SOLO II Committee Meeting Minutes 03/11/08

Members in Attendance – Gretchen Everett, Dick Willy, Russell O’Connell, Jackie McInnis, Chris Kmetz, Charles Aggenbach, Tim Monk, Scott Miller, Amy and Karl Coleman, Drew Hanft, Bud Bohrer, Karen Babb, Scotty Farone, Steffen Speget, Enrique Garcia, Dieter Beldi, Joel Ferguson, Binh Ngyen, Chad Goettel, Tim Mastbruch, Val Korry, Jerry Lamb, Lou Ann Christensen, Kevin Dietz.

Minutes Review – Minutes were approved with a few changes to name spellings, and removing the sentence that says we cannot have a Dyno at one of our events due to insurance restrictions. This statement is not true.

Board Report – Not a lot of activity, mostly reports on upcoming events. There will be a Street Survival Class being held at BMP on March 29 – 30. This is a defensive driving course for people between the ages of 15 (driver’s permit) – 21. All types of vehicles will be allowed. This is NOT an autocross course. If you drive a minivan on the street, then come and drive a minivan in this class. They will put the students into situations where they will have to react to “unknown” events that will help them develop skills for defensive driving on the actual road. This will be a great opportunity for these students to get some good experience behind the wheel. The parents must be in attendance.

National Convention – Our region received third place in the website competition. There was lots of discussion regarding drifting events in 2008. Took several people to explain how we are going to obtain insurance sanctions. The age requirement of 18+ is still in place. Dick was able to spend some time with Jamie Cicolese, who is a drifting consultant for SCCA. He competes in drifting events and also teaches drifting schools for SCCA. They are not anticipating any changes in the drifting rules for 2008. Dick appreciated learning this new information, as there will be a drifting school the same day as our Novice school the first weekend in April. There was some discussion regarding the new weekend membership program, it will be a requirement in 2008. Most of the people attending the discussion did not seem to have any problems with this new program, so Dick felt at this point in time the decision had already been made. The “Real” Roger Johnson and Karen Babb gave a course design presentation.

Drifting Report – There is a full schedule in April. Russell had a meeting with the manager of the Evergreen Speedway. The first event being held there is April 4^th, so we will not be holding an event on Sunday, April 6^th. Les Schwab of Monroe has stepped up to sponsor the Monroe program. Saturday, April 5^th will be the first annual NWR SCCA Drifting school. Insurance and safety stewards have been taken care of. Russell has posted the information for the Drifting school on the autox list. Any Solo people interested in attending this school, or learning more about drifting in general, should sign up. Just don’t forget to bring a set of tires that you don’t really care about.

Everett Site Status – BEAC has been informed that there will no longer be any autocross, or karting events held at the Everett site. There was a new committee put in place and auto crossing was deemed to be too high of a risk. All currently scheduled WW events will need to be relocated. The BEAC meeting will be held tomorrow night and Dick will present additional information regarding this subject at next month’s meeting. BEAC has asked many questions, but has not received much information.

Treasurer’s Report – Short report this month. Reimbursed Jackie for copies for last month’s meeting, Rick V. for the performance posters and Dick Willy for his National convention expenses.

WWSCC Report – Keith was not present, so Karl and Amy tried to fill in the blanks. UW event has been put on hold until they can find a new location. Rulebooks will be printed soon. Slush banquet is coming up in the next few weeks. Event reps are now able to change content on the WW site. Alan is very desperate for content for the wwscc website. He is looking for reports, articles or even photos.

OLD BUSINESS

Novice School – Jackie is getting ready for this event on April 5^th. She has been collecting feedback from everyone because she doesn’t want to get stuck doing things the same way just “because”. Box lunches have been arranged for both the entrants and the instructors.

Event #1 – She will be contacting each of the Specialty Chiefs to make sure that everything is getting ready to go. We still need a course designer. Anyone interested please let Jackie or Chris know. Chris will be sending a notice out to the autox list, but was hoping someone from this group may volunteer. They have made arrangements with the new vendor for hot dogs, hamburgers, etc. on site during the event. This is the same organization that will be making lunches for both of the novice schools.

Tight n’ Tidy Pro Solo – Will be held in Packwood on April 19^th. The Christmas tree lights need to be returned to the site, so Jerry is hoping that someone with a tow vehicle might be available to bring them with them to the site. Karl and Amy may have room to bring them with them.

NEW BUSINESS

Chiefs Needed – Still need a stock Chief of Timing. Without this position, we obviously cannot hold any events, so this is a very important position that needs to be filled.

Annual Tech – There is a restriction in the supplementals that states modified cars do not qualify for annual tech. A motion was made that this restriction be removed and that no class restrictions be applied. Motion passed. Annual tech for 2008 will be held on March 22 at Jim’s Detail Shop in Seatac. Everyone must make an appointment with Charles BEFORE they show up.

Jet City Tuning proposal – Karl received a proposal from this company and they would like to bring a dyno machine to one of our events. They may also be interested in sponsoring an event. There seemed to be a higher level of interest in this opportunity from the drifting group rather than the Solo group, but until they have a more organized and structured series put together, there probably isn’t much that drift has to offer Jet City Tuning. Russell may send them an email and explain this.

Rules Meeting – Dick would like to dedicate the November meeting for presenting rules, but hold off on making the final votes until the December meeting.

Dash Plaques – We seem to be spending a lot of money on dash plaques and end up with a lot of leftovers. We typically have 25-30 remaining. A discussion was held regarding the value of these giveaways. They are very important to new people, and probably shouldn’t be discontinued. We will decrease the number that we purchase to meet the minimum of 50.

Meeting adjourned at 8:50 p.m.

GOO

Howard Duncan will be the on-site SCCA person for our NT and Pro Solo events.

One of our members won the Stan Burnett Award for 2007. Congratulations to Jerry Lamb!

Scott Miller suggested that members of our site committee revisit the site down in Shelton. If we approached the owners with a group of clubs that would be interested in leasing the site, they may be more interested in making improvements to the site that could make it easier to hold autocross events. We are also looking at Evergreen as a potential site to hold events, and Cheney could also be a possibility again. Keith Brown stopped by there last weekend and the surface looks better than it has for a long time. Karl contacted Emerald Downs and they have a new person in charge of the site. He was informed that the largest problem they have is the sound of squealing tires because it spooks the horses.

The Corvette High performance event was a success. Val said thank you to Solo for letting them use the Pro Solo tree. It gained a lot of attention and Val felt that we did a good deal of marketing.