APBA Winter Nationals Procedurally Wrong

[csh12M]

I was there....

I was there and Mr. Carter made his intentions very clear as was described. Ed Hearn then informed everyone that he was going before the BOD to seek an exemption. NO ONE voiced any oposition.

I don't know what commisioners you are talking with Fits, but their memory is not to good.

Well spoken post Pat!

Dean Sutherland

[DrRick34-0]

After reading all the posts here, I cannot hold out any longer. I am so excited to see this race take place. I have raced all three sanctioning organizations and have loved doing it. I love to race against new competition whether I get beat or win. This race has a great opportunity to bring people together who have not raced against each other. This is a first class race site and I am so exicited I am going to test this weekend even though the last three mornings were 32 degrees. Maybe we could shift the conversation from the political arena to who is going to kick whose butt. I can't wait to see my friends from Oklahoma have to race against the likes of Billy Allen, Scott Clark, Shannon Bowman, Dean Sutherland,Joe Pater, Gary Lewis, Kevin Ladd, etc. in the CSH. But I also cannot wait for my friends in DMH up North to have to hook up with Kevin McAFee, Vernon Barfield, and Bryan Tharp. If you guys don't know who these guys are, you better be doing your homework. They got some stuff that is hauling a** and they can drive. The FEH battle is going to be awesome. I have watched the last 3 APBA Nationals in this class. AGain wait to you meet Ralph Cook and Vernon Barfield down on their home turf. Also all you BMH guys there is a father/son team that live in Alexandria/Pineville that have two 25 mod HYdros that are hauling and will have a major home field advantage. I am so excited to see these battles, and what can come from this race. So lets talk racing and minimize the politics. Thanks to those who have worked to make this happen.

Rick Miller
34-0

[Steve Warnock]

Guys,

If my memory serves correctly the SORC agreed/acknowledged the the waiving of the single event prior to Ed going to the Board, don't know about the Mods.

Warbs

[Kevin Martin]

pat and dean

thank god for fellows like yourselves, reasonable and well informed, you got the feeling from reading this whole thing there was more to the story, and really the pot was just being stirred to be stirred. again and again yourselves as well as ed have answered the call, with "facts", not hearsay, and i for one am grateful, thanks guys. i'm sure more opposition will come, but now i know where the facts are. kevin

[Dr. Thunder]

What's really positive about all of this is that is shows that the system seems to be working, that the new Bylaws are being followed and, for the most part good decisions are being made in the best interest of the membership. Moreover, we're seeing a whole lot more participation, more people paying attention and increased dialogue by the membership. That has to be a clear sign of the emergence of a much healthier APBA!

[Kevin Martin]

voodoo???

i can't tell you how many times it's been metnioned to me over the past two years just how awful, and harmful "hydroracer" is to us. after the past two days i have to tell you it's backed up every defense i've put forward to defend this venue. no one here went off the deep end, no mudslinging for the most part,(some mis-guided information), but really as mentioned above some good ole fashioned debating, and information gathering. i for one have thoroughly enjoyed watching this develope, and have been enlightened at the same time. well put words neal. kevin

[mercguy]

who's gonna kick butt????

After reading all the posts here, I cannot hold out any longer. I am so excited to see this race take place. I have raced all three sanctioning organizations and have loved doing it. I love to race against new competition whether I get beat or win. This race has a great opportunity to bring people together who have not raced against each other. This is a first class race site and I am so exicited I am going to test this weekend even though the last three mornings were 32 degrees. Maybe we could shift the conversation from the political arena to who is going to kick whose butt. I can't wait to see my friends from Oklahoma have to race against the likes of Billy Allen, Scott Clark, Shannon Bowman, Dean Sutherland,Joe Pater, Gary Lewis, Kevin Ladd, etc. in the CSH. But I also cannot wait for my friends in DMH up North to have to hook up with Kevin McAFee, Vernon Barfield, and Bryan Tharp. If you guys don't know who these guys are, you better be doing your homework. They got some stuff that is hauling a** and they can drive. The FEH battle is going to be awesome. I have watched the last 3 APBA Nationals in this class. AGain wait to you meet Ralph Cook and Vernon Barfield down on their home turf. Also all you BMH guys there is a father/son team that live in Alexandria/Pineville that have two 25 mod HYdros that are hauling and will have a major home field advantage. I am so excited to see these battles, and what can come from this race. So lets talk racing and minimize the politics. Thanks to those who have worked to make this happen.

Rick Miller
34-0

hey Rick, I hope you are testing with another boat in front of you, hosing you down...........LOL! I should be getting my new Dawe CSH and Dudley Malone's new Dawe CSH next week to start painting.

