MINUTES OF EAST OHIO REGIONAL MEETING
MAY 12, 2001
The Regional meeting was called to order by RE Norb Huner,
at 10:20 AM at Esber’s, in Canton, Oh.
The following clubs and officers were represented:
| Alan Moore, RCD &Tiretown Corv. Gov. | Aurel Ouellette, Fun Center, Gov.& RMD. |
| Chuck Heretta, Buckeye Corvettes, Gov. | Bob Thomsen, Corvette Cleveland, Gov. |
| Clarence Brown, Medina Corv. Gov. | Dan Lundblad, Blennerhasset, Gov. |
| Norb Huner, RE, CBCA, Gov. | Bob Schneider, LakeShore. Gov. |
| Debbie Murphy, Tiretown C.C., Gov. | Elaine Heretta, EOCS dir. |
| Bob Kirsch, Northeast Ohio Vette, Gov. |
Bob Schneider made motion to accept the secretary’s minutes as printed, seconded by Dan Lundblad, motion carried.
Mickey Ouellette gave treasurer’s report, Chuck Heretta made a motion to accept treasurers report, seconded by Bob Schneider, motion carried.
East Ohio Region and NCCC membership reports were handed out. The East Ohio region has 941 members, this is 33 ahead of this time last year. But we still need to get 109 more members to meet our year end goal of 1050. The clubs with over 100 members are Tiretown (111), NEOVC (106), Competition (105).
At the May 4th NCCC membership meeting, national membership was 14,827. East Ohio is the 7th largest of 16 regions. One of the goals established by the membership committee is to increase the number of clubs from 285 to 288. At the meeting there was an announcement of two new clubs one for Northwest region called, Tacoma Corvette Club, and one for Road Runner Region called Another Corvette Club.
The idea of embossing membership cards for next year has been abandoned for now due to delays and cost.
Rose Schmidt is looking for ideas for membership card design on the 2003 membership card. This would be the 50th anniversary of the Corvette and would like the card to be special.
There were no applications submitted for the Duntov award this year.
The membership committee has set up a separate committee to review regional consolidation requirements, today it is a minimum of 500 members and/or 15 clubs. Norb said to his knowledge there were no existing requirements for a region. Chuck Heretta said when Road Runner region was brought in and guidelines for clubs set up, the older clubs were grandfathered in. The new requirements are 12 members in a club, but the old only required 6 and clubs already established could be grandfathered.
The Blue Bars editors are looking not only for competition articles but non competitive such as charity, social, club activities, benefits and community involvement. If no one in your club feels comfortable writing the article you can contact the editors and they will interview you and help get it written. Articles are due June 1, 2001 for next issue.
Future Corvette Owners membership is at 1330, and East Ohio is 6th nationally. Tiretown has the most with 24 members.
NCCC offices up for election this year: VP Competition – no candidate yet.
Business Manager – Dan Skinner running
Sgt Of Arms – Mary Bellamy running
Secretary – no candidate yet
If you are interested in running for any of these offices and would like a job description or nomination form, contact Aurel Ouellette.
See cover sheet for meetings rest of this year.
Question was asked about a father and son membership turned in by a club. The son (over 21) was turned in as a spouse because the club felt they fit none of the other categories of membership, although they are not a spouse either. How do we classify a person over 21 living at the same address not a spouse or significant other. The NCCC membership committee thought they should be a primary member, Chuck Heretta pointed out the description for a primary member says, member must own or be principle user of the vehicle. The member is neither. Chuck stated it really breaks down to dues paid and dollars. He also stated wording needs cleaned up. Aurel was asked to take back to committee and get clarification and suggest they work on wording so we have a place to put non primary, non significant others etc.
Alan has copies of national standings for those interested.
Packets were handed out with flyers and updated registration forms. Chuck suggested the registration form needed to have mileage line added, but the competitors still need to keep a log also. Alan agreed to add to form. Gail will place on internet for those who want right away. Alan still needs a flyer from Lakeshore for June 16, 2001 event.
At the NCCC meeting if was asked if a Group III Modified car could compete in RP Concours, Yes if meets safety requirement, that is roll bar must be braced front and rear.
Someone had asked for a non-sanctioned event form for a burn out contest, the RCD’s declined to allow and they did not want the responsibility.
Putnam Raceway events for June 9 and 10 are full, no more registrations are being accepted.
Alan is still looking for helmet stickers. Elaine saw some clear stickers that may work, she will get information for Alan to check out.
