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APBA Stock Outboard Steering Committee
This Committee was established for introduction at the January 2007 National Meeting.
It was my idea. I approached Ed Hearn to create this committee for the purpose of developing a plan for the future of Stock Outboard and maintaining continuity from one commission to the next. Historically, as commissions change from year to year so does the concept of what the goals of the category should be. Because of this, progress is slow and never achieves the intended results. Ed agreed and created the committee and appointed me as the chairman. We then agreed that I would choose three people to serve and he would choose three. I chose Scott Reed, Dana Holt and Mike Johnson. Ed’s choices were Bob Trolian, Dave Schubert and Gary Romberg. These people were chosen based on their experience, locality, insight and credibility among the racing community. We also agreed that this committee should remain intact for five years and then be evaluated according to the needs of the category. We realized, of course, that as leadership changes, a chairman cannot be forced to maintain this committee.
The committee got together through many e-mails and conference calls to develop a philosophy and set of goals that we felt were important and achievable in preparation for the National Meeting. Of course, most of us had known each other for many years and had previously discussed informally, all of the recurring issues we’ve experienced in the past thirty or forty years at many different levels of participation. It didn’t take long for us to agree on some of the basic concepts that we believed made APBA Stock Outboard the most popular and most competitive racing category in the boat racing world.
Here is what we came up with for our introductory presentation at the 2007 meeting.
“Our purpose is to guide and advise the SORC through the process of making decisions that will shape the future of our sport and to make specific proposals and recommendations to accomplish these goals.
Many of us have been involved in the political side of APBA for many years, yet the problems we face now are the same problems we faced thirty years ago. Thirty years ago every active region in Stock Outboard could sustain its own race without having to draw participation from neighboring regions. Unfortunately, at that time we did not anticipate or prepare for a dramatic decline in membership. I truly believe that we can grow our sport, not only to that same level, but exceed the participation levels of our heyday. I believe that we should treat our sport a little more businesslike. Every successful business has a business plan. Most business plans are a five year plan to set goals and define the means by which they should be achieved.
GOALS
A. Create a philosophy for Stock Outboard.
Example: Should Stock Outboard have multiple motors per class controlled by parity committees or should the goal be to have only one motor per class? How many classes should we have? Should the J classes be back in S.O.? Basically, we need a class structure that makes sense.
B. Create a strategy for growth and promotion of S.O.
C. Get the SORC on track to becoming a pro-active decision making body rather than re-active.
D. Develop class standards. Not necessarily for elimination, but for evaluation of a class.
E. Lay out short term and long term class structures, and a system to transition from were we are to were we want to be.
F. Create a finite method for the phasing in and out of motors specific enough for the membership to prepare for their racing future.
G. Look into finding ways for struggling clubs and Regions to reduce the cost of hosting events. Local racing is the key to our growth.
H. Create a network of mentors to help new members and a way to funnel used equipment to a single source.
I. We also need to influence the APBA BoD to make some changes in the way we do certain things; I.e. the way we elect our commissioners has made it difficult to accomplish long term goals.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Plan for the future
Bring in new motors on a schedule
Ease older motors out over time
Make time for the transition
Focus on in-production motors
Place new motors appropriately
New in-production motors are promoted by the SORC
Make the race day easier
Fewer classes
Simpler inspection
Understandable program for spectators
Aid the growth of the Stock Outboard category
Show potential racers a stable class structure
Have readily available equipment with a known lifespan
Better learning opportunities for novice drivers
CLASS GOALS
ASH/ASR - Transition to the Sidewinder “A”
BSH/BSR - Transition to the 15 c.i. Sidewinder and 15 c.i. Hot Rod
Rename 15SSH/15SSR
20SSH / 25SSR - Transition to the Sidewinder 20 c.i. and 20 c.i. Hot Rod
Re name BSH/BSR
CSH/CSR - Continue use of the Yamato 302 & 102 until no longer viable
25SSH - Continue with the Mercury 25XS until no longer viable
DSH/DSR - Continue current goals of achieving parity with both motors until no longer viable
45SST - Continue with the OMC 45SS motor until no longer viable
By the end of the 2007 meeting we were encouraged by the support of most of the commission to proceed on our course. There was, of course, some opposition, skepticism and controversy as expected, but for the most part the response was positive. All totaled between the 2007, 2008 and 2009 National meetings the Steering Committee proposed nearly thirty rule changes and those commissions shot down about seventy percent of them, so you can see we do not make decisions, the elected commissioners do. Our job was to make a plan and offer recommendations for the commission to consider. Most of the time the criticism was we were trying to move too fast, in some cases that may have been true, in others though, moving fast was very important to achieve our goals. I’ll explain that in more detail later.
