Trustees: David Rutherford, Luke Sayer, Al Anderberg, Kelly Sane, Mike Dixon, Arthur Kowitz, Brian Larrabure, Greg Tomlinson, Albert Newmann, Carl Anderson

Absent: Tim Terrell, Fred Guidi

Staff: Cindy McLean, Craig Grantham, Al Charles, Terry McPhillips

Guests: Tracy Bowen, Alex McLean, Ralph Wessel, Maggie Shane, Steven Hipp, Leona Dixon, Ellen Voermans, Debbie Poole, Rob Poole, Wes Poole, Scott Stewart, Rob Baggaley

Call Meeting to Order (Chair) – 8:09am

Designate a Quorum – designated
Adopt Agenda (Motion required for approval) BL motioned, AN seconded

Vote: Unanimous yes

Chairman Opening Remarks

• Welcome everybody – it was a beautiful weekend at Laguna Seca. Road races went off without a hitch – one injury yesterday.
• Asked albert, what was off-road story. Kelly – 0 injuries.  200 vintage entries, 40 trials, 30 vintage/post vintage.  We had more pre-entries than last year. 
• GT added membership experience seemed outstanding at both. Kudos to Kelly/Maggie and the Off-road crew.  Volunteer level on the off-road side was impressive.
• Albert – Honda Hills MX event – 300 turnout. PVMX double what would be normally expected

Reading and Approval of prior minutes (Motion required for approval)

• DR May 10 special meeting didn’t get circulated after addition of comments were incorporated.
• KS – when we have a video meeting the minutes should be read in and made available to the members at the next meeting.
• KS Motioned that this week the minutes for the May 10, June 26, and July 6 video meetings be circulated to the board for approval and re-publication.
• LS Second. Unanimous yes

GENERAL REPORTS (written reports submitted for inclusion in the minutes)

Executive Director Report – PowerPoint presentation

• Acknowledgements –
  • Takes a lot of people to make this happen – Thanks membership – without membership supporting us, we wouldn’t be in the shape we are.
  • This last weekend was stellar, 330 entries / day on the track, surpassed our off-road entries on pre-entries alone
  • Race directors, coordinators, volunteers, it wouldn’t happen without them
  • Special callout to race directors – without their work and coordination we wouldn’t be nearly as successful
  • Thank you to internal staff
  • Marketing / sponsorship team has done a fantastic job – on tv this weekend
  • BL – We had 20 volunteers for the gate
  • Thank Maggie Shane and Lisi Bratcher – responsible for entire financial management system / working with CG. We couldn’t do it without them.
  • Executive Committee
  • Board
• Situational Overview
  • Improved overall management process by creating the infrastructure and platform to support club.
  • Built dedicated financial system on a dedicated server.
  • On-demand reports to provide info to the board to make decisions and provide guidance with. How to split load between disciplines.
  • We are able to respond more quickly to requests for information.
  • We have better financial results.
  • Team is strong and working well at events.
  • Anybody who raced off-road or road race this weekend had great experience.
  • Able to work with partners and pull it off.
  • We’ve been responsive – provided information as requested from the board.
  • Working hard to establish sustainability.
  • Making progress
  • Initiated annual planning process – use system to create history to support next year’s planning.
  • We know which venues are winners. (attendance, profit, etc).
  • We have seen significant savings a positive management by pre-planning and predicting expenses.
  • 1^st half is just the 1^st half – we will do better than last year at the end of the day.
• Management Improvements / Recovery Plan Updates
  • We asked for ideas on how to improve.
  • Operating expenses we’ve done a lot of scrubbing.
  • Added volunteers.
  • Improved insurance costs
  • Reduces staffing costs.
  • There will be discussions today regarding cost management.
  • Community of volunteers – emails go out calling for volunteers – volunteerism has increased as a result. AK is a good example.
  • Leveraging resources through membership coordinator.
  • Increased volunteerism during early events due to recruitment.
  • AHRMA MAG – discussions regarding future of AHRMA MAG.
  • Event staff travel cost – last year was a significant increase over prior years.
  • AC has been vigilant on keeping travel costs down, looking closely at expenses.
  • Recruiting new membership – new members are active members. We need for this club to grow.
  • Increasing promotion – we have to get the right promotion / right advertising.
  • KCA Special Ops team did a fantastic job – we were on the local news on tv this past weekend.
  • Suggestions from the members – got a lot of quality submissions. We’ll use them all and recognize the top one.
  • Retire the debt initiative – this will involve the entire club.
• Financial Review
  • Our results in the first half of 2023 – juxtaposed from the first half of 2022 – $111k swing improvement.
  • LS – does this include Daytona? – CG yes.
  • CG – made some good financial decisions and we are now in the black.
  • On a more detailed basis – clear example of what has happened on the RR side.
    • RR Travel Expenses: 2018 – our total for 10 events $110k – $17.3k average per event for travel expenses.
    • 2019-2021: Similar expense.
    • 2022 – $22k per event (25% increase)
    • Actual and estimate for 2023 $15k average per event.
  • BL – question – belief that staffing costs were going up, but thanks to volunteerism we are saving money in some area.
  • LS agree – need to see total picture to see if we are going up or down in some places.
  • CA – same staff but trimmed expenses.
  • AK – in previous years when you roll through hot tech there would be 6 people to inspect, yet now it’s 2.
  • Trustees want to see a comparison of # paid contractors overall this year vs previous years.
  • Total income $668k overall
  • Cost of Goods Sold – $196k – $72k profit
  • BL – COGS is that all events? Yes – DT incorporated into the total for this report.
  • KS – DT needs to be shown on its own. – program we are trying to build – additional visibility would help.
  • CG – noted. We do track DT separately in the P&L, but included it in the total for this discussion.  Will break it out in the future, and for all financial postings of the P&L.
  • Total expenses including contractor costs.
  • AHRMA MAG $51k for first half – extra issue included.
  • GT – does that include the editor’s salary? no
  • $9k per issue – BL – print and ship, nothing to do with the content, so $90k for 10 issues JUST to print and mail.
  • Overall in a better position.
  • Net income $56k after expenses. Does include General and Administrative cost.
  • GT – comparison of G&A this year vs last year. CG – not in this presentation.
  • Sustainability – how do we make sure we operate the club at the line and not lose money and have to borrow? Sometimes expenses overrun what our revenue is.
  • Hopefully we’ll arrive at a good spot and fund what is necessary for this year and build out a plan for sustainability.
• Planning, Membership, Sponsorship
  • Planning for 2024 will mirror this year. Bottom line – base our planning on historical schedules.
  • Adjust to make sure events for the year are financially feasible and manageable for the team. .
  • Each race director responsible for examining each event and creating positive