[Jim]

Our commissioners that we elect at our respective region meetings elect our catagory chair. I would think each region elects someone that they have confidence in to help run the catagory. This group of commissioners elect a catagory chair that they feel will have APBA and their catagories best interest in mind. In doing this, at times things are going to come up where the catagory chair is going to have to make a decision on.

IMHO even if this had gone to the commission it would have been voted in overwhelmingly to allow. SO WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL? It's not Like Ed is trying to give his B runabout an advantage over his competition. He's (deep breath) PROMOTING BOATRACING!

Ed Hearn did what he was elected to do (promote outboard racing) and followed proper procedures (he went to the board). It is in the minutes, so we were all notified.

If others along with these two do not think or what to allow thesetypes of decisions you should do what Ed suggest you do. Put a group together and undo it. Or better yet, run for office. We need to stop the nitpicking to move forward with this sport.

[ryan_4z]

The way I read this, it means everyone has to join as a Single-Event member of APBA, is this correct Ed?

This is the way the minutes that Pat posted read to me, am I correct in assuming now that everyone will have to join as weekend members? Also, if a non-APBA member wins a championship, are they going to be allowed to then join APBA and be recognized as the champion, and recieve the benefits(double national points, HOC points)? Because this should not happen, I just want to make sure that we are clear on this beforehand.

One more thing, should we pursue discounting memberhships for members of other organizations? This seems like a surfire way to increase membership, and hopefully draw new people to more of our races than just this one, maybe increase the boat count at Wakefield next year.

[Xracer]

This is the way the minutes that Pat posted read to me, am I correct in assuming now that everyone will have to join as weekend members? Also, if a non-APBA member wins a championship, are they going to be allowed to then join APBA and be recognized as the champion, and recieve the benefits(double national points, HOC points)? Because this should not happen, I just want to make sure that we are clear on this beforehand.

The following nicely crafted communication from Ed Hearn on behalf of the APBA to the NBRA leadership may answer some of your questions:

EDWARD W. HEARN
Stock Outboard Chairman,
American Power Boat Association


October 21, 2005

(VIA FAX NO.: 405-917-2234- 2 pages)

Mr. Dan Crummitt
President, NBRA (Guest Arriving 10/21/05)
c/o Biltmore Hotel Oklahoma
401 S Meridian Ave
Oklahoma City, OK 73102

Re: APBA Stock, Mod and J Winternationals
March 24, 25 and 26, 2006
Pineville, Louisiana

Dear Mr. Crummitt:

Please allow this correspondence to serve as our invitation to the NBRA and all NBRA members to attend the upcoming APBA Stock, Mod and J Winternationals currently scheduled to take place in Pineville, Louisiana, on March 24-26, 2006. This three-day event will serve as the APBA’s Winternationals, which, as you may know, is extremely important in the APBA for consideration in induction into the APBA Hall of Champions. As such, we anticipate that this event will have a very large participation from APBA drivers. Last year the event garnered over 200 APBA entries.

As part of this invitation, the Winternationals will be open for participation by any NBRA or AOF member displaying a valid 2006 membership card for membership in those organizations without the necessity of joining APBA as a full member. Thus, your members will be able participate at this event by paying the $35 per class entry fee that all APBA members will be expected to pay in order to participate. Your members will also be able to place and receive awards for their participation.

Additionally, we would like to extend to the NBRA the same offer we have made to the AOF regarding allowing this race to serve as points race for your Association. We will endeavor to “match-up” all NBRA classes with a similar APBA class so as to allow the NBRA to receive the results of the racing and award NBRA points to your members based upon their participation. If this part of the invitation is of interest to the NBRA, we would like the NBRA to supply an NBRA scoring representative to be available to work with the APBA scorer at the race to receive race results and coordinate the awarding of NBRA points. This part of the invitation is NOT a condition of allowing your members to participate at the race without joining APBA as a full member.

Additionally, AOF has chosen to joint the APBA as a member club and will be listed as a co-sponsor of the race along with the Central Louisiana Outboard Association which is the primary conducting club. We would extend the same invitation to the NBRA although this also is not a condition of the invitation.

You should know that we have received support from some of your members who also are APBA members to serve on the race committee for this event. We also intend to utilize some joint AOF/APBA members to serve as well in order to assure that the race committee is diverse. I am aware of some of the class differences between the NBRA and the APBA and I am very hopeful that the Stock and Mod Racing Commissions of the APBA will be able to resolve the major differences at our Annual Meeting in January so as to allow all of your members to participate at this event.