There was a problem with the MVP award presentation this year. Alan gave several scenarios in writing of how the MVP award would be figured under the new rule book versus the old rule book. Based on these various scenarios he made the statement we were not going to have a MVP for year 2000. Original rules state 16 events, to include at least 2 car shows, 2 speed events, 2 rallies. Ruling also says EARNED points, per Alan and Bill Quine, Gene Stenger is very vocal and says car shows should be included. But no one could find where the ruling had been changed to car shows. Mickey did a quick check of the minutes back to 1995, and she could not find a reference or motion to include car shows. Norb said with all respect to Gene the criteria for the MVP is now in the Standard Operating Procedures and the award is funded by the East Ohio region. Alan said we need to get explicit information into the standard operating procedures so we do not have this problem in the future. Alan wanted to go back to the maximum points you can get is 9. Norb stated this whole problem came about because of super points decided by competition committee. It was stated bonus points should not count, it only stretched out the lead of those who already had won. Per Alan bonus points are more a problem than they are worth.
There was an enormous amount of discussion and time on the MVP subject.
Alan said we had two things to determine today, 1. Need to go back to ruling, once you get a group win or FTD you are awarded 9 points max. 2. Decide what to do about Car show.
Norb stated that since the MVP was part of budget and the Operating Procedures now that he did not think Alan could unilaterally decide we are not going to give an MVP for 2000. Norb felt that decision needed to made by the governors. He stated that what Alan was proposing was pretty much the same as what it has been in the past, other than the earned points. This was followed by much discussion about Car shows being counted or not. There was pros and cons discussed.
Norb made a motion: We present MVP awards for the year 2000, to the man and woman competitors who earned the highest average per event based on the maximum of 9 points for speed event under old rulebook and no car shows considered. Aurel Ouellette seconded. Discussion followed this motion. After much discussion Chuck called for the question. Motion passed, 5 For, 3 Against, 1 Abstain. This is covered under #4 of the suggestion from Alan.
Mickey will look under minutes of 1995, 1996, and 1997 to see if anything is mentioned to pertain to car shows.
Now we need to discuss what we need to do for 2001:
Bill Quine recommended we wait and discuss after other governors not present have time to review and present their ideas. We need to get in writing if car shows will or will not be allowed. Elaine asked were we not just doing a clarification not a rules change? Bill Quine said need to let people in region know what is going on. Statement made again that car shows were allowed by governors at a meeting, if this was a motion and voted on it would be in the minutes. 1996 was the year car shows started.
Deb Murphy said before we go on she would like a definition of earned points. By the current rule book, earned points, if a person starts in a one car class they get 7 points, if they compete for a group win they still only earn 7 points. If they achieve an FTD they still only earn 7 points, everything else is a bonus point, they get a bonus for winning group and a bonus for winning FTD. Under the previous rulebook, if you were a 1 car class you received your 7 points, but if you got a group win the 7 points were replaced with 9 points. These 9 points were considered earned points. The whole gist of what we are voting on, we need to define earned points. Norb asked if you shift out of speed and go to Concours and a 1 car class wins his group and then wins best of show he still gets only 7 points, what is the difference? If we do absolutely nothing and leave SOP the way it is, and Mickey can come up with nothing in minutes, then we probably have best playing field possible. Chuck said maybe the best way to define earned points is by the charts found in the current rulebook, charts 9.1.2.1, 9.1.2.2, and 9.1.2.3. Anything else in rulebook has word bonus with it. This is what we have in our standing rules today. This is not changing anything else we are defining what earned points are.
To make it perfectly clear what people are to vote on Chuck Heretta made the following motion: Proposed motion for MVP rule for year 2001. Must compete in a minimum of 16 events, 2 minimums from each category required, categories are speed events, rallies and concourses. Note: Peoples Choice Concourses do not count toward the calculation of this award. The points are found in current rulebook on sections 9.1.2.1, 9.1.2.2 and 9.1.2.3. The individual average for the MVP award will be the total of all earned points divided by the total number of eligible events. There will be one ladies and one men’s award, Bob Thomsen seconded. Chuck said he did this for a specific reason, that if you read the rulebook no where in the rulebook does it say car show it says Peoples Choice Concours. Any car show is considered a Peoples Choice Concours in the rulebook. This is no different to what we are doing right now, we are only clarifying what is in place right now. Norb asked that we table the motion till all clubs have an opportunity to digest this. Question was asked can we really wait till July to discuss this at the next meeting? Question also asked if this is just a clarification do we need to wait? This was decided to be a clarification and could be voted on today. Deb Murphy asked do we have a provision for ties, Chuck said the rallies and concourses would take care of this, all you would have to do is go out 4 or 5 decimal places. There is more of a chance of a tie in racing then there is for concourses and rallies. Norb called for the question on the motion. Motion carried 8 For, 1 Abstain.
Question was asked what is incentive for people to come to car show. Car shows do count toward individual points, and club points, plus people have fun coming to these events.
This motion now needs to be placed in the Operating Procedures. Norb asked it be placed on website also.
The results handed out by Gail do not include worker or chairman points at this time.
