MSOKC Board Of Directors Meeting
Minutes
January 15, 2004
As submitted by Secretary Jim Conlin
Meeting came to order at 7:15 pm at INFONETICS offices, Grove City, OH. Present were Board members Steve Tatman, Jim Conlin, Bob Strawser, Mike Unger, Mike Yoerger, Tom Hickey and Beth Hopkins. Roberto Zayas was in attendance via teleconference. Also in attendance, Roy Hume, Keith Hume, Mike Fagan..
Steve Tatman conducted the meeting as acting President. First order of business was selection of officers.
Steve motioned Jim Conlin to continue as Secretary. Seconded by Mike U. Lacking any other motions of other Board member for the position a vote was called and motion carried with 6 yeas (Conlin abstained).
Steve motioned Beth Hopkins to serve as Treasurer, Roberto seconded. Lacking any other motions of other Board member for the position a vote was called and motion carried unanimously.
Beth motioned Steve Tatman to serve as Vice President with Tom seconding. Lacking any other motions of other Board member for the position a vote was called and motion carried unanimously.
Steve motioned Tom Hickey for President with a second from Mike U. Beth motioned Bob Strawser to serve as President with Jim seconding. A vote was called with Tom receiving a majority 6 votes.
Discussion of having a junior/youth member on Board as way to better understand and meet needs of junior competitors. Board agreed this is something that should be looked into later.
Steve turned the meeting over to Tom having been duly elected as President. Designation of committee heads was discussed next with Keith Hume appointed Pointskeeping Chair. Discussion of appointing Jim as Membership Chair since he's maintaining member email and physical addresses as well as club documents. Jim said he would serve as membership chair if no one wants to do it after asking for volunteers on the website.
Treasurer's Report was not available, Erin was not in attendance to hand over checkbook and statements. Beth to get materials from Erin as soon as possible.
Jim gave Membership Report as he had received a recent member roster from Erin: 114 total members, 67 or which are Master members.
Jim then gave the Publicity/PR Report. Through Brian Culbertson, an old friend his from Ohio Valley Region, SCCA Jim has arranged an advertisement to be run in OVR/SCCA's Observer Stand. Jim approached Brian with idea of buying ad space in OVR's newsletter but a reciprocal arrangement was agreed advertising OVR on the club website.
Bob reported on the upcoming motorsports show in a Lancaster mall February 27, 28 & 29. He has a booth big enough for five karts and he'll be looking for karts to fill out the space especially since his kart was recently stolen.
The board next set about determining Vega tire prices to members. Using last year's Dunlop prices as a guide, it was determined that by marking up the tires only $5 per set prices could be comparable to what members paid last year:
4.5 x 4.5 123 = 125set / 31.25ea
4.5 x 6.0 127.5 = 135set / 31.25 & 36.25ea
4.5 x 7.1 130.5 = 140set / 31.25 & 38.75ea
Roberto agreed to be the club's contact for tire sales, inventory and distribution. Roberto to be listed as such tire contact on website ASAP.
Modifications to GCRs were discussed:
Spec Tire Participation: Mike U moved that racers that compete on tires other than the club's spec tires will not be moved to the rear of the starting grid. Rather, they will be allowed to take their drawn or earned grid positions but will simply forfeit all points for the day after the the feature. Jim seconded. Discussion. Vote was taken, unanimous in favor.
Billet rods for Stock Briggs: Jim presented a letter from local Briggs engine builder Butch McCall of McCall Motorsports requesting the board consider allowing billet connecting rods in stock motors. In his letter Mr. McCall pointed out that "most tracks" are permitting the use of billet rods and that members have petitioned the WKA for the option in the stock classes. McCall states in his letter that the cast rods Briggs is now distributing are breaking often and at low rpm sometimes as low as 5500rpm. He suggests that our supplemental rules permit the use either the cast or the billet rods for stock classes. Discussion on WKA's point of view with Bob concerned about moving away from WKA specs. Mike Fagan felt that no real performance advantage would be gained by allowing the billet rod since it wouldn't allow any competitor to turn their engine harder but would reduce the instances of windowing the crankcase, tearing up and engine and oiling down the track. Still Bob and others felt more research should be done. Tom moved to table further consideration until more info is found, Bob seconded. Jim reminded the board however that a decision would have to be made by the next BoD meeting as people will be waiting to build their engines.
