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SUNSHINE STATE BMX ASSOCIATION, INC. ANNUAL MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION FEBRUARY 25, 2006 MIAMI, FL. Meeting Minutes I. Call to order President, John Pingol called to order the meeting of the Sunshine State BMX Association at 7:50 p.m. on February 25th, 2006 at Best Western Floridian Hotel in Miami, FL. II. Roll call Secretary, Tammi Geary conducted a roll call. The following board members were present: John Pingol, President, Alice Bixler, State Race Commissioner, Steve Doan, Vice President, Tammi Geary, Secretary, Becky Szasz, Treasurer, and Kathy Bostrom, States Points Keeper. Members at Large present were: Kelly Doan, Brian Fell and Jim Szasz. Charles McGuire and Bill Magmer voted as track delegates. Board members not present: Lloyd McDonald and Shag Shaughnessy. Track members present or represented: Cape Coral – Amy Turner, President and Bob Fain, Public Relations Highlands/Avon Park – Bob Alexander, Track Director High Springs – John Pringle (Proxy vote with signed paperwork) Miami South – Jose Garcia, Track Director and Ramon Bristol, Clerk of Course Middleburg – Robert Hines, Track Director Naples – Ellen Barkin, Center Supervisor and Ray Coriano, Track Director Orlando – Charles McGuire, Track Director and Sandy McGuire, Clerk of Course Sarasota – Vicky Nichols, Clerk of Course and Daryl Geary, Member at Large St. Cloud – Bill Magmer, Vice President and Sandy Magmer, Clerk of Course Tampa – Blair Travis, Asst. Track Director Tracks present with no voting representative: Coral Springs and Okeeheelee. Tracks not present at meeting: Daytona, Fort Walton Beach, Jacksonville, Port Charlotte, St. Petersburg, Tallahassee and Wallwood. President, John Pingol ruled that we do have a quorum, stating that we realize there are issues as to the way we have determined a quorum in the past. Point of order from Dave Otterbein, stating how many votes will each track have. John stated that the way it was done in the past was each track will have 2 votes if they have signed in with 2 people and each board member has one vote. We have not done the 25/75 ratio as it is specified in the By-Laws. Dave stated that if we don’t follow the 25/75 ratio then we are in violation of the By-Laws. Alice explained that we have been in violation of the By-Laws for about the last 15 years. Dave Otterbein challenged the chairs decision to continue the meeting. John stated that we would need to sustain the chairs decision, all in favor of running the meeting as we have in the past. Hand vote taken. Motion passed with acclamation. III. Approval of minutes from last meeting Secretary, Tammi Geary had copies of Avon Park minutes and Tallahassee minutes available. John Pingol stated that the last scheduled meeting was in Tallahassee, which we did not have due to not having a quorum. The last meeting that was actually held was in Sebring/Avon Park which was November 12th, 2005. Alice Bixler motioned that minutes be accepted. Steve Doan seconded. Hand vote taken. Motion passed with acclamation. IV. Report of Committees a) Ohio Project/2006 Presidents Cup – Alice Bixler – Alice stated that we currently have $18,315.97 in the Ohio fund. Informed all in attendance that Florida won the Presidents Cup race, however due to some changes in the rules this year it was difficult due to the rookie class. If we win 3 more times, then they will retire the 2nd Cup to Florida also. The Presidents Cup race was wonderful. Jeff Pearce asked if the Cup can be brought to some of the State Qualifiers. Alice replied that she brings it every year to the State Championship and the Awards Ceremony. b) Trophy Team Report – Dave Otterbein – Dave stated that we had 13 teams competing today. We have 17 teams officially listed and another new team is forming from Pinellas Park, which will put us up to 18 teams, but it is a long way from where we used to be. Becky Szasz stated that Dave is doing a very good job. c) Money Team Report – Brian Fell – 6 money teams competed today. Normal day and everything is going good. V. Report of Officers a) State Race Commissioner – Alice Bixler – Introduced Ellen Barkin and Ray Coriano from the Naples track. First race for the Naples track will be run on March 3rd, 2006 and if anyone is available to give them a hand it would be appreciated. 1) Awards Ceremony- Alice has been talking with Tampa track director Hap Hutto, she has been told that at this time we do not have a signed contract for the Awards Ceremony. Alice stated she is worried about this issue. Hap has informed Alice that he is working with the Sports Authority trying to get a facility at no cost which would be amazing since we usually pay $10,000 to $15,000 for the facility. Cindy Hutto spoke with Alice today and assured her that they will get a facility. Alice has given a deadline of March 3rd to find a place to hold the Ceremony and get a signed contract. Alice stated that if they can not get a facility in Tampa, then the board would have to consider moving the race; however she did state that she really did not want to take the race away from Tampa. Alice stated that if they do not find a facility to hold the event within the time limit she has given them, then she would send an email notifying everyone. However; Alice did encourage everyone to go back to their home tracks and look in their area for a place large enough to hold the Awards Ceremony. b) President – John Pingol - Thanked Miami South for a great race and getting everything ready. 1) John stated that he wanted to clarify the incident that happened at the track today. He dealt with it as a Referee not as the SSA President. John stated that the NBL policy has a zero tolerance regarding this issue. The adults were the combative people, but it affects the kids and both families were disqualified for Sunday races. c) Vice President – Steve Doan –Steve introduced Jose Garcia as the new Miami South track director and thanked him for the great job he has done. d) Secretary – Tammi Geary – Thanked everyone for their patience with her. e) Treasurer – Becky Szasz – Copies of the Treasurer’s report were made available. f) Promotions – Brian Fell – Nothing new to report. Possible sponsors that did not get involved with the ad after Avon Park have seen the ad in BT and now regret not becoming involved. Brian is trying to come up with some way to bring them into it, because we need more raffle prizes. 