Thoughts on improving the club?

Bernie Baake · **Posted:** Tue Aug 28, 2012 6:02 am

This is really not a thought to improve the club, just an observation of this weeks track events at VIR. Both Trackdaze and Tarheel BMW had better than average turn out for their events. We couldn't fill the three day event in two weeks, and had to cancel Friday's event. Trackdaze was a Monday and Tuesday event. Just something to think about. Why?????

Chuck Branscomb · **Posted:** Tue Aug 28, 2012 9:31 am

One reason for BMWCCA may be that they have a national reach along with a large contingent of regional chapters with members who do (well, at least have done in my past experience) events at VIR including drawing on the large instructor base from the National Capital Chapter. I do know that I received many e-mails this year from the Tarheel Chapter of the CCA basically begging people to attend this recent event. Just a few short years ago, for *any* CCA VIR event, if you didn't register within an hour or less of the opening of registration on motorsportreg, you were on a waiting list. Now they are having trouble filling spots, perhaps a bit less than a year or so ago, but it's nothing like it used to be.

THSCC track events are just as well run (or better actually) than CCA events (at least they were as of 4-8 years ago when I last did VIR events), so I think one part of the answer is marketing? Of course it may be that these other car clubs "satisfy" their member contingent with the number of events they run each year thereby removing that whole group of potential THSCC customers from the pool. Unfortunately, I doubt the track program can be too flexible on price in an attempt to attract people especially since I would assume that most are price-insensitive, meaning as long as we are priced similarly to slightly under other VIR run events, it seems unlikely someone would consider a $50 or $75 cheaper entry fee as a make or break deal.

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Tue Aug 28, 2012 10:39 am

JamesShort wrote:

Richard, it sounds like you wouldn't be upset being dethroned as forum admin?

I am ready to hand over the controls, but at the same time I have strong opinions on what v2.0 should be. So in short I want to be involved in that process of figuring out what we do and even helping, but maybe once the dust settles, I can move away from the center of control.

George Bright wrote:

I think we could also open the newsletter to public reading.

RickyBeam wrote:

Richard Casto wrote:

I HATE THE MANUAL PROCESS REQUIRED TO VALIDATE WHO IS A MEMBER AND WHO ISN'T!

It's the manual part that really sucks. And it's manual because membership is still a wholly manual process... a piece of paper is filled out, brought to a meeting, read before whomever is there, and voted on. (has anyone ever been turned down?) I do not know the fate of the papers after that point. It would be great to have an electronic process, or at least an electronic version of all those papers (someone would have to key them in.) At such a point, validation is automatic... a forum account is created by member application. Account renewal / deactivation would similarly be automatic.

Amen!! You are preaching to the choir.

Jason Mauldin wrote:

Do we need to vote on new members? I know we have some peculiar requirements due to our club nature with the IRS, is that one of them?

Could we just jump to making fun of new members instead of voting on them?

JamesShort wrote:

I'll be dead honest, Ram, Carlton and I were dissuaded about membership automation when we were considering a retrofit. I think it'd be exponentially easier to start from scratch using modern frameworks, technologies, tooling, software etc. And doing so in parallel so that new functionality (website, forum, registration, membership etc) could be demoed while the site continue as usual until it's satisfactorily hardened before go-live. I'm sure between Zach, Noah and Carlton we can mock a webserver similar enough to our web hosting to test on before the swap (or just get new hosting). Me, Jeremy, Ram and Carlton can do web/app dev.

Reading between the lines I think part of the problem was some strong requirements to make a new automated system look like an electronic version of the old one. Such as having it spit out something that looked like the existing paper form. I think that made things particularly hard. I hope I wasn't viewed as being part of the problem! I agree with an approach that doesn't try to automate the existing paper process. I think the entire process should be rethought!

Richard

Matt McGrain · **Posted:** Tue Aug 28, 2012 11:57 am

George Bright wrote:

I think we could also open the newsletter to public reading.

I agree with this viewpoint for sure. I can't tell you how tough it is writing the Autocross Report hoping it gets read by more than just a small handful of the loyal folks that read it every month, plus our sponsors' ads would get more exposure, in turn maybe more business from people that read the Heel Toe.

Not trying to reinvent the wheel, just some humble opinion sharing of course as I know we're a tradition rich club and I really don't want to step on too many toes of the people that made the forums what they are today.

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Tue Aug 28, 2012 1:13 pm

Chuck Branscomb wrote:

Unfortunately, I doubt the track program can be too flexible on price in an attempt to attract people especially since I would assume that most are price-insensitive, meaning as long as we are priced similarly to slightly under other VIR run events, it seems unlikely someone would consider a $50 or $75 cheaper entry fee as a make or break deal.

Just an FYI, THSCC's HPDE program is a non-profit of course and our goal is to have just enough cash at the end of the year to pay the next year's deposits. No deposit = no date.

Our price is most dicated by the cost of insurance and the cost to rent the venue. VIR is E-X-P-E-N-S-I-V-E, and as anyone who has run there often knows, if they could figure out a way to charge for the very air you breathe, they would.