TaG Rules Approval: Mike U moved to accept the TaG rules as submitted by Tom in November. These rules are based on those set forth by the TaGUSA group with the MSOKC specific changes of spec tires (Vega SL5 "Blue"), allowance of front breaks and 50mm rear axles. As TaGUSA adjusts weights and classifies new engines based on current and continuing testing our rules will adjust accordingly.
Kid Kart Rules: Mike U did not have the proposed rules that he had worked on for Kid Kart class as he came straight from the airport to the BoD meeting. Tabled until next month but Mike said the only unresolved issue is whether the minimum age is 4 years or 5 years and that it would depend on CRP's insurance. Steve agreed that if insurance was to be provided by WKA minimum age will have to be 5yo. If insurance was provided by National Karting Alliance it could probably be 4yo. Steve to find out and let the BoD know next month.
125cc Shifter Rules: Board members were provided copies of proposed 125cc Shifter supplemental regulation (SKUSA S1 2004 rule book used otherwise). Those supplemental regs call for the Vega XS ("White") as spec tire to give the higher powered karts more grip than the "blues". Weight set as 395lbs.
Substitute driver rules: Jim presented a request from a long time MSOKC member for the board to consider allowing a substitute driver in the first race for the day. With so many of our 2004 races taking place on Saturday, this would allow drivers that have to work Saturdays to still enter, race the second heat and feature and keep points races alive. Much discussion about possible abuses and scenarios. Tom moved that we add a substitute driver rule to our GCRs which reads: " Driver of records must race one of the three races to earn championship points from that event with substitute driver allowed for other two races under the approval of the race director." Seconded by Mike U. Vote carried 6 yeas to 1.
Participation Credit for Working Kart Promos: Discussion on allowing participation in MSOKC sanctioned kart promos to be counted towards event minimum for championship qualification. In other words, if a competitor has raced in only seven events but has also participated in two official MSOKC promotional events, the promo event would count toward the required nine event minimum to qualify for end of year championship awards. Discussion of whether it was really necessary. Jim moved to table until a later date with Mike U seconding.
Incentives for Good Grades by our Junior racers: Jim moved to table until a later date. Seconded by Tom.
Shortened Raceday Format: Mike U proposed that we reduce the number of practice sessions and move up the start time. Discussion regarding whether there is a real raceday length problem and all agreed that unless there is a lot of crashes or other circumstances that put us behind schedule we do okay on the length of the day. If our entries grow to a point where we have more trouble ending at a reasonable time, the suggested actions could be taken.
This discussion led to a review of the raceday schedules. Steve moved that we accept the following as the official, published MSOKC raceday schedules:
|
Saturday
Schedule |
Sunday
Schedule Gates: 8:00 a.m. Practice: 9:30 a.m. Driver Meeting:11:30 a.m. Green Flag: Noon |
Bob seconded. Vote taken, 6 for, 1 against.
HPV: Jim moved to open HPV rules up to allow a 340lb min using a 3 pipe or a 360lb minimum using a 4 pipe. Jim reported that most of the HPV drivers he talked to over the past few months seemed to approve of the combination hoping that it may encourage some drivers that would not be able to get down to the 340 minimum. Mike U seconded. Vote taken, unanimously approved.
Development of a Club Charter or Constitution: It has been determined that the original club charter has been lost or that the club has never really had one in the first place. It was agrees a committee should be formed to create a charter and it was suggested that everyone should look for examples from other clubs and do any other research which would aid us in creating a sound, thorough charter.
Alternate Day for BoD meetings: Discussed possible alternative days of the week for BoD meetings as this semester Roberto needs to be home to watch his son while his wife attends classes. Bob is available only on Thursday nights and as it is easier for Roberto to "attend" the BoD meeting via speaker phone from home than it is for Bob from the bowling alley it was agreed that meeting night would be kept on the same day with Roberto teleconferencing in.
Class Sponsor Program - Allow Services in Lieu of $s: Mike U reported that National Kart News would like to sponsor a class but proposed exchanging ad space in the magazine in lieu of the $500 fee. NKN offered four 1/8 page ads to be run any time during the year. Jim suggested simply putting our schedule in that space and surrounding it with our class sponsors' logos, thus enhancing the value to the other sponsors. Board agreed in principal to accept valuable services in exchange for class sponsorship. Also agreed that class sponsorship fees could be negotiated down if neccassary but that some features would have to be withdrawn in those cases.
New business: No new business was brought to the table.
Meeting adjourned 9:55 PM