APBA - BOD write - in

[csh-2z]

5 days to get those ballots in the mail........DON"T FORGET!

[daveracerdsh]

John: Just a few random thoughts....things that will never happen the way APBA is set up. Just looking at the outboard side of things....we have around 350 racing members in stock....200 or so in Mod, maybe the same in Pro. I could look the numbers up.....but I think I am pretty close. And a lot of those numbers are people that cross over from stock to mod etc. All being said, I would bet that we have less then 1000 active outboard racers in the entire country...and yet we have three seperate divisions, with way to many commissioners for each catagory....I think last year we had 14 or so stock commissioners....10 or so mod, around the same in pro. Really? If I was the APBA god so to speak...one person in charge...sorta like Nascar...I would combine the catagories, appoint 2 commissioners for the west coast, 2 for the midwest, and 2 for the east coast.......Of course this will never happen the way things are now.....but I have been involved with another racing series (ski racing) and we just drowned under the weight of to many chiefs and not enough indians.

[csh-2z]

My instant reaction is you're right, it seems absurd to do things as we are. But then I think, "What if we grow?" There is a difference in the mentality and goals of each category. Stockers like to compete apples vs. apples, man-up. Mod guys prefer more variables like to tinker with their motors, pipes & 4 blade props for performance. PRO's want fewer restrictions to experiment with technology.
We only race together because we have not focused our attention on professionally marketing our sport for growth, only survival. I am an eternal optimist, I believe we can and will turn this thing around, we have the technology and the know how, we just need to take a more businesslike approach. When we do start growing again and we reach the level where the categories can support themselves we will appreciate the fact that we are governing to our specific niche. Separate commissions, separate mentalities, separate goals, separate market targets. Each category must take advantage of their strengths and uniqueness. If we blend together we will blur our picture.

Think positive, everybody that sees our sport thinks what we do is awesome. They're right!

Plan for success.

[csh-2z]

FYI.

At Lock Haven this past weekend, I was asked by some, if they could still write-in my name even though their official ballot had already been sent in. I replied that I didn't know but you can always try. It may be acceptable as an addendum to your original ballot with your name, membership # and signature. But only for a write-in (by definition).It would have to be sent to the company that is counting the votes, but I don't know the address as I had sent mine in last week.

Must be postmarked by Monday the 14th and the word "Ballot" written on the envelope.



John Runne

[daveracerdsh]

John....the issue as I see it is that apba is essentially being run by unpaid volunteers.....we really don't have a paid professional up front making business decisions for us.....and we have 4 seperate catagories in outboard racing....stock, mod, pro and J.....and we do not communicate during the annual meeting as to direction of racing, rule changes...you name it. We find out AFTER annual meeting is over what the different catagories have done....there is no way we can continue along this path if we are going to grow...and possibly attract sponsorship. Yes, I understand that mod and stock and pro all have seperate interests, with each cataogory appealing to a certain group of people....yet we seem to work against each other more often then not. A perfect example is the mod catagory not allowing the Tohatsu into D mod....that one simple little rule is killing D stock and D mod on the West coast...people are both not buying equipment in both classes...and if they HAVE the equipment some are looking to sell it and move into other classes...I am actually one of those racers.. At this point in time I can only run my D stock rig in one class all weekend...not good. But...that is just a very small sample of what ails APBA....we need to make drastic changes...and now to survive. And I am gonna bet this will not happen with the way things are set up. Just my 3 cents worth.

[csh-2z]

Dave, There is a great deal of discussion between Stock, Mod & J about issues that we share. We discuss these issues year round, at races, divisional & national events and certainly at the national meeting. I see the problem being that very few of us do what we say we are going to do and there is no accountability..........What were the primary goals of Stock Outboard for racing season 2015?.......... What issues were we going to collectively going to address?.........How about the other categories? One of the big goals of S.O. was to participate at all of the H-1 events. Another was to support and facilitate the 302SSH class in region 1. A third example was to find a marketing agent willing and able to promote all of APBA, I have found someone that is in the motorsports marketing business that is actually familiar with APBA. Check, check & check! We are making progress in Stock Outboard. Now we have to get the BOD on board with the project in order to move on. APBA operates reactively, That needs to change. The first step to success in any thing you do is to make a PLAN!
We have no plan. We don't even plan to make a plan, it's not on the agenda! With the communication technology as it is, we have no excuse for this. We can contact each other with the push of a button. Yet we don't.

That's all for now. I type too slowly and have things to do.

Reminder for all...........VOTE, postmarked by the 14th (Monday)

John Runne

[John Schubert]

I know that John would be perfect for the BOD but there is an APBA issue across all categories that needs to be addressed. Too many classes with boat counts fewer then 5. Make the hard call to eliminate these classes, whether stock mod or pro. I have been around racing from 1953 still here & now refereeing for USTS pro. Low boat counts make for boring races. As John stated if a resurrection can occur perhaps so can APBA racing. John just might able to engineer the resurrection, if at all possible.

[csh-2z]

Thanks John,

I appreciate the support. I've considered both sides of the discussion about the removal of classes. 10 years ago I campaigned for the reduction of classes, more recently I've changed my position based on a compromise. Stock Outboard for example (my primary category), has: A,B,C,D, 25 runabout and hydro + 20SSH & 302SSH, 12 classes. Some of these classes are popular in all active Regions. Currently ASH - ASR, CSH - CSR & 20SSH are the nucleus of the category. The remainder of the classes are needed to fill in the remaining schedule at local events in order to offset the costs. Due to the fact that we have currently produced motors for all these classes, they are very promotable and in many cases growing.We may never again see all classes scheduled / raced at all events nationwide. And on some level that is fine because when we add in the J category and a couple of Mod classes we have a very full schedule, in some cases too many.

