BoD Minutes – October 2020

Minutes of NCR-SCCA Monthly Board of Directors Meeting

October 21, 2020

Present:  John Bodnar, Heather Clark, Anna Crissman, Eric Danielsen, Blair Deffenbaugh, Justin Deffenbaugh, Bruce Dover, Nikki Edwards, Sam Fouse, Al Heatwole, John Lindquist, Stephen Miller, Heather Powers, Chris Schimmel, Mark Senior, James Shanks, Ben Tyler, and Kit Williams, all attended via video conference, due to the ongoing threat of the COVID-19 virus. Justin Barbry joined late. Wayne Quick attended for a while via phone.

  1. The NCR BoD meeting was called to order by RE Anna Crissman at approximately 7:35 PM, on Wednesday, October 21st,
  2. Justin Barbry, John Bodnar, Eric Danielsen, John Lindquist, Chris Schimmel, Wayne Quick, and Ben Tyler, attended as guests.
  3. Motion to approve the September 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.

 Prior to the meeting, Ms. Powers produced an extensive Profit and Loss statement for the year, up to October 19th. It was posted to the Google drive and Bruce had notified all the Board members of its existence. Anna urged everyone to spend some time with it, so that we might discuss it in the future via e-mail, if needed. Heather summarized the statement, saying that the net income was better than she had expected, and that while there were still some small bills from the Goblins Go outstanding, the fact that we did at all well in this horrible year was remarkable in itself. She added that the August Time Trial had netted a profit, which was another significant achievement.

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.

Chapter and Committee Reports:

 As before, all Chapters held Zoom meetings last month, with a fraction of their usual pre-pandemic attendance. Al Heatwole posted a Triangle Chapter report, but no others were available as of this writing.

Old Business:

  1. Goblins Go Debrief. Immediately following the event, Anna started an e-mail exchange regarding the things that had gone well with the event (not many) and those which had not. Bruce has sifted through those e-amils and created a synopsis, which was posted on the Google drive. Besides the inclement weather and the problems it caused, Anna said that her take away was that we needed to have a meeting with VIR, particularly including the outgoing chief of security, Tommy Webb, and the new members of the VIR staff, so that going forward, we might have the same understanding of how things should work as we had had in the past.
  2. Annual Banquet and Awards. Since the in-person awards dinner had been nixed, the question arises of what we should do and how should we do it. Mark Senior spoke for the consensus that we should try to have some kind of awards presentation for continuity and to recognize those people who actually did compete. Anna agreed and she suggested we make a video of the awards presentation that people could pull up and look at without anyone actually having to be there. To that end, she created an Awards Committee, following the usual practice, out of the four Members-at-Large and the three Chapter Coordinators. In addition, she asked James, who had chaired the Committee last year, to join as well, but stipulated that the Committee should select its own chairperson. In response to a query by Stephen about what awards needed to be given, James explained that while we had traditional awards, in the past the Committee was free to withhold them if no suitable recipient was found, as well as to give multiples and even completely new awards, as they saw fit. Anna said that this issue would be part of the Committee’s business to take up. Motion to so constitute the Awards Committee as Anna described. (Miller / Shanks). Passed. Since the SCCA National Convention was going to be virtual this year, Anna suggested that we look at a date in January, such as the weekend of the 9th or 16th of 2021, to have our Annual meeting, of which the Awards video would be a part. Later, James promised to send out an e-mail to the other Committee members detailing what had been done in the recent past.
  3. Time Trial Update. Stephen said that our turn-out at present is low, with about 29 cars on course on Saturday and 25 on Sunday, but that was in line with what we usually have. He was not sure why we did so well the last time, but thought there may be more entries coming. But if not, then he will go back to the three-run group format, and announce that on social media in the hope of getting just a couple more. As of now, our dates for TT events at NCCAR next year are April 24th and October 17th, though the October date is not good, since that date conflicts with a date given for an autocross at MCAS Cherry Point. Stephen agreed that one would have to change. Blair said he had created an e-mail to go out to the drivers of the previous TT who had not yet registered for the current one. He asked Bruce whether this had been sent, and Bruce indicated that it had. Stephen said that, unfortunately, all that the e-mail seemed to generate was a bunch of responses indicating why people could not come, and surprisingly perhaps, many of them cited Halloween as the reason. Sam interjected that we were about $10K below where we were in August of last year with regards to anticipated income. He said that could not be helped, but it was perhaps a bitter pill after our poor result for the Goblins Go. Stephen asked for clarification in that regard, and Sam explained that while we had made a small profit at Goblins, it might have been as much as 5 times higher had not the skies opened up upon us, resulting in us giving back many dollars in refunds. As far as other items for the TT, Anna turned over the transponder rental process to John Bodnar, but they would not know how many to rent until the Friday beforehand. Stephen asked to be consulted on the final number and Anna agreed. She also said that since Steve Keadle could not come, Stephen Miller would serve as Safety Steward. Anna added that we may have a professional announcer coming, Greg Ginsberg, even though she did not offer to pay him. Stephen said he has the food serviced all set to go. Driving coaches are in place. Kit is the volunteer coordinator, and several people who can work multiple roles are expected, so everything seems to be set.
  4. Scholarship Fund Update. John Lindquist was unable to get his mike to work, so he indicated via the chat that on behalf of the Scholarship Fund he was thankful for the Board giving the lunchtime drive-around donations to the Fund, although only four cars showed up to run in the rain. He asked that next year the Fund be given the proceeds from the drive-arounds at the Majors. Anna agreed, and added that since the charity for that function must rotate, we needed to designate other charities for the other events; but if the Majors were to be canceled, then she would support using the funds from whatever event we were allowed to have in its stead. Mark asked for a list of our current charities, and Anna said she would have to find it and then send it out. [Note: The Secretary has searched the minutes back to December of 2018 but has found no such list of charities, so it is likely to have been adopted at a Comp Board meeting.]