9:00AM – MEMBER COMMENT PERIOD

MEMBER COMMENT PERIOD (one hour)

• Al Charles – RR Director Hail from Columbus Ohio – AHRMA members since 1989.
• Alex McLean – RR, Florida
• Leona Dixon – Illinois
• Ralph Wessel – RR, Florida
• Ann Essaff, Florida
• Peter Essaff – Sidecar, Florida
• Steven Hipp – RR
• Rob Baggaley – RR
• Scott Stewart – Trials
• Terry McPhillips, OR Director – Phoenix AZ
• Wes Poole, Off-road
• Rob Poole,
• Debbie Poole
• Ellen Voermans, since ’94, volunteering since ’92. Back since 2012, not ready to give it up yet
• Tracy – RR volunteer

Rob Poole – doesn’t think additional loans are a good idea.  If we had a RR license could be specifically for paying the upfront costs of the track.   Could be retroactive – would make our job easier to have steady cash-flow.  Something else we could do if presented by a smart person is put out a call to the membership – AHRMA is accepting donations to get us through this rough period.  They need to know we have solved the hemorrhaging – and that we need help to get through this rough patch.

• CA – heartily agree – would rather not borrow more money. What you are talking about is probably doable and may fix an issue.  In this day and age of computers, a lot of our members would register at the beginning of the year if they were able to.
• GT – buy 10 events get one free? Is that something we can do?
• AN – competition licensing should occur in some form in the coming year.
• GT – West coast racers would unlikely purchase a license for 1 race / year.

Steven Hipp– find a way to get rid of the debt ASAP – appeal to the members to pay $100 or $10 / month.  Need to get ahead of this.  Also why don’t we have more races on the west coast.  Schedule the races a month apart – like we do on the east coast and like AFM does.  There are 5 great racetracks in California.

• BL – we worked on bad financial data for the west coast – 2022 was not well planned. Thunderhill was a good time of the year and attendance was abysmal.  Willow springs attendance has been sagging year after year.  Sears wants $150k for 2 days – they don’t like motorcycles / don’t want motorcycles.  Button Willow is an opportunity if we can get a good date.  Possibility for next year.   Miller is falling apart.  Chinese are out, the county is running it – going out of business.  Sentiment is that Miller may end up getting razed.  Question for west coast members – 2 qualifying races to race Laguna Seca (Button Willow and Thunderhill) – CA – doesn’t have to be calendar year, can be 12 months prior
• GT – last demographics related to RR specific membership the bulk of membership is southeast. Some west coast racers considering selling race bikes because of lack of racing.
• BL everybody knows we are vintage; nobody knows we are modern. Has to constantly raise awareness when at modern club events.
• GT – he was getting a tire worked on and guy was AFM – 25 AFM members that raced with us this weekend.
• BL – there are only so many vintage bikes – get more modern bikes in the classes we already have.
• KS – there’s a lot of modern RR organizations – do they have room for vintage/historic classes? Would it be possible to partner with other organizations so west coast guys have a place to ride?
• BL – good idea – AFM guys said numbers were down – maybe we could partner with them? Al, how many classes do we have? Al: 56
• KS – seems like a win-win – our mission statement to promote and preserve historic racing.

Steven Hipp – AFM has special classes within a 2-3 hour window.  Need to have 2-3 classes that we can get a good turnout.  Maybe a double wave?  He had planned to knock on doors to see about historic partnership.

• AK – we had originally intended to go to membership to help with finances, but didn’t want to do that until we stopped the boat from sinking (plugged holes)
• Steven – requesting financial support might get a positive response from the membership.
• GT – need members confidence before we ask for money.

Rob Baggaley – was unhappy when he found there were no 2023 west coast events to RR except for Laguna Seca.  Where do I go since AHRMA abandoned me – and the other racers on the West coast.  Maybe we should reach out to old membership, figure how do we get them back?  We have to give them events – PO’d that Ridge got canceled.  Need to see some resolution – what am I going to do on the West coast?  The way AHRMA is now it’s AHRMA east.  Lot of concentrated tracks that are easy to get to.  Get vintage involved in the other west coast groups.  It’s a bit convoluted.  If we are going to grow, we are going to accept more bikes in the paddock.

• MD – How many people do you know who will actually race vintage on the West coast?
• Bob – what if we offered them 5 races – reach out to ex-members and find out how we can get them committed to come back. We might charge a fee to get this going because we have to cover our costs to get it going.  We have disenfranchised a lot of people.
• GT – concurs with Bob
• AK – how do you address having races last year and nobody showing up?
• BL – we have the data going back a while – lost money on west coast for a long time. We got Willow Springs for free and lost money. Had sponsors at Miller and we lost money.  When we lost the sponsor and Miller increased the cost, we had to eliminate Miller. If there’s an event that we know we will lose money on, try to get an event sponsor – $20-$25k.
• Bob B. – want to see action plan – feel like got kicked in the teeth – There’s probably an organization in the northwest who would like to fill out their grids with vintage bikes as well. – more revenue, more participation, more AHRMA members.

