Am I reading this right?

[dickita15]

Oh but wait Dick $3 goes toward trophies and the banquet expenses. I guess this means the Banquet will be free to all Narrc participants, right and the winners in class will recieve a grandfather clock or something substancial as a tropy?

I see no smiley faces in you post Joe so I must assume you are serious. I must also assume our drivers committee know exactly what we are getting with regard to a better banquet and trophies for the tripling of the administrative fee from $2,333 to $7 grand.
I also assume that they have a projected budget for the $7000 that is being taxed for Marketing and Advertising.
I assume that none of our representatives would allow an extra $11,655 to be taken out of the drivers pockets without knowing the benefit.

[Andy Bettencourt]

The reason I posted all of those links is because there was PLENTY of opportunity to know that the NARRC committee was interested in your opinion. Heck, you could have watched the whole meeting on video and weighed in. You could have also so that they recruited volunteers that night and many people stepped up.

The reps are 'drivers advocates'. We just relayed the majority desires of the members who cared to provide feedback. The NARRC committee makes teh decisions. The net of the decision was such:

Pull back the payouts and put the money into significantly better trophies and spend some money on the promotion of the series. How they implement that is up to them. I hope they do a good job.

Trust me guys, I probably got the 2nd largest NARRC check last year (SM #1) and it was nice. I have a bit to lose (~$500) but most drivers said it wasn't important to them in terms of driving their dollar to racing or the prestige of the series. If this is a real problem, write the committee.

And here comes the preachy part. Get involved when asked or don't get THAT upset when things are not to your liking. I may not be 100% ok with how certain things turned out, but my voice was heard. No decisons were made at that LRP meeting, just the infrastructure laid out and volunteers taken - and the info was readily available.

On the $6 - Since I am not in charge I can only hope they do right with the money in terms of their goals (trophies, expenses and promotion). If not, it should be the first item on our list of 'fixes' for 2009.

[dickita15]

Ok Andy, I reread the links and though I did not review the video again I cannot see anywhere where it was suggested that we take over $11,000 of the driver’s money and put it into an administrative slush fund with no published budget and only the vaguest of goals. Was any driver actually asked if they wanted this money to be taken from the drivers for this purpose?
You I thought I was kind of involved in this club and I never heard a word of this taxation scheme.

[StephenB]

The reason I posted all of those links is because there was PLENTY of opportunity to know that the NARRC committee was interested in your opinion. Heck, you could have watched the whole meeting on video and weighed in. You could have also so that they recruited volunteers that night and many people stepped up.

ANDY,

Was this in Pit Talk at any point? I looked back and couldn't find it. Was this posted in Sports Car as this is our official comunication to the members of the club? Was a generic mailing sent out to all the NARRC Finishers, I don't recall getting one. I will refrain from commenting further until I here back on where it was published because I legitimatly could have missed my invite to attend or comunication that anything was going to change.

The reps are 'drivers advocates'. .

ANDY,

Who was the Driver Advocate for ITB? If you are unsure who do I contact to get a copy of the meeting minutes that would have that listed. I'd be curious to see the meeting minutes regardless to see who was present and what was discussed. Were you present at the meeting?

[Andy Bettencourt]

Here are the people who volunteered to represent you:

> ITS, ITB, ITR
> David P Maynard
> Hudson, NH 03051-3769
> [email protected]

> ITA, T3
> Robert A Breault
> Higganum, CT 06441-4093
> [email protected]

> SSM, ITC
> Kyle Disque
> Waban, MA 02468
> Email: [email protected]

The initial meeting minutes are published on the web via the video. The second meeting when the ideas were presented and debated was at the NARRC portion of the NeDiv meetings in Rocky Hill.

Dick - I do not know exactly how the committee decided to appropriate the funds once the decision was made to pull back the payouts and 'increase' the trophies and try and promote the series more. I can tell you that I have NEVER felt more like the PTB wanted to design the best series for the participants so I have (blind) confidence that they will do right by us drivers. Is that stupid? Maybe, but we can always make changes in the future. What I did was volunteer to coordinate the driver feedback and present it to the committee.

I have asked them to outline their plan for the money and will report back when I can.

[RSTPerformance]

I have asked them to outline their plan for the money and will report back when I can.

First, thank you for the above...

I do recal your efforts Andy (and others) at getting driver/member feedback. The 07 season saw several mistakes and you and others stepped in to fix the problems for 08. NOBODY should forget that... you did an excellent job at getting this series back in the right direction.

However with that said I do have to admit that I do not recal any discussions with anyone (including but not limited to past champions, current contenders or active members whom volunteer time) reguarding the significant changes to the financial structure of the series.