New Business:

  1. March Date 2021. At the start of this year, we agreed to let South Carolina Region share in our March race because they had lost their traditional date at CMP, and the only one they were offered as an alternative would conflict with ours. It was observed that there were too many SARRC races early in the season for us all to make money anyway, especially with the weather as iffy as it usually was. We decided then to alternate years with SCR, and go in with them on their March race every other year, and they would go in with us on the alternate ones. So now the question arises of what to do with our date in March? Anna has been approached by Heyward Wagner about the possibility of us letting him have that date for a National Time Trial, a first at VIR.  If we were to permit that, then the issue becomes who signs the contract with VIR? Is it the National Office? In that case the event becomes like the Runoffs and we are out of it as a Region, unless contracted to do something. Or do we sign the contract? In that case, the event becomes like a Majors, where we run the event according to their rules, and take the risk of loss, but pocket any actual profit. The Board members were in agreement that Heyward would have to spell out what he wanted to do before we could make a decision, preferably before the next Board meeting. It was also observed that we needed to make it clear to him and to VIR that this was not a permanent deal, and that we would be back to racing in 2022, especially since it seems likely that the Runoffs would return to VIR either in 2022 or 2023. Motion for a non-binding resolution to support a National Time Trial at VIR pending a favorable vote on a proposal from Heyward Wagner (Williams / Senior). Passed. Mark agreed to talk to VIR about how they would like to have this handled, whether they would prefer that Heyward, on behalf of the National Office, sign a separate contract with them, and the March date not appear on ours, or whether we should include the date on our contract and effectively sub-let the date to them. Al asked what we would do if there is no proposal, or if we reject Heyward’s proposal, and the consensus was that we would probably have a race of some sort, possibly an enduro, but not a SARRC. It was suggested that we could also theoretically align ourselves with Global Time Attack, or Gridlife, or some other such organization, but most likely we would be racing if this falls through. Anna said that if we get a proposal from Heyward in advance of the next Board meeting then we would most likely take a vote on it via e-mail in the interest of settling this matter as quickly as possible.
  2. Tech Shed Rain Gutter. Chris Schimmel explained that they had a problem with water flowing into the scale room of the Tech shed at VIR when it rained. It pools up on the entrance side, he said, and eventually flows into the building. Since the scale room has four square pits in the floor, in which the scale head units actually sit, those closest to the doorway get flooded. Usually, the scrutineers use big squeegees and brooms to push the water outside in order to prevent it from pooling up in the pits and damaging the equipment; but due to the steady rainfall at the Goblins Go, they could not keep ahead of the problem. They actually had one load cell short out late in the day on Saturday. Fortunately, they were able to dry it out overnight and it was working again on Sunday.  Chris would like for us to put up a rain gutter along that side of the Tech shed to help alleviate, if not eliminate, this problem. Since VIR owns the building, we would have to get their permission to do this, of course. Sam suggested that instead of a gutter, which would have to be attached all along that side of the building, perhaps as much as eighty feet in length, and be serviced by at least three downspouts, that we look into putting a rain diverter on the roof, just over the scale room.  This idea was well-received and will be pursued with VIR for next season.
  3. Nominations and Election of Officers for 2021. James reminded everyone that the Treasurer’s term of office and the Assistant RE’s term of office, as well as those of two Member-at-Large positions, Mark Senior’s and Blair Deffenbaugh’s, were expiring at the end of the year. More to the point, nominations for those seeking to fill those offices for the next term are due in the Secretary’s (his) hands at the close of the November Board meeting, about a month away. Per the Bylaws, these nominations should be in writing, signed by the nominee, and attested to by three other members of the Region, who also sign. James suggested that that the nominees and attestees need not sign the same piece of paper, but could send them to him separately, and that he would accept photos or scanned images of paper documents with signatures, in lieu of the actual paper, because of the ongoing pandemic. Anna reminded everyone that we had one more in-person event coming up with the Time Trial next weekend, and that those who wanted to, could hand James nominations at that event. She also asked for a Region-wide e-mail to inform the membership how to nominate someone using this new process. James agreed that he and Bruce could make that happen.
  4. Radio Replacements Needed. Ben Tyler spoke up and said that had had one broken radio, and three more that are missing, which he felt needed replacement, and that he would be asking the Board for money for some new radios before next season, but he was not ready with a formal proposal at this time.
  5. Personnel Issue. The Board discussed a personnel issue regarding a Region member, whose name is withheld for privacy reasons, who has been disparaging the Region on social media and has rebuffed attempts by the RE to discuss a resolution of his grievance. Anna said that she will continue to seek an in-person or video conference meeting with him for the time being, but ultimately the Board might have to take action. 

Motion to adjourn at 9:00 PM (Shanks / Senior). Passed.

Submitted by Secretary, James Shanks.

 

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.

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