The November monthly meeting of the Central New York Region of the Sports Car Club of America was called to order at 7:10PM, Wednesday, November 9, 2016 at the American Legion in Liverpool, NY by Regional Executive Ed Leubner. Thirteen people were in attendance.
Leo Sawyer made a motion to accept the minutes of the October meeting. The motion was seconded by Scott Newton and approved by unanimous voice vote.
Regional Executive's Report
Ed thanked outgoing SCCA Board Chairman John Walsh and Area 10 Board Candidate Earl Hurlbut for attending our October meeting and reminded us that ballots need to be received by November 15th. Anyone with ballots not mailed should mail them today.
Ed received an e-mail from Bob Holcomb thanking the club for the plaque. Bob's move to Florida is going well.
Ed also received an e-mail from Jon Coffin indicating he read in the November edition of Fast Track about the problematic regional discrepancies in voting eligibility as discussed by Chairman Walsh at our October meeting.
This weekend is NEDiv MiniCon in Northern New Jersey . The conference will be held November 11-12 at the Wyndham Hamilton Park Hotel and Conference Center in Florham Park.
James Quattro mentioned he may attend.
Assistant Regional Executive's Report
A.R.E. Mark Bizzozero had no report.
Treasurer's Report
Ed received a text message from Treasurer Jay Cartini who was unable to attend the meeting. Jay stated there may be a few outstanding RallyCross items. RallyCross Chair James Quattro responded that he was not sure if all the items have been addressed.
Secretary's Report
Secretary Pro Tem Mark Mangicaro had no report.
Activities Report
Ed received an e-mail form Activities Chair Ted Barbuto who was unable to attend the meeting. Ted stated that there are two possible dates for our annual banquet: Sunday, January 29, 2017 at Borio's in Cicero and Sunday, February 26, 2017 at Mapelwood Suites in Liverpool. A discussion about the pros and cons of both dates ensued. A motion made by Rex Franklin to accept the January 29th date was seconded by James Quattro and approved by unanimous voice vote.
Solo Report
Solo Chair Scott Newton provided a map of what we anticipate will be are newest solo site, EVOC at Oswego County Airport in Fulton. Paul Grover met recently will officials from the airport and brought a solo proposal that is similar to what we have now with CCC Fulton. Paul reported that the officials seemed receptive to the proposal and was encouraged by the meeting. The officials stated they would likely require that we allow their vendor to provide a food truck at the event. Several SCCA member tonight commented that our event attendees would certainly enjoy that convenience! The site is an active DEC site, so we may need clearance from them as well. If we move any of their existing cones, we would need to move them back at the end of the day. Boxes are marked. A local municipality (Town of Volney?) is also involved in the process and had intended to bring up the topic at their monthly meeting in October, however, protracted budget discussions resulted in the matter being tabled until their November meeting. Paul anticipates he will have an update for our December meeting.
Scott announced that our helpful contact at the CCC Fulton site is retiring and that she forwarded our information to her replacement. Scott is optimistic that we will be able to continue our arrangement with CCC for 2017.
Scott mentioned that he will soon be ordering solo trophies for our banquet.
Our new solo trailer will be hibernating at Mike Giambatista's property. Scott is planning on meeting Rex Franklin and Mark Mangicaro there on November 19th to come up with a plan for organizing the contents in a more permanent fashion. Actual construction/implementation of the yet to be devised plan will likely happen at approximately the same time as our pre-season solo organizational meeting in the spring.
RallyCross Report
RallyCross Chair James Quattro reported that he is looking into polycarbonate cones as replacement for the existing cones which have a very difficult time handling the cold weather.
Our region hosted a NEDiv event at Walczyk's Farm on October 15th and 16th which attracted 25 attendees. The turnout was much better than last year which James partly attributes to the weather, which was perfect. This "two-day" event is really more of an intense 24 hours of rallycross as the Saturday fun starts about 3PM and runs until midnight. Sunday starts around 8AM and finishes up by 3PM. Participants this year had 9 timed runs over the course of the weekend.
We return to Walcczyk's Farm for our "Holiday at the Farm" regional event on Sunday, December 11th.
James mentioned that we need to order top 10 overall awards and top 3 for classes for our banquet.
Flagging and Communications Report
Mick Levy reported things are pretty quiet at WGI. The track schedule for 2017 looks similar to this year with the notable exception of not having an SCCA DE event in October 2017.
Racing Report
James Quattro reported that the Central New York Raceway Park is working on getting an FIA rallycross event. They are still working on the financing.
Membership
Membership Chair Andrew Beyer reported that we had a slight increase in membership and we now stand at 172 members. Two members did not renew their dues this month. There was some interest from a new person at WGI, however, he and Andrew were unable to connect.
Old Business
Ed Leubner stated that the most cost effective way to handle the bylaws changes and remain in compliance is to send a postcard to each member with link to the website were they could see the proposed changes. Ed also pointed out that it would be a good idea to encourace members to ensure their e-mail address is up to date on their profile.
Chris Murphy reported that seatbelt cutter sales have grossed $1,605 for the club and only two units remain! We should net about $600 from the sales.
Regarding cones, Chris mentioned he knows someone in the construction business who may be willing to work with us on ordering cones in bulk to save money. He mentioned that local Lowes stores are likely to give us a 20% discount and that J.C. Smith (also local) might also do the same.
New Business
Scott Newton stated that our Web site hosting service has been moved to a new provider. In addition to saving us about $30 per year, we now have SSL encryption and increased flexibility in site management. Because there have been no changes to our URL, users still access the site by going to the same address.
Regarding the annual election of officers a motion was made by Rex Franklin and seconded by Mike Gagliardi to re-elect the existing slate of officers with the exception of secretary which is vacant due to Bob Holcomb's move to Florida. The motion carrier 12-1. Ed Leubner was the sole "no" vote. Mark Mangicaro stated that while he does not mind occasionally filling in for whomever holds the position of secretary, he is not willing to take on the post permanently.
There was no 50/50 raffle this month.
At 8:25PM a motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Rex Franklin. The motion was seconded by Ed Leubner and approved by unanimous voice vote.
Our next meeting will be held Wednesday, December 14, 2016 at the American Legion in Liverpool at 7:00PM.
Respectfully submitted by Mark Mangicaro