APBA - BOD write - in

[csh-2z]

Attention APBA members,

I am looking for support as a write-in candidate for the APBA Board of Directors. As many of you are aware, I've been a member of APBA since 1966 and an active member of the SORC. I first served in the SORC in the early 80's (four terms) representing Region 3 and have more recently represented Region 4 numerous times over the past 20 years and recently accepted another nomination to represent Region 4 in 2016.

I believe the BOD needs an influx of youth and enthusiasm to grow APBA in the future. APBA has been on the decline for the past 25 years and is in serious need of new leadership. Some members of the recent BOD's have been there as long as I can remember. Times have changed and this organization has not kept up. The use of social media and motorsports marketing can make a big difference to the future of the sport.

I'm asking you all to spread the word through social media at boat races and in person that I would appreciate the write-in support. And most importantly, vote for Jesse Swain and Kyle Bahl. Please don't vote for our competition for these few available positions.

Ballots must be postmarked by September 14, 2015. Please support Stock Outboard candidates Jesse, Kyle & myself.


Thank you,

John Runne

[daveracerdsh]

I think you would do a fine job John....Jeff Brewster is also running.

[bill hoctor]

JOHN RUNNE...IS THE MAN !!!

[csh-2z]

I believe Jeff is running for Council-member at large

[csh-2z]

Dave says.....So John tell us how you are going to change things.


In answer to your question. I plan to continue my goal of helping APBA operate in a more professional businesslike fashion by pursuing a motorsports marketing agent to help us grow this sport. I have already made contact with a few firms interested in possibly working with APBA, and one in particular grew up in the Dayton, Ohio area during the 70's - the mid 80's and is very familiar with APBA and our many categories. I passed the contact information on in early July but have not yet received any update. I also believe we should have a greater presence on some of the social media opportunities that we are currently not participating in. We have a great many resources (young people) that we are not taking advantage of.
I also believe that with the support of the organization, there should be a Stock Outboard presence, either through displays, on the water demonstrations or even a time filler, at other category events. They could be of great benefit to all of APBA. When people (spectators) go to an Inboard or OPC event, for example, The spectators are only aware of the product in front of them. With a Stock Outboard presence we would be offering a more affordable opportunity to get involved in boat racing. APBA is fortunate to have a wide variety of options for the potential new boat racer. Many of the drivers in the other categories began in Stock Outboard, so this is where, I believe, our focus for growth should be.
We also must concentrate our efforts to Struggling Regions around the country. Many clubs cannot afford to risk a dwindling club treasury on new race sites or races that may not draw enough entries to break even. If we are to remain a national organization, we must find a way to encourage local racing. Without local racing events, we will not be able to grow. No races = no racers.

That is a brief summation of the direction I think APBA should go in order to grow.

John Runne

[1hshawwpba]

Don't waste votes on write ins all they do is split the vote and nobody wins, this idea noted my Mr. Rune is the exact type of thinking that got APBA into the Crown Project that cost all of us a lot of $$ and no return ROI! Motor boat marketing groups will take our $$ and at the end of the day, no growth will be realized and new memberships (if any) can be counted on one hand!
Money and effort is best spent doing "take a ride" programs all regions should organize at least 1 take a ride program event a year and start at the grass root level to build interest and have equipment there for interested people to run/buy and go racing for a reasonable fee or loan program. There are success stories out there no need to reinvent the wheel to figure this out how to do it! WE NEED BUISNESS PEOPLE ON THE BOARD NOT BOAT RACERS that project ideas and have no business model to show projected growth and where funds will come to pay for programs.

[DeanFHobart]

John,

You da man............. You have my vote.

[Ram4x4]

John,

As a newbie, one thing I think that should be looked at is the Racer School. The family and I will be on the course next season with our own boat all because of two things: Local display at the mall by TRORA and racer school. For $50 the chance to learn and actually get to drive was the clincher for us.

