SOLO II Committee Meeting Minutes 11/09/04

Members in Attendance – Karl Coleman, Gretchen Everett, Aaron Pailthorp, Bud Bohrer, Mike Leuty, Lou Ann Christensen, Jodi Fordahl, Jerry Lamb, Keith Brown, Nash Johnson, Terri Johnson, Sharon Reuter, Wayne Reuter, Alan Dahl, Steve Roberts, Shelbi Giggler, Tim Irwin, Ron Bauer, Dick Willy, Kevin Dietz.

Visitors: Amy Olson, Scott West, Larry Olmstead, and Matthew Hebb.

Minutes Review – The price for holding Coneheads at FX McRory’s is actually $35.00, not $33 as written. Minutes approved with this amendment.

Board Report – Several meeting were held in the past couple of weeks. The region has roughly $1200 in our bank account. Solo kept them posted regarding our final events and our upcoming rules meeting. Race actually finished the season in the black. Dan has volunteered to be the focal for a new board created to help PRI interface better with its users. The next race meeting will be held on November 15^th at Andy’s Diner. If you would like to see this program continue for 2005, it is recommended that you show up for this meeting and give them your support. Due to participation levels in 2004, they will no longer be holding events at BMP. Pro Rally is no longer being supported by the SCCA National Office, because of this the Rally events on a local level may be struggling for the next couple of years as the people who truly support the Pro events are not as interested in sprints and/or rally crosses. To help deal with this issue, the Pro Rally people may be trying to set themselves up as a separate entity. This entity would still be members of the NWR SCCA group, but they would not be connected to our National Office. This would allow them to possibly get insurance and start running events sooner, while still maintaining relationships they have developed in our market. Several regions are trying to deal with this situation the same way. There is some concern regarding this matter and how it will affect our relationships with the National Office. It was suggested that this entire matter be addressed at the National Convention. Karl will contact them requesting a report updating us all on the situation.

Our region currently has 1414 members. There were two board member at large positions that were up for re-election. Dick Willy has agreed to continue on with his position. Thank you Dick! Tom Masterson Jr. has agreed to fill the second position, taking Kevin Dietz’s place. The region would like to do a better job of distributing the extra monthly newsletters. They will be adding copy to the paper announcing where these additional copies can be found so that companies who are supporting SCCA can get additional support. These locations will also be posted on the Internet so that we can in turn drive people to these businesses. The retreat was also held since the last meeting. They are hoping to update the website, Sherry has agreed to help Joe Goeke. They are also hoping to add a classified ads section. There was a big discussion about merchandise. Most of the other venues have a ton of leftover inventory. Karl reminded them they were discussing $10 t-shirts and should just give them away as we have at past events, etc. Two Rallycrosses were held this year. A suggestion was made that the region develops a Rallycross committee because Solo is not interested in supporting these events 100% in the future. Based on participation numbers it is quite apparent the interest is there from the community. If someone is interested in being involved in this process please let Karl know. He will also post a note on the autocross list. The region banquet is going to be held on January 22, 2005.

Treasurer’s Report – Paid for a lot of stuff. Deposits for #9 and #10. Sanctions for #7, some leftover advertising bills from National Tour. Majority was Packwood event fees. P&L for the month looks good, but we also have sanction fees for #9 & #10.

WWSCC Report – Still need looking for a President and Vice President. Anyone interested please speak with Susan Collicot. February 13^th, February 27^th and early March are tentative dates for the Slush series. The rules’ meeting is coming up, but the actual date has not been finalized. Susan will post something once it has been finalized.

Equipment Report – Neither Kevin nor Tom are here to inform of us the status of the Solo Bus tires. Steve Roberts is still taking care of the timing lights. They will be ordered before Thanksgiving. Jodi Fordahl volunteered to purchase the five-mile radios before the last event, but she forgot. Mike Leuty reminded us that Karen Babb has the region’s blower.

OLD BUSINESS

Event #10 (BMP) 10/24 – Jerry Lamb was the event chair. Everything went reasonably smoothly. There were several timing issues in the morning, but things still went okay. The lights were not working well, probably due to the heavy condensation. The workers seemed to be on the ball a bit more than we’ve seen at past events. Someone did run over the timing cord, but discussions have not been held regarding the penalty for replacing this piece of equipment. Larry showed up at the meeting today to help resolve this situation. The course was very fun. It was super fun, but several people felt it was too fast.

Coneheads – Shelby spoke with Kristi Brown and was told that Kristi would let her know when she needed help. Keith reported that there is a potential date of February 5^th. There was some resistance to moving the location of the event from the Mountaineers Club. Kristi asked that Kelley and Susan to present a quote from the Mountaineers Club by Monday at the WW meeting. If not, we will be holding the event at FX McRory’s.

2004 Season Trophies – Kevin, Fast Mike and Gretchen will be meeting soon to gather information to present at the next meeting.

NEW BUSINESS

Gigi’s tent at BMP – The tent is currently is very bad shape. It is going to cost a couple thousand dollars to upgrade the condition. Based on the relationship with this caterer, BSCC has decided to donate $300 to help out. A discussion was held regarding whether SCCA wanted to make an additional donation. Although the group was not super impressed with the food being served by this company, the tent does come in handy for Novice School, and National Tour, etc. Because of this a motion was made to donate $200 to the cause provided we receive a verbal commitment that they will actually do something to fix it. A vote was taken and the motion was passed.

