Der Gasser- Letter to Editor

[Darren]

I think the price can go up for students and not affect registrations.  Eric maybe you have an opinion on this?

For comparison, NASA Northeast is charging $250/day, $500 for 2 days at Watkins Glen this year for DE students.

NASA Mid-Atlantic is charging $180/day for VIR.

Reisentoter at Thunderbolt, the most expensive track for us to rent, is a mere $150/day for students.

Reisentoter also gives much more track time per day, 1 more session, so 80 minutes per day instead of 60 (and better instruction, IMHO).

With 33% more track time why can't we charge the same price that NASA does?

Green and Blue are already showing as sold-out on motorsportreg.com for our MAW Thunderbolt event in October.  I know it might be because not enough instructors have registered, but we could be turning people away who won't look again when more spots open.

If we get more instructors and get them to register early that allows us to run more Green and Blue students, and possibly even open up an additional instructed group.

[emayer]

These are great recommendations which hopefully can be incorporated by the DE committee.  The idea to restructure run group order in order to permit an instructor for 2 students with a decent break seems like an easy start point.

I agree with you 100% Darren.  Relative to other programs our pricing is on the lower side especially when you factor in the quality of instruction and track time.  Speaking for myself, I wouldn't mind paying extra.  Given the high interest in these run groups I suspect there are many others who would feel likewise.

If we can continue to improve upon the culture and treatment of the instructor cadre, it will yield large dividends in respect to membership expansion and the maturing of additional advanced drivers that can only help stabilize the DE program in tough economic times.

[catchacab]

Other PCA regions charge a higher fee for instucted than uninstructed students. I believe if we raised our event fees by $25 per day for instructed students this would not impact registration, while financially benefitting the club.

We can also charge higher fees for non PCA members.

[George3]

 

Curious that the Executive Committee and Speed Council is conveniently quiet on this and other matters of discussion here on this thread.  




EDIT:
Eric  -  Thank you for the kind words, but you are an excellent driver. 
We've had several events together and you are doing great !! 

[catchacab]

I got home today, and read Mr. O'Connell's letter.  WOW, what a letter.  For my own piece of mind I need to respond to much of the letter that has not yet been commented on here.

Congratuations on being a 20 year member of the E-Board.  You were on the E-Board as Immediate Past President when I joined PCA in 2002.  As a member who at that time, regularly attended membership meetings, thank you for not making any effort to personally introduce yourself to me or any other new member that I know.  In fact, at that time the only members of the Board who made any efforts to welcome  new or previously inactive members were Tom Zaffarano, and the Minkins.  I am happy that they are still highly active in the club, the rest of the board, I am glad they are gone.

As far as der Gasser is concerned, it should be a self supporting publication, with advertising revenue and the National subsidy all  covering of the expenses.  In toady's world with our region's presence on Internet and this forum, the need for dG is decreasing. The trend for dG as well as other chapter's newsletters is to decrease frequency of  publication and possibly ending all hard printing. 

Funding travel expenses for "track folk".  I agree with you. 

Monthly meetings should be held at facilities that will offer a low or no cost option for our club.  There are many businesses in the area that want the business of our members, such as Porsche Dealerships and independent shops.  They should be willing to provide a venue for our meetings, and should be willing to provide appropriate catering.

I agree that a new region should be created.  This new region should consist of members both new and old, who are interested in their Porsches as well welcoming and getting to know all members of the club, just not the same old friends that they have had for the past 20 years.  The amazing thing about a fossil, is when looking up the definition, a fossil is already dead.  Pitting older vs younger members is wrong.  All member, both new and old, have something positive that they can bring to the club.  People, cars, club procedures and activities will change over time.  Embrace the good, and discard the bad.  For the benefit of the club and more for your own personal benefit, at the next RTR event that you attend, walk up to five people who you never talked to before and introduce yourself.  As a long time member of our region as well as being long time Board member and past-President you should act as an ambassador of our region and welcome those unfamiliar faces.

[Brian Minkin]

Great response Eric and I could not have said it any better.  I had heard rumor of Bill's letter to the editor but until I got Der Gasser yesterday had not read it. This club needs to unify and get back to being a club about the cars and the people who drive them.

[emayer]

Brian Minkin wrote:

Great response Eric and I could not have said it any better. I had heard rumor of Bill's letter to the editor but until I got Der Gasser yesterday had not read it. This club needs to unify and get back to being a club about the cars and the people who drive them.

+1

I can only hope Bill has a chance to read these posts. Anyone know if he owns a computer?

[AMoore]

Does the on line version of De Gasser not have letters to the editor?

[larrybard]

If I might respectfully weigh in with an opinion and a few suggestions:

Speaking only for myself, of course, I would be willing to pay significantly more for RTR DE than the current fees.  In brief, I think I'm getting a bargain in virtually all respects, especially the general quality of instruction (definitely including CI, etc. classroom sessions).  And given the full cost of attending (i.e., with hotel, gas, etc.), a fee increase, provided it's not too dramatic (whatever that means), just wouldn't make that much of a difference to me.  (I fully understand that price sensitivity may vary greatly from person to person.)

But it might make an overall difference to the program, if I'm hearing correctly that one of the challenges is attracting enough instructors (and reducing the instructor-student ratio), and more revenues from other sources (e.g., student fees) might permit instructors to be subsidized and attract more to events.

In a similar vein, my guess is that in the past when garage bays have been sold for the MAW event a few thousand dollars has been raised.  I definitely agree that instructors and a few other key players ought to be given free garage space (when available; obvoiusly, nothing along those lines at Summit).  But are there normally two instructors assigned to each garage bay -- or only one, so that they can officially be doubled up and the extra space auctioned off?  And even if it's already two to a bay, aren't there often unassigned bays that are informally taken on a "first come, first served" basis -- but instead could be sold and earn more revenue?  My point is that perhaps revenues from garage space rentals might help provide subsidies for instructors.

Just some thoughts.  I have benefited greatly from the DE program (at least that's my opinion), and would hate to see it become weaker in the future.

Larry

[George3]

 

I for one, support the need for hard copy print issues of Der Gasser.  We don't need 12 monthly issues, but I think we need more than we have now.