Category: Regional Executive Report

Thank you to all of you that made it to our last Cincinnati SCCA Board & Member Meeting last month! We had a great turnout and learned a lot about what our needs are as an organization to have a great monthly meeting.

As you may recall, for 2019 due to renovation maintenance going on this winter at our “usual meeting place” of the Mill Race Center and the rising costs of rental, we are trying out some new locations for our monthly stated meetings to work around dates that we will still have at Mill Race.

I’m very excited to announce that our February Board & Member Meeting on February 19th at 7pm will be at MAC’S PIZZA PUB (UPSTAIRS ROOM)-WOOSTER PIKE LOCATION. The address is 6309 Wooster Pike, Cincinnati, OH 45227. They have a great room UPSTAIRS for us and plenty of parking behind the building and directly across the street. We will have complimentary soda and snacks and there will be a cash bar available as well. Look forward to seeing everyone at our next meeting at MAC’S on 2/19/19 as we talk about the upcoming Division Spring Training meeting and our rapidly approaching 2019 season! 

See you soon!

Tony Brown

Cincinnati Region R.E.  

Happy Holidays! The hours upon hours of planning, organizing, operating, competing and fellowship that was the 2018 Season for Cincinnati SCCA has come to a close with an exciting outlook for 2019! At our last General Meeting in November there were a few exciting developments to report.

First, let me introduce your 2019 Cincinnati Board of Directors:
Region Executive – Tony Brown
Assistant R.E. – Gordon Benson
Treasurer – Shari McCoy
Secretary – Scott Bitzer
Board Members at Large
– Jim Clark
– Christy Graham
– Tom Thomlinson
– Takuto Takagi
– Brian Walker
– Glenn Thompson

Next up, Annual Awards Banquet! As previously mentioned our normal meeting place of Mill Race will be unavailable for Jan-Feb 2019 due to major HVAC work being done in the building. I am excited to announce our ANNUAL AWARDS BANQUET will be the evening of Saturday February 2nd, 2019 at Receptions-FAIRFIELD (located at 5975 Boymel Dr, Fairfield, OH 45014). Details on registration will be coming soon!

And finally, NEW SCHEDULE FOR 2019 MEETINGS!! After much discussion regarding our passed General Meetings and how to improve member participation, the board decided on some changes for 2019 including:
– ALL monthly General Meetings will continue on the 3rd Tuesday of the month but will start at 7pm
– The General Meeting will follow the agenda of the normal Board Meeting but will also include a time for “Open Discussion” where any Cincinati SCCA member can ask questions of the board or event chairs.
– LOCATION of MEETINGS. Due to the rising cost of rental and availability of the Mill Race Banquet Center, we will be reducing the quantity of monthly meetings at Mill Race and will have alternate locations during the “off months” from Mill Race. Below is our tentative 2019 General Meeting Schedule (all TBA locations will be confirmed and posted on our website cincyscca.com, our Facebook page and email blasts):
January 15th 2019 – TBA
February 19th 2019 – TBA
March 19th 2019 – Mill Race Banquet Center
April 16th 2019 – TBA
May 21st 2019 – Mill Race Banquet Center
June 18th 2019 – TBA
July 16th 2019 – Mill Race Banquet Center
August 20th 2019 – Mill Race Banquet Center
September 17th 2019 – TBA
October 15th 2019 – Mill Race Banquet Center
November 19th 2019 – Mill Race Banquet Center
December – No Meeting

Thank you to everyone that participated, volunteered and organized our events in 2018!
Have a safe holiday season and look forward to seeing everyone in 2019!

Cheers!
Tony

For being in the middle of winter, Cincinnati Region SCCA has been super busy! We kicked off our year with our first General Membership meeting for 2018 on 1/16, thank you for all that attended! A reminder that our General Membership Meetings are on the 3rd Tuesday of every month at 8pm at the Mill Race Banquet Center.

Immediately after that meeting, Scott Bitzer (RallyCross Chair & Board Member at Large), Tact Takagi (Webmaster & Board Member at Large) and I attended the 2018 SCCA National Convention. The convention this year was jam-packed with information filled sessions and meetings. The initial highlight was being introduced to our new SCCA President & CEO, Michael Cobb. Mr. Cobb gave an impassioned, hopeful, and thoughtful presentation during the Annual Meeting and the Leadership Kickoff Meeting on the current state of the SCCA. He presented his 2018 leadership focus for our club that “We are all here to serve our Members and those that serve the Member.” He gave goals to continue reaching for in our local regions to fulfill our core mission in that “We exist to fuel a safe, and exciting motorsports experience for auto enthusiasts.” Other sessions of note included more detail of the newest race worker specialty “Data Acquisition/Race Data Technician”. This specialty is responsible for collecting and analyzing data to provide the CRB and the Advisory Committees with valuable information to make decisions on car classifications and Balance of Power (BoP) adjustments. If you are interested in more information about this new worker specialty please contact me! During the R.E. meetings and panels we met with our recently re-elected Area Director Marcus Meredith. A big topic of discussion between the R.E.’s was the organization of Great Lakes Division and the upcoming Spring Training.in Findlay, OH on March 10th. During the Road Race meeting there was review of the Runoffs success in 2017 at Indianapolis and talk of the upcoming Runoffs at Sonoma Raceway. Rumor at the time for 2019 Runoffs was Virginia International Raceway (VIR was confirmed the week after we returned). There was also much discussion the following day regarding brainstorming of events that could possibly be done in connection with our existing Solo, Rally and Race events to increase participation, we’ll be talking about some of these at upcoming committee and membership meetings for feedback.

