Minutes: Oct. 10 BoD Meeting

October Monthly Meeting Region BoD
DATE: October 10th, 2017
LOCATION: Comfort Inn Capital Beltway, Beltsville, MD
Meeting Called to order at 6:35 PM.

Members in Attendance:
Paul Anderson
Mike Snyder
Lin Toland
Dave Fitzgerald
Chuck Edmondson
Steve Salisbury

Members Absent
Brian Garfield
Eric Wallgren
Anne Callihan

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING
Minutes from September had been previously approved, unanimously, via email.

TREASURER'S REPORT
Treasurers Report 10.10.2017

In CR Investment Fund as of 08.31.2017- $698,649.93
In CR Cash Fund as of 08.31.2017- $100,036.67
(total Merrill Lynch Funds from both above: $798,686.60
In Solo Fund as of 09.30.2017- $18,688.61
In Region Checking as of 09.30.2017- $91,153.46
Current operating balance in Checking Account (as of 10/04/2017)- $168,532.39

2017 was a challenging year for financially for the Region. We had great turnout in Solo, Rally Cross, home PDX events and the Majors. Unfortunately, our MARRS series had disappointing
turnout which affects the bulk of our finances. We will finish in the red this year. We will continue to look for ways to do things better with less expense and look for ways to increase participation.

RE REPORT
I attended the PDX at Dominion and there was an underwhelming entry. It probably was not
helped by the fact that Dominion held their own HPDE event the week after ours with an entry fee about one half of what we had to charge. I’ve had a brief email exchange with Edwin Pardue and laid the groundwork so that, if the PDX committee wants to go back we’ll be looking for a lower rental fee as well as the contracted discount on our next event.

I’ve checked with Heidi before she left on vacation and we have more than the minimum number of ballots cast in the election that are needed for a bylaws revision. Assuming the “yes” votes are enough to win of course.

The Jumbo Region conference call was held on September 21st. There was much discussion
about declining race entries (most of the Jumbo regions have a Club Racing program). A number of thoughts were passed around with no clear pattern of success. All agreed it is a subject that needs more attention.

Mike Cobb will be attending the NEDiv MiniCon next month and I encourage any of our members attending to stop him and say hello. I hope to get a few minutes with him to talk about some of the issues we’ve faced with National.

CLUB RACING REPORT
No Report Submitted.

MEMBER SERVICES / PR AND SPONSORSHIPS
No Report Submitted.

PDX
Dominion September – Contract and turnout
Low turnout in early registrations. 2016 was the first year at Dominion, and lower than normal
turnout was at least partially expected because it was a new and unknown venue, but low turnout trend remained the same in 2017 even before the weather gods started dumping hurricanes on the SE US.

Additionally, Dominion scheduled their own HPDE event for the weekend following our event, using their own substantially lower facility costs to undercut our pricing by [nearly half]. Can’t prove their event attracted our customer base, but we didn’t really have a customer base and this was certainly a distraction. Also showed bad faith re customer service.

Also future financial protection request involved discounted rentals/entry fee sharing on the next event. Since this and other issues (next section) have seriously undermined the possibility of using this venue for PDX again this is a pretty useless guarantee.

Dominion September – facility issues
A number of safety (and comfort) concerns and improvements had been requested of Dominion based on 2016 event. Primary safety was installation and BOLTING of Armco, which was not done. ALS ambulance (contracted) arrived an hour late, had never been to the track before and had no idea where to go/what to do.

Comfort: 24/7 "comfort" facilities consisted mainly of port-a-pots in the main paddock, showers existed but access was a nightmare, and port a pots had been removed from flag areas. Power very expensive.

“Tickets” required to get to food facility on the roundy-round. In other words, someday this will be a great little track, but not now, and contract rental rates do not justify using the facility in
its present state.

Other PDX Concerns.
The PDX committee has just realized that the new contract for 2018 -2019 has them once again
losing their second date on the Summit Point Main Circuit. This is a huge issue for them, as they
consider the main track their lifeblood and main draw.

Among concerns raised:
The 2017 date was “given up” like so many other programs’ dates because of the track repaving. However, the only explanation given for PDX to lose a 2018 date on Main was to instead maintain a presence at Dominion in that time frame. A date and venue they don’t want.

PDX is being used as a place holder for CR instead of being treated as a viable program in its
own right. Someone from the PDX committee should have been included in the meeting with the track to stand up for negotiating their own dates. I wholeheartedly concur.

RALLY CROSS
No Report Submitted.

ROAD RALLY
Road Rally Committee will be adding a 2nd event in 2018.

SOLO
Verbal Solo was presented by Mr Salisbury and he indicated the last event was well received.

OLD BUSINESS
Long Range Planning Committee:

No activity to report since May 2017.

Currently making contact with existing committee members and actively recruiting new committee members.

Schedule an in-person committee kick-off meeting in November with all committee members to review and discuss the LTPC Charter and begin brainstorming.

Hall of Fame Committee
Nothing to Report

NEW BUSINESS
None

Entered Executive Session 7:08 PM
Ended Executive Session 7:23 PM
Motion to Adjourn: Lin Toland, 2nd: Salisbury, Vote Unanimous.

Meeting ended 7:40 PM