Monday, January 29th 2011

Location: Blackhawk Museum

The meeting was called to order at 8:35 am.

Present were: Ian Cook, Brian Ghidinelli, Sherry Grantz, Viet-Tam Luu, Michael Niemann, Fred Peterson (RDC), Jim Petrek, Ed Railton, Mike Smith.

Region Administrator's Report – Sherry Grantz

Sherry reported that at the region office things are gearing up for the start of the new season; notably work on this year's Supplementary Rules is under way.

New Wheel: Sherry has been working with Blake Tatum, and Marty Cameron (Dogbrain Studio; SFR member since the 70's) who is in charge of publishing. The Basecamp collaboration software has been invaluable. Things went very smoothly, except for having to cut 4 pages at the last minute since the page count had not accounted for the cover. The second issue should be much easier. Page count went from 44 to 28 pages.

Drivers' School: the schedule sent in for sanction; same schedule as last year. 14 students registered so far, a few less than last year but interest is strong. Sherry noted a few entries from people who already have licenses who just signed up for track time. Brian Ghidinelli suggested adding a separate group for advanced racers. Others were supportive of the “continuing education” concept.

The Board reviewed the Formula Ford tires survey: in the absence of strong support for changes the current rules will stand.

Sherry reported on the new office computers; upgrades went smoothly with Mike Smith's help. Mike added replacement should be found for the aging RaceTrack database software. Brian mentioned he has been talking with Colan at National about syncing the SCCA National and MotorSportReg databases. Sherry will compile a list of requirements and work with Mike and Brian.

Recruiting Report – Sherry Grantz

Lisa Diamond has been very busy, putting together the Board and Chiefs' meeting at Blackhawk; she has also been working on the “Meet & Greet” on February 5, 1 – 4 pm at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Concord. Lisa will be evaluating said hotel as a possible banquet site. Lisa has also been working on the Training Day, February 19 at Infineon Raceway; the schedule will start a bit later to accommodate people coming from further away. Other schedule changes aim to be friendlier to new people. Lisa also reported that the San Jose Auto Show went very well, with a number of good leads generated; she did note that a few “leads” were the same as in previous years, indicating a possible failure to follow-up.

Thunderhill Report – Mike Smith
Mike gave the list of flag station issues he received from Michael Niemann to Thunderhill's Shannon Ell, who is working through them; many issues should be addressed by start of season.

Mike reported he did some drive-arounds with Shannon and David Vodden in the clockwise direction, and found that the track works fairly well with a couple of exceptions, notably T1 which is risky at speed. Ideas for remedies include a chicane before T1; this would be done alongside track expansion. Exit berms would also need to be added in some turns.
Track expansion: Thunderhill has received bids for the project. Expansion probably won't happen this year, as it needs to make economic sense. The new proposed section would add a slower speed section and expand the track to 5 miles total, usable as 2 separate sections. Ian Cook raised issues with using a longer track for races, namely requiring another emergency station, and extra F&C staffing.

On the Thunderhill 2011 budget, Mike reported it will be about the same as last year; pricing will remain the same. Revenue from the gas pumps was down in 2010, but tire shop revenue for the partial year it was open was very good.

Secretary's Report – Viet-Tam Luu

The Board reviewed the minutes submitted by Morris Hamm, and amendments proposed by Mike and Tam. The minutes were approved as amended following a motion by Jim Petrek, seconded by Ed Railton.

Treasurer's Report – Sherry Grantz

Sherry presented the Treasurer's Report, which showed and end-of-year profit of $13645 versus the original budgeted projection of $34081. She also noted some accounts receivable have not been paid but are accounted as revenue as per generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

Ian asked about revenue splitting for 2011 Vintage event; Mike answered that revenue, after costs and expenses have been subtracted, will be split prorated by entry fees paid. Mike also noted interest level in the Vintage event seems good.

The Treasure's Report was approved following a motion by Brian Ghidinelli, seconded by Michael Niemann.