WHERE ARE WE NOW? (January 2009)
As we begin our third year we are happy to report that we are well on our way to accomplishing the most difficult aspect of our goals. Over the last two years we have defined a vision of what Stock Outboard will look like in years to come. This vision includes NEW motors available for every Stock Outboard class, and eventually achieving the goal of having only one motor per class; ensuring a level playing field, and therefore maintaining the highest degree of competition in the sport of boat racing.
The Stock Outboard Promotional Committee has been reinvigorated with projects beginning with Stock Outboard trailer stickers, and Stock Outboard banners for all Regions, to on-line promotional materials available to all of our member clubs.
The SORC has been focusing more on the future and addressing the challenges we face rather than merely reacting to what has already happened. We have been looking to the past, not to point fingers and throw blame, but to learn from our mistakes and most importantly, fix them. Probably our greatest achievement to date is that we can portray to new prospective boat racers that our future is well defined; so all of us can make wise decisions and good investments for a long term racing career.
There is still much to do. We have been discussing all the other goals we have laid out for ourselves and will continue working until we achieve them. We have numerous proposals to introduce this week, nothing that you haven’t heard before just following through with the program we began two years ago. We appreciate your support, we know that change is difficult, but I’m sure together we can make this all work out for the betterment of the sport.
This Committee was established for introduction at the January 2007 National Meeting.
It was my idea. I approached Ed Hearn to create this committee for the purpose of developing a plan for the future of Stock Outboard and maintaining continuity from one commission to the next. Historically, as commissions change from year to year so does the concept of what the goals of the category should be. Because of this, progress is slow and never achieves the intended results. Ed agreed and created the committee and appointed me as the chairman. We then agreed that I would choose three people to serve and he would choose three. I chose Scott Reed, Dana Holt and Mike Johnson. Ed’s choices were Bob Trolian, Dave Schubert and Gary Romberg. These people were chosen based on their experience, locality, insight and credibility among the racing community. We also agreed that this committee should remain intact for five years and then be evaluated according to the needs of the category. We realized, of course, that as leadership changes, a chairman cannot be forced to maintain this committee.
The committee got together through many e-mails and conference calls to develop a philosophy and set of goals that we felt were important and achievable in preparation for the National Meeting. Of course, most of us had known each other for many years and had previously discussed informally, all of the recurring issues we’ve experienced in the past thirty or forty years at many different levels of participation. It didn’t take long for us to agree on some of the basic concepts that we believed made APBA Stock Outboard the most popular and most competitive racing category in the boat racing world.
Here is what we came up with for our introductory presentation at the 2007 meeting.
“Our purpose is to guide and advise the SORC through the process of making decisions that will shape the future of our sport and to make specific proposals and recommendations to accomplish these goals.
Many of us have been involved in the political side of APBA for many years, yet the problems we face now are the same problems we faced thirty years ago. Thirty years ago every active region in Stock Outboard could sustain its own race without having to draw participation from neighboring regions. Unfortunately, at that time we did not anticipate or prepare for a dramatic decline in membership. I truly believe that we can grow our sport, not only to that same level, but exceed the participation levels of our heyday. I believe that we should treat our sport a little more businesslike. Every successful business has a business plan. Most business plans are a five year plan to set goals and define the means by which they should be achieved.
