THE END OF THE WORLD IS HERE!!!!

The division has been split not into two divisions, but FOUR - Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and everybody else! Barry Hair was hung in effigy (at least I THINK that was a dummy), the Jekyll Island Club was burned to the ground and anarchy reigns! The Georgia National Guard was called out to restore order and the entire 2006 racing season was cancelled!

But seriously. folks ...

The "secret" Friday night meeting went off as advertised - simply a "let's get to know each other and talk about things facing our division" session. The REs, Directors (yes, both Kaye and KP attended) and invited guests introduced themselves and talked about the issues each are facing. No motions were made and no votes were taken, but some folks did take the time to give background on some of the items on the agenda for Sunday's RE meeting.

To me, the Friday night meeting helped create an atmosphere of communication and cooperation that will enable the RE's to make better decisions in the future. Apparently others in attendance agreed as the RE's voted during the closed session on Sunday morning (as Martin pointed out last week, it's interesting the furor that was created about this meeting when the ECR Committee, SARRC Committee, Stewards and RE's ALL have closed meetings during the Jekyll weekend - why no bitching about those?!?) to continue these Friday night meetings at both Jekyll AND the Mid-year meetings in the future. It's scary what can happen when the leadership of SEDIV actually talks among themselves!

I'm not sure if MattBerg was in attendance this weekend or not. I don't know what he looks like, so all I can say is I never saw anyone with his nametag and, contrary to predictions, there was no "calling out" of ANYONE at the general meeting Saturday afternoon. Perhaps his flight into Jacksonville was delayed.

Notes I made from the weekend that affect IT:
- changes to the ECR Series that I covered elsewhere (two doubles, count best six races, looking at an "SIC-type event" to close the season)
- the March National at Road Atlanta will be a Double Pro-IT weekend (Sandy will be posting the entire Pro-IT schedule soon)
- the Alabama Region Double SARRC (July 8,9) at Roebling was granted another one-year waiver for 2006. It is anticipated the event WILL return to Barber for 2007.
- Atlanta Region's Labor Day event (Double SARRC / Pro-IT) will be a two-day event (Sat/Sun) at the Nashville SuperSpeedway

The Labor Day Nashville SuperSpeedway event will indeed be a collaborative effort among a number of regions. Pending track approval by Topeka (which should not be a problem, we just need to obtain it), the Atlanta, Chattanooga, Tennessee, Tennessee Valley and Alabama Regions will ALL provide expertise and manpower to help make the event a success. There will be test day on Friday, racing on Saturday and Sunday, then we'll have Monday as a travel day (or a chance to sight-see in The Music City). Again, it's amazing what can happen when regions actually communicate and work together.

Finally I'd like to apologize to this Forum for losing my temper last week. I do this not from any fear of retribution from Topeka or anyone else, but simply because it's better to work WITH people than get into a shouting match. Some people are simply not worth working with, however, so I will no longer waste my time nor yours trying to do so.

Thanks...

Butch Kummer
Atlanta Region