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Tue Aug 28, 2012 1:35 pm

Richard Casto wrote:

I am ready to hand over the controls, but at the same time I have strong opinions on what v2.0 should be. So in short I want to be involved in that process of figuring out what we do and even helping, but maybe once the dust settles, I can move away from the center of control.

Richard, you have been a great admin over the years you have performed this duty but if you truly want out, then its time to get out, you can't have it both ways. When I made the decision to not run for a 3rd presidential term, I REALLY wanted to do it again but I knew I had other obligations to attend to. I still wanted to "help" but quickly realized that you can't work in the trenches and have one eye on the exit door.

Thanks for all your hard work

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Tue Aug 28, 2012 4:28 pm

Ryan Holton wrote:

Richard Casto wrote:

I am ready to hand over the controls, but at the same time I have strong opinions on what v2.0 should be. So in short I want to be involved in that process of figuring out what we do and even helping, but maybe once the dust settles, I can move away from the center of control.

Richard, you have been a great admin over the years you have performed this duty but if you truly want out, then its time to get out, you can't have it both ways. When I made the decision to not run for a 3rd presidential term, I REALLY wanted to do it again but I knew I had other obligations to attend to. I still wanted to "help" but quickly realized that you can't work in the trenches and have one eye on the exit door.

Thanks for all your hard work

Actually I don't agree on the "have it both ways". I think if the level of time you can devote is not enough to be helpful (you are just in the way), then yes, you should step aside. I am mostly tired of the status quo membership management situation. Having it continue as it is unchanged will continue to push me out the door. But I think if things change I would like to continue to be involved, but I also don't have to be in charge. And I don't know what level of power people think I have. I believe that I have a voice in how we do things, but if I truly felt it was up to me, I would just make changes. I think changes of the magnitude we are talking about has to come from the senior staff and maybe ultimately from Rodney (president).

So in short, maybe I explained myself badly....

I want things to change to make the job better/easier for whoever is in my position. I want things to be better for the club as a whole. I have strong opinions as to how it should be done. And if staying in this position (short or long term) helps make that happen, then I will stay in. I don't have a desire to do this forever and am willing to let someone else act as the admin. I see that transition happening more as part of implementing changes. Not sure how to better explain!

Richard

BriceJohnson · **Joined:** Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:33 am **Posts:** 2230

I think Richard loses his admin priveleges unless he comes out to at least one autocross event this year

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Tue Aug 28, 2012 5:27 pm

BriceJohnson wrote:

I think Richard loses his admin priveleges unless he comes out to at least one autocross event this year

Someone help me out with a co-driver situation and I will show up!

Richard

George Bright · **Posted:** Tue Aug 28, 2012 6:25 pm

Jason Mauldin wrote:

Do we need to vote on new members? I know we have some peculiar requirements due to our club nature with the IRS, is that one of them?

Could we just jump to making fun of new members instead of voting on them?

We did turn down 1 application years ago when we met at the Golden Corral on Western Blvd.

Gwen Habenicht · **Posted:** Tue Aug 28, 2012 6:38 pm

George Bright wrote:

Jason Mauldin wrote:

Do we need to vote on new members? I know we have some peculiar requirements due to our club nature with the IRS, is that one of them?

Could we just jump to making fun of new members instead of voting on them?

We did turn down 1 application years ago when we met at the Golden Corral on Western Blvd.

We do unless we vote to change the bylaws.

Dustin Fredrickson · **Posted:** Tue Aug 28, 2012 8:40 pm

Gwen Baake wrote:

George Bright wrote:

Jason Mauldin wrote:

Do we need to vote on new members? I know we have some peculiar requirements due to our club nature with the IRS, is that one of them?

Could we just jump to making fun of new members instead of voting on them?

We did turn down 1 application years ago when we met at the Golden Corral on Western Blvd.

We do unless we vote to change the bylaws.

If it's a "simple" documentation thing to change these bylaws, and it helps us move into the 21st century, should we amend to state something like "the membership reserves the right to vote a member out at the first meeting after their application is accepted, and any dues paid will be returned within 30 days? That would seem to allow us to both proceed with an automated system, and follow a tradition of ribbing new members.

JamesShort · **Posted:** Tue Aug 28, 2012 8:47 pm

Not a problem, last fall I wrote code that takes all the web form input and generates both a text/plain email format and a PDF with all the same data that is on the current membership form. The PDF can be archived (blobs) in the DB and the text/plain can be emailed to the treasurer/president so no paper would be needed at the meeting for the pres to iterate through the new membership apps (just a smartphone....yes Rodney has one....no, Rodney barely can use his) :sing:

.

Scott Johnson · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 7:17 am

Who is making sure all the personal info stored online is secure? What do we consider secure?

JamesShort · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 8:00 am

Scott Johnson wrote:

Who is making sure all the personal info stored online is secure? What do we consider secure?

What I just mentioned is not implemented/live yet.

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