The Chuff Zone

[Brian Minkin]

I do not have statistics for RTR but in the 2007 national PCA survey less then 25% of the members have ever visited the PCA web site.  If our forum membership is a guide we have over 1300 members in the region and only 300 who have joined the forum.  And some of those forum members are PCA members from other regions. 

So this tells us that we need to have a printed newsletter. Maureen is trying very hard to improve the content of Dergasser and I am confident that she is on track.  However we already subsidize the publication with membership funds so increasing the size is not an option.  We would need several more major advertisers to increase the page count but because of our limited distribution we have actually had several advertisers drop out.

Web advertising is available now on the web site but no takers yet. 

Everyones projection that DE is a source of income for the region is correct.  However the other events we hold, Membership Meetings, Auto Cross and Social Gatherings all use that income to produce these events. 

Bottom line is that if we are not diligent about watching our expenses the region will quickly end up with no money to operate, as it was about 15 years ago. If the exec funded each request or idea it is presented with we could spend the treasury in no time.  Increase the size of Dergasser and your printing and postage costs go up.  For arguments sake lets say we would spend an additional $6000 a year to increase the size of Dergassser.  Also for arguments sake lets say that the exec approved RTR holding 5 AX events this year.  We loose about $1400 per AX so there is another $7000.  Lets have a big summer party/picnic and lets say 150 members attended and it costs the region $25 per person for food and location rental. We just spent another $3750.  Go a little over budget for this and that and before you know it we have spent the treasury in 4 or 5 years and we won't even have the funds required to make track deposits to run the DE program. 

I have been on the Exec for a long time and being conservative with spending has always been a primary focus of the Exec.  It has managed to keep this region in a healthy financial position so we can have the many successful events our membership enjoys.

Membership on the exec is open to any club member who wants to run for an office. If you want to have impact on the regions activities run for office or take a volunteer position on the Exec and get involved in how the region operates.

Regarding an earlier question about the region having a club race, we were looking into it and during this short period of investigation Shatenbaum booked Thunderbolt and applied to PCA Club Racing for a date which was approved.  So we got beat to the finish line on this one.