THSCC Forums

Rich, you likely do more work for the club than a good chunk of people on the staff/officers list so anyone who tells you to step up doesn't know what they're talking about.

But, it's hard to tell the people who are doing work for the club to do more work. This is a volunteer club, the best you can hope for is free entry to our events. The sentenances leading into the 'we don't have bandwidth for "suggestions"' quip is important and should be quoted as well.



He's not saying keep your ideas to yourself. He's saying implement your ideas for your/our club. This isn't a business and I hate every time someone refers to it as such.

The context doesn't really change the underlying sentiment of the statement.

I think you are still missing the point, so let me try to clarify. Listening to the membership is not optional. It is imperative in order for the club to survive. This is a fact for all membership organizations. Accept this as fact or we really cannot have a conversation.

Now, on to the specifics. You are presuming that all suggestions will do nothing but increase workload. Sure, some will, but others won't. In fact, maybe if you listen, you will see that what you are spending 50% of your time doing, assuming it is really important, is actually only worth about 10% of your time according to the members. This will likely reduce the amount of total time you spend. Similarly, you will also get suggestions on how to do things better without increasing your workload. But if you don't listen, if you don't make it a priority, you will never know. You will carry on, working harder instead of smarter.

This idea that you either step up or shut up is (don't be quiet, do something) really misses so much potential value that can be had by making a relatively small effort and listening to the members.

Rich, I put "suggestions" in quotes on purpose. I know I am more than interested to hear ways that we can improve our operation. Discussion is welcome. Heck, we haven't kicked Remchak out yet (somehow). Agree 100%. Not sure where folks feel they aren't being listened to, and I want to do what we can to remedy any impression that that is the case. I certainly learned from the censorship incident. The only pictures I have censored from our FB news feed since "the incident" have been some ads for UGGS from a clear spammer.

Shawn's post really saddened me to hear that he thinks he is an "outsider". Absolutely not Shawn, we are glad to have you around. I'd love to have some people come back out to an event who haven't been in a while, and we will certainly try and do better to embrace that. I'm not ashamed of our clubs history in any way either. Glad to see us reminiscing. The road rally/50th anniversary party was an awesome idea (and a huge effort undertaken by Bowie).

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2012 MX-5 Sport SUV

I have been following this discussion for awhile, and can't resist making a few comments. Shawn, I and I think all the ancient members from when you were active some years ago were really happy to see you get involved again. You were always one of the real good guys who made the club go. Please everybody, make sure Shawn feels welcome! I also want to remind all of you what a positive influence Rob Lupella has on new people who show up at autocrosses by conducting his famous novice course walks. His passion and personality go a long ways toward welcoming new prospective members, and I think we may be taking his efforts for granted.

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'66 CORVAIR MID-ENGINE V-8
'88 FIERO GT

Thank you for the kind words Brice and others who have expressed positive comments as well.

I will have to admit some guilt here, I think I've let a few isolated incidents write a script in my mind that wasn't 100% true and then allowed subsequent events like the FB thing, to act as evidence to support my original conclusion. I may have been mistaken in my prior conclusions and I will evaluate my opinions with a fresh, more positive perspective.

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OK so I'm back in. Now which tire should I buy??

He forgot the part that he denies being superhuman in relation to how insanely fast he can drive. Why do you torture us. You make it look to easy to drive that well!

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Steven Spampinato
Littlest Bears Speed Shop - 2015,2016
Scuderia Meatball-Honda
2006 Civic SI Coupe "Tomato"HS-247

Been auto-crossing on and OFF for a while now, yet I find myself driving more OFF than ON.

That's been Shawn's M.O. for a long time. I recall asking him to take my old Mustang on a fun run at the RBC center, and he knocked over a second off my best time. We punished him by electing him President.

Let's all take a breather from this thread. We know there are things that need to be updated/fixed/improved. These things actually come up in the club meetings, but somehow don't get quite as ugly when we're all in the same room. The Christmas party is a little over a week away, and I'm looking forward to that.

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Art McDonald
Premier Amateur #518
2008 Dishman Cup
Pivot Cone Snob

Rodney is a waxer (but in a good way)

Fuck you, Art!*


--Donnie

*Because you're right. I just couldn't let it go without one last hurrah, though.

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My Blog

Well I logged in randomly and found this thread and read every single post.