2011 Draft budget
The Board reviewed a summarized comparison of 1999 through 2010 financials with event expenses.

Sherry presented the draft budget for 2011; the projected net income will be $49815. Brian noted the 2011 Vintage event revenue forecast seemed optimistic; Sherry replied they were based on 2009, not 2010, but agreed to revise them to 2010's numbers to be cautious.

Updates

Finalize Policy/Procedures on Using MSR – Sherry Grantz
Sherry and the Board discussed how to handle credit-card-paid race entries not run through MotorSportReg (MSR) given the difficulty posed by new regulations, and agreed that the first 2011 Regional race event can be entered using the old procedures, but for subsequent events all credit-card-paid entries must use MSR. As a convenience to racers, the late entry deadline will be moved one week later to the Monday before event. Sherry will send out update to racers.

Fire School and Meet and Greet – Mike Smith
(Discussion of this topic was already covered as part of the Recruiting Report.)

2011 Schedule Update – Mike Smith
The Board reviewed latest schedule updates: the Ferrari Challenge is now a 3-day event (from 2); Grand Am now 2-day event (from 3); the Porsche/Rennsport Reunion 3-day event was added, for a net total of 3 worker days added, resulting in a total of 44—higher than in 2010 but not out of line with previous years.

2011 Wheel – Sherry Grantz
(Discussion of this topic was already covered as part of the Region Administrator's Report.)

New Items

Chiefs Meeting – All
Board members discussed some highlights to raise for the meeting.

2011 Supplementary Regulations – All

The Board reviewed the draft Supplementary Regulations (“Supps”).
Discussion of the new STL class followed, to be added to Group 5. Sherry asked if a rule should be added explicitly to allow SM in IT; Tam replied no, for the same reasons as before when he tried to spearhead it two years before. Tam recommended just adding STL to Group 5, and let Miata competitors sort themselves out, based on which SM cars are legal for ITA and which are not. Brian said he would send out a memo to Group 7 competitors.
The new Spec MX-5 (SM5) class will go to Group 3. Someone noted that there had not been much interest in the E30 class and Mike suggested finding someone to spearhead development of that class.

The Board discussed 2011 entry fees, reviewing entry fees of competing organizations and year-over-year entry fee changes. Ed Railton noted that the draft budget “works” with current entry fee levels. Mike added that a case could be made for keeping entry fees the same given the past year's numbers and going to 2-day doubles. Discussion followed regarding scheduling, for example reducing the number of run groups to 6 to improve on-track experience overall; Mike suggested surveying drivers to gather sentiments about schedule changes. Tam argued that given all the changes already being made, entry fees should be kept the same as in 2010, if only to avoid adding more confounding variables and to get a better idea of the effects of those changes. As there was general agreement on the matter, the Board resolved to keep entry fees the same for 2011.

Discussion then followed about dual-entry fees. Mike noted that with the compressed schedules of 2-day doubles, some people may not want to run dual-entry; should dual-entry fees for 2-day doubles be discounted? Mike said he would crunch some numbers to explore possible effects of a discount.

Sherry noted that the March 26-27 Double National is no longer a “rational” event featuring regional classes due mainly to the additional sanction fees involved.

Frequent Racer Program, Sunoco Program – All
Mike stated that the 2010's Frequent Racer Program (FRP) didn't seem to have had any promotional effect. Tam noted that one problem with FRP was it didn't require drivers to do anything (other than show up) so most people didn't “notice”. The Board brainstormed for ideas to improve the program; ideas included changing it to “Thunderhill Awards”, make it require stickers like the Sunoco program, and give away the money as a drawing with larger cash prizes. Mike and Jim agreed to model different possible schemes for the next meeting.

2-day Double Schedules – All
(Discussion of this topic was deferred to next meeting due to time constraints.)

2011 Banquet Location – All
(Discussion of this topic was deferred to next meeting due to time constraints.)

Drivers School – All
(Discussion of this topic was deferred to next meeting due to time constraints.)

Executive Session – All

Liaison Check-In

Event Pins – Michael Niemann
Michael reported that he had found a donor—who wishes to remain anonymous—to fund better event pins.

Correspondence
(Discussion of this topic was deferred to next meeting due to time constraints.)

Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 12:02 pm.