Ellen Voermans – race Off-road.  Lots of people ask Ellen questions – why do we seem to be always in the hole.  Why does it seem to be more Road Race centric.  She didn’t race this weekend, she worked this weekend.  It bothers them that RR volunteers are getting paid to travel, getting paid to work.  Can you explain to me what I can explain to them what their membership is worth – where is the membership money going for off-road.

• GT – you have the ability to run for a national title
• Ellen – they can’t afford to travel.
• AK – one thing we have done this year with Lisi, Craig, Maggie and AK taking income from sponsorship / membership and allocating to specific disciplines – G&A expenses and allocating to the appropriate discipline. How much administrative support is required to run off-road.  If it costs more administratively to run off-road than we get in income it’s out of balance.
• Ellen – the money it takes to run Off-road – for national events do you compensate promoters?
• AN – I’m familiar with the program you run in the NW. The rest of the country has a different model.  Promoters run the gate, pay insurance, run the ambulance.  It’s a well balanced program.
• Kelly – national trials can get up to 80 people.
• AN race they had in Ohio – hotbed of MX. 100 VMX, 200 PVMX – a little unusual to have that double number.  If you race on Saturday you are there for the weekend, buy a PVMX and race on Sunday as well.
• Ellen – when I pay my money, how does it come back to me – what is the value for off-road? Off-roaders don’t understand how it comes back to the rider as a benefit.
• CA – misconception that membership pays for RR.
• AN gets the same questions – local club in TX race on modern track. For AHRMA you get a proper course setup, insurance coverage, ambulance (or 2) coverage.  I don’t race locally anymore because lack of safety.  There is a sponsorship program going on – getting into the Off-road side, hopefully more swag available to off-road members.
• AK – propose that Chairman assign a trustee to type up a list and share it with Ellen.
• GT – Ellen big volunteer and was an interim trustee
• Terry – had conversation with KCA Ops regarding potential sponsorships. Concerns are valid, and we are working on it.
• GT and AN form a task force – will work on that

Peter Essaff – Dedicated board, national series, Happy to have a place to race, I travel to do it, happy to be here.  Membership fee cover the magazine – 10 copies of the magazine in the mail.  These people to run the program.  It’s up to the racers to make it successful.  If you can’t travel across the Rockies.  We count on this group of people to keep this going.  I miss some of the old group – AHRMA family is important to me, I don’t want to see it fall apart.  6 laps isn’t enough – need to have a value for our $$ – good practice on Friday.  Normally don’t practice on Friday because of wear and tear.  Clubs all over the country that have tried to run vintage.  AHRMA has a great national organization.  We don’t have any other vintage organizations.

• DR – we need to provide a place for everyone to race their bikes but not everyone is going to be competitive for a National championship. Perfectly happy to bring G50 out with a place to run it.  Narrow number of classes increase venues.  If we get it to a manageable number of classes we can increase practice and race laps.
• AK – no free lunches.
• KS – one of the problems in OR – we have people who think just because the bike is old that it’s vintage. Don’t want modern motorcycles on a vintage track.  AHRMA exists to promote vintage and historic motorcycles.  We need to provide places for people to bring vintage motorcycles out to race.
• Have to re-up and refresh.
• KS – we can’t tell people that we don’t have room for historic bikes in favor of modern bikes.

Wes Poole – do we know the % of overhead vs. profit – Need the overhead per job to determine the profit.

• Maggie Shane – FINANCIAL TEAM has been working on allocations (G&A and otherwise) in 2023 and we have a good process now, which was presented to and agreed by our past and current treasurers.
  • Membership numbers
  • Overall income for 3 different disciplines
  • Event specific income
  • Indirect income
  • Costs
    • Membership card
    • Magazine
  • For this race, we get all the money for Off Road participarion. For a promoted events we get membership and $5 / head.
  • Road Race – we get the money but have the expenses.

Leona Dixon – there are changes that need to come down.  Some members are speaking by not showing up at our events – I feel we need some changes to encourage them to come back.  If changes are made some of the members would return.

• KS what changes need to be made?
• Leona – need to feel trustworthy – wages
• KS – 100% contractor
• BL – we look at that after every post race meeting. We aren’t down that many riders, and the amount of riders we are down won’t impact our income.  Them coming back won’t help us return to the level we were before.
• AK – she’s saying there are some staff that are being over-paid.
• GT – cultural problem. Contingent of our membership have left out of loss of confidence.

Ralph Wessell – members are upset and going to different organizations.  We need to make improvements, and make sure we present things properly.

Scott Stewart – Was here last year – thank the people – is worried about AHRMA’s future – called for a show of hands of members who have been a part of a club that has died.  (a number of attendees raised their hands).  He travels around the states and talks to a lot of people.  People are seriously worried – some of you they just don’t trust.  The official minutes from the last Laguna Seca Board meeting didn’t reflect what he said.  A member earned a national award that he was not given.  People are not happy – he’s seen them leave.  He’s not here to point fingers.  He hopes AHRMA has a master plan to turn this organization around.  Basically, everyone he talks to, they want to keep riding with AHRMA.  He doesn’t want to see this club end.

