Election Discussions with Brian Minkin - Candidate for relection as RTR President

[Wellardmac]

Brian Minkin wrote:

I am Brian Minkin, your current RTR president and I am running for a 3[suP]rd[/suP] term as club president. I have been on the Executive Board for over 10 years having held the positions of Autocross Chair, Membership Chair and President. During these years I have brought new ideas, people and events to RTR. I have led a touring group to the Pittsburg Vintage Grand Prix. I organized the Wegmans Wine and Food Festival Porsche gathering and concours which prior to our 50[suP]th[/suP] anniversary party was the largest gathering of Porsche cars in RTR history. During my term in 2007 my team put together our 50th anniversary party and we assembled a special field of 50 display cars representing the 50 years that RTR has been a region of PCA. I started the “Not Just for New Members Breakfast Gatherings�? which continues to be a popular event. I created this Forum in 2006 as a place on the web for RTR members to share information and news. I am active in all aspects of RTR events participating in tours, rallies, autocross, social events and driver education. I am a driver education instructor and enjoy teaching high speed driving as a way of giving back the knowledge and fun RTR driver education has brought to me. I continue to assist the Autocross program with course design and setup and help the Autocross Chair operate these events. Many of the current Exec Board members have been recruited by me and I am constantly trying to get members to become involved in the leadership of our club. Although track driving is my favorite pastime with my Porsche, I am acutely aware that this is not the only activity our club that members have interest in. I have strived as president during the past two years to insure that our club offers a variety of events for all members to enjoy their Porsche ownership and club membership experience. It is my desire that these efforts make you want to renew your membership year after year. I hope I will have your support in seeking a 3[suP]rd[/suP] term as club president so I may continue to build a stronger club, offering more events for all members to enjoy.

[Wellardmac]

Brian,
Welcome to Candidate's Corner and thanks for participating!

As you have outlined some impressive achievements with the club, let me ask some slightly different questions than those posed to Graham (as you've already answered those).

i) Why they should vote for you over other candidates?
ii) What achievement during your tenure with RTR are you most proud and why?
iii) What would you hope to achieve in your third term as President?
iv) What area of club activities would you most like to see developed?

Other forum members should feel free to pose more questions.

Off topic questions and comments will be deleted - let's keep this focused on the elections.

[catchacab]

What is your opinoin on having DE fees that are far in excess of the cost of an event to subsidise other club activities.

[Brian Minkin]

catchacab wrote:

What is your opinoin on having DE fees that are far in excess of the cost of an event to subsidise other club activities.

Eric,

Our DE tuition is not out of line with what other regions and clubs charge. The fees are set by speed council and they take into consideration many factors. Not all events fill to track capacity. In fact we actually have a loss on some events. Events that make money fortunately offset the loss and we hope that the overall budget for track events will be positive for the year. When the fees are established you try to estimate how many drivers will register for the event. There are no guarantees that an event will fill up. The fees are set so that the loss will be minimal if it does not fill and if it does fill the club comes out a little ahead. The tuition is not "far in excess of the cost". It is actually very close to the cost if an event is not sold out. All it takes is a 5 or 6 car difference in registration to be on the loss side.

The exec approves a balanced budget every year that takes into consideration all revenue and expenses for all aspects of running the club. We really only have three sources of substantial revenue, our portion of national PCA dues, Dergasser advertising and Drivers Education. Publishing Dergasser, having a web site, having an online forum and hosting membership meetings more then use up the national PCA dues and advertising fees. Other club activities are budgeted to break even with the exception of a few major social functions such as the Awards Banquet and this year our picnic. For these two events we do subsidize with club funds and I view this as a way of returning our positive cash flow to the membership. We are fortunate that our DE events are generally well attended and enable our club to have these other events to benefit the membership.

[Brian Minkin]

Wellardmac wrote:

ii) What achievement during your tenure with RTR are you most proud and why?

My greatest achievement with RTR is helping RTR receive the Region of The Year award at Parade in 2004. For the entire year in 2003 Terry and I spent the year photographing and documenting all RTR activities. We then assembled a scrap book documenting all the clubs activities for the year and using photos to illustrate each activity. Many regions use professional agencies to create their books but our amateur effort was voted the best and the region was awarded the Ferry Porsche Award as region of the year.

[catchacab]

If re-elected as President, what plans or proposals do you have to distinguish your third year as President and eleventh year on the E-Board, from the previous years?

[Brian Minkin]

catchacab wrote:

If re-elected as President, what plans or proposals do you have to distinguish your third year as President and eleventh year on the E-Board, from the previous years?

I want to increase the number of touring/social and rally events. By touring/social I mean organized drives to a lunch or special place of interest. To increase the number of events offered in both of these activities I suggest rather then having one member on the exec responsible to organize these that we form a committee of those interested in each of these event types. This way a member of the committee will take responsibility for only one event decreasing the the time commitment required to organize a series of these events. I would also like to see the committee composition have members from different areas of the region so these events would be more accessible to various parts of the region since it is so large.

[catchacab]

Obama

or

McCain

[michael lang]

Brian, I know that you are very heavily involved in our club's DE program, so how do you find the time to be involved in other activities that the club has along with staying involved in our DE, running the club, and your life away from the club (you know, that thing that gets in the way called work )?

[Brian Minkin]

michael lang wrote:

Brian, I know that you are very heavily involved in our club's DE program, so how do you find the time to be involved in other activities that the club has along with staying involved in our DE, running the club, and your life away from the club (you know, that thing that gets in the way called work )?

I am very fortunate to be my own boss and have a wonderful wife that runs the company when I am out on the track. It does put a bit of pressure on my employees as they have to take up the slack when I am away but thats what they are paid to do. Taking time off for DE does carry a penalty however. I work 60+ hour weeks that often include weekends to buy the time to be on the track. Being active in the club and as you put it "running the club" does take some dedication but having great people on the exec that make things happen along with modern technology like cell phones and email makes it possible.