Rationale: If $100 or $200 per event were ear-marked in the budget at each event, the Dinner would be funded, the Board would have been aware of a dinner event by the simple proxy that the money would have been approved for the Dinner all year long, and there would have been no debate. Money was set aside. Board approved the Budget Proviso including the End of Year Driver's Dinner and were aware of the Dinner. The Dinner would be good to go. And, with some careful personnel management, the AX Team could recruit the needed volunteers early in the year to begin the process of putting on a casual ...paid-for event.
One of the "Incoming AX Chairs" rightly identified that this might have stirred up the pot a bit politically and felt uneasy about the idea. The subsequent A-X year had no funding for, no provisions in the AX budget for, and no awareness by the Board for a Driver's Dinner.
If there are those that want a Dinner this year, I'd be willing to come all the way down from the Orange Coast Region (
) and help out.
My recommendation would be to the future AX Chairs: put a line-item on the AX budgets for funding a Dinner. Create a group of volunteers within the driving sector ( most likely the enthusiastic AX drivers) to help organize and plan the Dinner. Work with the calandar to be sure no direct conflicts occur with other evening events.
And should the Board reject the AX Budgets (for the political hot-button that this Dinner idea seems to creat) let the Board members explain to the approximately 150 or so drivers (that fund the SD Region with the bulk of their money*) and members at large why there will be no Autocrosses/DE's that year.
Finally: remember that a grass-roots political system is driven by input from the members. Do not rely soley on the benevolent knowledge of the Board members to make decisions in a vaccuum of communication with the members. Be vocal. Be willing to ask. Be willing to express your interests .... there is nothing worse than having someone else assume your interests for you. Communicate to your Board of Directors clearly what you want. They are your stewards of the club, not the royal family and/or heirs to any throne. They are at your service, and not the reverse.
*( numbers hover around $45,000.00 annually generated by AX profit ... add in DE and TT profits and the sum is greater. And: in addition, In 2006 the President contacted the various chairs in an effort to allocate additional funds to multiple Chairs at the end of the year. This, in order to utilize the cash-surplus the SD Region had and avoid higher taxation at the end of the year. Could a Driver's Dinner have been a good way to spend a bit of cash-surplus?
)
Let's talk about the future and a dedicated driver award event. 
