Minutes of the Meeting

of the Board of Directors of the

Reno Region of the SCCA

June 1, 2005

Attendees:       Dave DeBorde            Doug Driver                 Lee Mitchell                

Lucas Kunze               Greg Benson               Dean Benz

Matt Benson                Larry Capen                Eric Gangloff

Russ Carpenter

The board members convened for a board meeting at the home of Carol and Dave DeBorde along with a full array of fattening food.  Eric Gangloff participated via telephone which explains why he is so thin.  Dave called the meeting to order at 6:35 PM for the purpose of setting agenda items for the June 8^th general membership meeting.  Dave reviewed the minutes from the April 27^th board meeting before the directors got down to business.

At the last general membership meeting, Russ Carpenter volunteered to help out with promotion;  and he came to the board meeting to present his ideas.  During his presentation and the open discussion that surrounded it, the following thoughts/comments/ideas were thrown on the table.

• Our goal in “promotion” is to attract more participants and more volunteers.
• A huge challenge is to bring a newcomer back for a second time.
• We need to develop an easy way to show newcomers the ropes, rules etc.
• More social events along with the competitions would help integrate newcomers into the established group – Saturday afternoon barbeques would be good.
• Scheduling a Stead event soon after the school would help the school newcomers become involved more easily.
• Including family members and friends would help.
• Registration should be better identified with step-by-step instructions:  a “START HERE” sign might help.
• A sandwich board with the run/work schedule would be a nice idea;  it could be a white board that could be updated as the times change throughout the day.
• Perhaps a newcomer’s link could be added to the website.
• If we could give non-participants a better view of the action then it might encourage family and friends to attend.
• A dedicate hospitality tent might help.
• Instruction/orientation booklets for first timers would be helpful.
• Certain members could be prominently identified as mentors.
• Create an environment where drivers want to bring their family members out to volunteer.
• Do a better job of recognizing the hard-working volunteers.
• Give grid marshals, starters etc. bright colored vests to better identify those positions.
• Distribute more press releases and wallet cards, get on more community calendars and bulletin boards.
• Use discount coupons and other incentives to motivate existing members to recruit new members.
• Develop relationships with commercial event sponsors.
• Work on some general club promotion activities versus specific event promotion activities.

The directors agreed that these are great ideas but will go nowhere without more volunteer help.  Many of the current volunteers are so overworked with SCCA tasks that they aren’t willing to take on any new tasks without some additional volunteer help.  For example, the Membership Chair position should probably be split into two positions:  one to maintain the membership data base and one to expand membership.  The board members thanked Russ for his work and vowed to try and find some volunteers to help him move forward with some of these great ideas.

The following agenda items were tentatively set for the June 8^th general membership meeting.

Old Business

Hawthorne event review.

SFR Double National results.

Solo2 Divisional.

Time Trials event at Lovelock.

“Auto Jumble.”

Bus drivers (mature, married & boring).

New Business

Reno-Fernley Time Trials event.

Promotional Chair position.

Need for more volunteers/helpers.

Cone trailer

The directors concluded the meeting with discussions on the upcoming Divisional event and the Time Trials events at Lovelock and Reno-Fernley.

Good meeting, great dinner, great dessert, thanks Carol and Dave, 10:00 PM and time to go home.

Respectfully submitted by Doug Driver, Secretary.