Committee Meeting Minutes: February 2018

February 19, 2018 – Planning Committee Meeting

Meeting was brought to order @ 19:00 by Kristen Poole.

Housekeeping Items:

• Reorganization: We did a lot or reorganization last year with moving duties to the proper chair/chief/board member. There is still quite a bit of work that is being done by individuals other than the elected/appointed person who should own the job, so reorganization will continue this year. Kristen will work with individuals to document responsibilities with guidance from National.
• Participation request: The board received a recommendation from a member that we bar novices from the Hershey event(s) to ensure long standing members get to run all the events. It is the club’s position that we will never ban a novice from an event. The new/novice members are the future of SCCA. We open the Hershey events long before the event date to ensure there is sufficient time for everyone who wants to sign up. Last year we started opening the events in the beginning of the year instead of a month in advance so any member that wants to run every event can sign up for all of them at one time.
• Unique Events: Nationals goal for the regions is to make each event a unique event. Be it setting up peddle cars away from the course for the kids to “run”, doing a pizza event, having a cookout or family picnic event, setting up a small games area away from grid and course. The goal is to involve the whole family and make each event a fun unique experience.
• Bylaw Updates: National will be reconciling all regions bylaws to make sure they are in line with the National bylaws. We also need to clearly define and publish the roles of each board position/chair/chief so when new people come into positions there is a clear guideline of what that role entails. The bylaws were revamped last year by a committee so there are not a lot of changes that need to be made. Since there are minimal changes, Kristen Poole will be looking at what needs to be updated and will bring it to vote at regular club meetings as things get put into line. If anyone wants to be involved with the updates or would like to offer any assistance, please let Kristen know.
• Program Chairs: Chairs are required to have edits to their sups to Kristen in the next few days so the document can be updated, printed, and submitted for approval at the next meeting.

Auto Cross:

