Meeting Minutes For CNYR SCCA For Wed., Nov. 14, 2012

CALL TO ORDER:
The meeting was called to order at 7:21 p.m. by R.E. Mike Donofrio.

R.E.REPORT:
Mike welcomed all to our annual election meeting and invited all to partake of the delicious pizza and wings that were available.
Mike mentioned that CNYR member Lee Hidy, our go to guy for parliamentary procedure, had recent surgery and was doing well at home and everyone present wished him a speedy recovery.
Other than that, Mike had nothing new to report.

ASST.R.E.REPORT:
Ed Leubner reported that he attended the North East Mini-Con held in Ithaca, NY the weekend of Nov. 10-11 and sponsored by the Glen Region, SCCA.
Ed said that he had accounting sheets available for the NEDIV if anyone cared to look them over.
Also that Pocono had undergone some improvements which offer up to 17 various configurations for events.
The new "Majors" classification was mentioned at the seminar and should combine the National level of racing with the Major class for 2013, then combining them into the Majors for 2014 with the overall goal of fewer but more competitive races leading up to the annual Runoffs.
Divisions will be created around the country with major tracks included in each division, for example tracks such as Road Atlanta, VIR, Mid-Ohio, Watkins Glen, Pocono and Nelson might be in one division with points accumulating toward the Runoffs. At this point everything is still in a state of flux and more information will be available as more decisions are made and put into effect.
Ed said there was also a seminar discussing establishing a PDX/Club racing format for race cars only to work similar to track days but also possibly leading to sign offs for driving licenses.
For 2013 the rumor is that Steel Cities Region will sponsor a Mini-Con.
Central New York Raceway Park and the new safety track near Oneonta are being considered for SOLO and other track events but nothing concrete at this time on either.
Seneca Army Depot is still being looked at for future SOLO events by Glen Region and Finger Lakes Region and it is hoped that negotiations will result in affordable contracts for future events there.


SECRETARY REPORT:
Bob Holcomb made a motion that the meeting minutes for September and October be approved as they appeared in the current web edition of Snarling Exhaust.
Karl Hughes seconded, motion carried.

TREASURER REPORT:
Jay Cartini said there are still a couple of unpaid bills, but we were awaiting the invoice before paying, including from the Liverpool American Legion where we hold our meetings.
Mike Donofrio asked for future meeting if Jay could give us a bottom line on accounts as previously requested in October, when Jay had been AWOL from the meeting.
Jay agreed to provide that information at future meetings.

ACTIVITIES REPORT:
Rob Sgarlata confirmed that Nestico's in North Syracuse, NY would no longer be our location for our annual awards dinner as they now are open on Sundays, a day we had previously used as they were normally closed on that day of the week.
Rob said he scheduled a date of Sunday, January, 20, 2013 at Borio's Restaurant on Lakeshore Rd. in Cicero from 3pm to 6pm for the banquet.
Several members present had a scheduling conflict with this date and Rob will now look into the availability of Sunday, January 27, 2013 for the banquet, and will get out the information via our web site and in Snarling Exhaust.
Cost per person will be $15, which is the same as years past.

SOLO REPORT:
Mark Bizzozero said he is scheduling a meeting at his home for early April, 2013 to clean up the SOLO van and hold a meeting to determine the direction our SOLO program will take for 2013.
Jon Coffin brought up the subject of fun runs at our last SOLO event.
The issue was allowing or not allowing passengers during the fun runs.
Insurance and litigation being what they are in today's world, it was felt that passengers needed to be at least a weekend member to ride along.
Apparently most incidents during SOLO fun runs involved a passenger riding with a participant but not being a member or a participant themselves.
This will be discussed more in April but the general feeling among members was that a passenger needs to be at least a weekend member to ride.
Ride alongs are still considered a good recruitment tool and some sort of supplemental regulations may be added to cover this for future events.
For simple identification at SOLO events, Evan Haas suggested different I.D. bracelets and discussing the policy at the driver meetings prior to the start of the event.
It was further discussed that all cars participating in fun runs must have gone through tech inspection.
This will be discussed in more depth in April.

RALLY CROSS REPORT:
Jim Quattro said he is now the Deputy Rally Cross Steward for NEDIV.
Congratulations to Jim, he works very hard on the Rally Cross program and is deserving of the office.
Jim reported that our latest event on Nov. 11th was our most successful yet and that heading into our last even in December at least 3 drivers are in contention for the championship.
Jim is working on getting a NEDIV Rally Cross Challenge date and is hopeful it will be in May, 2013.
Black Rock Speedway in Dundee, NY is being looked at for some future events.
A short discussion by Jim indicated that the Oneonta location previously mentioned for SOLO would not make a viable location for Rally Cross events as it doesn't fit the car types used in Rally Cross.
Jim also said no to using a dirt field location at the NYS Fairgrounds as the price, well over $3,000 was simply not do-able.

F&C REPORT:
Mick Levy said that Watkins Glen International had put off the repaving scheduled for late fall of 2012.
Bob Holcomb added that at the Race Services Inc. banquet in late October, Michael Printup, Pres. of WGI said there would be no added race groups until after a repaving, which he said may not happen for between two to five years. Mr. Printup also said that NASCAR will definitely NOT be running the boot at this time, which went against the old worker grapevine, as did the rumor of IRL returning for 2013 or 2014.

COMPETITION REPORT:
Jim Quattro said that he will become a member of a Rally team based out of Wellsboro, PA in 2013 and has prepared for it by obtaining new safety gear.
Several members then offered up names of lawyers that his wife might consult for future divorce proceedings.
Just kidding about that Jim.

OLD BUSINESS:
Dustin Ehrlich said he needs more articles for publication in Snarling Exhaust and said it would be great for any member to send in something for him to publish.
As in the past, the 25th of each month is considered the deadline for submitting articles.
The question of advertisers arose and apparently according to Jay Cartini we only have four paying advertisers.
Bob Holcomb mentioned that his local homeowners association sells advertising either for one year, or on a newsletter by newsletter basis and suggested that this might be looked at to interest more advertisers for Snarling Exhaust.
The number of times to publish our newsletter was discussed and no firm decision was made, although publishing monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly will be looked into.
Mike Gagliardi said Central NY Raceway Park has obtained almost all the permits required and has applied for a sign permit, which would allow it to erect a sign on the location.
Other financing has come into place, the land is cleared and work should progress soon.
The state did require them to do a burial check, for ancient burials.
This is a common procedure, especially with the general CNY area having a rich Native American heritage.

NEW BUSINESS:
Mick Levy said that former CNYR member Mike Fuller has several boxes of old CNYR paperwork and would like to know about getting it back to someone in the region, as he is currently storing them at his house.
This will be looked into.
A quorum of members being present for the meeting, Karl Hughes made a motion that the secretary make one unanimous vote for the un-opposed slate of candidates:
REGIONAL EXECUTIVE: Scott Newton
ASST.R.E.: Ed Leubner
TREASURER: Jay Cartini
SECRETARY: Bob Holcomb
ACTIVITIES DIR.: Rob Sgarlata
Rex Franklin seconded the motion.
The motion passed unanimously.
The secretary cast one vote for each candidate and with no absentee ballots being received, the election was official.
Congratulations to the officers for 2013 for CNYR SCCA.

50-50:
Mike Donofrio won for the second month in a row...HHHMMMMMM...this time for $17.

ADJOURN:
Mike Gagliardi made a motion to adjourn.
Seconded by Rex Franklin.
Motion passed, meeting adjourned at 8:24 p.m.

Submitted by Bob Holcomb, Sec.