October/November 2011 - New England Region

New England Region, Sports Car Club of America, Inc.,Board of Directors Meeting Minutes —June 8, 2011New England Region, Sports Car Club ofAmerica, Inc. Board of Directors MeetingMinutes The Board of Directors met at theHampton Inn, Rte 12, Auburn, MA onWednesday June 8, 2011.Present were Regional Executive Doug Fisher,Asst. RE Bill Gendron, Directors Tim Chevalier,Hal Denham, Trevor Hermance, Peter Morrison,Chris Regan, Jerry Rigoli, Jerry Shields, andPaul Zahornasky. Also in attendance wereBob Beaulieu, Bob Davis, Marilyn Freemanand Paul Krysiak. These minutes may not be inchronological order. The meeting was calledto order by Doug Fisher at 7:34 PM. A motionwas made to accept the minutes of the May11th meeting as corrected. (Morrison/Shields)PASSED. Program Reports:Membership:Weekend memberships for The Cape rally were62, for the Big Lap rally were 7. Four membersused tips for their membership payment in May.June 8th membership is 2362.Club Racing:The Memorial Day event had a larger turnoutthan projected, the financial report for theweekend is not available yet. The June eventcurrently has pre registration entries at thebreak even point with over a week until on lineregistration closes.The July Drivers’ school and regional race isdue to go up on the web site. More volunteerworkers are needed for the club racing staff,such as; Race Chair, Tech, Pits, Registration,Trophies, and Promotions.Rally:May 21st is BIG LAP in NH had 10 entries. June11th at Bradford VT there will be a rallycross.July 30th Mass Challenge Road Rally will beheld starting at the Hampton Inn in Auburn, MA.Solo:The June 12th event at Devens currently has90 entries pre registered. The novice programhas had good participation and many repeatcompetitors. The scheduling change to an earlierstart has increased participation and number ofruns. Increasing the numbers of workers proficientin specialty roles is progressing. The Pro class islooking into going real time with on-line postingof times at the event using an add on AxxWareproduct. NER did well at both the Pro Solo andNational tour events just held.Merchandise: (via e-mail from Donna Stevensto Doug Fisher)Apparel sales are down. Pay Pal payment is onhold at this time.Treasure’s report: (via e-mail From LouGingerella to Doug Fisher)An extension has been filed for our 2010tax return while the accountant reconciles theaccounts. We appear to have slightly moremoney in the bank accounts than is shown inthe accounting software reports. The treasureris currently working to consolidate all creditcard processing and Pay Pal accounts to Bankof America, so as to reduce costs to the Club.There are still questions about the processingfees we are being charged, especially for ClubRacing.Motion: to accept the reports was made.(Zahornasky/Morrison) PASSED.Marketing Strategy:Work is ongoing toward bundling PIT TALKand Website advertising. Promotion Brochurechoices: There was a discussion about making achoice between two draft brochures and whetheror not to print the brochure or use the brochureas an introduction/portal page to NER.ORGand/or Facebook.Motion: to use a modified version of thebrochure as a landing page for NER.ORG and/or Facebook, (Shields/Morrison) PASSED.Bob Beaulieu and Neil Schelly will worktogether to set up the landing page. Trevorreported that there are new videos posted onthe NER YOUTUBE channel, and that there is alink from NER.ORG to the channel. Jerry Shieldswill begin working with Paul Krysiak and BobBeaulieu toward an OPT OUT for members whowish to go paperless and only receivePIT TALK on line.New membership strategy. It was proposedthat each program will have a point person towelcome newcomers to our events and to dofollow up. These point people will be solicited inthe RE column and on the website.Motion: to adjourn to executive sessionat 9:35 PM, and to return to open session.(Zahornasky/Regan) PASSEDReturn to open session at 10:17 PMMotion: to hold an open meeting with LLC onJune 22, 2011 was made (Gendron/Chevalier)PASSED.The group discussed the need for a July BODmeeting. As permitting continues for the newtrack site, it is necessary to make payments asagreed to in the purchase and sale agreement.Motion: to approve $5938.40 for the July2011 payment (Morrison/Chevalier) PASSED(7/2) A motion to adjourn to executive sessionwas made at 10:25 PM (Zahornasky/Gendron)PASSED.Respectfully submitted,Harold Denham, SecretaryAugust 10, 2011(No July BOD Meeting)New England Region, Sports Car Club ofAmerica, Inc. Board of Directors MeetingMinutes The Board of Directors met at theHampton Inn, Rte 12, Auburn, MA onWednesday August 10, 2011.Present were Regional Executive Doug Fisher,Asst. RE Bill Gendron, Directors Tim Chevalier,Hal Denham, Trevor Hermance, Peter Morrison,Chris Regan, Jerry Rigoli, Jerry Shields, and PaulZahornasky. Also in attendance were: KathyBarnes, Billy Davis, Bob Davis, Lou Gingerella,Marilyn Freeman, Paul Krysiak, Rob Laverty,and Dick Patullo. These minutes may not be inchronological order. The meeting was