1. Truck Committee: There is a minor repair needed to the wiring for one of the headlights and it needs inspected. Marcus is to work with Rob Springer on getting the new truck into the shop. Open shelving was ordered 2/5/18. They should be here within 2 weeks. We will need to get some bins to hold helmets etc. Bryan Roper bought a label maker to assist in keeping the new truck organized. We are also looking to install LED lights in the back of the truck for additional in truck lighting. Brian Holmes will bring LED lights to the Annual Tech Day event. We also need to wire the truck for WIFI by linking the existing routers to expand the WIFI coverage to run registration There will be a Truck Work Party at the Annual Tech Day on 2/24/18 to get the shelves installed and to get all the necessary items moved into the new truck.
2. Registration: Melissa Mauro attended the National Conference under the Ascenders Program. As the new Registration Chief, she attended all the MSR sessions. During one of the sessions it was learned that MSR is capable of E-Waivers and according to National that is how they prefer to receive waivers.  She is also looking into timing and scoring change card reports. This will allow a report to be run at the end of registration to update AX Ware with class changes etc. Melissa is also taking over Pre-Registration from Markus, so she will own Registration in MSR from beginning to end. National suggested instead of refunding money moving credits/giving credits in MSR. We are charged the credit card fee at the time of registration so when we refund we lose money having already paid the fee. MSR credits do not expire. They will remain in the system until the member uses the credit. Out of state registration refunds will be handled on a case by case basis with the allotment of exceptions if needed.
3. Sponsors: Triton Automotive is taking the RX Flagship Sponsor position. Slow Sally’s Stickers and Things has been secured at the Fast Lane sponsorship level. We are still taking sponsors. If you know anyone who would like to be a sponsor, please reach out to a board member for the packages.
4. Trophies: An online pole revealed members preferred the little cones to the cups and mugs. Pricing has not been secured for the preferred trophy style yet. Once pricing has been secured it will be brought to the board. Flagship Sponsorship states that the sponsor gets to have their logo on our trophies. Since there are different Flagship Sponsors for AX & RX the trophies must be different this year. Budgets need to be set for the end of event trophies before any can be ordered.
5. Pictures: The club is looking for a club photographer to take photos at both the AX and RX events. Ideally, we would want them to photograph each of the events to ensure we have photos of all participants. Photographers can sell their photos to members under their normal business practices. As part of the club photographer package we can put their business down as a 500 level sponsorship package for use of their photos at the EoY Banquet and putting those photos on any photo award plaques we do for the banquet. The goal is to get pictures of everyone to use for picture trophies at the end of the year. Please reach out to Kristen if you know a photographer that is interested in taking on Club Photographer.
6. Timing software: We have had issues with AX Ware in the past. Race Hero works directly with MSR (they are a part of MSR). Markus/Melissa will investigate Race Hero since it integrates directly into registration allows push notifications. Heats and worker assignments can be integrated directly through the system.
7. T-shirts: Bryan Roper is designing the front of this year’s t-shirts. Higher level sponsors get to have their logos on our T-Shirts. T-Shirt design was passed around for approval. Finalized design and pricing will be discussed at the February meeting.
8. Novice Taxi: Doug attended the Solo Townhall at the convention. One of the things another region is doing is a Novice Taxi. They have large bright magnets that indicate Solo Taxi. These are put on experienced driver’s vehicles and anyone that wants to do a ride along can jump into one of the Novice Taxis and get a firsthand view of the course. We would have 1-3 cars that would wear the badge each heat. The driver would volunteer to take novices with them for a ride along. If novices have questions etc. we give them a helmet and direct them to the Novice Taxi. This is going to be discussed with the Latshaws. According to National when people want to do a ride along they have to be a weekend member. If we mark that they are a passenger only they do not need to pay the $15.00 weekend member fee. Doug is going to get pricing from Slow Sally’s for 2 magnets. That would allow 2 cars to have the magnets on the passenger door only at the same time. This idea falls right in line with the Unique Experience initiative. A motion was made that if the magnets are under $50.00 Doug is to just order them.
9. Coupon Code Business Cards: A while ago the board had blank business cards printed. They were distributed with the intention that boards/chairs/chiefs etc can put their contact information on there along with our web/Facebook sites as a recruitment tool. Other clubs have done similar things, but they added a coupon/coupon code for $10.00 off their first event. We can generate coupon codes within MSR that could reduce the cost of any of our events. Melissa will investigate creating the necessary code(s). Recruiters would have access to the code and would hand it out to potential recruits. Motion made to create coupon code, seconded, and carried.
10. Event postcard: Once we have the schedule for the year set we can print them on business cards/post cards. We can hand them out to interested parties, so they have the dates right in hand along with our electronic site addresses. Melissa and Kristen will price schedule post cards.
11. Facebook Committee Group: Anything that we forgot to discuss tonight should be posted to the committee group page for discussion. The page is getting a lot of great discussion.
12. Novice Contact: Membership Chair is to contact first time participants after their first event. Contact will include upcoming events, Facebook/web page address, answering any questions, addressing any concerns, and membership retention.
13. Season Pass: We will be looking into establishing a season pass for signup in MSR. It would be a one click registration for all of our events. This will not be available in 2018, but could be a possibility in the future.
14. Annual Tech: All is set to go for Saturday 2/24/18. All required stickers are ordered. Kristen will send out a dedicated reminder/invitation to the necessary members.
15. Course Design: Guest designers will be brought in for Hershey. Chris Benfer will design for the Farm Show for now. If anyone wants to design or help design, please reach out to Chris. Maps of the lots are available.
16. Venues: We are in need venues for AX and RX. Tracy Holmes has been compiling a list of possibilities along with finding the required contact information. If anyone wants to help with contacting owners, vetting sites, or scouting sites please reach out to Chris Benfer.
17. Charity Event: Per National we can run 1 Charity Event a year. Instead of paying a set price per participant we play one smaller flat fee to national and we would then donate all proceeds to a charity of our/venues choice. This is good sales pitch for securing a venue. We can have the owner pick the charity of their choice and donate in their name. Assuming they are happy with the way the event went they will be more likely to have us back for additional events.
18. Karts: No junior karts will be allowed again this year. Junior Karts require their complete own program including their own tech. This is not something we are currently set up to be able to do. There have been a lot of changes to the kart requirements at a national level that will need to be reviewed before we can begin a junior kart program. There is now a Kart Checklist for tech.
19. Members Surveys: We have been getting a lot of great feedback on the surveys. We are going to continue to do them this year.
20. Farm Show Double Headers: It was suggested to the Solo Chair that we run one event Saturday and one event Sunday instead of 2 events on Sunday. Currently, we are not charged for Saturday because we do not run. If we run one event each day, the price of the venue would double. We would need 143 people each day and to raise prices for each event just to break even. We will need to do a survey to see what people would be willing to pay before we could consider breaking the Farm Show events into 2 days instead of 1. Discussion of structuring the last Farm Show event like the final Hershey event of the year is tabled for further offline discussion.
21. Solo Safety Steward Class: Doug would like to do a Solo Safety Steward Class before the Hershey event. Anyone participating in the calls can work their 2 training safety steward events at Hershey to become fully licensed at the end of the 2-day Hershey Spring Opener. Doug will do a write up for the February Squeal. As soon as a venue gets secured an email will be sent out.
22. AX Schedule 2018: Will be released as soon as we have confirmation from venue and sanction requests in to National.