I know the clubs are running racer schools now where they can and MHRA has a pretty nice set up with their trailer several boats, gear, etc.

Would APBA consider involvement through either monetary means, equipment, etc?

[csh-2z]

1st Welcome to the family. Racer schools are an excellent way to get new prospects into boats and nobody does it better than TRORA, although I hear SOA is working hard as well. APBA is definately on board with the program. If I'm not mistaken, APBA does help subsidize driver schools through a $250. reduction in sanction expenses for any club. In many areas of the country races are few and far between and because of that, the sport is difficult to convince anybody that what we do is a worthwhile endeavor. In some Regions doing a driver school will not help yet, if there are only one or two races within 250-300 miles. So growing the sport is much more difficult in some places.

Thanks for the input

John Runne

[csh-2z]

John,

You da man............. You have my vote.

Thanks Dean. Good to hear from you, hope all is well. Pass the word on for me at your next race.

[DeanFHobart]

Thanks Dean. Good to hear from you, hope all is well. Pass the word on for me at your next race.

Will Do................................

[csh-2z]

Reminder. Your ballot must be post dated no later than 9/14/15..........12 days left, please vote

[csh-2z]

11 days...................Vote or stop complaining!

[53-W]

The big problem is are insurance’s view of what is safe and lack of APBA to stick up for kneel down classes and failure to make realistic course rules for what we really race on.
All of are local race sites are “not compliant” by the insurance company. As kneel downs we try to find the small body of water and we fit a race course in.
For 2 reasons, one is it is all that we can find and get to use, for us mostly river courses, 2nd, The smaller the body of water is the less likely it is to be blow out and easier to control boat traffic on.

Having to put up a mile of snow fence, kicking kids off of play ground equipment in a public park is wrong!!!

APBA needs to step in and separate us from the bigger classes and get us realistic course rules for us to be able to keep on racing

Darrel

[csh-2z]

Absolutely Darrel, I can understand the ins. co. issues with some of the bigger faster boats, but I'll bet if they analyze the types of incidents attributed to Stock and Mod for the most part, what their asking us to do is unreasonable and unnecessary.

[Howie Nichols]

I asked the question last night during our monthly Board of Directors think tank meeting about Insurance and separating out the Categories into different policies in hopes that we could get a break in cost. It was explained that the way it is working is that we go to a company or agent and that is SIG, they then act as our agent and take our request to the actual Insurance company (at this time Everest). Our rates are often determined by loss ratio as well as other factors.

So what they do is package the organization together (with a few exceptions) and offer it to the Insurance company to get the best rates. It has been done like this for a very long time. To explain it differently - If you were to go into a hardware store and look at buying say (10) 1/4-20 bolts the cost is $0.25 each or $2.50 total then you look in the next bin over and can buy a contractors pack of 25 at a cost of $5.00. So in the example you are now getting 5 free bolts.

This is how Insurance works for pricing, both APBA and the agents work together to then determine the cost that each category should have which is why the outboard category has a lower fee, our loss ratio and liability is typically (but not always) less than say the OPC category.

APBA is in the process of renewing the Insurance for the next year and has very competent APBA members working on that team to try and get the best they can for us. Once the renewal process is complete perhaps (unknown time frame) we can ASK if its possible to loosen some of the restrictions (in this case) for outboard only events, my feeling is and based on everything being discussed and that has transpired that for at a minimum the requirements will remain the same as they were for the current year. Remember these guidelines are in place to protect all of us, from the drivers, to the officials, to our family and crew members, and if we happen to get spectators then them as well.

Hopefully this helps to understand what happens, I do not have all the answers but as a BoD member, official, crew, and driver I can certainly help to try and find out any other information that is available.

[bill hoctor]

EXCELLENT POST , HOWIE !

[csh-2z]

Thanks Howie. Missed you guys at Lock Haven.............6 days left to get your ballots in the mail. Postdate no later than the 14th.


Write-in John Runne.............or else !?