SOLO II Committee Meeting Minutes 4/13/04

Members in Attendance – Jerry Lamb, Gretchen Everett, Aaron Pailthorp, Dick Willy, Val Korry, Mark McCooey, Bud Bohrer, Mike Leuty, Tom LeCoque, Jodie LeCoque, Karen Babb, Wayne & Sharon Reuter, Keith Brown, Kevin Dietz, Jodi Fordahl.

Minutes Review – Approved as written.

Board Report – The region has $1800 in the bank and no outstanding invoices. We are doing okay right now. Race held a ground school, driver’s school, and a test and tune and they made $500 total. Solo reported events number one, two and three. Rally had a Do-Wop event with 33 entrants. The Oregon Trail rally will be held on April 21 – 23. April 18^th they will be holding their annual highway clean up; everyone is welcome to join them. The gimmick rally will be held on April 25^th. Please check the web site for further details. They are currently working on refreshing the web site. We currently have 1390 members. They are currently giving -each new member a certificate for a free NWR patch or pin. The region may be holding a rally-cross on June 12^th unless there is a significant conflict with any of the venues schedules. An agreement was made to table the discussion for raising fees until next quarter. Karl made it perfectly clear that Solo was not willing to pay additional fees until all of the venues are current with their fees. Solo will be donating $100 to Dick Buckingham to help with the costs associated with bringing him back to the U.S. after his accident in Australia. Since the region has continually missed sending out the proper notification for the expired tabs on the Solo bus and trailer, they have finally allowed Solo to be the registered owner of the bus, so that the paperwork can be send to Lou Ann. Karl will take care of getting the addressed changed for both the trailer and the bus.

Treasurer’s Report – Unfortunately, Lou Ann has broken her collarbone and is unavailable for the evening. Since we’ve had four events back to back, we do have some money in our accounts, but she has reminded us that we should not go hog wild.

WWSCC Report – Jerry handed over several outstanding invoices. NWDE has been added to the schedule for June 6^th. The slush banquet will be at Bison Creek Pizza on Saturday. The cost will be $6 per person. They would like to remind everyone that it is the Event Chair’s responsibility to make sure the hotline has been updated with the proper information.

Equipment Report –. Everything made it over to Yakima and back with no problems. At the last meeting it was approved that we would put the bus on a regular maintenance program. Per the last meeting we will do the following program from Brett & Jason Spore’s place of business: 2004 – C less coolant, 2005 – A, 2006 – B, 2007 – A, 2008 – B, 2009 – C. It was voted and approved to purchase a spare tire and wheel for both the bus and trailer. Jodi Fordahl has volunteered to do the research if someone provides her the proper information. It was also voted and approved to purchase a jack, lug wrench and roadside emergency kit. Jodie and Tom will take care of purchasing these items. Everyone was impressed with the set-up that Joe G. has created for the results system. He has reminded everyone that this is a work in progress and will continue to evolve.

OLD BUSINESS

Annual Tech – So far Keith has tech’d about 45 cars. He feels that things are going very well. It will be available at the next SCCA on May 23, but that will be the last opportunity. He will begin spot checks of random cars immediately.

Safety Steward Class – We held the class with 10 students. Wayne felt it was a good class. Out of the 10 people we had 6 people who have already signed up for both of their deputy events. It was brought up that the Safety Stewards should be wearing the proper yellow baseball caps. Karl also brought up the fact that safety vests are available. This will help clearly identify the steward in charge. The group agreed that vests would be more comfortable for people. A motion was made to purchase 6 vests total. Karl will make arrangements to purchase them.

Novice School 3/27 – There will be a total of 47 students. There were eleven students who did not show up. Jodie feels it is very important that for all future events, the school be a pre-registered AND pre-paid situation. This will help eliminate the no shows.

Everyone who wanted to go to the school was able to attend. Overall, things went well. There was something new this year. They had an actual “worker” instructors on the course, teaching people how to start, work the radio, etc. The only thing brought up was that the instructors were running on course, while the safety steward was having lunch. Several of the cars had also gone out without going through tech. This is important to pay attention to in the future.

