Meeting Minutes for November 2008 Board Meeting

Date:                     11/11/08

Time:                     6:30 pm

Location:              The Common Man, Merrimack NH

 

Attendees :   Alan Legerlotz,  Dana Sion, Michael Morin,  Tom Blinn, Laura Fallis, Paul Michali, Cassandra Vorisek-Creto, PJ McDonough, Bruce Smith, Mike Dion , David Harrison, Dick Cadieux, Martin Callahan.

Meeting was called to order at 6:35 pm.

National has indicated that they have not been getting profiles.  We need to get these posted on the web site and to National so they are up to date and realize that we have been publishing and sending.  Paul and Martin will get together to get this taken care of.

 

Feedback from O’Fest has been very positive around the ADSS and other things with which we were involved.

 

Todo for new board:  Forms for January 1^st, need a new DEC Chairs, next national DEC meeting in March, Taxes and other things to keep us in good.

 

Fred Neirgard will put info about Street Survival into print.  The track is happy with us these days… Bette gave positive feedback to the new track personnel in hopes of keeping us in good with the track.  This is helping Street Survival get into all of the sites owned by the same company.  We should be getting some money back from the October event with Boston.  We want to do the Social Event at the event next year as well.

 

Next board meeting is at IRA in Stratham and that is the meeting with onsite elections.

 

General Topic question…   what should we have for food at the December meeting?  Pizza or Italian food?    The decision was Subs because we have pizza a lot at meetings.

 

Laura:  Membership Update:  We have 764 members.  Membership is pretty much the same, but is down a bit.  Laura has had some interaction with members recently via email.  Laura is trying to drum up involvement and Al suggested something being added to the profile to advertise for volunteers. 

 

Laura suggested checking out the video that Ed put together about the club.   It’s a good advertising tool and the sound is being improved, so a new version will be available.

 

Bruce mentioned that the “Climb to the Clouds” will happen again next year.  Bruce said that as someone who participated, it’s a great experience.

 

Mike:  Financial Update:  We have $14,597.03 in the checking account at this point.  We have outstanding liabilities, but we’re not sure what they are.  We have taken in over $5000 from the Mt Washington Hill Climb, but have paid no bills related to it.  We also have the next profile and holiday parties as liabilities.  Receivables at this point are the holiday party and profit from Boston on October.  We have applied for all rebates we’re aware of with respect to insurance, etc…  We are now using Vermillion as our printer for the Profile and we’ve cut the costs significantly by shipping it folded and limiting color to the front and back covers.  Martin is very happy with the new printer and has talked to them several times.   Mike mentioned that it is important to keep and submit receipts for all reimbursable expenses so we can produce records for expenses.  There will be signature changes coming up after the first of the year and we’ll need to change those quickly when the new board takes over.  Profit/loss for the year has been 6746.82 thus far, but there are liabilities and receivables that we need to reconcile.  We have lost about $10K on the profile this year and costs are now under control.  The profit loss is something we really need to focus on.  Driving events made money, but likely not very much once we reconcile the Mt Washington Hill Climb expenses.   Driving Events have been revenue neutral this year, Social Events neutral as well; meetings have cost us about $4000 for the year.

 

Bruce suggested meetings as a way to save money.  Perhaps we can meet at Sponsor locations instead.  That may be a way to save some money.  Dick said that some chapters don’t cover drinks at meetings… we do.  Maybe that’s something we need to look at doing.  We made a conscious choice in the past to cover drinks.  Tom suggested that perhaps we need to cut out refreshments entirely.

 

Paul: Web Site Update:  The holiday party is up and registration is open.  We need to get an email blast out to get people to sign up.  This year it is called the “Winter Reunion”, not the “Holiday Party”.  Paul needs info from Cassandra on it.  Voting has been unusual this year.  Already 85 people have voted, and polls have only been open for a week or so.  We need to get a high resolution profile available on line.  We have some older ones available on line, but we need to get caught up.  In January there will be a lot of input necessary on the Staff Pages, Board Pages, Profile Deadlines, Calendar, Events, etc…  Paul spent 104 hours on the web site in September.  Paul is at 245 hours for the year, so he’s gotten to cut down a bit on his number of hours, which was a goal given the high number of hours in the past.

 

Cassandra: SEC Update:  The “Winter Reunion” should be cost neutral because of $2K in sponsorship that Dana has managed to acquire.  The cost this year is $40 per person, which will offset the cost.  The entertainment this year will be a 10 piece band.  It starts with 4 pieces during dinner and then increases to 10 pieces afterward.  There will be silent auction this year with approximately 20 items.   Cassandra needs to get the “e-mail blast” information to Paul for the event.  The charity this year is the NH Make A Wish Foundation and they may be attending the event.  The charity may also bring a family to the event.  There are no events for the remainder of 2008.  For 2009 there is a budget already made and they should be either cost neutral or make money.  There is a proposed profit of around $1000 for the year if the numbers hold.  The SEC wants to do go-karting and the BBQ again and that may be a money maker, along with the Winter Reunion.    Paul asked if there is any sort of matching funds or anything from National for charitable donations.  Mike will look into things.

 

Martin:  Profile Update:  Submissions deadline was last Friday.  Dana has volunteered to be the content collector to alleviate the burden from Martin.  Dana will be looking for the “Laundry List” items and then get everything else he needs to put it together from Martin.  Martin is ready to post them, he just needs to chat with Paul about how to get them posted.  Martin would like to put together an FTP site on which  high-res newsletters can be posted so national can grab them.  It would be nice to do a “year in review”.  Dick has offered to sponsor the year in review additional cost of $150.  The photos for the “year in review” will come from the Gallery from the web site.  Martin wants to be sure that photos are attributed to the person who took them.

 

Dana:  Marketing Update:  Dana has been dealing with some advertisers who have not been paying.  If they don’t pay before the issue deadline, the ad may not be printed.  Dana is working on getting a consistent renewal date for all sponsors/advertisers to the 1^st of the year.  Dana has been working on getting hats that were requested by the DEC, but now that there is no DEC chair, we need to wait until there is a new DEC chair before he follows up on that.  We have the possibility of putting up a membership table at events like car shows, etc…

 

Dana would like some support on getting upgraded table decorations.  The decision was made to get a quote for the items.

 

A motion was made to amend the policy on classified ads to not require VIN numbers on competition cars.  The vote was a tie, therefore the motion did not carry and the current policy stands.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 9:10 pm.