10:30 break – reconvened 10:50

Treasurer Financial Report

• CG – board presented with options – striving for sustainability
• Planning Process
• Schedule for next year -simple philosophy – similar number of events for 2024.
  • Looking at similar number of events for RR and OR –
  • Been in contact with tracks.
  • RFP – venue services with support options – talk to historically successful tracks as well as possible add-ons.
  • Anchor events – want to continue with those – Barber is a big benefit.
  • BL – had a conversation with Bridgestone – if no Laguna there may be no Bridgestone. Too early for gate #s – it’s been an interesting weekend; gate staff management were less than receptive to our managing the gate.  We made sure they collected money.  They didn’t like their gate staff being watched.  This got settled with higher level management.  They stopped selling tickets after a certain time on Sunday.  Track manager assured that their staff would be there and they disappeared.  They were fired by MotoAmerica last year.
  • AK – thinks we’ll have substantial gate money
  • BL – sure looked like a festival Saturday, GT concurred
  • KS – did you say it may be a different date? BL- it’s under discussion.
  • Big anchor tracks – Laguna, Barber, Henryetta – we’ll work to maintain Henryetta
  • CGBy coming down early for MotoAmerica, seeing what’s going on at the track and how exciting it is and how many people and to be here. If we can provide this for people coming from all over the country, we will continue to draw people in.  “What do I get for my membership”? An opportunity to race at iconic tracks.  Maintain our marquee status with big tracks and position ourselves to do better.
  • Worked with Gingerman and were able to create a win / win for the track and for AHRMA. This is a good example of partnership.
  • Should have 2024 RR schedule hopefully by Barber

Secretary Report
Membership Report

• Comments about membership – it has ebbed and flowed. We are down 408 members.  3%. Decline started in November of 2022.  We don’t want to lose any members – we want to build membership.  Have been hovering around 2900 for the last 3 months.
• Some of the solutions suggested today will add value.

Sponsorship – 2023: $140k – planning for growth in 2024

• Most sponsors renewed for 2023
• Craig is sponsoring Off Road Vintage MX Sportsman 125 expert class, as well as RR Next Gen SBK 2 class.
• KCA Ops – working aggressively on sponsorships (reviewing types of sponsors, events, title sponsors, class sponsors, hierarchy – gold, silver, bronze) Talking very seriously about options. Also responsible for promotions. We were on TV at this event.  AA – was entirely about RR – nothing Off-road.  KS – found two links about off-road behind paywalls.
• KS – a few weeks ago TT posted about his Bridgestone contingency – Off-road wanted to know where their contingency is.
• GT – I think we can do a better job promoting OR on the RR side.
• BL – Laguna side has been a sticking point for signage, directions, etc.
• KS had more spectators Saturday – midday on.
• AK – directed people to go to both off-road and RR
• LS – good to have Terry at that debrief.
• BL – should have had off-road representation at the media lunch
• AK – Bike show and swap meet also popular but were not mentioned

Dirt Track Race Director Report (GT speaking for Richard Brodock)

• RB asked GT to present in his absence
• Advocate for dirt track and hopeful that this division will continue
• Richard one-man band brings energy to the discipline
• Remember Daytona – good crowd – 97 entries
• Could argue that in terms of the spectatorship it was great
• Dick Mann made a name racing DT – part of our cornerstone.
• Recognize RB for his efforts.
• GT couldn’t make Lodi this year – 174 entries (4 separate race events ST and TT) – between gate, merchandise, and entries, income was $11k. Happy with the results – focused on getting the message out on Social Media.  (discussion regarding net vs. gross income)
• Looking to train more staff to help him run the program.
• We had intended to come back to Laguna Seca this year – popular event conflicted with ours.
• At combined events, DT is a fan favorite and RR paddock overnighters will roll over to DT as spectators – however people don’t tend to want to race on pavement, considered unsafe.
• 2023 Heartland – Were uncalculated expenses that probably would have made him not run. ($3k required track expense). RB would not have run there if he were aware of this extra expense.
• Lodi big risk/reward – if we network correctly get more volunteers reduce costs.
• Barber
  • KS – are we getting a pavement track at Barber? CG Yes. are we paying an increased fee to get it? CG No.  KS – What kind of participation can we expect – CG that’s a concern – we also are responsible for the cost of barriers.
  • CA if we can show them something that looks promising –
  • AK believes it’s going to bomb.
  • GT – can anybody verify offering the entries for free?
  • DR – Is there another “good” dirt track venue nearby that we can do this elsewhere? CA – not that he’s aware of – all tracks are too busy. DR would like to talk to Richard about finding something close by, red clay
  • KS – Anything that costs Barber time and money they are not interested.
  • Barber after losing part of off-road – How do we make it a festival again? So they came up with doing dirt track
  • KS offered to create an MX track (natural terrain) – will bring in more riders and spectators? Never heard back.
  • GT membership disappointed that there’s not more off-road at Barber.
• Getting back to Dirt Track – are the $$ Richard’s or AHRMA’s – there’s a disparity between what’s on our books and what Richard believes it should be.
  • There were expenses Richard felt he should have had during the planning process that came up later once we were committed to the events.
  • Always unforeseeable that can’t be accounted for in advance.
  • MD – local dirt track is coming back strong – what he grew up with.
  • AA – perfect opportunity for us to align and put a package together that we can go forward with.
  • KS – GT are you on the DT committee? No
    • Merit to adopting the off-road model and let promoters run the event.
    • Lodi – Every Saturday night from May – September. they run with AHRMA rules. The only way we can build Dirt Track is to get the word out.
    • Last year in Spokane, KS and AA talked to some guys who would love to do an event. Richard said he can’t get to it so he can’t do it.
    • Board needs to seriously consider directing the dirt track committee to make a plan to partner with regional clubs.
  • DR – The strongest dirt track club in the southeast Atlanta Motorcycle Club – need to change model and partner
  • GT talked to the promoter that had the conflicting event this weekend, there may be an opportunity to team up with that event in the future.
  • AK – step one – Dirt Track committee that mandates the plan rather than Richard mandating the plan. Influence how it’s structured.
  • AA – they are packing the house in Spokane.
  • CA – in addition to what Richard’s doing we need to have boots on the ground in the Northwest and in the Midwest.
  • AN – the track can run the race.
  • KS – we provide an avenue for our members to race and showcase their vintage bikes.
    • Need a regional coordinator for the different areas.
    • Passionate dirt track guy that can also do paperwork and maintain points
  • AK what about having an off-road coordinator sit on the dirt track committee.
  • DR – up to Carl and Craig to direct Richard’s.
  • AA – is willing to join the Dirt Track committee.
  • GT – Dirt Track can’t be solely self-promoted.
  • CA DT programs are flourishing across the country.
  • MOTION: DR motioned to set up 3 person ad hoc committee as long as the board deems it necessary to work with the DT director to set up regional dt events with regional coordinators in partnership with existing organizations. AK second – 9 yes 1 abstain (GT)
    • Al Anderberg
    • Greg Tomlinson
    • Richard Brodock
  • KS expect report back at the Barber meeting including planning for 2024 – big part of this is the ability to possibly work with AMA