RallyCross:

1. Novice Walk: Novice walkthroughs that were started last year has worked well. This will be continued for this year.
2. Novice Instructor: The RX program is looking to add a novice instructor for the 2018 season. Reach out to John Roscinski if you’re interested.
3. Registration: Using i-Pads for AX registration worked well last year. RX would like to start using them for registration as well. Melissa will go to the first RX event and assist with the transition from laptops to i-Pads
4. Timing (RX): The hoses that are used for RX experienced catastrophic failure at the last event of 2017. RX is looking to upgrade the entire RX timing system this year. Track Night had grants available during the convention. Kristen wrote a proposal for $3500.00 grant money for new timing equipment for RX. The decision on the proposal has not been received yet. Once we hear what determination is made we will decide what to do. Due to previous timing issue the supplementals will be adjusted to indicate that if there is a timing malfunction that alternate timing methods will be allowed.
5. Cone stability: Course maintenance and set up would like to use contractor flags to hold the cones in place. RX was approved to purchase the flags.
6. Wrist bands: RX would like to implement the use of colored bands. 1 color would run the first heat the other would run the second heat etc. Rosinski is to bring pricing for the bands to the next meeting
7. Schedule of events: Mike would like to use a whiteboard, cork board, or peg board to post the schedule of events. The club already has some of these items. They will be brought to the February meeting, so RX can choose which one(s) might work for them.
8. Course maintenance: At one of the National Convention meetings, John found out another club was using an I-Beam for spot track maintenance. During a RX event the course can get a lot of undulations and unwanted divots. Dragging a piece of 500/600 lb heavy grade I Beam around the track behind a truck takes care of a lot of those issues and can be done during the event. RX rented grading equipment times at ~$300 for each rental and there were 5 rentals in 2017.  The tractor should only be needed once or twice a season instead of for every event. Cost of the I-Beam was priced out between $200-400. John is going to check with the venue owner if the I-Beam can be stored on site during the season. Bryan Roper is going to check with the scrap yard to see if they have any sections available for purchase at scrap pricing which is a lot less than the price to purchase new.
9. Roll Cages and vehicle specs: A new class of homebuilt kit car style vehicle has been added at the national level. The vehicle is supposed to be self-certified. Mike would like to have a pre-inspection of these types of vehicles since they have their own tech check sheet. At minimum calipers will be needed to ensure the roll cage material meets the minimum thickness required. The pre-inspection would be done and a log book kept for this type of vehicle due to the special requirements and check list needed for this vehicle. A lot of people try to RX their pickup trucks. Mike has found from national that they can run their trucks as long as the vehicle is the same width as it is tall. Special notations will be made that they can run assuming they meet the minimum height/width ratio and they keep all 4 tires on the ground. If they are not able to keep all tires on the ground the vehicle will be banned from running. SUVs will not be allowed to run due to the number of windows vs height/width.
10. Drivers License: Verbiage used to read that you could run RX if you have a valid drivers license. The new verbiage increases participants to include those who have a national competition license. National also allows drivers with driver permits to also run if all requirements are met and the child waiver form is filled out by both parents. RX will check into the national requirements and include the permit requirements in the bylaw changes.
11. Facebook group: John is going to work with Michelle on a Visual Library for the F-Facebook page. John will get pricing and will discuss the pricing at the next meeting.
12. Annual Tech: Due to the extreme demands placed on a car during RX, cars that run in both AX and RX should not be included in AX Annual tech.
13. RX Schedule 2018: Will be announced once confirmed with venue and sanction requests are completed with National.

Motion to Dismiss @ 21:13 seconded and accepted.

Respectfully submitted — Brian Holmes, Secretary