BoD Minutes – November 23, 2021 (Emergency Meeting)

Minutes of NCR-SCCA Emergency Board of Directors Meeting

November 23, 2021

Present:  Cameron Conover, Anna Crissman, Blair Deffenbaugh, Justin Deffenbaugh, Bruce Dover, Sam Fouse, Al Heatwole, Stephen Miller, Mark Senior, James Shanks, and Kit Williams, all attended via Zoom video conference.  Paul Spencer did not attend. There was some question about whether he had received notice of the meeting.

  1. The NCR Emergency BoD meeting was called to order by RE Anna Crissman at 7:31 PM, on Tuesday, November 23rd
  • March 2022 VIR Event. The sole item to be discussed was the nature of the March 2022 event to be held at VIR, in light of the fact that Anna had been notified by Atlanta Region that their Super Tour event at Road Atlanta was going to remain on the same weekend as our March regional at VIR, March 12 -13, 2022. At issue was whether (1) we would ask, through VIR, the renter of the following weekend to exchange their date for ours, or (2) we would give the March date to the National Time Trial Program and partner with South Carolina Region for a March race at CMP as we did this past year, or (3) we would just forge ahead with our SARRC event on the same date as Atlanta’s Majors and just steel ourselves for the inevitable loss of revenue that would entail.  In order to inform our discussion, Sam had circulated to all those present via e-mail a spreadsheet he had been working on which outlined our revenue and costs, and subsequent profit or loss, for each of our events at VIR since 2015. As expected, it showed that the margin for the March event, even when we made money, was razor-thin. He and Anna pointed out that were we to switch with the other renter, we would be liable for the increased track rental of regular season rates rather than the reduced rate we enjoyed by being an early-season renter, and that this cost was a substantial $7000 per day. That meant that the switch would immediately cost us an additional $14K. Mark said that the renter in question had informed VIR that they would not ask their Board to take up the issue unless we were serious about the swap. After considerable discussion, it was agreed by those present that we could not hope to make up this increased cost through additional entries. There was no support among those present for the second option of turning the entire weekend into a National Time Trial. That left only the third option of going ahead with our regional race weekend on the same weekend as Atlanta’s Majors and doing the best we could with it. There was some concern about our ability to attract workers to our event, but many felt that this concern would exist in any case, even if we postponed a week. Motion to accept our current date at VIR, March 12-13, and try to find ways to make it successful (Senior / Shanks). Passed.
  • Suggestions for Making the March Event Successful. Once the vital issue of what to do with the March weekend was decided, Anna opened the discussion to suggestions of what we might do to make it more successful. Al had emphasized previously that we needed to advertise it a lot and make sure that once the Regional Path to Runoffs were announced by the National Office, that we point out to regional racers that they could attend our event more cheaply than the Super Tour Majors at Road Atlanta. Sam asked whether we could forgo the usual ECR race, which had been suffering declining popularity, and instead incorporate a time trial into that weekend. Stephen and Kit agreed that it could be done, but only if we worked the schedule in such a way that the TT would be in a single block of time, such as Sunday afternoon. There was considerable discussion around this idea, and the pros seemed to outweigh the cons, if we did it correctly. Justin suggested that we give club racers who want to run the TT a discount.  Al pointed out that we could advertise this TT to Tarheel Sports Car Club (THSCC) since they have been unable to run at VIR recently due to the increased costs of renting the track. Justin then broadened his suggestion to include a discount for members of any other car club who enter the TT. Kit added that perhaps their discount should be smaller, in order to cover the costs of a weekend membership, which is $10. Anna then suggested that we close this discussion, and the meeting, since we now had a solid plan for moving forward. In closing, it was suggested that Sam add car counts to his spread sheet in order to make a ore comprehensive planning tool, and he agreed to do that.

Motion to adjourn at 8:09 PM (Senior / B. Deffenbaugh). Passed.

Submitted by Secretary, James Shanks.

 

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