Off-Road Race Director Report

• Successful events (all have been in black YTD)
• Happy with this weekend – both here and at Honda Hills
  • Honda Hills was a 1^st time event with new regional coordinator
  • Hugely successful
  • Looking at pre-entries
• Process improvements
  • Put the emergency response plan for 4 places in never-never land.
  • 1 location couldn’t keep to the plan but brought an emergency vehicle in
• Have had challenges
  • 2 events (one was the Ridge) – can’t support the way it needs to be done so they were canceled.
• Team improvements
  • Still meeting every two weeks, passing info back and forth – 9 regional coordinators and Terry.
  • Regional coordinators for GL region – brand new team – Honda Hills event.
  • SE region – meeting above and beyond the regional coordinator meeting – Bob Groves out of Tennessee and Henry Gregorich out of Georgia
  • Putting in time and effort and not submitting expense reports
  • GT is there a ranking of regions by strength of membership –
    • Terry did a “heat” map last year the average region has 300 members in it – Southeast has 850 members (combined OR and RR). Northwest has the strongest Vintage and Trials.  Northeast and Mid-Atlantic is Cross Country, South Central most balanced between Vintage and Post Vintage.
  • Challenges
    • Insurance has become a big issue in the Off-road side because most of our promoters (AMA) do AHRMA once a year or only do one event a year. Insurance charges $3200 to run one event. We either need to help them or find a way to cut costs – a lot of these events are one off.
      • AN – insurance and ambulances will drive us out of business.
      • AA – gives AHRMA value to be able to have these events.
      • LS – maybe have promoters partner to get insurance to cover multiple events.
      • AA – AHRMA’s bigger concern is having a relationship with a reputable/safe promoter
      • AK – Don’t see the little groups getting together because of the risk
      • KS – AHRMA mothership needs to provide the umbrella insurance for the smaller promoters.
      • LS – multiple pages of safety requirements for insurance. Same requirements for Trials as MX and CC.
      • Terry – we need to do something, or we’ll lose these events.
    • Racer sentiment
      • Angst amongst off-road is still there but has come down a long way
      • AA what about finding ways to generate more regional event support and in turn get more regional monies. Terry – is an important topic of discussion amongst regional coordinators. Talking with Ed Roman on off-road membership drive since that’s our biggest source of income.  Maybe change the format for the national championship so that you have several regional events required as well as national.
      • AN – need a level of consistency from region to region.
      • LS 10-15 years ago got a copy of the regional coordinator agreement – at each national event regional coordinator would get a $2 kickback to help grow the region. We need to give something to the off-road side for their marketing and awards and growing the region.
      • KS – member since ’94 – Terry is the best off-road director that we have had. Most involved, hardest working in his memory.
      • LS – Terry doesn’t submit an expense report.
      • GT – Terry is also unflappable

