Meeting Minutes for December 2007 Board Meeting
Date: 2/6/08
Time: 6:30 pm
Location: The Common Man, Merrimack NH
Attendees : Bruce Smith, Alan Legerlotz, Paul Michali, Dana Sion, Michael Morin, Laura Fallis, David Thibodeau, David Harrison, George Bixby, Michael Angle, Dick Cadieux, Gordon Geike.
Meeting was called to order at 6:40 pm.
Bruce started the meeting by introducing Michael Angle from Tulley BMW, who was at the meeting to get to know the group and talk about a potential relationship with Tulley and the club.
Bruce talked about the Officers questionnaire for national, we need a financial summary a for National, as well as some other forms. Things are going well with us and National. Frank Patek will be taking over as Executive Director of BMW CCA National. Bruce will be going to Greenville next month and will hopefully be meeting Frank at that time. The year end forms will be completed. There is an event in April for Web Masters and Newsletter editors and Paul and Martin will be attending. Paul and Martin are taking care of the registration, forms, reservations, etc…
O’fest will be at Watkins Glen in September and we were contacted by the O’fest coordinator with respect to us coordinating the car control clinics for O’fest. Bill Wade can potentially help us at the time, but we need to do some leg work to figure out logistics on our part and whether we’ll participate.
Bruce spoke with Bette at NHMS, but that we anticipate seeing her and the other same faces throughout this year. Contracts have not gone out yet, but as soon as Al receives it he’ll tell the other board members what is says.
National has said that insurance rates for driving events will remain flat for 2008, which speaks to the safety of our events and our low claim rate as a club.
The BMW CCA Foundation held 56 Street Survival schools throughout the country. This year the goal is 80 schools. There is some partnership with the SCCA and the BMW CCA Foundation, so 80 schools is possible. There will be a BMW CCA Foundation summit to be held with other clubs to help make the program even bigger than it is now. Porsche, Audi, etc… will attend and the Tire Rack will be participating. Our event will be May 11th with an instructor day on May 10th. We want to talk about all of our events now.
Gordon wants to open all of Driving Event registration ASAP, but we need tuition rates first so we can do that. As soon as we have the info we can publicize. We should have the DEC meeting on 2/20 to set things up. One big focus Gordon would like to do is to get more people involved in the administrative aspects of the DEC. Gordon would also like to get some more Audi and Mini and lotus people involved. By having 2 instructor development days we can teach consistency and get people on the same page. We want to do instructor registration via motorsport reg. We also want to reach out to some of the Boston chapter people who used to instruct with our ADSS.
There is a Road Rally coming up from the SEC in the fall, as well as other things so we want to be sure that we get things coordinated. There is also the hill climb/castle in the clouds, etc… Dana brought up the reception we did last year at the October Event. George and Al both suggested that we try to do the reception in October instead of at one of our events. There is also a Go-Karting event (july 19) etc… We need to get some coordination. Minis on top is June 27th as well. Gordon asked about a potential Gymkana on the access roads. Al will talk to Bette about it. If it is possible to do this, what will we have to do to make it happen? Paul brought up that Ed sent an email about the Speed Secrets seminar and wants us to announce it. Bruce will get information from Luka and we’ll blast it out to people. Gordon will send it out to the instructors and students via MotorsportReg.
Laura said that we’re at 703 members this month. We’re down 11 members this month, but ahead of the usual downturn this time of year. Laura has gotten some inquiries about driving events. Laura is working with people to get some teens to street survival and ADSS this year. Laura has had some conversations about this with the High School officer in Exeter, but things have cooled down a bit. She will try to get that going again. Laura has some inroads via administration at the regional high school. Gordon indicated that there has been some hassle in the past with people who want to sign up… it’s a difficult process to get people signed up. Bruce concurs that there was a problem with signups in the past, but it has been improved. We’re trying to thinks of ways to market this more.
Paul gave an update on the web site. There was a training session for people in January about how to administer parts of the web site. Paul spent about 368 hours on the web site last year. His time should be going down this year now that people are trained and a lot of things are set up. Paul is looking into code management to help manage the web site. Bruce mentioned that he’s added a couple of things already and encourages others to do the same so they don’t forget how to do it. Paul has cloned some event pages so we’re ready to post our events quickly and easily. Dana asked about the easiest way to get information to Paul for major updates to an event page. Paul indicated that it matter on the size of the change and what it involves, so its really a case by case basis.
SEC Report: The party was well attended. Michael has information from the surveys and got about 22 responses. Overall impression was that 30% liked the party as it was. 65% or so didn’t like the entertainment or wanted something else changed. Value of the event was considered to be good for the event. Food critique was varied. The registration process feedback was positive with no complaints. Lots of responses about the entertainment, some positive, some negative. Attendance was over 100 people. Paul suggested that we do a Charity event separately rather than mixing that with the holiday party. Dave T suggested a silent auction for some of the prizes as possibility in the future as well. There was some discussion about the amount of money available to the charity in the end. Ideas were discussed on how to improve the amount of money raised. The opinion of the group was that organizers did a good job, but through no fault of anyone involved, some things fell short. There will be a karting event July 19th with a (sponsored BBQ). The Susan G Komen event will be at Tulley only this year in New Hampshire and we will be helping out (September). More details to follow. There is a wine tasting being arranged. A fall road rally is being planned and the Vermont Chapter might be involved as well.
Al is behind with posting the minutes and will get the December and January minutes (from Bruce) up on the web site along with these ASAP.
Bruce will connect with Mike Dion about the financials. Martin is working on ads format, etc… and Bruce will connect with him.
The next meeting is the first Wednesday in March. Bruce will be away but it will be run between Dick, Al, and Mike.
The Chapter has 3 new banners, one for the Track, one for the SEC, and one for backup. Dana has been making good progress on sponsors and advertisers and has people who has either signed contracts or want to sign contracts.
Gordon is going to look into getting some instructor hats that have the full logo on them. He’ll get a prototype made and bring it to us for approval.
Mike Angle for Tulley talked a bit about the dealership and the involvement they’d like to have with us. They would like to build relationships with organizations in the area.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 pm.