How does a person get a copy of a rulebook? Go on line NCCC website cost is $9.00. Norb asked is there any reason why the handbook could not be on the website. Per Alan this had been asked of the webmaster and the rulebook would eat up to much of the space allowed because of its size. Also Alan keeps extra copies and you can get a copy from him
Chuck asked a question about the June sprints events, the master schedule show 2 events on Saturday and 3 on Sunday, on the flyer it is the other way around which is correct? Per Alan the flyer always supercedes the event schedule.
There have only been two events so far, she handed out the standings so far.
Remember to list on results sheet whether person is driver or navigator for a rally.
Chuck asked question about how points looked on sheet, Elaine said just go by categories, she used a different computer.
On Concours remember to give her color, license plate and year.
So far the flyers are coming in OK.
If something is not correct on results, she will charge the penalty to the club.
Aurel asked Elaine if she received the Fun Center Corvette Club speed event flyer, she responded yes. He then asked Alan if he received Fun Center’s Flyer, Alan said he did not think so but Gail said they had. Aurel said just to be sure he would send another one
The new website is going to be with DELL, when we go to it we will go from 5mb to 100mb. The cost will also be going down on prepaid 4 months in advance, and we can cancel at any time. It will go down to $16.16 a month and the yearly fee will be $193.95 versus the $240.00 we have been paying. Everything is set up it is just a matter of getting the pointers switched for the web site.
Once this is up he would like to get all the competition information on it such as, MVP rules, East Ohio Champ Series rules etc. The Domain registration came due this year also cost $70.00, it will not be due again till April 20, 2003.
Bob received an e-mail from Janice Sudia of Corvette Cleveland, suggesting the he remove the address of the flyers placed on the internet, he has done this. Any future flyers will have PO boxes for the clubs, phone numbers or e-mail addresses.
Please try to provide him with as clean a copy of a flyer as possible, the better the copy the better it scans.
He has not received any site questionaires back. He will re-send the form to Mickey and she will include with the minutes. Please fill this form out and return to Bob Kirsch so he can update the website.
The website address is www.eornccc.org.
Question was asked if there was a way someone could determine if an e-mail was received. Due to the various types of e-mail packages there is not a definite way to do this. The best thing to do is for the receiver to do a quick reply and say that they received such and such.
The events are going out slowly due to size of server, this will be taken care of with new internet provider. He removed all of April to get all of May events on.
Norb asked Deb Murphy to give an update on convention. There are 667 entrants not including day passes. The host hotel and the one across the street are both full. The Drury a third alternate is now filling up, there is a parking lot behind the Drury and this is going to be used for secure parking for those off site. The rally has been increased from 150 cars to 175. The Bourbon and Water, and the Nashville shopping tours are both full. The only shirts available at convention will be T-shirts and golf shirts.
The 2002 convention will be in Indianapolis, and looks like 2003 could be Hagerstown, Md.
The NCCC scholarship application date was May 1, 2001. Comment was made is there a way to go about changing the required 3.5 GPA. The member in question has over a 3.0 GPA but not a 3.5. But this member is very active in NCCC and has been for several years. They were told to bring it up to Patrick Dolan.
Comment was made NCCC needs to get some media exposure on the scholarship winners and put some information on them in Blue Bars. Should probably do an interview and put picture in Blue Bars.
There is an effort underway to get the US Post Office to recognize the Corvette’s 50th anniversary with a stamp. It was suggested people contact their legislators and let them know their interest in this. List of legislators and senators for Ohio and West Virginia attached.
At the NCCC meeting a motion was presented for NCCC to become a Lifetime Business member of the National Corvette Museum. It was brought up that this needed to go to the finance committee first, it will probably come up at the July meeting. Chuck asked what happened to the $50,000.00 we originally donated why not recognize that instead of ask for more. Deb said a lot of the $50,000.00 went to raffle car use. After some discussion a straw vote was taken, most governors voted to become lifetime business member.
There are individuals in NCCC looking for donations for Dale Earnhardt brick, this is not a National Council project. If you want to donate send money to National Corvette Museum directly.
Norb will not be able to attend the NCCC convention in Bowling Green, Ky, he has asked Bill Quine to attend the RE meeting for him, Bill will do this.
Hall Of Fame: Bill Quine spoke for the committee, they have been working on the Hall of Fame procedures. They have not changed the requirements, or the voting. It requires 80% of the vote to be inducted. They have clarified the time line, see attached sheets. Bill asked that this be included in the SOP for Hall of Fame.
The committee will give the ballot to the secretary, he/she will indicate a deadline for return on the ballot. The secretary is to have to ballots to the governors no later tha January 1.
This year the Hall of Fame would like to do something special to celebrate its ten year anniversary. Some ideas being considered are two minute interview on video of all inductees still around and do a continuous run at banquet. They would also like to get a pin for Hall of Fame inductees.