Road Race Director Report

• Long time AHRMA member (#424) road raced and raced off-road.
• Season kicked off at Roebling, CMP 5 weeks later. Successful
  • 400 entries per day
  • 1^st in the region to have a race – middle of February iffy – Roebling turned out well.
  • CMP – good attendance
  • Heartland – downsized a little bit – overall event successful – excellent gate money – helped the weekend.
  • Hastings – warmly welcomed us – new event. Rider attendance was light.  Need better promoting.
  • AK – never heard of Hastings – turned out to be a wide fast professional track. Need to promote it as a big fast track.
  • LS – do back-to-back races work? BL – we can’t do a lot of back to backs but they have been working in Michigan/Illinois.
  • MD – Hastings rolled out the red carpet – we need 2023 attendees to talk it up.
  • AK – Jiffy store down the street sells race fuel.
  • Alex McLean – possibly lost attendees because of the weather forecast.
• Need to make sure cash is in a good place –
  • Al gives Craig an account of the cash intake and the costs.
  • Travel expenses submitted.
  • Invoices submitted from contractors.
  • BL – Lot of support staff prefer cash (off the books). Could we just pay cash and keep a record of it.
  • Al forecasts the cost of travel. Makes sure to turn around travel expenses 2-7 days after the event.
  • MD – how quickly are checks turned around – CG says checks are turned around in 2-3 weeks.
  • Al – important to be consistent – makes the staff and members happy.
  • BL – could we not write them a check at the event?
  • CG – the process is clear and the staff has been informed.
  • AK – recommend that the checks be pre-drafted for per-diem.
  • CG – we don’t need to create an issue where there isn’t an issue. We have built a system that we should use.
  • MD – how many volunteers are you paying $100 / day? If they work 3 days, $300, couldn’t they be paid at the end of the weekend?
  • Al – on the whole no complaints from staff about late checks.
  • KS – prior to this year without the paperwork to back it up it creates more work on the accounting side and opening AHRMA up to the tax liability. If they are paid before the travel expenses are submitted, there’s no incentive to turn it in.
  • Al – process is working, and people are happy
• Race control, new person, does it a little different than we have in the past.
  • Race control/referee one job.
  • She has the track race control person is in the tower with her so communication is immediate.
  • Minimal issues at the races Barb has worked
  • Al is a stickler for correct information. Every time we publish a schedule there seems to be an error.  Tightening this effort up. Gaining confidence from members that the information is correct.
  • BL – why are we only doing one practice – Al, depends on the venue – if the track is hot at 8am we can have 2 practices, at 9, 1 practice. Starting racing earlier on Saturday in order to get all the races in.
  • Safety procedures
    • Change in starter.
    • Chalking grids
    • NJMP – one of the last races of the day – a racer went sideways off the start – nobody was next to him so it worked out well
    • Maintain a core staff – fit in volunteers when they come, and core staff trains them. Fitting in regional people – had some pure volunteers.
    • NJMP, we had two people who lived locally who volunteered
    • More staff volunteers – Mike & Leona have helped a lot.
  • Team improvements
    • Expense forecasts
    • 2023 learning – not all core staff can make the races.
    • The whole tech crew couldn’t make 2 races, so he was able to pull staff together and make it work.
    • GT – AFM good customer service etc. Can that model work as we move to other venues?  How was the cost effected relative to us?
    • Al – don’t have those numbers but the savings was substantial. If we can do that by using staffing from different organizations, we can realize additional savings.
    • AK – the concept of regional support is ages old. This is the first RR director who has done this since 2018.
    • Al is constantly reaching out to other organizations for staffing assistance – has a network of folks in other organizations.
    • No need for 6:30am staff meetings anymore, the staff knows their responsibilities.
    • AK – having done a lot of volunteering this weekend, and sitting in on chit-chat staff conversations he heard – “We wish management would run changes past staff before implementation” (unintentional consequences)
  • Thursday move-in (3-day event)
    • People used to move in in the morning – schedule is later in the day now so eliminating an extra day of travel
  • Racer input
    • Racers want to race.
    • Want good tracks.
    • No hassle low drama.
    • Racers are happy with improvements we are making.
    • New team is working together.
    • Gridding process is being accepted.
    • Gridding by laptimes – is under discussion.
    • None of the tracks have good PA systems (except Laguna) but most have FM frequency.
    • Complaints of practice sessions being too short – Barb lengthened.
    • NJMP 29 mechanicals and 6 crashes
    • Sidecars have to be towed with a tow-strap.
    • GT – Sidecars are a fan favorite – can we schedule them later in the day because of the pickup problem.
    • MD – people taking a long time on the cooldown lap.
    • 56 classes – we spend hours sorting the grids – Sharon Dray and Dan May have been helping – try to minimize back-to-backs.

DISCUSSION ITEMS

OLD BUSINESS

(Items brought up for discussion by the trustees at prior meeting)