We are hopeful that this event will serve as a basis to “bridge the divide” between all three of our organizations and provide all of our members a place to compete in a high participation, high competition boat race which is truly national in nature.

I look forward to working with you with regard to this matter. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,


Edward W. Hearn
SO, Chairman, APBA
__________________

[sponsonhead]

This is the way the minutes that Pat posted read to me, am I correct in assuming now that everyone will have to join as weekend members? Also, if a non-APBA member wins a championship, are they going to be allowed to then join APBA and be recognized as the champion, and recieve the benefits(double national points, HOC points)? Because this should not happen, I just want to make sure that we are clear on this beforehand.

One more thing, should we pursue discounting memberhships for members of other organizations? This seems like a surfire way to increase membership, and hopefully draw new people to more of our races than just this one, maybe increase the boat count at Wakefield next year.

I didn't get that impression out of the minutes excerpt, Ryan.

Take a look at the first sentence again:

Ed Hearn requested a waiver for the Single Event members at the (pending) 2006 Stock Outboard Winter National Championships.

The motion appears to be only concerning itself with Single Event members, rather than regular APBA Racing Members. I don't see anything in that that indicates we would all have to buy single event memberships.

I agree, a discount for members crossing over from other orgs is a great idea. When we have run at NBRA events, they offered us a discount which we gladly took. I still feel regardless of the way this was handled, the end result is a positive step toward promoting kneeldown outboard racing and trying to get better cooperation between organizations. It doesn't seem very long ago that people were being threatened to be thrown out of APBA for participating in non-APBA racing, which wouldn't help anyone or any organization. It's encouraging to see a sign that the tide may be turning.

Like one of my old email sigs used to read, "It's all boat racing---it's all good."

R-19

[RuthieRae]

In addition to being able to join APBA if you do win, what happens to those who have already joined. If we botch the start, jump, oh say.....cut someone off (never happens right?).....can we throw this race out like it never happened? I have to agree with Ryan that there is more involved with winter nat's than just a reunion of sorts. You have to consider the effects if something like this happens. Those who are not APBA members will have the benefit of either joining (Post championship win which is never been accepted in APBA, it is full member before hand correct?) and accepting the points, HOC points, and the title. I think that if exceptions are going to be made, they need to be made as a whole, not just for other clubs who want to participate. After all, they are there to race for a title, not a back yard deal where no one really has an issue or concern so maybe they should not be allowed the title if they aren't full members.

Kind of like divisionals, if you race outside of your division, and win, there is no divisional winner right......?

Also, APBA could stand to loose out on cash because of the exception of giving titles away to non members, if Iwas fast and not a member, I would upgrade "just in case".

[Xracer]

The Bylaws are pretty clear on the Single-Event Member subject at Section 4.6. it reads in part ..."There shall be no other privileges of membership for a single-event membership...". To me that suggest no points, no championship related status (if you win) etc. You simply get the opportunity to race your boat and take home a trophy or whatever.

The waiver approved by the BOD simply makes it permissable for a Single-Event member to participate in a national championship event.

I'm not sure I understand how you could apply for a full APBA membership after the event was held and have your race performance be retroactive so as to secure points etc. Maybe I'm missing something.

[fitsracing]

I was there and Mr. Carter made his intentions very clear as was described. Ed Hearn then informed everyone that he was going before the BOD to seek an exemption. NO ONE voiced any oposition.

I don't know what commisioners you are talking with Fits, but their memory is not to good.

Well spoken post Pat!

Dean Sutherland

This also is a response to Steve Warnock who was a commissioner in attendence supported by the role call in the minutes. CSH12M was there to put on demonstration for Hot Rod per the minutes.

Regarding the rules and notification. When I was a commission (duration 5 years) any thing that could effect or change a rule, first had a motion, then a second, than discussion and then commission vote.

From what is indicated by the stock minutes this did not occur. There are many topics where motions were made and votes occurred. Some significant some not so significant.

Why I ask is that something as significant as a rule wavier concerning membership status and the possible impact on HOC and high points was not given the same consideration and evidenced in the minutes.

[ryan_4z]

The motion appears to be only concerning itself with Single Event members, rather than regular APBA Racing Members. I don't see anything in that that indicates we would all have to buy single event memberships.

What I meant was: Are AOF and NBRA members going to have to buy Single Event Memberships to participate? The way this was presented to us is that AOF and NBRA cards will be accepted. The way the minutes read is that Single Event Members of APBA can participate. This changes the whole scenario with which we are dealing. Now everyone is an APBA member, even if only for one weekend. This means that any Single Event Member can participate, wether they are AOF or NBRA members or not.