SOLO II Committee Meeting Minutes 1/13/04

Members in Attendance – Karl Coleman, Gretchen Everett, Dick Willy, Aaron Pailthorp, Scott Miller, Tim Irwin, Nash Johnson, Terri Johnson, Bud Bohrer, Tom LeCoque, Val Korry, Lou Anne Christensen. One guest – Jerrett Cangie.

Minutes Review - Minutes have been approved as written with the following changes Jerry Lamb will be replacing Karl Coleman as the Solo Director in 2005.

Board Report – February 28^th will be the date for races annual seminar on what it takes to go racing. The event will be held at Fordahl Motorsports and will include sovereign, Solo I, and Solo II. Rally has canceled their February event, but Do-wop will still be in March. Their workers party is on January 31^st at the casino in Shelton, this is in conflict with the Coneheads banquet again for the fifth year. A request was made to try and change this in this for future events.

Treasurer’s Report – Please see attached. Some activity in the checkbook. One outstanding bill from National Tour and we’ve also paid off Victory Awards for the years worth of regional trophies.

WWSCC Report - SCCA should be receiving an invoice for our “fee” for $20. Coneheads will be January 31^st from 5:00 p.m. to Midnight and will be held at The Mountaineers Club. They are looking for items to donate something for the raffle. They are suggesting that each club donate one item. The cost to attend will be $35. The first slush event will be held this Sunday at BMP. The Torque Steerers event will be February 8^th at BMP. There has been a proposal presented by Torque Steerers to hold a drifting practice event and they are gathering feedback from clubs to see how they feel about it. K & K will cover the insurance for the event if it is held. They have also consulted with Karen Babb to ensure that a proper course would be used. Does SCCA agree with this consideration? Any concerns? Most people in attendance seemed to be uninterested in this type of event, but felt that as long as the event was run in a controlled environment being overseen by experienced autocrossers then there did not seem to be any resistance.

The club is still looking for a treasurer. All rules proposed at the last meeting were voted in.

Equipment Report – The Solo Bus is currently at West Seattle Radiator. Tom has received a quote and the radiator is in very poor shape. They are not sure if it is rebuildable. A brand new three-row is much more expensive than a four-row rebuild ($140 cheaper for four-core). The total bill will be $719 at the highest, but closer $600 with a rebuilt four-row. The thermostat has also been replaced. Other than that, everything seems to be fine. Aaron picked up the timing display from Kevin and it has been fully charged and there is nothing wrong with it. Aaron is working with Kelley and Steve to learn more about all of the remaining equipment. Kevin has purchased a wireless microphone system, including 2 separate mics. Thanks Kevin!

OLD BUSINESS

NW Region Banquet Reminder – The region banquet will be held on Saturday at Bison Creek Pizza. 6:00 social – 7:00 dinner. $10 for all you can eat pizza and salad.

Trophy Committee Update – Trophies have all been ordered. We will have a nice jacket for first; a wind jacket pullover for second and a nice checkered collared polo for third – seventh.

Reno Convention Recap - Saturday was a good day. Held an SCCA University course regarding motivating volunteers. Karl felt that it was good information. They learned it was important to not “de-motivate” volunteers by forcing one specific opinion down their throats because it was important to recognize their new thoughts and try to be open minded to new things. Round tables were held with several different subjects. Karl attended one regarding a rally cross event since our region will be holding this type of event in 2004 and another regarding different shock setups put on by Ground Control. He learned more in one hour regarding shocks than he has in all his years in racing. Katie Elder held a round table for our Division. The Reno region will be holding an event at Stead Air force base which will be part of the Divisional series, along with our National Tour in July and Atwater on May 1 & 2, plus Snake River is trying to hold another event at Mt. Home Air force base on August 21 & 22. They cannot confirm the base, but are trying to get the Nampa Convention Center as a back up site.

National Convention (Feb. 5 – 7) – This was discussed at the last meeting, but Karl is looking for any additional questions or concerns to add to his list. A very firm discussion was held regarding “dedicated hardware” when referring to National T&S. Some felt it was very important to make sure that any “new” systems were sent out for proposals so that the little guys who have been involved on a regional level for a long time could at least be considered for the proposal. Another suggestion was made for Bud to gather information regarding what is happening on a National level regarding recommendations for dealing with classing structures that are declining in attendance.

Schedule for 2004 – No major changes since the “proposed” schedule presented at the meeting last month, except for the fact that the California National Tour event has moved up and is now conflicting with our first event on March 7^th at BMP. Tom & Jodie LeCoque and Keith Brown will be attending the CA event, so we will need to have replacements for Novice Chairs and Tech for Event #1. Karl is wondering if we want to change the event date. The group felt that we should take advantage of the date since we’ve got it and not change the schedule. The first Novice School will be held on March 27^th at BMP.

Event Chairs for 2004 – Aaron Pailthorp has already volunteered to cover the August Event and Scott Miller has volunteered to cover the first event. Gretchen Everett will also cover one of the events, if registration can be taken care of. Karl Coleman and Kevin Dietz will co-chair the Yakima event. Jerry Lamb has volunteered to cover event #3 on May 23^rd.

Streamlining the registration/tech process - A discussion was held at the last meeting to try and streamline the process, Karl wanted to confirm exactly what had been agreed upon. A discussion was held regarding this process. Most felt that there was not a downside to opening this up, but Keith recommended that we add another box for the Chief of Workers to sign-off, along with tech so that we know that each competitor has visited each station.

NEW BUSINESS

Specialty Chief of Workers – Terri Johnson has volunteered to cover this position for 2004. Thank you Terri!!

Timing Equipment Accessories – The good news is that we do not need a new battery for the timing display. Aaron is looking for the manual for the display. Since no one really knows where it is, Aaron would like approval to spend $12 to purchase a new one. He would also like to purchase some dust caps for the cable ends that are not being used. A case is available for $385 for storing the display unit. This is an appropriate dollar amount when considering the total dollar amount spent on the actual equipment. This container also has spaces available for the cables. Greg knows someone that may be able to source a very similar box for a lesser amount. Aaron will follow-up with Greg regarding this option. He would also like to source some backup options for getting electrical current to the display. Aaron also feels that the display can be run by a lap top that contains the index formulas so that indexed times can be displayed and would like to purchase a data cable that may help accomplish this. A proposal was made and approved that that he may purchase all above equipment except for the case until he talks to Greg and the data cable until he talks to Scott Chytil.

04’ Supps/Mike Leuty’s NWSC News Article – Mike Leuty wrote a very informative article addressing the classing structure changes for 2004. He wanted to present it to the group to make sure that it is clear and concise before it gets published in the newsletter. Tim Irwin who is the original author of the proposal felt it captured everything very well. The group agreed and felt that no changes would be necessary.

Donation for Coneheads - We will donate two regional event entries to the cause.

Event trophies - People felt it was important that we continue to handout regional event trophies. A motion was approved to continue this as long as it was done in the same fashion as last year. Meaning if you don’t show up, you don’t get it; and that the trophies were recyclable between events.

Misc. – Add to the Specialty chief of Grid checklist that grid is now responsible for checking the timing cards to make sure that each competitor has gone through tech and gotten a worker assignment. They will also responsible for helmet checkout. On another note, our Chief of Tech would like help in coming up with a way to get ALL entrants to display legible car numbers and class on their vehicles. Several suggestions were made.

Meeting was adjourned at 9:19 p.m.

GOO

Lou Anne has ordered 60 2004 rulebooks.