HOW MEMBERSHIP DOLLARS ARE SPENT
by Shannon Murphy
Although many of us have been told before, it never hurts to be reminded of how your membership dollars are spent.
A portion of your membership dollars are known as "regional dues." This amount (determined by the region) is forwarded to the region by the national office when they receive your membership check. Regional dues help pay the cost of publishing The Tonneau, and other expenses, such as printing the membership directory, maintaining our phone number, and printing our letterhead.
Another portion of membership dollars goes to the costs of maintaining your membership at the national office, keeping track of your specialty license, printing and mailing your membership cards and so forth. But what happens to the rest? How do they know how much money should go to the different activities our club offers?
When you receive your annual membership application form, take a look at the "check-off" area of the form. It lists different areas of interest, such as "club racing", "pro racing", "solo", etc., and instructs you to check the areas of the club you are interested in. The club uses this not only to keep tabs on where the members interest lie, but this is how the club knows where to put those membership dollars. The more interests you check, the more ways your money gets split. If you only check one box, all the money goes to that one area of interest.
Remember that the check-off is more than just a vote for your areas of
interest. It's a financial choice. So, what area(s) of SCCA is important to you? Your decision affects the sport.
Fubar, continued from page 2
Although the February Comp Board meeting was held at Murray Motorsports in Hopkins, Alan reports that his landlord suddenly pulled the plug on his nearly 10 year lease of shop space, and he is looking hard for a replacement facility. If anyone has a line on something, Alan would appreciate a tip. The March meeting will be at Steve Thomson’s Eagan shop. Steve recently took delivery of a new FV kit from Larry Campbell, while Mike Vrchota also got a new Citation kit. Both Steve and Mike apparently have an interested local buyer for both Greg Thompson’s Vee (in Steve’s shop) and the Vrchota MTV racer. Steve’s kit car is an early present for Leslie, who celebrates a cardinal number birthday in late February. I won’t reveal the number, but it sounds like an old Nick Nolte movie about pro football called "North Dallas (blank)".
MINNEAPOLIS AUTO SHOW
LOL will again be a part of the Minneapolis Auto Show. The show this year is April 1-9. Please contact Joe Rothman at 612-949-0873 or Joe@goqms.com if you would like to work at our display. (Each worker gets free entry to the show and should have plenty of opportunity to explore other areas).
If you would like to show your car, please also contact Joe. We would like a Spec Ford, open and closed wheel cars, vintage, rally, and possibly a Solo II car. Perfect paint is not required!
Report, continued from page 1 and get a glimpse of the Ford powerplant for the new Panoz car. I am quite happy to report that we are not spending club dollars to make our club headquarters look overly glamorous. The office appears very functional (not fancy, not shoddy). SCCA Enterprises could have been a very neat version of any racer's garage, right down to the racing stickers on the cabinets. Rumor has it that Spec Racer drivers had to prove their pockets were empty of parts before leaving the shop (rumor only, they are trustworthy guys).
- Main topics of the convention were:
- Solo actually made a $980 profit in 1999 (upped to a four-digit figure by a $20 donation from perennial Solo champion and funnyman Roger Johnson).
- Participation levels in Solo, Road Rally and ProRally have all increased noticeably in many regions.
- Our televised events and the web are really helping the club's visibility.
- There is an increased cost of risk insurance due to a couple of very severe injuries last year.
- Pro Racing financial problem.
- SCCA Enterprises financial recovery.
- The new fuel testing rules (big, big topic!) and helmet stickers.
- SCCA Merchandise.
The networking (technical) of the national offices and what the regions would like to have available to them electronically. **The national office would like our input on this, so call me if you have suggestions or concerns.
If you would like to know more about any of the above topics, please call me at 612-798-3575 for information.
Tonneau On-Line March 2000
Page 7
Copyright 2000, Land O'Lakes Region Last revised: March 5, 2000