Event #2 (3/28) – Jodie L. was the event chair. There were a total of 207 entrants. Jodie felt it was a good event. The only question she brought up was exactly what to do with people who show up in afternoon that are suppose to run in the morning. The group felt that Jodie dealt with the situation that day as well as she could have. The regional “supps” say that running out of group must be because of a “real” reason, ie. a funeral, a flat tire, a work schedule conflict, etc. The event chair must approve out of group requests before registration closes for the proper half of the day. The second issue raised that day was whether it is legal for more than two drivers to compete in one car in one heat. A motion was presented and approved that the regional supplemental will be changed to reflect the fact that there shall be no more than two drivers in one car per heat, unless there is a mechanical DNF that occurs after the run group has begun running.

Event #3 (4/4) - The pre-event social held at Grant’s Brewery was the largest ever held with 48 people attending. The event went great and each entrant received five runs. The final count was 155 entrants. All double entrants only received four runs. The new chief of waivers created several new tools that were tested for this event. This included clipboards with detailed instructions that should be viewed by ALL entrants who are working this area. It is important that each worker understand the difference between a regular waiver and a minor waiver. Bud is working hard to handle this situation and should be applauded for his efforts.

NEW BUSINESS

Specialty Co-chiefs of Waivers -. After working waiver patrol at the gate for event #2 in BMP, Bud has volunteered to be CO-chief of waiver patrol with Shelby Gill. He has created a box with all of the supplies necessary to cover the gate. One person should be designated to bring the box to the event so that obtaining signatures can begin immediately. Bud felt that the gate at BMP should not be opened until the person with the box arrives on site. He has prepared a job description that details all of the important information for this position. A suggestion was made that the waiver “box” be kept on the Solo bus so that one person is not responsible for bringing the box to each event. Bud assured the group that he will be responsible for finding this person and making sure they are accountable for bringing everything.

How many runs to count? – Mike Leuty raised the question as to how many runs should actually be used for scoring our regional events. Since the standard for SCCA events is based on three runs, he felt it was important for our region to support this standard by following the same type of system. Oregon region has a policy in place that allows for extra runs in each heat, but the first three runs are the only ones used for the final scoring. Although a majority of the group agreed with this idea, until Jodi can speak with Scott regarding a program revision, the idea cannot be put into motion. We will continue to research this issue and present additional information at the next meeting.

Numbers for sale – Tim Irwin was looking into creating numbers that could be sold at each event. This would not be something that entrants would be forced to use, simply as an add-on benefit provided by our group that could potentially create a small amount of income. Tim has been dealing with Kim Hiskey and she can provide 20 sets of numbers and letters. He does not have a package price and we aren’t exactly sure what the total cost would be yet. The group felt that Tim should gather some additional information at present it at the next meeting.

Practice (5/22) – The event will be held at BMP. We still need an event chair. Practices are usually low maintenance and are a large source of income. There were no volunteers. Karl will make a request on the list.

Event #4 (5/23) – Jerry Lamb is the event chair for this event.

Event #5 with BSCC (5/30) – This event will be held at BMP. We still need an event chair. This event will be running in conjunction with BSCC. This should be helpful to BSCC because they have been having difficulties finding event administrators. This allows them the chance to hold an event with very little effort on their behalf. We will be holding a club class to accommodate BSCC members and there will be an additional $10 fee to be scored for both SCCA and BSCC.

Evolution – Geoff Newman has stepped up to chair the entire Evolution school process. This includes hotel accommodations, lunches, etc. Karl is trying to work with BMP to drop the site fee, but if they are unwilling to work with us Evolution will be happy to hold the events at Cheney Stadium. This might allow the school to be held over a weekend, rather than during the week of National Tour.

Bremerton National Tour - We need an event chair. Karl will continue trying to convince Scott Miller to do it again for a second time.

Schedule Flyers – Dick Willy created a flyer including our Solo schedule and all sponsors that is available to take to different places of business for additional club exposure.

GOO

Karl will look into exactly what it will take to begin using the SCCA paypal account for future events.

Karl will add to the Event Chair checklist that an announcement should be made at the driver’s meeting reminding people that proper shoes must be worn while driving on course.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:35 p.m.