THSCC Forums

Matt said:


I think that is the most valid reasoning I have heard yet is this entire tirade.

OK here's the deal. Like it or not THSCC is a business. You have a product called autocrossing. If you change a product so that you drive away more customers than you attract, that would be what I refer to as "bad". That's how businesses go out of business.

If the decisions you make regarding club operations do not enhance your product, that was a bad decision.

Actually, this is not a business. We are a club. We're not setup to make profit or benefit in any way. Take a look at the informal poll Matt. Currently, 70% of the membership that has voted (granted a small subset of the club) have said to do away with it. - AB

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'14 Toyota Sequoia Platinum 4WD
Super Westerfield Bros - '93 Integra - LeChump Du Jour
STX 93 - Scion FR-S

I disagree. We've been profiting for years. Every December we have a discussion that starts basically like" WTF are we going to do with all this money in our account?!?"

Change it, don't change it, it personally affects me not in the least. But if club participation declines because of that decision, it was a bad decision. Period.

Is maximizing participation the club's goal?

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

Shouldn't it always? Isn't that why we developed a track program and a rallycross program??

It really depends on who you ask Matt. I'm with you on this one, but I have had discussions with other members lately that have disagreed.

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Stephen Westerfield
2009 Infiniti M35 | 2007 Honda Fit Sport | 2005 Ford Mustang GT |2000 GMC Sierra |1992 Acura Integra LS | Super Westerfield Bros Acura Integra

This is a different discussion that might need to be broken out.

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In need of car.

We have bought a bus (a very good functioning one at that I may add), very nice enclosed trailer, expensive wireless timing equipment, pay all of our insurance, cover all of our rental fees (sites, portajohns,etc.), cover all the miscellaneous stuff (bus gas, hotels for drivers, new cones/supplies). How much $$ do we have in the bank?

Granted, a lot of work is done by a limited # of people for this, but you can't think that maximum membership is our most important goal. - AB

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'14 Toyota Sequoia Platinum 4WD
Super Westerfield Bros - '93 Integra - LeChump Du Jour
STX 93 - Scion FR-S

I would think that it would be equally (or more) important to maximize the enjoyment of existing members. I think there is a bit of a conflict between this and maximizing the number of people at an event.

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In need of car.

Bingo. And this is why it's always important to recruit good leaders in the club -- those that have a good understanding about how to shape the rules for the benefit of the club overall even if it means pissing a few people off.

Anyone here that has been an officer of the club understands that this is the hardest thing to do of all their responsibilities, because it means looking like a bad guy to a few people once in a while.

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

There is too much volunteer work done for this club to consider that it as a business. I prefer to think of us as members rather than clients. Thinking that way is why we often have more help for things (bus, EV challenge, etc) than we know what to do with.

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

That stuff wasn't purchased with Monopoly money. It was purchased with *profit* from the autocrosses, and perhaps some from the track program.



If average attendance over the last couple of years was only 75 participants vs the 100+ I'm sure it has been, I assure you we'd still be riding around in an old school bus using Neil's T.I.T.S timing system.

Participants pay for that sh!t.

Right. And we have a waiting list for every event, so we must be doing something right to keep people wanting to show up and compete. Maximizing participation is a non sequitur.

Eliminating TIR isn't going to cause 30 people to not come to events; novices in the future wouldn't even think to ask about a TIR class because the SCCA (whose ruleset we follow) already has four such street tire classes that most cars would fall under.

IMHO, TIR is redundant due to these four ST*classes, and hurts competition in them or in stock classes due to dilution.

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

My 2 cents...

I think someone has already said this, but...

(1) QTY of participants
(2) What the participants want to do

These are two different things. But they are related. For #2, we may say that we want to have fun single autocross day events with 8 runs each and out by 3 PM. That may conflict with a stated goal for #1 of having high number of participants (either in the club or at the event). And if you say that you have a 20 person event limit, then as Matt says, you can't afford to buy a new bus, etc.

This really needs to be a new thread if we think this topic has life in it.

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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.