called toorder by Doug Fisher at 7:35 PM.Motion: to accept the minutes of the June 8th,2011 meeting as corrected. (Zahornasky/Regan) PASSED.Program Reports:Club Racing:As of July the program appears to be just slightlyin the positive through the July event includingcovering the carryover expenses from last year.The final count from RAL has not been tabulated;the estimate is about 130 to 135 paid entries.Cheap Date in September 10/11 is projectedto have over 140 entries.Rally:By Chris Regan & Tim ChevalierJuly 30th the Inaugural Mass Challenge RoadRally was held starting at the Hampton Inn inAuburn, MA. There were 12 cars total in threeclasses, 13 weekend members participatedincluding workers.August 5th the RAL rally had 9 entries, NO ontrack issues were experienced. Next year’s RALrally committee has been requested to keep theClub Racing program informed well in advancewith regards to any activities at NHMS.August 6th RAL Double X had 20 entries andraised $800.00 for RAL.August 7th RAL RallyCross had 30 entries. Lowturnout is believed to be due to the roughness ofthe event site.September 17th the CAR Store Rally in VT willbe held.Chris Regan reported that he is currently seekinga site for the September event after the latecancellation of the previously calendared site.He did mention that there was a potentialQuonset Point site and will keep us posted.Solo:By Bob DavisThe attendance for the last three events was upas compared to the events earlier this year.The Double event weekend was coming up atDevens on August 13/14.The program is working to increase participationof the competitors to become more involved withthe event work responsibilities so as to broadenthe base of qualified workers.Solo group raised a total of $6800.00(estimated) for the events at the track and on-linecontributions to First Giving for RAL.Merchandise: (via e-mail from Donna Stevensto Doug Fisher)Sales are lower this year than in the past.Inventory is lower than usual due to the slowsales and out of stock items will not be ordereduntil demand increases. The numbers to meet thebudget are on target at this time.Membership:By Paul KrysiackRegular membership numbers from earlier in theyear are as follows; Aug. 11 2320 June 222386 May 11 2387 April 2382 Feb 2384Weekend members Feb 19-July 11 110 (104from rally)Expired memberships Mar 31-May 31 212Members Opting out for E-Pit Talk 15Paul Krysiak has been in contact with MichelleLour, National member services manager.National has been working on various solutionsto reduce the number of membership expirationswith Paul and membership chairpersons aroundthe country.Treasurer’s report:by Lou GingerallaOur 2010 tax return is at the accountant andwill be filed by August 15th. The accountant isreconciling the accounts and should have themcompleted by the September meeting.The credit card rate being charged by Bank ofAmerica for the at-track processing is 2.1%. Thetreasurer is currently working to consolidate allcredit card processing and will be looking to doso at year’s end.All monies collected by MotorsportReg aresubject to a 4.25% fee per the agreement madeby the National office.Motion: to accept the reports was made.(Shields/Morrison) PASSEDNew Track Committee Report:by Dick Patullo:Palmer Paving has been slow with a responseto the inquiries as to being part of the project inany capacity, and has requested permission todo more testing.Lane Construction (the contractor that repavedDaytona) has been approached to be involvedin the project.LLC is actively seeking contractors to becomeinvolved with the project and expect to havea plan as how to proceed by the Septembermeeting.LLC will be checking on its status as to how itsownership could be conveyed to a third party, ifliquidation of the project is required.As permitting continues for the new track site, it isnecessary to make payments as agreed to in thepurchase and sale agreement.Motion: approve $5938.40 for the September2011 payment (Morrison/Rigoli) PASSED(6/1/2 abstain)Thompson Speedway by Doug Fisher and JerryRigoli: NER was contacted by the owners ofThompson Speedway in Thompson CT. Theowners are beginning a 3 to 5 year plan torevive Road Racing at the facility. There arecurrently autocross events being held there byanother club. Jerry Rigoli has agreed to heada small committee of NER Board members(Chris Regan and Bill Gendron) to meet with themanagement of Thompson to review what theneeds are of our programs both for function ofthe events and safety requirements for SCCAapprovals and sanctioning.Lempster:by Jerry Rigoli:The track development in Lempster, NH iscurrently on hold due to Financial Issues.Marketing Strategy:by Paul Zahornasky:The Pit Talk Opt out of printed/mailed Pit Talkand receive only E-Pit Talk has begun testing,once it has proved that it is working properly itwill be promoted to the general membership.It will save the Region money in printing andpostage, as well as allow for more timelyreporting of the comings and goings of theRegion.—continued on the next page22 PIT TALKPIT TALK October/November 2011 23