Local race committees have the authority and need, to control the number of classes on their schedule for their own benefit. And that can hurt some feelings.

We raced in Wilson NC a few weeks ago, not a big race, we only had 10 classes. I don't know how we did financially, but not the point. On Saturday afternoon, we had 3 hrs. of open testing. It was awesome. It would have been a perfect situation to allow rookies or new prospects on the water for much needed testing with mentors. If we had promoted and done a Driver school & 302SSH, I guarantee we would have 2 or 3 new drivers in Region 4 right now.

So that's where I stand on classes. The second paragraph is the most important statement in this post.

John

P.S. - Put your ballots in the mail no later than Monday (write-in John Runne) to secure your right to complain!

[csh-2z]

MAIL IN YOUR BALLOTS TODAY- DON'T FORGET TO WRITE-IN JOHN RUNNE FOR B.O.D.

[daveracerdsh]

John: I do agree that we discuss issues year round.....SOA races have stock, mod, pro, and J heats...which from what I understand is somewhat race across the country. However....I somewhat disagree with you on one the issue of the national meeting. Rules are made with little regard to the effect on other catagories. Yes, we discuss things over drinks after the catagory meetings are over.....but in my opinion little thought is given during meetings as to how rule and safety changes will affect other catagories. Again...If I was the "APBA guru" so to speak..I would change the structure of the national meeting. I would allocate one day of seperate catagory meetings. Get little piddly rule changes made....then, I would have all four catagories get together in one location for two days and discuss the real issues that APBA faces...declining membership, etc etc etc. Just a few random thoughts.

[csh-2z]

It would probably be a good idea for the category chairmen to look through the agendas of the other categories that it is normally affiliated with to see if there are any issues that should be discussed together. In many cases there are audience members that are asked to listen in on these particular issues at other category meetings and report back. We have also had cases where an entire commission would actually go to another meeting to participate in common issues. I would however like to be better informed on issues pertaining to General Racing & Safety rule changes that we often find out about afterwards that maybe we would like to have had some input.
I would also like to possibly adjust meeting schedules so that we could better coordinate some of the various meetings. Personally I would like to have the insurance representative meet with each commission separately to ensure a more open discussion, for example. It is difficult to address everything considering the time constraints we have to deal with. Do we need to add another day?

[daveracerdsh]

John. I do think we need to add a day....if memory serves me correct, the national meeting was far longer when I first started racing. At this point, I do not feel that 3 days are enough to address the issues we face. However, we do not need another day of talking about in commission meetings minor rule changes etc that have no real affect on moving things forward. dave

[Howie Nichols]

A lot of your concerns have been addressed. A new meeting schedule was proposed and seemed to have positive response. Stay tuned for the details. I will say that it has meetings starting Wed morning, it has time built in to go from one meeting to the next, and eliminates not being able to attend some meetings because they are on top of one another.

[csh-2z]

Thanks Howie, that's good news. Not to put you on the spot but now my question is, currently what are the goals of the BOD in relation to the decline in membership that has been plaguing us over the past 20 -25 years? Are we in denial that this problem exists? Is there any plan to address the lack of growth we've been experiencing? I understand that we didn't realize many positive results from the recent Internet Marketing effort, which I believe did not come to fruition due to the lack of commitment by those of us in the organization to take advantage the opportunity and experience available to us at the time. However, that being said, what is the plan going forward? And if there even is one, what confidence should the membership have in believing it will be followed through with? As a volunteer/ membership driven organization, is it even reasonable to expect the kind of commitment necessary to succeed from unpaid people who are not remotely educated in todays marketing capabilities?

Let's start here.

John

[Howie Nichols]

John,
Disclaimer** Not all these views are shared by the entire BOD.
Do we know that decline is occurring, yes we all do. So with that question answered I am going to ask a few of my own before answering yours.

Where does the problem lie, and who takes ownership for trying to regain membership?

In your opinion, what do you believe the BOD does?

What should it do and why?

Should the BOD be the responsible party for membership or should that responsibility fall back to the categories and each one of its members?

My thoughts:

Racer schools are working
Showcase booths at events works
Working together (amongst the categories) works
Taking the time to talk to people about the sport works, if you can get them to a race
Limiting the # of classes put on at an event works.
Yes, I have lobbied for 3 boat minimums to obtain high points
Yes, I have lobbied to combine classes amongst the categories
Are either of these ideas right, or wrong, or just different thoughts?

If we are talking just SO/MO/PRO/J ....

Now I am thinking the overall class structure is fine. What we need to do is tailor it to our location. Example BSR does not run in Region 1,10,11, or 12, but it does in Region 4,6,7 so do we eliminate BSR? NO let the areas that have the class run it. But on a bigger surface (lets talk our clubs CVRA & Peace River for this example), do we continue to schedule classes that consistently have 3 or 4 boats or do we send out a ballot to the drivers and say pick 10, 12, 15 classes, or even better look at the actual boat counts to determine the classes to be run in the future. To me, we reduce overall class count to a few, direct new people into those classes, and once that class reaches 8 or 10 drivers week in and week out then MAYBE you add another class into the mix.

Enough for now and something to start to chew on.