Minutes of NCR-SCCA Monthly Board of Directors Meeting

October 16, 2019

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

1. The NCR BoD meeting was called to order by RE Sam Fouse at 7:31 PM, on Wednesday, October 16^th 2019, at the Steel Spatula Burger Company, formerly Piper’s Deli, 3219 Old Chapel Hill Road, Durham, NC,
2. John Lindquist and Chris Schimmel attended as guests in person. Eric Danielsen, Jeff Eng, and Ben Tyler attended as guests via telephone.
3. Motion to approve the September minutes, as posted on the Google drive (Shanks / Crissman). Passed.

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

Old Business:

1. Year-to-Date Financial Review. Sam said he had not had time to prepare a document to share with us, but that his preliminary review showed that while we had made about $88K on the Majors, we lost about $20K on other activities, such as the June Time Trial, the August Test Day, and the Annual Dinner. He promised to e-mail all the Board members a spreadsheet when it was completed.
2. Runoffs Debrief. Sam started the discussion by saying that we spent more than the National Office paid us for our equipment and services. They paid about $6K and we spent about $8K. The rooms at the Lodge were expensive but they were shared among 9 people, not all at the same time, and the NC Region party, which was held in conjunction with the three other parties in Wednesday night’s “Block Party”, was judged by many to have the best food. And we owe Stephen Miller a real debt of gratitude for the awesome job he did preparing and cooking that food. We also had to buy some hardware for the trams and a pair of walkie-talkies to make the corner worker shuttles work, and our fuel costs were higher than expected, since we had two trucks. The “coffee and sweet rolls” breakfast that Mark Senior prepared on the three race days costs us about $300, which also was not in the original budget. But in the end, it was all worth it.  NC Region’s reputation was greatly enhanced even though it was not our event. Sam also thanked the shuttle drivers for their service.  The National Office, he noted, also lost money, since the final car count was only 594, a couple hundred less than they had expected.

Financial Report.

Treasurer Heather Powers reported that we have about $165K in the bank, with $123K in our money market (savings) account and $42K in the checking account. Other than the big deposit due to VIR when we sign the contract for next year, which may run about $35K, the only anticipated expenditures are for the Time Trial at NCCAR, for which the deposit has already been paid, and the few worker credits owed to people who opted to take their reimbursement in a lump sum at the end of the year.  Solo, Heather noted, has just under $12K in the bank.

New Business:

1. NCR SCCA Scholarship Program. John Lindquist made a lengthy proposal about the Region establishing a college scholarship program. In essence, the Region would commit to establishing one or more small scholarships, of perhaps $500 each, to be given to graduating high school seniors with an interest in things automotive, especially competition. A committee would be established to review applications by these students and make the awards. In order to keep the number of applicants down to a reasonable size, the committee would choose just four high schools per year to participate. The benefit to the Region and the Club is that we would be seen by many more people within the geographic area that comprises NCR, and we would have a new way to reach out to the SCCA’s target demographic for the future, 19-year-olds, as well as to the public at large. We would be listed on the school’s list of available scholarships for all to see and we would be invited to be part the public ceremony in which these scholarships are awarded. John pointed out that this program would not be that expensive and that we could solicit donations from prep shops and other business partners. Sam immediately suggested that we talk to Jerry Pell about the possibility of setting up a separate NCR Foundation as a 501c3 ‘charity’, which would allow donations to be tax-deductible, rather than going through the region’s books, where donations would be non-deductible as a 501c4 ‘non-profit’. John agreed to ask Jerry about that.  John circulated some documents for those present to see, including a sample application, and sample letters to the schools and the applicants, explaining the program. Since this was a lot to digest, the issue was tabled until next month. Anna started an e-mail thread for Board members to use for discussion and Bruce agreed to circulate PDF copies of John’s documents.
2. TT Report: November TT at NCCAR. Bruce has sent out another e-mail ad reminding everyone of our upcoming Time Trial (November 9-10) at NCCAR, but he says that we have only 8 drivers and three workers signed up so far. Sam said he had contacted Sam True at the facility asking about the progress in obtaining the water-filled barriers needed for “dual rotation” (the ability to run the track in both clockwise and counter-clockwise directions). Mr. True has located some, probably not enough, but is having difficulty getting them transported to the track. Even after he does, Sam Fouse, noted, we would still need someone from the SCCA National Office to give final approval to the layout. Sam also noted that it is too late to cancel this event and get our deposit back. Kit Williams added that he had spoken to Blair Deffenbaugh at the Runoffs about running an ad campaign on social media and that Blair said he would need $200 for that. Motion to approve $200 for a social media ad campaign to promote the November Time Trial event (Crissman / Senior). Passed.
3. New Trailer for Hospitality. James brought up the fact that we seemed to have outgrown our legacy 5X8 single-axle trailer that we use to transport and store items for Hospitality and Driver Info. He said that the one they used at the Runoffs for Driver Info, which was much larger, turns out to be surprisingly cheap. It was a dual-axle, 8.5 X 16, unit from Pro-Line, with two flip-up vendor windows, a passage door on the other side, barn doors on the end, and lights inside, all for about $6800. Such a unit would guarantee that the printer and results would be out of the weather and that our tee-shirt displays would stay dry. We could still use the tent as an expanded area for distribution of items, just as Driver Information at the Runoffs used the Pavilion. The Board took this under advisement and suggested that James investigate other vendors before making a motion to purchase a new trailer.
4. Adding a Classified Section to the NCR Website. Mark Senior had asked Bruce about the possibility of adding a Classified ad section to our website and Bruce had invited Jeff Eng, our webmaster, to be on the call to discuss this and other web-related items. Jeff said that a plug-in for WordPress was available to provide such a service, but that someone would have to manage it, receiving the ad submissions, making sure they were appropriate, posting them, and taking them down when the item was sold or time expired. It was agreed that Bruce is the logical candidate to handle that. Jeff also wants to move our server to a more secure site, but no time frame or cost was agreed to for this.
5. Election of Officers to the Board of Directors. The terms of office for the RE, the Secretary, and two Members-at-Large (Morgan Mehler and Heather Clark) are expiring at the end of this year. Nominations for candidates to fill those positions are due in the current Secretary’s hands at the close of the November Board Meeting. Nominations must be in writing, signed by the candidate, and three other members of NCR “in good standing”. Balloting will be electronic via MSR as it was last year and will commence the first week in December and end on December 31^st. Chapter Coordinators were asked to solicit nominations at their November Chapter meetings.
6. 2020 Schedule. Bruce offered to put entries into MSR for each of our racing events next year, even though the details have yet to be determined, in order that we could be put on everyone’s calendar. He hopes to have this done by the end of December. Anna said she hoped to have preliminary Supps in January. These are the dates we have at VIR:
   1. March 14-15 “March Into Spring”
   2. April 10-12 “Spring Sprints” Super Tour Majors
   3. May 9-10 SARRC / MARRS Challenge”
   4. October 10-11 “Goblins Go”

Chapter and Committee Reports: As of this writing, there were no Chapter or Committee reports for September 2019 posted on the Google drive.

Motion to adjourn at 9:09 PM (Shanks / Senior). Passed.

Submitted by Secretary, James Shanks