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

[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.