PR Person Needed

[problemchild]

This must be the worst press release that I have ever seen.
http://www.racer.com/scca-home/item/...esident-begins

Twenty paragraphs of discussion that says absolutely nothing other than SCCA has hired an agency and concluded that they need a charismatic intelligent person who will be able to understand the concerns of the different departments.

The only person attracted by this press release is someone looking for a paycheck.

Whoever approved this release should not be in charge of finding the new president. Maybe they like getting their picture taken.

[Peter Olivola]

I think this paragraph shows a major change in thinking:

"We've been underutilizing our SCCA regions. The SCCA national office is very heavily dues-based – it's a third of the revenue – where as the SCCA regions are almost entirely participation based. There's kind of a fundamental disconnect there, so one of the issues I see is that the president needs to be able to try to better understand and align the goals of the entire Club. The National Club exists primarily to serve the individual regions in that it handles a lot of administrative items for everybody – like insurance, centralizing rules, and so on. The view has to get broader."

It represents the first time anyone at that level has publicly acknowledged the disconnect between the region and national revenue models. More than anything else, that's what has created the conflict between the two.

[Lotus7]

Hmm.
Release starts off highlighting the 3 short-term presidents...
Ends noting they really need a long-term person this time...
Yet almost zero introspection in the middle dozen paragraphs as to whether this could be self-inflicted?

[SteveG]

When a in-coming BOD Chairman of anything, non-profit or for-profit says:

"[The SCCA Board is] supposed to oversee things, we have a fiduciary responsibility, we're supposed to set direction, we're supposed to hire the president – we're not supposed to have our fingers in every little thing that goes on,"

You know you've got some problems.

I've got some personal experience with a BOD member wanting to have their little fingers in my racing. I actually sold my car and quit SCCA because of it. Different times...

I feel the "press release" was in an interview format so I'm fine with it as long as someone follows through with what was said.

Steve

[mmi16]

Buzzword Bull****!

SCCA President is the job of premiere cat herder. The BOD is a pack of feral cats, each involved in marking their territory and the turn on anyone that comes near that territory with claws bare. The movement of SCCA is by fits and starts as each turf battle morphs into the next turf battle.

The term limits on BOD membership insures that there will never be continuity of thought.

[problemchild]

I feel the "press release" was in an interview format so I'm fine with it as long as someone follows through with what was said.

The "interviewer" was a Sportscar writer and SCCA PR guy .... hardly an investigative journalist. I did not have a lot of trouble with the content, as a poorly written internal newsletter, but thought it was a horrible presentation for a multimillion dollar operation that should be trying to look professional in a press release to the media.

I just don't see saying "we will try and stop looking like bumbling idiots and try to hire a charismatic intelligent leader who understands how to lead people" as opposed to hiring the dull stupid puppets who did not know what they were doing, as we usually do.

I realize they were trying to capitalize on a slow news day, but in this case, no news would have been better than poorly presented news.

[S Lathrop]

Combine this Racer article with the USAC/FRP announcement and you get a very pessimistic picture of the future and SCCA as it relates to formula car racing.

[jchracer]

As always Greg, you have distilled the problem down to it's core elements and done it in such an incredibly diplomatic tone.....well done. Seriously though, I think you nailed it.....

[Purple Frog]

I know who should be selected for President, He was the my "best man" at my first wedding, and come to think of it, i was his "best man" at his first wedding.
(OBTW, God bless those practice wives.)
Somebody who has raced at every level (solo,regional,national,majors,runoffs).
Somebody who has worked at every level.
Somebody who understands what the regions face in the real world.
Of course, I'm completely bias... even though he couldn't fit in a formula car without major surgery (amputation of extremities).

also, come to think of it... Greg would probably agree. And, that is important.

[DaveW]

Butch for SCCA president!

[problemchild]

I promised Butch I would not suggest him, promote him, or endorse him
..... but if I had a vote.

[Purple Frog]

Who's Butch? Did i mention Butch?

Greg, if you and I promote him... it may count against him. Just saying.