2005 Calendar – The site committee is trying to finalize a schedule for 2005. A final decision was made and a Pro Solo will NOT be held in Seattle next year. We will be holding a National Tour the second to last weekend in July. We are currently planning on holding this event at Packwood. A very tentative calendar has been put together. These dates and locations are NOT final and will not be confirmed until after the date submitting meeting with BMP. The site committee will continue working on the schedule and will present something more solid at the next meeting.

April 3^rd - ??

April 24^th – Yakima

May 14 & 15 – BMP

May 29 - BMP

June 18 & 19 – Packwood

July 23 & 24 – National Tour Packwood

August 6 & 7 – BMP?

September 4 – BMP

September 24 & 25 – Packwood

October 16 – BMP

Washington State Challenge – Scott West and Mitch Lewis have been trying to coordinate a special event and want to throw the idea out there to see how the community feels about running a state championship that will encourage a stronger interaction between the NW autocross clubs and participants. This gives NW competitors a chance to compete at different sites and against new competitors. This challenge would be similar to a “slush series” but held during the summer time period. They would like to see these events run in conjunction with other local events in the separate regions. Although the events will be held simultaneously, the points would be completely separate from the local events. They would like to see the series developed with a separate committee of people, and are actively seeking volunteers to help develop the program, since NWR SCCA would basically be the camel that holds the program together. Scott can be reached at westrx7@comcast.net if you are interested in helping out, please let him know.

2005 Supplemental rules change proposals.

1. Timing Equipment and Financial Penalties - Please see attached copies for details regarding each proposed rule

This is a new rule that was created to help emphasis the fact that there will be a penalty if a competitor hits the timing lights. There has been clarification regarding the timing cables and how they are included in this penalty. A suggestion was made that if we are going to add the cables into this situation we need to do a much better job of clarifying exactly where the cables are actually located. An amendment was made to approve the rule as written but change the $150 fine to $50. A second motion was also made to charge $100. The $100 amendment was voted on and approved. The rule will stand as written with the penalty charged to $100.

2. Proposed Rule: No more than two drivers may drive the same car in any single run group, except in the event of a mechanical DNF after the run group has begun. The run groups will be structured so that the corresponding Open and Ladies classes will not compete in the same run group.- i.e. Stock 1 and Stock 1 Ladies will not run in the same group. A discussion was held and it was decided that the following sentence should be added. It is the competitor’s responsibility to notify the Chief of Workers prior to the end of registration of if a conflict is possible.

3. Proposed Rule: Creation of Nonstock 4 (NS4) The class would consist of STS2, STX & STU. The rule was voted on and

and approved.

4. Proposed Rule: Awards. Wording revision to current section 20. A vote was taken and the rule was passed.

5. Proposed Rule: STS2 and STX cars run with the Stock Pax half of the day. Reference section 16 in current supplements. This rule has been suspended until the December meeting to allow Alan the opportunity to present the paperwork in the proper format.

6. Section 4: Passengers. It was proposed that we go back to our original ruling that does NOT allow passengers to ride with anyone unless they are a student riding with an instructor, or an instructor riding with a student during an instructional run. It should also be noted that some Regions allow passengers in order to acquaint newcomers with the sport. A decision was made to table this rule until the December meeting.

7. Proposed Rule: Add section 25. A minimum of five minutes must have elapsed between runs for any car during Regional Championship Series events. This includes reruns or runs for another driver of the same car. A grid marshal will be specifically assigned to handle two-driver cars and will keep a time log to assure compliance with the five-minute minimum between runs. The time shall be measured from the time the car leaves the finish area of the course until the time it leaves the start time. A vote was taken and the rule has passed.

Norpac Convention - Will be held in Reno January 7^th – 9^th. Jerry Lamb is unable to attend this event. Karl Coleman will attend in his place. A motion was made and passed that the region will pick up the cost of his airplane fare, hotel costs, and registration of the event.

National Convention – Will be held in Topeka January 28th – 30^th. Bud Bohrer will be attending in Jerry’s place. A motion was made and passed that the region will pick up the cost of his airplane fare hotel costs, and registration of the event.

NWR SCCA Region Banquet – Will be held on January 22^nd.

2005 Specialty Chief Positions - Need volunteers for several of the positions. If you are interested in ANY positions other than Chief of Timing, Scoring or Chief of Workers, please contact Karl Coleman. A BIG thank you go out to Aaron Pailthorp and Steve Roberts for volunteering for Timing, Jodi Fordahl for volunteering for Scoring, Keith & Kristi Brown for Chief of Workers, and Shelbi Gill for Waivers.

Increased Fees for 2005 - Given the fact that several costs for 2005 have increased, such as sanction fees, BMP site fee, and insurance costs, it may be time to increase the cost of our event fees. A motion was made to increase the cost of running in a local event by $5.00 straight across the board. Before making a final decision the group would like to at least look at some additional data. A decision was made to table the decision until the next meeting.

GOO

Karl will be accepting nominations for Novice of the Year and Worker of the Year until the December meeting.

A final decision will be voted on at that time.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:25 p.m.