First off, sorry it has been a while since my first and only blog. It seems like time can get away from any of us so quickly. In addition, the title of this blog has been revisited several times. Originally, the title was going to be “Off to a good start…” That title reflected the fact that other than the first Club Trials event, attendance at the Drivers School, MARRS 1 and the Solo events looked pretty good compared to the projections the Board used to build the 2009 budget.
Then, the bottom fell out as we held the National, MARRS 4 and the 12 Hour. While the Board initially budgeted for a deficit of about $11,000 in 2009, all other things being equal, we are now projecting a deficit of several times that amount. What to do?
At last week’s Board meeting we started to work on reducing our deficit by looking closely at our administrative costs. We settled on three actions, at least for the time being. First, and foremost, we suspended publication of a hard copy version of the Straightpipe for the balance of 2009. This was not an easy decision to make. Personally I have always been a big supporter of the Straightpipe, especially last year when we were deciding its future.
However, if you recall one of the objectives I set for myself as RE was to be a good steward of your money. Bearing that objective in mind, along with the objective of maintaining high quality competition programs, suspending the Straightpipe seemed like the right thing to do. All of the content we have received to date will be shifted to the web site, something Eric Kriemelmeyer is working on. More on that in a future blog.
In addition, we reduced the allowed budget for conventions and Board meetings to reflect changes we had already made to save money. For example, thanks to Eric, we found a much cheaper place to hold our monthly meetings. The food is pretty good and the atmosphere is satisfactory.
But these actions are simply not going to be enough to keep the red ink within reason. After all, while some of us are or used to be Feds, we can’t print money. With the Board’s support, I am asking the Chairs of each of our Committees to review their expenditures to date to see if they can identify ways to reduce costs for the balance of the year. As they say, to be continued…
See you at the track!
James Noel