NEW BUSINESS

• BYLAWS UPDATES:
  • Conflicting notice periods – 48 hours vs. 7 days –
    • LS Article 3 and 4 conflicting notice timeframes.
    • DR – article 3 annual special and regular meeting is 7 days they refer to 2 different things – need changes to make it absolutely clear what they apply to and what they don’t apply to so there’s no ambiguity.
    • LS (see Article 3 meetings of the members, Article 4 special meetings)
    • KS historically we’ve had 3 annual meetings. Prior to video conferences, the only time we’ve had special meetings were via conference calls.  Need to consider our 3 annual meetings as regular meetings.  Special meetings can be called as needed.  We can call those with 48-hour notice.
    • MOTION: LS motioned to strike the word “Special” out of Article 3, Section 4 as part of the notice requirement for 7 days. Article 4 section 9, subsection c 2 b – add “any trustee may waive notice of any special meetings” and delete “regular”.  DR seconded. Yes – unanimous.
  • Corporate address change / update
    • Approved by e-vote.
  • Update amount that ED and Chairman can co-sign the value for (currently $50k). Need much higher limits as the BIG tracks have contracts between $100k-$150k. (Article 5, Section C)
    • Must have approval at Laguna Seca as we will need to pay today.
    • Change the verbiage to: “Approval of the executive committee and the Chairman of the board, the ED can sign the value equal to or less than $150k not to be usurped by multiple lower value checks.”
    • CA – We can pre-approve.
    • AK for perspective. Daytona withheld a certain amount and settled with us later.
    • MOTION: DR moved to change article 5 section 3 “with written approval of the executive committee and Chairman of the board the executive director shall be authorized to sign checks on behalf of the organization for amounts equal to or less than $100k only for the purpose of securing venues for AHRMA events.” AK seconded – unanimous yes.
  • LS – current economic climate what about open video conferences for future regular meetings
    • BL – put it on the agenda for Barber.
    • GT – already on this agenda
    • BL – that eliminates another closed meeting that members are unable to attend.
    • AK – lofty idea but not practical.
    • BL – we keep hearing about the lack of transparency, and this is not transparent.
    • CA we agreed to cover our own travel expenses – not saving the members a dime by going to video
    • GT – my business since covid is 75% still on video conferences – usual and customary to have meetings in that forum. In the current state of our business affairs – thought it might be a way to be more productive.
    • AN – more discussion on that topic
    • AK – we already have the latitude to have additional meetings by video conference.
    • KS – A lot of businesses have gone to strictly video conferences.
  • Rules & Eligibility Follow Up – Not addressed due to time constraints. Will be carried forward to Barber BoT meeting.
  • Special BoT Meeting (7/6/23) – Not addressed due to time constraints. Will be carried forward to Barber BoT meeting.
  • Follow Up Marketing / Branding Team & Effort: Accountability, actions, promotion, etc. – Not addressed due to time constraints. Will be carried forward to Barber BoT meeting.
    • Social Media
  • Appeals Process Language – E.D. submitted language for a process that will ensure EVERY member a chance to appeal if their membership or ability to compete is impacted by AHRMA management or the Board. This would include an appeal being heard by the board, after a form and $250 fee are submitted.  The Board decision is final.  This is being considered by the BoT and will be decided as an inclusion for the updated handbook.
  • Response Team Discussion
    • AK put together a team of 5 who could monitor and disarm / diffuse issues – recommend that be recreated.
    • Don’t need everything to be black and white.
  • AHRMA Policies & Procedures (CM) – Not addressed due to time constraints. Will be carried forward to Barber BoT meeting.
  • Restructuring of AHRMA Handbook – Off-road sections- Not addressed due to time constraints. Will be carried forward to Barber BoT meeting.
  • Membership pricing – RR Competition License, Lifetime Membership, new tiered fee structure starting in 2024- Not addressed due to time constraints. Will be carried forward to Barber BoT meeting.
  • Allocating income and expenses in our financial reports
    • AK – created a hybrid.
      • # entries, $$
      • If we are in the black but administrative expense are greater, we aren’t really in the black.
      • We need to see the whole picture – not just what happened at the track.
      • Gross profit vs. Net profit
      • LS – when will we see the allocation formula? AK ink isn’t dry yet. CG will send an example.
      • Membership 70% allocated to off-road, total income 20% for Off-road.
      • Easily identifiable profit centers like sponsorship are removed before the algorithm.
    • Proposal to separate Off Road, Dirt Track and Road Race into independent operating divisions within AHRMA.
      • KS – form a committee (KS, Ed Roman, Daniel May) to make a proposal at the Barber meeting to set up disciplines in 3 independently operating divisions within AHRMA. Look at ways to ensure income and expenses are allocated appropriately.  This could be adopted as a resolution to the Bylaws not requiring bylaws change.  2-tiered membership. Each division has a competition license fee – Off-road $50 (or something) per year.  Each division would have its own committee of volunteers.  It would have 2 membership coordinators, 1 ED.  Realistically we are looking at probably 2500 members.  If approved, it could be put into effect starting in 2024.
      • CA – would that require multiple memberships?
      • KS – you’d have to get a different competition license for each discipline.
      • AK – from my experience, this would be more looking into the viability rather than immediately implemented. Need to examine unintended consequences.
      • KS – yes we can do it, or no we can’t do it.
      • Dan May & Ed Roman have been doing a lot of data crunching.
      • DR – Devil is in the details – there’s a whole lot behind the basic concept.
      • CA – let the allocation formula have time to work before making such a change.
      • MOTION: KS motion – form a committee to study off-road, road race and dirt track as independent operations and cost centers within AHRMA. LS second. 9 yes, 1 no (AK)
      • AK – think we need to give the allocation algorithm a couple of months before we do. That.
      • DR – Go ahead and start looking.
      • GT – Kelly and I have talked about this the day Jim Korn resigned. This has been on going long before this motion was made. There may be another plan that may not be appropriate to share right now that may have similar ideation.  What I am saying is the demographic study that’s been going on and the financial review makes a lot of sense.  The allocation discussion today plays a big part in this.
      • KS – if we investigate it and the board votes against it, that’s fine. But there has been enough interest in this that it’s worth looking at it.
      • BL – my company has one name, underneath it has divisions (own operating budget and income). That’s all we are talking about looking at how to bracket the different income and expenses.
    • AAR support from Trustees
      • AK – tool. Gorilla marketing using social media through influencers – needs trustees to help in promoting AAR.
      • Local influencers – talk it up – show them the AHRMA website info.
      • Helpful to pitch in and promote – our chance to increase membership.
      • AK made a pitch at the rider’s school and ended up with two business cards of people who are willing to help out.
    • Marketing For Events- Not addressed due to time constraints. Will be carried forward to Barber BoT meeting.
    • Expense Oversight- Not addressed due to time constraints. Will be carried forward to Barber BoT meeting.
    • Continuation of July 6 expense cost cutting discussion
      • Much discussion about the future of the printed version of the AHRMA MAG, pros and cons, potential member reaction.
      • MOTION: DR motioned to stop printing the AHRMA MAG until Barber while negotiating with our printer. KS second 10 yes (unanimous).
    • Insurance Update – Not addressed due to time constraints. Will be carried forward to Barber BoT meeting.
    • Executive Director Vote of Confidence – Not addressed due to time constraints. Will be carried forward to Barber BoT meeting.
    • Loan Validation and execution – Not addressed due to time constraints. Will be carried forward to Barber BoT meeting.
    • Online vs. In Person Board Meetings and frequency of such – Addressed earlier at the end of the Bylaws discussion. 3 in-person meetings will stand.
    • Dirt Track Youth
      • KS need a quick discussion since we committed to doing it
      • AK – was careful / not outspoken about keeping the grownup vibe in the paddock – Arthur has softened on it. Risk is there but incremental – going from 18 to 16 he doesn’t see a problem with it.
      • KS – In off-road there is not a strong push to have anyone less than 16 other than in trials. Off-road doesn’t want to have anything to do with youth racing. No problem lowering the age from 18 to 16 but only on vintage/historic bikes – calculated risk.  Road race would be a different discussion.
      • AK double waiver program
      • BL – like the idea of keeping them on vintage/historic – and possibly limit the power displacement?
      • AK XR750 is a lot of metal.
      • KS do not want to start into youth racing.
      • AA is the chairman of the DT adhoc committee
      • CA – SDTA does youth classes only matter if they are AHRMA self-promoted events.
      • KS – Jay Springsteen was a senior in HS when he won his national championship
    • Code of Conduct
      • AK – individual found another member’s post with differing political positions – social postings escalated.
      • Took individuals aside and de-escalated.
      • In our bylaws – article 2 section 4 paragraph c – If you act up, the 12-person board is going to decide what to do. If you want to appeal it, you can come back and appeal it.
      • AK – recommends that we eliminate the code of conduct from the handbook entirely.
      • Response team first approach
      • DR – likes the response team idea – an advantage to having a somewhat flexible approach – need structure/ guidelines by which they can operate.
      • AK – when I did it, I wanted people with both feet on the ground. It was unofficial.  Basically, it was a tool to talk people off the ledge.
      • DR – suggests that we think about the concept of the response team and put it on the agenda for discussion sooner rather than later.
      • AK – getting the right people is the hard part.
      • BL – keeping the right people is just as important.
      • AK – as chairman if nobody was available Arthur would handle it.
      • KS – proposed code of conduct voted down. At the second meeting this is not passed, put section 4c in the handbook.  Use the response team.
      • AK – members aren’t aware of things we diffuse.
      • KS – add to this – it will work at times and other times it won’t depending on those involved.
      • GT – good customer service. Maybe the response team would be the best way to handle it.
      • BL – voted down the revision. What’s in the handbook stays in the handbook.
      • CG – at the end of the activity that took place last year, expectation would be at least a housekeeping item that would offer the same appeals process regardless of the violation. Need the members to have a defined process.  We have language now that there will be an appeals process that is the same.
      • BL – this was created by Luke Conner and Curt Comer
      • CA – if we can show that it was added to the handbook not by the appropriate process – might justify modifying it.
      • KS – we need to stick with the RCP and address it for 2025 – add response team.
      • DR has received some comments – they will be compiled and circulated to the board for review and possibly revising the verbiage. It’s a straight up or down vote on the verbiage that we have.  If the vote stands, we will have a less than optimal written code of conduct.
      • AK – do we have the authority to do what we think is the right thing to do? (rhetorical)
      • LS – did Mark Smithard write the code of conduct? DR It was a group – which included DR and Mark. Circulated to the board, more comments received, incorporated.
      • AN after the member comment period ends, we will be voting again, correct?
      • KS – up until 7 years ago, the board would routinely re-write rule proposals to craft them into what the board felt the proposer really wanted. Several years ago, we stopped doing that because there were too many rule proposals.
      • BL – we have tweaked verbiage in the past. We stopped fixing the rules that come in.
      • GT – isn’t this rule proposal submitted by the board? Don’t we have the authority to re-craft it? CA – In this case there may be some ability.
      • CA – What Arthur says about the bylaws is true – it outlines it well. Stripping the code of conduct from the handbook is not an option.  Best course of action is to re-word it to something that all the trustees can agree on.
      • DR – happy to incorporate.
      • BL – advise that we be minimalist about it or risk not involving the membership.
      • DR – there’s a reason to have structure – when you get me your comments in the next 3 weeks.
    • Tim Joyce Probation Recission Vote

