Region dues

Jake,
Pass the popcorn, my boy Tnord has his ladel out stirring the pot.:026:

Just for fun let's turn this around.

How would you as a racer (volunteer) feel about having someone else tell you how to run your racing?

what if a corner worker told you that you could save money by running fewer races? (just like when someone above told a region to put on fewer races)

What if some guy who used to be a starter told you that you could save money by driving a slower car?

what if your region passed a motion to ask you to negotiate with your tire vendor more like a mixed martial arts fighter and less like a girl scout?

And why the heck do you have that big tow rig when you could get a dolly and tow with a ranger pick up.

This is pretty much what you're doing if you ask you region or your workers to do something different than they are doing. Suggestions with merit are fine. But I won't be surprised when you don't sell your car and buy an ITC car just because I think it would save you some money.

I'm pretty sure most of you would say "hey, if you don't like how I run my race program, buy your own car"? so why be surprised when that is the answer you get?

Wow, we just can't get on topic here. I'm going to suggest to the original poster that he start a new thread about "my region is tiny, what can we do?"

jim

Mac I retired my ladel long ago, i use a boat oar now.

If Toni has set your Regional dues at that rate he has priced it to high for most people. Your member are going to come from people that want to solo and just want to be member and $150 is alot just to be a member of the Puerto Rico Region. And remember your National dues would come on top of that. And you can be a member for just the weekend for $10.

AE86ITA said:

Hello everyone:
Here goe the WHY I asked about regional dues. Puerto Rico is now an SCCA region and it's dues have been set at $150.00, we are going through a very hard transition because here there is another Road Racing organization that has been present for the las 35 years and have used the SCCA categories and somewhat accommodate them to our local scenario, and they run under the FIA umbrella.

I just found out that here we are less than 30 SCCA members and in order to cover for much of the racing expenses the regional dues must be enough to at least to break even. I am trying to do my part and promote new members.

I am completely convinced that once we locally start with a strong autocross program and the local Rally club join, we will become a much stronger region but until then we are stuck with a very steep regional due.

I did not mean for you guy to start flaming your regions but at the same time I admired your courage to speak what in your mind, and that does not make any bit of anti SCCA but on the contrary very much in favor.

Thanks you,

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That popcorn is gonna get stale. There's no point in having a discussion when the other guy's just lobbing it barely over the net...

Like this;

tnord said:

except in real life you don't care about the national average, you care about how you're positioned within the industry.

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I don't care about real life. You claim to be an expert but can't answer a simple question. Do the math.

sorry tom, i don't keep track of meaningless statistics.

Am I on the Production Car Forum by mistake....

What meaningless statistic? You're the expert, right? Do the math and get back to me.

And thanks for proving my point.

I don't care to play at this level so I'm done.

RX3 said:

If Toni has set your Regional dues at that rate he has priced it to high for most people. Your member are going to come from people that want to solo and just want to be member and $150 is alot just to be a member of the Puerto Rico Region. And remember your National dues would come on top of that. And you can be a member for just the weekend for $10.

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The way I see it regional dues shoould be just to cover the administrative cost that takes to maintain ones membership such as;

• paper
• ink
• stamps
• staples
• provide SCCA regional support
• etc

So far the only approach that SCCA has taken is the Club Racing and I am confident that once the autocross gets going those will be the bigger crowd. Events should be self financed and if running club racing is too expensive to run then that crowd should carry the bigger load .

***Am I on the Production Car Forum by mistake....***



I was thinking the same thing. BUT, I didn't want to offend any of the senesitive people on this site.

You guy's ain't $hit unless you can keep this worthless thread going for 37 pages as has been done on the Production site bitching about a tech guy who chose the opposite option for an infraction than the option the Production car traditionalists prefered.

EDIT:

***Danica Patrick, Milka Duno In Towel-Snapping Cat Fight At Mid-Ohio***

Jake, I wouldn't call that a cat fight.

so NATIVO it doesn't matter wright? were still going to be there for the event and you know we always been talking about SCCA in PR and before it was nothing but pure speculation and Im looking at this like finally we have another choice out of our internal CCCPR VS PRRRA road racing civil wars so mi friend I have already decided to pay $250.00 for the ITA inscription doble headder plus the 60 dollars scca member fee so I will be waiting for you corolla at the green flag.

sorry david, i'm not going to go back and forth on this any longer.

i'm not going to "go do the math" on it because it's a worthless piece of information. if you want to go look up something stupid like the annual revenue and labor cost of those listed on the S&P 500, have a grand ol time with that.