And finally on the last Saturday of January on the 27th we held our Annual Awards Banquet at the Mill Race Banquet Center. We easily had the best turnout for this event in many years and I want to thank everyone again who came out for this event! Many trophies and awards were handed out and there will be a full recap with photos on the website coming soon! And since I have this forum, I wanted to say a few words on being the latest recipient of The Joel Williams Award. Over the years I have had an incredible opportunity to work with & for a group of people that are passionate about competing & organizing motorsports events in our Cincinnati Region and at the Divisional and National level. The team effort to meet and rise above the challenges to move our club forward are sometimes astounding for a “little” not-for-profit organization. I am humbled and honored for the recognition this year. The future looks very promising for our Cincinnati Region and I can’t wait to see what comes next! I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for spring!
Thanks again and see you soon down the road,

Tony Brown, R.E.

*Photo courtesy of Jeff Loewe Photography

Seasons Greetings from Cincinnati Region SCCA!

It’s hard to believe the 2017 Season has already come to a close and 2018 is right around the corner! At our last General Membership meeting for 2017 on November 21st, we held our annual elections for the following years board of directors.

Your 2018 Board will be:
Region Executive – Tony Brown
Assistant R.E. – Gordon Benson
Treasurer – Shari McCoy
Secretary – TBD
Board Members at Large 2017-18:
Tact Takagi
Brian Walker
Scott Bitzer
Board Members at Large 2018-19:
Jim Clark
Christy Graham
Tom Tomlinson

Thank you to Jeff Loewe and Bill Stevens for your years of service on the Board, each wrapped up there terms as Board Members at Large this year and Jim Clark was re-elected to a new 2 year term. And a very special THANK YOU to our one and only Bryan Schafer who will be stepping back from his many years of service to the club as our Secretary, the to be determined successor will have HUGE shoes to fill, Thank you all!

Our 2018 Event Chairs will be:
Road Race Chair – Christy Graham
PDX Chair – Brian Walker
SOLO Chair – Kent Weaver
RallyCross Chair – Scott Bitzer
Rally Chair – Christy Graham

Also at the meeting the proposed changes to the Region By-Laws were ratified by majority vote and will be updated on our website very soon.
A reminder that we do not have a General Membership meeting in December, so our next meeting will be JANUARY 16th at 8PM at the Mill Race Banquet Center. Also mark your calendar for our Annual Awards Banquet on Saturday JANUARY 27th. More details and a link to register for the banquet will be coming very soon to reserve your spot!

Have a safe holiday season and if travel is in your plans, be safe on the roads! See you in 2018!

Thanks,
Tony

The 2017 Season has been flying by and you will see some great recaps from our event chairs, as well as a few announcements on events to tie up the year!

I have a few scheduling reminders and announcements to make. Our next General Membership Meeting on October 17th at 8PM at our normal meeting place (the Mill Race Banquet Center) will be our annual nominating meeting to create the ballot for our club ELECTIONS in November, if you are interested in serving your club, be sure to attend! Our November General Meeting and 2018 Board ELECTIONS will be on November 21st at 8PM. On this election night we will also be voting on the proposed updates to our Region By-Laws! We will have NO General Meeting in December and kick off the year with our first meeting in January on January 16th. And finally, MARK YOUR CALENDAR for JANUARY 27TH, we have confirmed the date for our annual Awards Banquet to be held that evening at the Mill Race Banquet Center, more details to come!! Enjoy the fall weather and see you soon!

The summer is flying by and we have some great events coming up on every weekend this month!

First, our 2017 Todd Cholmondeley IT SPEC*tacular & PDX is coming up this weekend August 4-6th at Mid-Ohio! Online registration has closed but if you are still interested in participating to either compete or volunteer over the weekend, please check out our website for details on late registration or contact our race chair Brian Walker ASAP (briax7@yahoo.com)!

Next we have our Fifth points event for the Autocross season on August 13th. Then on August 19th we partner with the City of Oxford and Miami University to host a Tire Rack Street Survival event in Oxford. And finally to wrap up the month we have both a Road Rally and RallyCross events on August 26th!

Also our August monthly membership meeting will be on August 15th at 8pm at the Mill Race Banquet Center (1515 W Sharon Road. 45240). EB Lunken is promising a multi-media presentation that no one will want to miss!

Thanks again to all of the volunteers that help make our events happen and THANK YOU for participating and keeping our club strong! See you at the track!
– Tony Brown, Cincinnati Region SCCA, R.E.