[GT1Vette]

On vacation in Florida right now, but I've communicated privately with Greg about this situation. He feels this piece was poorly written and doesn't belong in a "public" document while I found Chairman Hill's candor refreshing. And yes, he (Greg) offered his endorsement of my interest in the position while also recognizing his support might be detrimental to my chances.

I have indeed submitted my resume and am interested in discussing the opportunity with the BoD. Some (many?) think SCCA is broken and needs a major overhaul to be relevant again, but I don't feel that's the case. I do believe the concept that the National office's main purpose is to help the regions be as successful as possible has been lost over the years - without the regions (the "feet on the ground") there is no need for a National office at all - and that relationship needs to be repaired. Besides that we also need to continue (and improve) the events that make us unique in the marketplace (Runoffs, Solo Nationals, RallyCross Nationals) while continuing to develop programs (TNiA, Targa, PDX, etc) that attract new participants (who can become members) to our fold. Over the years I've found that people tend to stay with the organization they started with, so we need to get them involved early.

Am I the right person for the job? That's for the BoD to decide. Does the BoD share my vision for what our club can be and how we might get there? That's for me to decide. As Tom Herman recently said when asked why it took so long for him to be announced as the new head football coach at Texas (and I paraphrase), "The board and I had to figure out if we were on the same page and could work together successfully."

I guess we'll see what happens...

[Mark_Silverberg]

The press release was somewhat curious but probably accurate. Given the short tenure of the last three presidents, and the fact that it was issues with the BoD that resulted in the departure of each, it may have been felt that a public acknowledgment of the situation was necessary.

I do not know the exact terms of the position, but I believe it is challenging to attract top caliber talent to the SCCA HQ given the Topeka, KS location and uncertainty regarding the long term prospects of the job. In my opinion, the last three presidents never really got a chance to demonstrate their true capabilities. Is an experienced business person going to leave a solid position to take a chance on SCCA?

In reality, the people who can consider the job are those who are willing to accept an uncertain tenure - they will either be perpetual job switchers or those who are looking for a new short term challenge and don't really have a concern about time in position.

I feel the press release indicate a lack of SCCA developing a robust candidate list and a desire to generate additional candidate leads.

[mmi16]

The President of SCCA is in a 'similar' position to the Commissioner's of MLB and the NFL. The president is chosen by leaders in the constituency that the President is supposed to be the overall leader of.

The differences (besides the $B's) are that the owners of the teams that select their Commissioner remain relatively constant in name and aim. In SCCA with the term limits that are applied to BOD members, the BOD is constantly turning over. The 'plans' that the President and BOD undertake in one year can be changed by the BOD in another year as the makeup of the BOD changes and thus changes the aim of the BOD.

I am surprised that SCCA Presidents have stayed around as long as they have under the circumstance.

[jim morgan]

The chances of someone from outside this club being able to come in and"herd these cats" is zero. Any such person is simply taking a check until a better opportunity is there.
The f4/ frp usac , is the latest canary in the coal mine.

Who else besides Butch knows the existing dysfunction, the players and constituencies , the history, has an affection for the club and with all due respect is dumb enough to try.

[Purple Frog]

OMG,
Talk about jinxing a poor fellow... Greg says yes, PF says yes, then Morgan chimes in with a yes vote. Could be three strikes and he is out.
I was in Topeka one time with Morgan... it wasn't pretty. Maybe they won't remember.

[EYERACE]

Whoever leads must deal with the issue of the SCCA being some sort of secret...........

example: NAZcar race coverage has someone saying nascar about every three seconds..... > some dude in a suit saying into a microphone ..."We're here in the NAZ pit lane and we're going to look at some NAZ cars...let's talk to this NAZ driver Billy Bob and ask him what he thinks about this NAZ race here at the sponsor sponsor NAZ race track

If it's an SCCA / Continental series race one is lucky if the SCCA patch on someone's driver's suit is in focus for two seconds and that's about all I'll see or hear about the SCCA.....

Huh?

[Peter Olivola]

Who's going to pay for the TV show? You need to accept that NASCAR has sucked all the air out of broadcast sponsorship of racing and reconcile yourself to the fact that SCCA Club Racing is a pastime activity funded entirely by the participants and isn't likely to ever be anything else.