So far the only approach that SCCA has taken is the Club Racing and I am confident that once the autocross gets going those will be the bigger crowd. Events should be self financed and if running club racing is too expensive to run then that crowd should carry the bigger load .

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by "SCCA" do you mean your region?

imo, you're going about this all backwards. i would try and build a membership with LOW regional dues first (like $10), and then once your membership is built up, you will have the people and the motivated membership to put on a successful event that's financially sustainable. the downside is that it may take some time before that can happen.

ramoncito89 said:

so NATIVO it doesn't matter wright? were still going to be there for the event and you know we always been talking about SCCA in PR and before it was nothing but pure speculation and Im looking at this like finally we have another choice out of our internal CCCPR VS PRRRA road racing civil wars so mi friend I have already decided to pay $250.00 for the ITA inscription doble headder plus the 60 dollars scca member fee so I will be waiting for you corolla at the green flag.

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Don't forget the $75.00 for the competition license fee.

here is the complete list of fees

• $60.00 SCCA
• $150.00 Regional fee
• $75.00 Competition license
• $250.00 Inscription for event
• $535.00 total for our first SCCA event ever
• Being in the first ever inaugural SCCA Guayacan Region event.............Priceless

Anyone knows

-which is the smallest SCCA Region
-how many members it has
-their regional dues
-By definition what are the regionals fee real purposes?

Thanks

It depends on what you mean by "By definition what are the regionals fee real purposes".

If you mean the official, legal purpose the answer is that there is no defined purpose unless your regional by-laws state one. for example your by-laws could state that regional dues will be used for the following purposes only: newsletter, website, parties, meeting sites. which would mean that the money could not be used for other purposes.

but more likely the by-laws do not state a "use it only for this and nothing else" rule. in most regions there is an executive committee with responsibility for the money. and they usually vote on a budget and approve expenses. Sometimes (ahem) there will be a region where the regional executive thinks he knows everything and will demand veto power on all spending. then you can have a bit of a power struggle. I'd bet most regional by-laws are not written well enough to do more than provide guidance and regions pretty much do what they have been doing for years by consensus. It's not until $40k disappears that a region takes a hard look at its by-laws.

so if you are a member wondering where your $250 is going, the answer is to look at the region by-laws and see what is allowed. Pprobably it goes into a general pot of money used for whatever the region needs money for and used as the regional executive committee sees fit. If you don't like it there is probably a process to change your regional by-laws. and/or you can elect new officers.

If you are an officer of the region then the answer is to look at your by-laws and see what they allow you to do. Chances are you can do anything you want and ethics are your only limit. IE, you can't buy yourself a new car and if you use it for strippers you have to share.

I tend to agree with what Travis said earlier. I think it is better to have the lowest regional dues possible and get as many people in the room. And then work from there. I realize that with a small group that needs startup capital this is not always possible. But I think limiting your membership to only those who really really really care already is not a good idea. You really need to bring in as many people as possible and then get them involved. Not the other way around.

jim

AE86ITA said:

Anyone knows

-which is the smallest SCCA Region
-how many members it has
-their regional dues
-By definition what are the regionals fee real purposes?

Thanks

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As treasurer of the Mississippi region, I can chime in on this. We have approximately 40-45 current members (I don't have a current list handy), which makes us one of the smallest regions. Our annual region dues are $15.00. We are an autocross only region, no racing, rallycross or road rally programs. Our region dues don't cover our per-member costs such as postage, insurance, euipment maintenance, ect., and we depend on profits from our autocross events for the majority of our cash flow. We budget about $20,000 per year in entry fees from our events, and try to manage our expenses to end each year with a $2k-3k surplus to add to our "rainy day/equipment upgrade" fund. On a well-attended autocross event, we will clear $600-800 after expenses. If attendance is down, we do well to break even.

That is one of the reasons Topeka subsidizes convention attendance for the smallest regions.
That is one of the interesting things you learn when you travel around. There is no typical region, the makeup varies some to fit local needs. I am part of the second largest region or as I like to say the largest region east of the San Andres fault line. we have a Board of directors plus separate boards that run racing, solo and rally/rallycross.

Regional fees

More on this subject in the SCCA forums

http://www.sccabb.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=6926&PN=1&TPN=1

Thanks