TT date at VIR. Stephen said the Time Trials National Tour group had already made that announcement, so Anna said we could get working on publishing our 2024 schedule very soon. Anna said the NCR time trial schedule, the NCR autocross schedule, and any potential events with Rockingham need to still be worked on. Rob Wilmoth then chimed in that Rockingham had reached out to him asking if they could get in touch with Stephen Miller, and also to ask him to help the track work out what they would need to do over the winter months to bring their facilities up to standards for 2024. Rob said they had also asked him if there was anyone he knew of that they could pay to help them with their safety standards and help bring them up to the levels that we would need to hold an event. Stephen said he knew someone who could help with that request and he would send that information to Rob to get to the track manager at Rockingham. Al Heatwole then said he had been asked about our TT events during the CMP time trial, and he wanted to know who he could send their contact information to as they were asking to be kept up to date on our events for 2024. Rob said Al could send his contact information to him and he would keep him informed. Al said this person was also looking to attend the next West chapter meeting. Sam Fouse then said that he has been working hard on the budgeting for the Spring Sprints. He said in 2022 we had 409 entries, and in 2023 we had 310. He expects we will lose even more attendees next year as the Runoffs will not be at VIR. From a financial standpoint, this number of attendees ends up looking more like a regional event rather than a Super Tour. He expects that with the costs for putting on a Super Tour, the entry fee is likely to be above $700 again, and we will still likely struggle to succeed from a financial standpoint that weekend. Sam said he had asked the SCCA if the Super Tour fees were negotiable in any way, and he was told they are absolutely not adjustable by the SCCA. Sam said we will need to prioritize promoting this event, and we will also need to keep an eye on our costs that weekend.

New Business

1. Yearly Banquet: Elizabeth Severt said she has been looking at using Rush Hour Karting in Mooresville, which is a new location. She said based on her research so far, that is likely not going to be a feasible location due to the cost. She is still working on this, but she and Blair Deen are also looking at other locations in the Greensboro area. She is planning for this event to take place on January 20th. Elizabeth asked if there were any concerns about the Board as far as finding locations and making plans go. Sam said we would need to be careful with the budget for the event as our financial situation for 2024 is more uncertain than we would like at this point. Anna suggested she, Sam, and Elizabeth should talk more after this meeting about budgeting specifics. Sam pointed out that January 20th is MLK Day weekend, and we should potentially look at the weekend before as well. Megan Tyler pointed out that the SCCA National Convention will be taking place virtually from the 18th-26th of January, but it is not likely that a Saturday night event would conflict with anything during the Convention. Lee Hill mentioned that the National Convention is likely to remain virtual for the foreseeable future. This topic was then discussed at length, and the SEDiv convention was mentioned as well.
2. Elections: Kit Williams reported that he had received nominations for the following people: Anna Crissman for RE, Kit Williams for Secretary, Stephen Miller for Member-at-Large, and John Bodnar for Member-at-Large. There have been no other nominations and all of those candidates have gotten the three votes of support required by the bylaws. The election will take place during the month of December, and while all positions will be unopposed, we are still required to host the elections per the bylaws. Bruce will set up the election and send out the emails on the first Wednesday of December, and the election will run until December 31st.

Sam then added that Chris Schimmel will be retiring from his position as Chief of Tech for NCR. He announced this officially today, as well as his retirement from his business. Chris will also be stepping down from working Tech at our TT events. Anna and Al had said they had been somewhat made aware of this but did not know that he would be stepping down from the road racing side of things. Anna said Chris had been working with Al and Rusty to transition the Tech specialty away from his leadership and into the hands of Rusty and Al. Anna said we also did not have a Chief of Pit for 2024 and would need to work this out, but unfortunately this and the Chief of Start position are still up in the air as we still do not have a clear picture of how our worker situation will work out with VIR. Anna said there have been multiple conversations but there had not been any clear determination as to how the worker situation will play out next year. Rob pointed out that if we are able to start road racing at another track in the future, we will still need these Chief positions filled, and everyone agreed with him. Rob also pointed out that Ben Tyler did a great job at the CMP time trial working as race control.

Rob said that the DC Region had reached out to him about their 2024 TT schedule in an attempt to try and avoid us scheduling on top of each other. Anna asked Rob to make sure to put this into the TT group for further discussion.

Motion to adjourn (Wilmoth/Fouse). Approved at 7:54 pm.

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.

Submitted by Secretary Kit Williams