RDC Board Minutes – November 2010

CORRECTED AND APPROVED November 2010

Minutes of the RDC Board of Directors meeting held November 17, 2010 in Lafayette, California.  President Fred Peterson called the meeting to order at 7:10 PM.

Members attending: Fred Peterson, President, Points Keeper; Dave Jalen, Secretary; Lois Leijdecker-Ott, Treasurer, Newsletter Editor, Membership Chair; George Ott, Enduro Chair; Anthony Tabacco, Web Master; and Rod Simmons, RDC Director at Large.

1. Approval of previous meetings minutes:  Fred moved the minutes be approved as corrected.  Rod seconded the motion.  The motion to approve the corrected minutes was passed unanimously.
2. Membership Report: Lois: The RDC has had no change in its membership since last month.  The membership number is currently 186 members.  Gary Hascall who competes in the SSB class of SFR SCCA, was the first member to send in his 2011 membership dues.
3. Treasurer’s Report: Lois: The RDC is solvent at this time.  The RDC’s bank balance is greater than it was on January 1st, 2010 to start this current year. The SFR SCCA has paid the RDC its portion of the Enduro Entry fee.  Lois will continue to be the RDC’s Treasurer until an honest, arithmetic capable individual can be found.
4. SCCA Liaison Report: Fred reported on the SCCA BoD meeting:
   1. The SFR will conduct seven (7) regional race weekends in 2011.  There will be 13 regional races and the Enduro.  The SM (Grp 7) and SRF classes will have the special, Festival races also.  Of the seven race weekends, one will be held at Infineon Raceway, three will be held at Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca and three at Thunderhill Raceway.
   2. The windmills at Thunderhill are operational, but are not yet connected to P G & E’s power grid.  This should occur by the end of the year.

1. Driver Development: No report

1. Old Business
   1. 2010 Enduro: George

i.      George presented his critique of the 2010 Enduro.  The budget and actual expense report was also presented.  A handout (Exhibit A) was distributed to clarify George’s points of his critique.  On the reverse or flip side of the critique was the budget and expense information.    The expense information was incomplete at this time due to a few expense items yet to be paid.  The RDC did gain 49 new members as a result of the Enduro.  It is expected that the 2010 Enduro will result in a modest profit for the RDC.

1. 1. Safety and Fun: Fred has contacted H’s Lordships and will make a reservation for the annual meeting and awards presentation in the next couple of weeks.  He will set the cost for the dinner after he has a quote from H’s Lordships for the dinner costs.

1. 1. Web Site:  Tony reporting.

i.      By next month, he expects to have tabs operating that will open

the President’s message and meeting minutes on the
RDC site.

Dave J recommended a change in the agenda for future RDC meeting by moving the web site report to the item #6 spot instead of its current position under old business.

d.      Mentoring Program:

i.      A handout (Exhibit B) was distributed showing the revised membership application.  Fred devised a new format he believes will improve the application process and enable the mentor and new students to be matched up more effectively.  This information will then be shared with Lisa Diamond, the SFR Volunteer Coordinator.

ii.      A handout (Exhibit C) was presented.  This will be the flyer to be placed into the SFR packet for SFR’s Driver’s School.  This packet is mailed to the prospective students prior to the start of the school.  Modifications were suggested to the form and content of the flyer.

7. New Business

a.  The RDC Board positions for 2011 were discussed.  Fred as the chair of the nominating committee, presented a handout (Exhibit D), outlining the positions and the duties that each entails.  The following positions were listed with a unopposed candidate mentioned for most positions:

President and Illgen Enduro Chair: Fred

Vice-President: TBD

Secretary: Dave J

Newsletter Editor and Driver Points Keeper: Rod

Treasurer: Lois

Webmaster, Membership Chair & Mentor Program Chair: Tony

Trophy Chair: TBD

SFR Board Liaison & Scholarship Chair: Dave A

b.      The RDC 2010 Special Awards were discussed.  There are four recipients for the following acknowledged accomplishments:  Most Improved Driver, Worker Performance, Good Guy and President’s Award.

c.       The RDC Driver School Scholarships were discussed.  The RDC has received some applications.

d.      RDC Awareness.  A discussion occurred concerning ways to make the RDC more visible at the tracks.  Fred stated he would put a RDC banner on his trailer/mobile home at the race tracks.  The thought was expressed that the RDC should get more banners.  Another idea concerned plastic cups with the RDC logo to be used at the post race socials.  Dave J will explore this idea.  Another thought was to be sure RDC is mentioned in the SFR race entry acceptance letter as hosting or contributing to the social.

e.       The December RDC Board meeting will be conducted by e-mail.  This item was presented by Fred and unanimously agreed upon.

The next meeting will be the 3^rd Wednesday of January (19th) at 7 PM in Lafayette.  President Fred Peterson adjourned the meeting at 9:04 PM.

Dave Jalen, Secretary, respectfully submits these minutes.

CORRECTED and APPROVED October 2010

Minutes of the RDC Board of Directors meeting held October 20, 2010 in Lafayette, California.  President Fred Peterson called the meeting to order at 7:14 PM.

Members attending: Fred Peterson, President, Points Keeper; Dave Allen, Vice-President, SCCA Liaison, Driver Development Director; Dave Jalen, Secretary; Lois Leijdecker-Ott, Treasurer, Newsletter Editor, Membership Chair; George Ott, Enduro Chair; Anthony Tabacco, Web Master; and Rod Simmons, RDC Director at Large.

