1:00 PM PST – Regional Executives/National Board of Directors meeting. Lots of topics were discussed, but no world-saving solutions were developed. Some topics included:
• Advertising/promotion (nothing new here)
• Membership acquisition/retention (nothing new here)
• The state of National Club Racing – This one surprised me because it sounds like WDCR (and ultimately, the NEDiv) is very much not alone in its National Club Racing woes.
3:00 PM PST – Meet the President. Listened to Jeff Dahnert talk about the state of the club overall. Short, sweet, and lots of good one liners.4:00 PM PST – SCCA Inc. Annual Meeting. Ok, so I admit, this is one of the most difficult sessions to sit through because there are a lot of numbers about the financial state of each of the different SCCA entities and each of the racing disciplines, and it is just an overwhelming amount of information to process. Some of the notable items:
• All SCCA entities finished solidly in the black for 2009.
• Solo Nationals participation rose 10% in 2009.
• Membership statistics for 2009 were:
o Total Members: 43,521
o Retention: 72.5%
o New Members: 9,089
o New Members under the age of 35: 53%
We also were introduced to the 2010 National Board of Directors. In keeping with our Mission Statement (Promote social welfare through amateur sports competition and education.), WDCR also donated $500 to the SCCA Foundation for 2010. SCCA Foundation’s major initiative is the Tire Rack Street Survival program which, once again, has been heavily promoted throughout the convention as a way for Regions to make a huge splash in their local communities. It’s a very positive program for a very impressionable age group.
5:00 PM PST – SCCA, Inc. Town Hall. This is an open Q&A period where the membership can ask questions to the National Board of Directors. Usually, the session takes the entire hour but being that we started half an hour late (the Annual Meeting went an hour and a half… rough…), but people must’ve been jonesing to get out of there as the questions were limited. Questions/statements included:
• What will happen after our 3 year contract is up at Road America for the Runoffs? - No answer yet, but on the shelf as an item of interest.
• Can Club Racing find a way to include cars from other clubs in a “run what you brung” type of format? - With a slight modification of some rule sets and as long as they meet all safety requirements, yes.
The day is done, my brain is fried. Can't wait to do to this all again, tomorrow!
Cheers!
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-Evanthe
Don't drive faster than your angel can fly.