Steve Grosekemper wrote:Tom & Jay,
If you want to get into the event sign up when it opens.
The PCA-SDR members who didn't get into CVR didn't sign up the first day, or the first week, or the second week...
These events are logistically complex, don't make it even more difficult for people running the events.
Just signup when the event opens up.
Like I said, Steve, I have no dog in this fight--my big-track driving days are over and I wasn't trying to sign up for the CVR event, but I did notice that people (including SDR members) were being wait-listed a month before the event, yet many non-PCA members driving X cars had been admitted. If our club events are intended to be for the benefit of club members, I am simply questioning whether the policy of allowing non-members priority over members at DE/TT events should be reviewed. We have done this for AX events now (requiring PCA membership for entry, and now even excluding students in X cars). Why would we choose to ignore the impact of non-members running our DE/TT driving events on our membership?
The fact is that our DE/TT program is very successful and well known throughout S. Cal for running well-organized and safe events, which is a good thing. The program is under no threat of being compromised for lack of participation, and is attracting entries through word of mouth and internet chatter from a much wider base than just the PCA. I don't see how reviewing entries for PCA membership makes putting on an event "more logistically complex" or difficult. AX events are just as logistically complex (if not more so, since you have to also design and construct the track to run one!) and we are checking PCA membership for each one of those. All it would take is putting a notice on the MSR site that PCA members would have priority for entry and adding a field for entering your PCA membership number in the entry form. A check against our member database to verify an entrant's membership is quick and easy to perform--I do it all the time in managing this forum, since we don't allow non-members to participate here. I don't want to put any extra burden on Robert and Jack, they've done a fabulous job of building the DE/TT program into such a successful enterprise, but perhaps they need more help if such a simple requirement as giving priority to members would be a "deal-breaker" that would crash the whole program. Every entry is already initially wait-listed and reviewed before being confirmed, I am just suggesting that club membership might be a factor for consideration in this review as well, especially if the event is selling out a month before it takes place or more.
I have no beef with X cars, I have run plenty of them myself at PCA events and would never advocate that they be excluded from our events, but I do wonder if the benefits of being a PCA member are being diluted if a member can be excluded because they weren't quick enough to sign up when registration opens. It wouldn't take that much effort to allow more time for members to sign up and then fill the event from the wait-list of non-members in the last week or two, IMHO. How are we different than any other organization running open track events in S. Cal if anyone can register? If PCA-SDR is really "about the people," we should be taking care of our own first.
That's my $0.02,
TT