GOALS
A. Create a philosophy for Stock Outboard.
Example: Should Stock Outboard have multiple motors per class controlled by parity committees or should the goal be to have only one motor per class? How many classes should we have? Should the J classes be back in S.O.? Basically, we need a class structure that makes sense.
B. Create a strategy for growth and promotion of S.O.
C. Get the SORC on track to becoming a pro-active decision making body rather than re-active.
D. Develop class standards. Not necessarily for elimination, but for evaluation of a class.
E. Lay out short term and long term class structures, and a system to transition from were we are to were we want to be.
F. Create a finite method for the phasing in and out of motors specific enough for the membership to prepare for their racing future.
G. Look into finding ways for struggling clubs and Regions to reduce the cost of hosting events. Local racing is the key to our growth.
H. Create a network of mentors to help new members and a way to funnel used equipment to a single source.
I. We also need to influence the APBA BoD to make some changes in the way we do certain things; I.e. the way we elect our commissioners has made it difficult to accomplish long term goals.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Plan for the future
Bring in new motors on a schedule
Ease older motors out over time
Make time for the transition
Focus on in-production motors
Place new motors appropriately
New in-production motors are promoted by the SORC
Make the race day easier
Fewer classes
Simpler inspection
Understandable program for spectators
Aid the growth of the Stock Outboard category
Show potential racers a stable class structure
Have readily available equipment with a known lifespan
Better learning opportunities for novice drivers
CLASS GOALS
ASH/ASR - Transition to the Sidewinder “A”
BSH/BSR - Transition to the 15 c.i. Sidewinder and 15 c.i. Hot Rod
Rename 15SSH/15SSR
20SSH / 25SSR - Transition to the Sidewinder 20 c.i. and 20 c.i. Hot Rod
Re name BSH/BSR
CSH/CSR - Continue use of the Yamato 302 & 102 until no longer viable
25SSH - Continue with the Mercury 25XS until no longer viable
DSH/DSR - Continue current goals of achieving parity with both motors until no longer viable
45SST - Continue with the OMC 45SS motor until no longer viable
By the end of the 2007 meeting we were encouraged by the support of most of the commission to proceed on our course. There was, of course, some opposition, skepticism and controversy as expected, but for the most part the response was positive. All totaled between the 2007, 2008 and 2009 National meetings the Steering Committee proposed nearly thirty rule changes and those commissions shot down about seventy percent of them, so you can see we do not make decisions, the elected commissioners do. Our job was to make a plan and offer recommendations for the commission to consider. Most of the time the criticism was we were trying to move too fast, in some cases that may have been true, in others though, moving fast was very important to achieve our goals. I’ll explain that in more detail later.
WHERE ARE WE NOW? (January 2009)
As we begin our third year we are happy to report that we are well on our way to accomplishing the most difficult aspect of our goals. Over the last two years we have defined a vision of what Stock Outboard will look like in years to come. This vision includes NEW motors available for every Stock Outboard class, and eventually achieving the goal of having only one motor per class; ensuring a level playing field, and therefore maintaining the highest degree of competition in the sport of boat racing.
The Stock Outboard Promotional Committee has been reinvigorated with projects beginning with Stock Outboard trailer stickers, and Stock Outboard banners for all Regions, to on-line promotional materials available to all of our member clubs.
The SORC has been focusing more on the future and addressing the challenges we face rather than merely reacting to what has already happened. We have been looking to the past, not to point fingers and throw blame, but to learn from our mistakes and most importantly, fix them. Probably our greatest achievement to date is that we can portray to new prospective boat racers that our future is well defined; so all of us can make wise decisions and good investments for a long term racing career.
There is still much to do. We have been discussing all the other goals we have laid out for ourselves and will continue working until we achieve them. We have numerous proposals to introduce this week, nothing that you haven’t heard before just following through with the program we began two years ago. We appreciate your support, we know that change is difficult, but I’m sure together we can make this all work out for the betterment of the sport.
LOL!
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