If I can comment on this, I'll say the video is funny. But, you need to see what is under development in the Corwin garage. It might put this table and chairs to shame.
Watch for it at a big track event soon.
Regarding the issue of social and driver spending, I see a lot of mis-information out there. If you really want to do research, please talk to our Treasurer, Bill Behun. He has the check book and Quickbooks financials for years back. He has charts and graphs. It's eye-opening and informative. And quite easy to understand. Those who have been attending board meetings this year have heard it all, many times.
If I can summarize, nothing is currently making money. The Installation dinner is being subsidized for about 1/4-1/3 of it's previous support. A number of events have had their subsidy reduced even more, as much as 100%. Several years back, the driving events did make money, as well as did the Windblown Witness. We also made a very large single gain from the Parade, which created a number of expensive new events.
There are some members who have told me directly that we should increase fees to the drivers to support social events. As you might imagine, they were not drivers. I have not heard any suggestions that we charge extra for social events to cover high track expenses. There seems to be a trend developing of "Pay for what you get." This is a departure from some previous approaches including "Let someone else pay for what I get."
Of course, this is very painful to chairs and managers of events and programs that historically have been heavily subsidized. It may or may not be fair, or the right way to manage it. But it does allow the members to vote with their wallets and pick and choose the things they want to support.
This year has been challenging for the club, bringing our expenses in line with our income. At the first of the year, the board committed to run the club at a break-even cash flow for the year. At the September board meeting, Treasurer Behun reported we were within $500 of our beginning cash balance from Jan. 1, 2010. That is pretty close. It has caused quite a bit of strategic upheaval and dis-location, but to most members I think there has been no noticeable impact.
If I might comment on Ted's previous post, running the "
concour, rally, AX,and other driving events at cost" would
not result in a reduction of of their current (prices). These events currently run very near to break-even, and it is a struggle to do so even with increased fees. Ask your Concour, AX, or TT chair about their budget this year. None of these events are flowing cash to subsidize other activities. It was different in the past, when attendance was high and driving events made money.
As for Dan's observations about "
Driving Event's "excess" income and the Social Event's use of ... other program's "excess" funding", this is again historical information and not representative of our current environment. There is no "excess income" from driving events. This is a broadly held mis-conception that results in much mis-understanding and conflict. Please get current information from any driving event chair or our treasurer. The topic is widely discussed at our board meetings.
It's important that we use good data to analyze our situation, and manage the club based on our current environment, not that of a few years ago. We may or may not again see that economic frenzy of a few years back, but for now we need to live within our means.
As I see it, our goal is to produce fun events, both driving and social, that allow our members to enjoy their interests in their cars, and to develop friendships based on those common interests. If you have an event you are passionate about, figure out a way to produce it in a break-even or small plus format. It's really not that hard, and it's good for the club.
Funny video.