Even NASCAR's decline is a bad sign for all racing sponsorship as we move away from a car obsessed culture to a tech culture.

Enjoy what you have. For as long as it lasts.

Whoever leads must deal with the issue of the SCCA being some sort of secret...........

example: NAZcar race coverage has someone saying nascar about every three seconds..... > some dude in a suit saying into a microphone ..."We're here in the NAZ pit lane and we're going to look at some NAZ cars...let's talk to this NAZ driver Billy Bob and ask him what he thinks about this NAZ race here at the sponsor sponsor NAZ race track

If it's an SCCA / Continental series race one is lucky if the SCCA patch on someone's driver's suit is in focus for two seconds and that's about all I'll see or hear about the SCCA.....

Huh?

[problemchild]

OMG, I remember horror stories of the timing and scoring at the Moroso Winter events 25 years ago. Not much has changed!

With transponders, sensors, and computer programs, one would think it was an easy gig. Keeping a backup system in play should be the only big challenge.

So, yesterday, they had mylaps in race mode ...... all day. Not one session, or several, but all day. That means that all cars were listed in their order, rather than by lap time. Pretty bush league to be trying to follow your qualifying position by scanning through 40 cars and having to track who is going how fast.

Presumably, this is something that may take a session or two to resolve ...... but all day?

Today, they got it in qualifying mode, but had multiple listings for the same driver. Then, were not able to properly combine yesterdays qualifying with todays. Our driver should have been P2 but was gridded P7 based on todays time. The false grid people were not helpful when trying to resolve, refusing to ask timing and scoring. After the race, T&S refused to accept responsibility, blaming the false grid people. Since I saw the gridsheet, I know that it was a T&S issue. Official results were not posted so there was no way to know where you were gridded until you got to the false grid.

The whole ordeal was bushleague. If no one will even accept responsibility, how will it ever get fixed?

This event is great promotion for going FRP!

[S Lathrop]

This event is great promotion for going FRP!

Now your were seeing why there were so many positive comments about USAC taking over sanctioning of FRP.

[GT1Vette]

Greg,

Assuming you're looking at RaceMonitor for the active results, there's an icon in the upper right that flips between a "stopwatch" and a "podium". Regardless of how T&S has the session set up, YOU control how the display is sorted.

Regarding the second issue, the competency of the T&S staff varies widely from event to event. That inconsistency is why part of the new-for-2017 Hoosier Super Tour program includes a traveling T&S Chief for all events. Of course the entry fee for those events is higher than a "standard" Majors or Regional weekend, so some regions have opted out of that program.

As always, YMMV...

[Purple Frog]

Only news i heard was that Tim Minor (F2KCS Champion) done 'runt' his engine on Friday and was trying to get through I-95 in North Carolina. He won't make Sebring.

[problemchild]

This was, perhaps, the worst organized and executed event that I have ever attended, certainly the worst in memory. From top to bottom, the organization was horrendous. I could write pages and pages.

The high-lite was going to the competitor info center to try to get a grid sheet so we could avoid another screwed up grid. There were several others looking for the Group 4 gridsheet .... but only misc results, never mind grid sheets. I politely asked if they could provide a gridsheet. There were two people there. One said "you will find out when you get to the grid". I said that I was trying to avoid the confusion of the incorrect grid yesterday. The other person said "Ahhh Jeeez ...." At that point we gave up.

When we got to the grid, they had us in the correct FF order but had some FVs between the FC and FF cars. When we pointed out the error, they found a different sheet, perhaps more correct.

I went looking on the SCCA site for results and only found complaints in the comment section.
Moving on. Hoping Sebring will be great!

[iamuwere]

SCCA is a very curious organisation. They need to figure out whether they are a local club with a national oversight or a cohesive big sanctioning and promotion company.

I only see them being successful if they drop the club/regional operation structure and hire proper people to run events in a logical pattern to drive attendance, operate in a uniform (CUSTOMER FRIENDLY) way, and promote the hell out of it with options to start at low budget levels that still feel like you are involved in a high end way.