A few of the posts have made me think about my history with the club, which despite my involvement, is quite short. I was always a 'wrencher' since I was 12 or so since my family aways had busted/busting cars (mid 80s Nissan Stanza wagon...complete POS, ate transmissions like they were candy http://benmlee.com/4Runner/Pictures/198 ... aWagon.jpg, a 77 Caprice Classic wagon, an 83 Civic that needed new CV axles every 3 months and the rear drum brakes seemed to never work right). I'd always hang out with my dad as he was fixing said cars so I was doing oil changes and brake jobs on our cars by the time I was 13/14. My dad is also a truck driver so I've got my hands dirty and knuckles busted on a Peterbuilt/Mack a few times. Despite my love of working on cars, I never was into racing (watching or participating...I think moving to NASCAR country ruined racing for me ). When I got my WRX in 2009 I learned of THSCC when I was talking to Colin Anderson on NASIOC and he told me to come to a Rallyx, which I did and had a lot of fun despite just spectating. Then he convinced me to come out to an autocross so a few weeks later (Sept 09).

So that was my first involvement with THSCC. I was hooked on autocross immediately but additionally I started noticing a lot camaraderie and passion out of this group of people. My experience as a noob very much echo's Steven Spampinato's 'come back' experience. I remember Rob Lupella and Charlie Monroe tapping my shoulder every few minutes asking me if they could ride along or if I need help etc. I met Steven Carter that day, who I've been friends with till my very last event with THSCC (thanks for the codrive Steve!). I saw Brice wearing a Duke shirt (didn't meet him for a few more events). So anyway, in addition to becoming obsessed with my new hobby, I was meeting a lot of people and making a lot of friends. 2010 was a really fun season as the Street Tire crowd was having some amazing back and forth competition: Maria, Christian, Zach, Noah, Steve Carter, Mark Merril, Matt Keukes, Carlton and myself.

Fast forward to early 2014, I was President for a 2nd time and emailing a group of past officers/presidents about my predicament of moving to Washington for a job and Rodney volunteering to take over for the rest of the year (many thanks sir).

Along the way I've had a ton of fun and enjoyed my involvement and participation with THSCC. Was it perfectly smooth sailing the whole time? No. Any blips I experienced were truly just issues you'll encounter in a volunteer club with such a diverse, passionate, alpha group of people participating so I never really had any concerns. The recent Facebook/Trophy Girl situation is really disheartening to me however. Without going into details or rehashing the situation (and I was a guilty party as well; unlocking the thread early on with my forum admin permissions I still had, though at the time the conversation was rather benign, but it got worse). On the cover, it seemed like a simple disagreement. But the backlash and passive aggressiveness on Facebook posts and the recurring threads about it on the forum (like this one) has just been extraordinary and very divisive.

Another disturbing thing is all of the comments from out of the closet about lingering dissatisfaction with how the club has been run or the people in the club or officers. I wonder why said people didn't feel inclined to mention it to someone so a conversation could be had. For instance, Shawn, it saddens me that you feel the way you do. After I met Matt McGrain, he spoke about you as if you were a god so when you started participating I was excited to meet you and see you drive (which was definitely not a let down!). I feel like if you had concerns about officers or the clubs general outwardly attitude you could have brought it up with someone and we could have had a conversation. I'm not calling you out but it's just that I was very surprised to read your post about how you have felt lately and I would have liked to know prior to now.

I know it is human nature to dump qualms/gripes when there are confrontations like Trophy Girl-gate but I much prefer to be proactive about things and people who know me know well know I have thick skin but I like to hear about concerns/dissatisfactions of other members/participants.

Regarding Keehner: He definitely is outspoken and can definitely stir the pot. However I think he is well intentioned and I have personally seen him bust his ass for the autocross program in the last year. He is a strong personality as are many other of our members, so please don't write him off for an aggressively worded forum post.

Anyway, I don't feel like I was a perfect VP or President. In fact, I always felt like I could be doing something better, but I tried to focus on a few things and get them better as opposed to mediocrely addressing numerous things. I feel like I am approachable so as to why I was never aware of this discord, I don't know. After digesting all of these recent situations, I wonder if there is anything I could personally do to help in the coming years had I stayed in NC and I'm not sure about the answer to that question either, but I damn sure would have tried.

I sit here 2800 miles away from you folks and I own no cars, I don't have a garage, and I'm not even doing a great job at keeping in touch with all my friends I've met through THSCC (I apologize). Regardless, I hope we can see past this situation and move forward into THSCC's 51st year with renewed motivation to mend these wounds and get back to racing...Because Racecar.

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2011/2012 Autox VP
2013/2014.5 President
2013 Top Gun

2015 Fit

22R-EC => 4G63 => D16Y7 + D16Y8 => EJ255 + K24Z2 => K20Z3 + K24Z2 => K24Z2 + M54 => L15B

I have wondered on how/if/or from what perspective to respond to this. I guess I will make it short and sweet and say this:

James says he hates when some one calls this a business. It may not be a business but you ask for money to join and money from sponsors to defray expenses and money from participants at every event.. Call it what you may, but you need to treat the people who supply that money in a business (read that as respectful of their different positions, opinions and level of commitment) like manner. Participation in this club is optional -people don't like to go where they feel unwelcome and they certainly don't like to pay when they feel unwelcome.