1. Approval of previous meetings minutes:  Dave A. moved the minutes be approved as corrected.  Rod seconded the motion.  The motion to approve the corrected minutes was passed unanimously.
2. Membership Report: Lois: The RDC now has 186 members.  This is a 20% increase over this time last year when we had 154 members.
3. Treasurers Report: Lois: The RDC is solvent at this time.  The patches for the Enduro have not been paid for as of yet.  This will be approximately $400.  Also the next Newsletter has not been sent, so there will be some expenditures associated with its production and distribution.
4. SCCA Liaison Report: Dave A. reporting on the SCCA BoD meeting:
   1. Lisa Diamond, the Volunteer Coordinator of SFR, has become a full time employee.  This is in addition to her current activities.
   2. The SFR Annual Meeting will be held prior to the SFR Awards Banquet at the San Ramon Marriott.
   3. The SFR BoD discussed the pros and cons of two day double regionals for 2011.
   4. The publication of the SFR, “The Wheel”, was discussed again.
5. Driver Development: Dave A.:
   1. The driver Dave A coached won the SFR Regional Championship in the E30 class.

1. Old Business
   1. 2010 Enduro:

i.      The 2010 Enduro held at Mazda Raceway in Laguna Seca had 36 teams start the race out of 37 entrants.  One car was disqualified during the event and one car withdrew prior to the start of the event.

ii.      George acknowledged that Dave A. and Fred provided a huge amount of assistance in conducting the event.

iii.      George announced he is retiring as the Chairman of the Enduro.  He presented a brief framework regarding how to conduct the Enduro.

iv.       One of his final duties as Chair will be to enter a critique of the 2010 Enduro into the Chairman’s logbook so that the next Chair can review the good things that occurred, the bad things and, of course, the ugly things.

v.      Some of the less than ideal issues from the 2010 Enduro were:

1.   The Chair would like to have had at least 2 more persons

to staff the Pit-In and Pit-Out positions for time slips. This has usually been staffed by the Grid Crew.

2.   A rushing of the Awards Ceremony

3.      The Chair also recommended having additional help with the Enduro Registration.

vi.      The Radical group from Las Vegas had 7 entries.  The drivers did not want other drivers driving their cars, so creative registration was used.  The Radical drivers planned to run only 90 minutes of the Enduro and their “race within the Enduro” was given its own checkered flag for their finish, separate from the actual Enduro.  Only one Radical car made the full 90 minutes.

vii.      The Black Flag station was in charge of monitoring the helmet cards.  They usually award a bottle of wine to the team they feel has the best helmet card design and execution

viii.      Morris Goldstein won the award for Driver of the Weekend, as

selected by the Starter crew.

ix.      Stephanie Helberg was awarded the Worker of the Weekend.  She has been helping with the Enduro for over 30 years.  She is the one who handled the helmet cards for the Enduro by herself this year.

x.      Giving out the awards under the Starters stand worked well this year.

xi.      There is a need for more space for the Pit-In and Pit-Out lanes at

Laguna.  This was achieved by keeping the pits spaces on the front

end open during pit assignment and having the Radicals share pits

at the “in” end, allowing more room for cars to safely enter and

exit the pits.

xii.      The out-going Chairman also expressed a need for the next Chair to be open to some creative rule interpretation.  Such as the “race within the race”, phantom drivers and including a 90 minute race for certain classes.

1. 1. Safety: no updates presented
   2. Fun

i.      The Annual RDC Awards Banquet will be held January 15, 2011, a Saturday, at H’s Lordships in Berkeley.  The Banquet will start at  4:30 PM with a No Host Social Hour prior to dinner.

1.      The Awards to be given will be: Good Guy Award, Most Improved Driver, President’s Award and Worker’s Performance Award.

d. Web Site

i. The site has a Facebook link.

ii. Fred expressed his approval of the “look and feel” of the site

created by Anthony.

1. New Business

The mentor program for new drivers was discussed.  Lisa Diamond would

like to have the 2010 grads mentor the 2011 grads and the RDC Board agrees.  This would provide a great way for the newest grads to learn from the next most recent grads.  Also, RDC members can assist in mentoring the recent grads.  The RDC could match up grads and drivers new to a particular track for one on one

mentoring.  A discussion occurred regarding who can be a mentor and

what type of guidance could be offered.  The typical lead/follow with

RDC members is the easiest to institute.  The RDC plans to coordinate with Lisa on the Mentoring Program.

1. 1. A discussion was started by Rod concerning the RDC logo and ways to

improve the graphics of it.  Rod feels he could do a great job of updating

the graphics of the RDC.

1. 1. The RDC scholarship for 2011 at the SFR Annual Driver’s School was discussed.  Applications have been received.
   2. A cake was provided by John Myers (yellow Miata #23 SMT) at the

Saturday night social on the Enduro weekend.  The cake was in honor of

Lois and George retiring from racing.

1. 1. Along with their retirement from racing, George will be retiring as the

RDC’s Enduro Chair as noted above (6.a.iii) and Lois will be retiring as

the RDC’s Membership Chair and as the RDC’s Treasurer.  Lois has been

a faithful member of the RDC BoD for 14 years.

1. 1. An ITB driver who is a member of the RDC filed a protest regarding

multiple unsafe passes.  The protest was denied by the SoM.  The driver

then sent out an e-mail to most RDC BoD and SFR BoD.

Dave A. will contact the driver and discuss the driving of all drivers

concerned and the reasoning of the SoM.

f.  Melinda of the Social team placed RDC stickers at the post race socials

when the RDC had helped with sponsorship of that social.  New RDC signage for display at the SFR Socials was discussed.

The next meeting will be the 3^rd Wednesday of November (17th) at 7 PM in Lafayette.  President Fred Peterson adjourned the meeting at 8:56 PM.

Dave Jalen, Secretary, respectfully submits these minutes.