I certainly hope that the money payout comes back in 09

(Sarcasm/Anger mode on) but for this year I will just hope that the funds are spent in similar ways as in the past. This would mean that classes with more entrants (more financial investment) are recognized for the class effort... Obviosly free dinners will be at the year end banquet for all class winners and a guest (that used to be the norm in the past even with the payout)... Dinners shall be as follows:
ITA gets nice steaks or samon,
ITS gets cod or chicken
ITB gets burgers and hotdogs with tomato and lettuce!!!
ITC gets grilled cheese with ham...
Then those Open wheel classes get to share a PB&J (Sarcasm/Anger mode off)

Raymond "ProIT here I come" Blethen

[dickita15]

I can tell you that I have NEVER felt more like the PTB wanted to design the best series for the participants so I have (blind) confidence that they will do right by us drivers.

yea right, "together we can"

It is the natural order of Bureaucratic organizations to grow larger and become more inefficient. I bleed SCCA but we are the second most bureaucratic group in the free world. The great thing about NARRC was it was simple. It was an overlay to the existing regional races in Area 1. The entire administration was two half hour meetings a year. Now we have a $14,000 tax with no oversight. Do we really need more NARRC tee shirts? They tried this with NESCCA nationals, it failed, and I fought that too.

[StephenB]

[QUOTE=StephenB;264170]ANDY,

Was this in Pit Talk at any point? I looked back and couldn't find it. Was this posted in Sports Car as this is our official comunication to the members of the club? Was a generic mailing sent out to all the NARRC Finishers, I don't recall getting one. I will refrain from commenting further until I here back on where it was published because I legitimatly could have missed my invite to attend or comunication that anything was going to change.

QUOTE]

Does anyone know this answer? I have posted it a few times without any responses.

Andy B. mentioned... QUOTE "there was PLENTY of opportunity to know that the NARRC committee was interested in your opinion” but I haven't seen anything anywhere that proves that. Internet is a great way to seek out a particular demographic of people but a VERY POOR way to seek feedback from our members. It is not the official communication of SCCA or NERSCCA. I am not trying to get anyone upset but no one seems to know the answer and as you can see I myself am getting a bit frustrated.

Stephen

PS: I do think that some people have put in a huge effort in the past few years to make IT better that can't go unnoticed. I do thank those like Andy and others. I do often wonder if they are truly looking at feedback from all members even those that are not part of the Internet community like myself and this is why I feel as though at this time I should speak up with my limited internet opportunities that I have.

[dickita15]

I went to the NER Club Racing Board meeting last night and asked publicly the Chairman, Serge, two questions. One did NER two reps vote for this and was told yes, and second what were they thinking.
The meeting last night was told by Serge that Andy made a nice presentation at the NARRC meeting that proposed that what was voted, abolishing the points fund and spend the money on a combination of the banquet and advertising, was what the majority of drivers wanted. Serge did not seem to care much personally so he said as it appeared that Andy had done the research he voted for what Andy said the majority of drivers wanted. I found it interesting that Peter Roberts said he told the meeting that this is what the NESCCA national series tried for year and it failed.
My question then Andy is how many drivers knew what you were going to propose before the NARRC meeting. I do not see any evidence that the proposal was shared with the IT community before it was presented.
Andy, I do not question your motives, but I am pretty disappointed in the manner that this abomination was perpetrated.

[Andy Bettencourt]

Wow. That is all I have to say. Abomination Dick? Kinda strong I think.

All I did was present the feedback that the drivers reps collected. I personally wanted to pay out only to the top 3 and not water down the payouts. Self serving? Sure, but not what I was told the majority wanted.

The NARRC committee took the info and voted. All we did was collect the data. If not enough drivers were contacted, then the drivers advocates didn't do the job they volunteered to do.

Stephen, I do not think that anything was posted in Pit Talk...but it would have needed to be posted in all 4 regional mags as this is a NARRC thing. Could it have been done? You bet.

The NARRC committee designed a plan and some people stepped up to help. I think this is a case of you shooting at the messenger. All I did was collect the info and present it to the NARRC committee in public forum for all to hear and debate.

Could it have been done better? Always. Write your letts to the NARRC committee. I guess late feedback is better than none at all.

[dickita15]

Wow. That is all I have to say. Abomination Dick? Kinda strong I think.

Maybe so, but it is my opinion and few people have accused me of not expressing my opinion.
What has been missing from this thread is a single driver posting “I knew what was being presented and supported it” or even “although I was not in favor I knew what was being presented before the meeting”

Could it have been done better? Always. Write your letts to the NARRC committee. I guess late feedback is better than none at all.

I will be writing the NARRC committee but I resent the implication that I and others have been derelict by being late in our input. From my knowledge there was no way to know that abolishing the points fund to create a unbudgeted administrative slush fund was under consideration so there was no way to give input on the subject.

[K_Anderson]

personally I don't care about the money as do many I believe. Winning a $100 at the end of the year has no importance. I would rather receive a Trophy that I would be proud to display. Low subscribed classes should not recieve the same awards as the large.

I would like to see people winning real trophy's, but then that opens up another pandoras box. How do you justify giving out a fancy trophy for a 3 car class. Some of the classes barely have enough cars to declare a loser.

They should have trophys that go up in quality as the car count increases for the race.

bottom line, we are not in this for the prize money, But that doesn't mean we should not receive a cash payout or quality trophies equal to what the payout would have been.

[dominojd]

I see no smiley faces in you post Joe so I must assume you are serious. I must also assume our drivers committee know exactly what we are getting with regard to a better banquet and trophies for the tripling of the administrative fee from $2,333 to $7 grand.
I also assume that they have a projected budget for the $7000 that is being taxed for Marketing and Advertising.
I assume that none of our representatives would allow an extra $11,655 to be taken out of the drivers pockets without knowing the benefit.

Come on now is anything I ever say NOT Sarcastic?