AHRMA BoT E-Vote 3-6-23 Tim Joyce Suspension Recission
Trustee	Yes	No	Abstain	No Vote
Al Anderberg				X
Albert Newmann	X
Arthur Kowitz			X
Brian Larrabure	X
Carl Anderson	X
David Rutherford			X
Fred Guidi	X
Greg Tomlinson	X
Kelly Shane				X
Luke Sayer	X
Mike Dixon	X
Tim Terrell	X

• • • Line of Credit E-Vote results

AHRMA BoT E-Vote 5-16-23 LoC (Line of Credit)
Trustee	Yes	No
Al Anderberg	X
Albert Newmann	X
Arthur Kowitz		X
Brian Larrabure	X
Carl Anderson	X
David Rutherford	X
Fred Guidi	X
Greg Tomlinson		X
Kelly Shane	X
Luke Sayer	X
Mike Dixon	X
Tim Terrell		X

• • • Jesse Davis Suspension

AHRMA BoT E-Vote Jesse Davis Suspension
Trustee	Yes	No	Abstain
Al Anderberg	X
Albert Newmann	X
Arthur Kowitz	X
Brian Larrabure	X
Carl Anderson		X
David Rutherford	X
Fred Guidi			X
Greg Tomlinson		X
Kelly Shane	X
Luke Sayer	X
Mike Dixon		X
Tim Terrell		X

• • • Patrick McGraw membership revocation

AHRMA BoT E-Vote 6-12-23 Patrick McGraw Revoke/Refund
Trustee	Yes	No	Abstain
Al Anderberg	X
Albert Newmann	X
Arthur Kowitz	X
Brian Larrabure	X
Carl Anderson			X
David Rutherford	X
Fred Guidi	X
Greg Tomlinson			X
Kelly Shane	X
Luke Sayer	X
Mike Dixon	X
Tim Terrell		X

OPEN FORUM (15 minutes)
(General comment topics for the trustees not on the agenda)

FINAL COMMENTS FROM THE CHAIR

OPEN SESSION ADJOURNED

EXECUTIVE CLOSED SESSION