I'm not a good auto-crosser, not a good HPDE driver but I'm a damn good business man. As such, I know that it is said that 1 in 26 unsatisfied customers will tell you why they are unsatisfied. The other 25 simply leave. When you have one of those customers take the time and emotional commitment to tell you why they are leaving and are told to "F -off" is inexcusable.

I'm a sponsor, I own my business, what ever I pay in sponsor ship comes from my pocket. I could do something else with that money. I have sponsored everything that has ever been asked of me, even called and said "Hey don't you need some sponsorship on this or that event" yet when I read this forum and see that I'm an old timer, nominal participant it makes me wonder if I want to continue.

I'll probably continue next year but it has me thinking.


,

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2002 MCS, 2003 MCS Track Rat, 2003 Generic White Yukon, 2003 BMWk1200rs, 1973 CB350F, 02 996. 08 Cayenne Turbo
http://www.clinehallagency.com

Cline, FWIW, I don't consider you an old-timer. It's just a matter of perspective. Thank you for supporting the club, and I hope you keep participating in club events.

Speaking of --- the Christmas party is next Saturday night. Everybody - clear your calendars and find your way to Bill's BBQ in Wilson. Once there, go out of your way to introduce yourself to folks you don't know.

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Art McDonald
Premier Amateur #518
2008 Dishman Cup
Pivot Cone Snob

Rodney is a waxer (but in a good way)

About 15 years ago I wrote some software in my spare time, and have been making a living selling it to hundreds of companies who's names you'd recognize. And I completely agree with Cline. Over the years I've released demo versions that somehow made it past the test suite but yet almost no one could get to work. Sometimes a broken demo release would be out for weeks and a thousand people would try the software; it would fail, and they would just shrug and move on to the next competitor. Very few people take the time to report bugs, and when they do I thank them profusely, and hand out freebies as a reward for taking their valuable time to help me out.

It is true that the club isn't a business, but Cline is right that the same principals apply. That isn't to say that everyone's opinions are representative of your target customer, but you have to ask yourself, if this person cares enough go out of their way to start a dialog, why aren't they your target customer?

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"Build a man a fire and he'll stay warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he'll stay warm the rest of his life."
'93 Subaru Legacy DIRTBOMB
'98 BMW M3
2013 Rallyx Co-VP

Not an old timer, just old

Get of my lawn you lousy kid!

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2002 MCS, 2003 MCS Track Rat, 2003 Generic White Yukon, 2003 BMWk1200rs, 1973 CB350F, 02 996. 08 Cayenne Turbo
http://www.clinehallagency.com

Hi All,
At the risk of offending someone, I noticed that not too many rally crossers are part of this thread. (Maybe only me.)

I’m new to the club as a lifetime member so there’s not a chance that I will not renew my membership, especially based in internet stuff. (I think that Facebook and other internet forums are invaluable tools for communication if used properly but are also the scourge of the earth when it comes to hurting people’s feelings and spreading gossip.) I’m also an old guy and do not even know about the pictures to which you guys are referring.

Old timers, new timers, volunteers, passive members… we all make up the club. We all have our opinions and should recognize that anything written here should be taken with a grain of salt. (You know, it is discussion.)

People come and go for many reasons. I took Aaron Buckley’s post as a way to say farewell and not an indictment of how THSCC is being run (Good luck Aaron!). I also took Rob Keehner’s response as nothing more as his commentary on what he would like to see with club members moving forward...INVOLVEMENT. (Rob, Keep staying passionate about the club and the direction to the future!)

Everyone else, let's be cool and not let our passion overwhelm us.

Also, I forgot, I’ve volunteered for VP of rally cross next year and apparently no one else isinterested in doing the job. Charlie and Drew, our current VP’s have done a great job so I’m giving them a much needed respite. I’ll do my best to keep things going in a positive way.

I just want to drive fast and have fun. To do that, I depend on all of the volunteers and officers to do many of the things that I don’t want to do. Everyone that I’ve had contact with has been extremely nice and helpful. Thank you all and let’s try to consider everyone’s feelings when we post messages. We can’t see posters’ faces to tell if they are kidding and we can’t take anything back once it’s posted.

Kind regards to all,
Charles Lankford

P.S. Don't worry about offending me with a response. This is the rambling of an old geezer that just want's to go fast

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CLL

La Cucaracha Rojo
150 cc generic motor scooter