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Dear Fellow SCCA Members,

Last November I attended my first NEDIV mini con in Albany. At this event the regions get together and decided who is going to race, where and when. The bottom line and we predicted this then was THERE ARE TOO MANY EVENTS IN THE NE. We are overtaxing our drivers and workers. Now we are well into the year and every event regardless if it is regional or national, we are losing money. There is too much supply and not enough demand plus with the addition of tracks bring more problems. Bottom line is for 2010 we need to cut events and make every event profitable instead of a losing situation. THE REGIONS MUST UNDERSTAND THIS AND MAKE A CHANGE NOW. If not we may see fewer regions next year putting on events or being out of business. This is not fair because we are SCCA, we are members of a organization and not just a region. PLEASE think of everyone, both drivers and workers and the well being of all regions and not just some. Drivers attend events from different regions as do the workers. We need to think down the road about our future and not just today. This is the reason why our competiting clubs are kicking our butts because they are dictatorships and rule in a proper way and this is what is needed at this point in time. We can no longer have regions running autonomously as in the past. We must think of the realities of life today and work with our fellow regions for the good of SCCA and not just one region.

I work extremely hard at trying to grow our sport and club and honestly I am getting tired and worn out. Personally I have put in over $7k into promoting a race series in hopes of growing participants and workers alike. I want to see the regions come together once and for all for the good of the club so that we have a future. If you truly understand what is going on in our country today and our economy and lifestyle of our participants you will see that what I am saying will work. LESS EVENTS but lets make them special and then they will each be profitable. Then with additional competitors per event we can even reduce the entry fees. It is simple. Let's work together and grow SCCA. Topeka is unable to do this for us we must take this upon ourselves to make the change.

Let me know your thoughts.

Yours for the sport,
Bob Zecca
NNJR Secretary

Not from your area, but it sounds like the regions need to get together and put together a two or three year schedule. Nobody wants to give up their event to help somebody's event go better and get nothing in return.  With a multi-year schedule you can alternate events, showing a region that if they give up an event next year they can have one the year after while some of the other regions sit out.

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SCCA RoadRally 2009 National Tour Champion, Sportsman

Most divisions have "central planning" committees for race scheduling.   Ours is pretty political, and with regions changing leadership and direction every year, no one trusts someone else to stick with a plan.  They have been slowly trimming races here, but it is pretty painful.

Our region held 5 races a year for years and years.  One of them, during good times, was losing its ass year after year and it was still a protracted battle to drop it.  They recently dropped one more, down to 3.  The rest of the division reluctantly lets loose of a few, but just like in Bob's area there are way too many races and no one wants to be the first to blink.  The regions either have other programs or races propping up the losers so there isn't much incentive to change. 

The typcial SCCA person has a huge martyr complex as well...we all want to sit around and talk about no workers and less events but secretly want to be the one who works the weekend that saves the event.  It is wired into the DNA that attracts us to the club in the first place.

The ship turns slowly...

DaveW

 

 

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