Question was asked it there any consideration being given to having an old timers inductee committee for some of those people nominated but people may not remember. The answer was no, was not felt to be necessary. Be sure to do a good write up on the information and detail it, this is the basis used for voting.
Question was asked: If application is submitted this year and you are not inducted do you need to re-submit an application next year? Answer yes.
Charity & Grants: Mickey Ouellette
Harvest for Hunger was very pleased with the donation we sent, it came at a very good time for them. Business and individual contributions were down and so were there pantries.
Computer & Timing: Chuck Heretta
He has spoken with some people and determined that most of the regions have the same problem we do, most club timing equipment is getting old and if something happened to the equipment it could probably not be repaired. It would be used about 9 times during the year in this region. It was felt, if we could find an official timer or user this would work better. We could consider paying them or paying for their accommodations. It was decided this was something we could do but needs further investigation. It would be regional equipment and if a club wanted to use the equipment, it would be that clubs responsibility to get the equipment from the previous club. He has heard about some systems but has not been able to see any yet. There are numerous concerns to be looked at before final decision is made.
Norb asked with this in mind, is it also time to consider some type of city council type of management. Where as a person would be paid, the RCD would review the results and send to this person to develop points standings.
Bill Quine said he has had an opportunity to run a system in Indiana region, it requires a label maker also, but gives you everything you need. Dale and Carolyn Samuelson have set up this system, they charged the mid-west $100.00 to come and demonstrate. Everyone in already in the software, and you would pay a fee to get the updates each year. After everyone is registered, they are pulled up in the system for this event, and after each run a label is printed out. They only drawback they could see is if a person has to run their laps from a later event earlier then the other cars. This system does require 110 volt or a generator. Clarence asked if this could be something every region may want, and if so can NCCC go to the manufacturer and get a better price. An approximate cost would be $2750.00 plus. This system prints everything, individual results, club results, etc.
A suggestion was made could we pick an event and see if we could get the Samuelson’s here to demonstrate for us? Or at least check their schedule and see if they were available. Bill Quine and Chuck Heretta will take responsibility for this.
There was much discussion, and questions asked. As of right now it will only be of use for speed events so question was asked could we incorporate a way to do concourse results and rally results. Needs to be looked into.
Question was asked, If region decided in the future to buy this timer, would all clubs be forced to use this? This would need to be looked at. A committee would be set up to determine the hows, whats and etc.
OLD BUSINESS:
The 2002 proposed budget was discussed. Alan Moore asked why East Ohio Championship Series did not have a portion of their budget going to offset banquet expenses as the competition budget was showing. Chuck Heretta said he bought up a valid point and this was not brought up before, but it needed to be looked at for 2003 budget proposal.
Aurel made a motion to accept the 2002 budget as printed in minutes of last meeting , Chuck seconded, motion carried. 8 For 1 opposed.
At this time Norb asked if there were any volunteers for the Banquet Steering Committee he mentioned he would set up at this meeting. No one stepped forward, Norb appointed Chuck Heretta, Bob Thomson and Mickey Ouellette to this committee. This committee will work with clubs that would like to bid on a regional banquet and help them with pricing and location etc.
Banquet bids: Corvette Cleveland was the only club to present a bid for 2002 banquet. The banquet will be March 9, 2002 at the Elyria Holiday Inn. The room rate is $62.00 per night. A keg of beer is $150.00, there is not per person cost established yet. There will be a meeting room charge of $100.00. It was discussed and decided the banquet is a regional event and the cost of the meeting room should be borne by the region not the club or figured into the banquet expense.
Bob Schneider made a motion to accept Corvette Cleveland’s banquet, seconded by Dan Lundblad, motion carried.
The Standard Operating Procedures were gone through and discussed next. Most were changes already implemented from the By-law changes. Other changes discussed at prior meetings were gone over and worded. See attached for revised Operating Procedures, please read and be ready to vote on at July meeting.
NEW BUSINESS:
Clarence Brown mentioned that at the NCCC meetings some clubs never send representatives and per the rules if a club does not attend three (3) meetings they are no longer a club in good standing. Norb explained that the proxy procedure, as long as the club fills out proxy forms and gives to RE, the RE should bring to NCCC meeting. This keeps the club in good standing via proxy.
Chuck asked about the mileage verification form for concours, would he have them in time for his May 20, show. Per Alan yes he will get them in time.
Norb reminded everyone that nominations for officers will be held at the July meeting, for voting to be held in October.
Norb will not seek re-election to RE position.
Bill Quine mentioned that Aaron Quine finished up 18th in the Tour America.
Alan Moore suggested anyone wishing to run for a region office, should try to sit in on a meetings before hand and find out what is going on.
Motion made to adjourn meeting, seconded.
Respectively submitted
Mickey Ouellette
Secretary/Treasurer