24 sponsors gave product in Avon Park and now we only have 6. Brian stated that everything is good and business is good. 1) Dave Otterbein questioned why we only have 3 levels of sponsorship; he feels this is limiting the number of sponsors we could have, only having sponsors related to the BMX sport. Brian stated that anyone can be a sponsor. John Pingol asked Brian how much cash has been collected. Brian stated that only the Haps team has paid. Brian stated that he has spoken with Becky Szasz to help develop an invoice. Discussion followed. Alice Bixler motioned that Becky Szasz get with Brian and settle issue of where the sponsorship money is and come up an invoice. Becky Szasz seconded. Hand vote taken. Motion passed with acclamation. g) Points Keeper – Kathy Bostrom – Nothing to report. Everyone is good. VI. Old and Unfinished Business a) Revised By-Laws – Committee Speaker/ Bob Fain – Bob stated that the Committee basically just tried to make the By-Laws easier to read. They deleted some repetition and corrected the grammar. Bob offered to answer any questions regarding the proposed By-Law changes. Charles McGuire motioned to accept the Revised By-Laws. Becky Szasz seconded. John clarified that we are voting on the whole package of revisions. Hand vote taken. Motion passed with acclamation. Note: see attached New By-Laws with revisions. b) Voting Changes/District Commissioners - John stated that this was an amendment to our By-Laws by Lloyd McDonald. He clarified that motion is for District Commissioners to be given a vote. John opened floor for debate. Steve Doan questioned how the motion was worded and what exactly was motioned. Steve asked the Chair if the motion is to allow District Commissioners who are appointed to have a board vote. John stated that Lloyd McDonald is not present and he could not give his reply. Steve stated that he has a problem with how the motion was worded. He stated that there is an unlimited number of District Commissioners that could be affected, there are no term limits on the motions and they are appointed positions. Steve feels appointed people should not be given a vote. Dave Otterbein questioned why not, since we have people who are appointed and they get votes. Dave also questioned if the District Commissioners votes would be added into the board votes or the track votes. John stated that issue was not specified in the motion. Charles McGuire stated that we need to clarify who the District Commissioners are - Lloyd McDonald and he has a vote as a track director and Tim Mays who also has a vote as a track director; so what is the point? Dave Otterbein re-issued his question as to if their vote would be as a board vote or a track vote? Alice Bixler stated that if a District Commissioner is a board member then they were elected and they have a board vote and if they weren’t a board member then they were appointed by her and would not have a board vote. John asked if there was any debate in favor of the motion. Alice called the question. None in favor. Motion defeated. c) 2006 Competition Congress/Las Vegas – John Pingol asked if everyone who attended Competition Congress had a good time. 1) Charles McGuire questioned issue stated in the Officials clinic by Dave Miller regarding shirt sleeves. John Pingol clarified that Dave Miller stated that shirt sleeves only need to be three quarters. John stated that NBL rule book has not been changed and as far as Florida State races are concerned, the rule stands that long sleeve shirts are required until the wording in NBL rule book is changed. Jim Szasz asked what the consequences are if someone does try to wear a three quarters shirt. How do we enforce the NBL rule? Discussion followed. Second issue is concerning riders getting in the wrong gates. The NBL has suggested that we have the gate verifier move riders in the wrong gate to their correct assigned gate prior to the gate dropping. Discussion followed. Alice motioned that gate verifier should continue what she is doing now. Steve Doan clarified motion stating that gate verifier would only be verifying gates, not moving riders in the wrong gates and seconded. Discussion followed. Alice called the question. Motion passed with acclamation. Alice stated that what we are in agreement with is basically we are going to do what we have been currently doing: asking the riders to wear long sleeve shirts, pant legs down and we are not going to hold up the gate for the verifier to move riders. 2) Ramon Bristol questioned riders that have the wrong plate number. Alice Bixler stated that out of 500 riders for this qualifier only 11 registered with the wrong plate number. Alice also mentioned that where we have a problem is when people pre-register and don’t put their bike number or the worst offenders are riders that are registered through their teams. Team coaches don’t know the age, class or bike numbers. Most of today’s problems were with Force, MCS and J&R riders. One idea came from Rich, who started that if we had online pre-registration then we would not have so many incorrect bike numbers. Alice requested that he talk to her after the meeting. 3) Charles McGuire questioned when the new computer program will be starting. Alice Bixler stated that the current program is not working. Alice Bixler stated that our current points program is out dated and does not work with the new NBL race program. Alice said that the NBL is hoping to have the race program up and running by the fall of this year. Alice stated that she had not talked to the board yet, but would like to have Kathy Bostrom’s nephew, who is a programmer look at the race program and see if he can write a points program. NBL stated that once the race program is up and running, then they are going to start working on the points program. The new program will not work with our current points program. We will need to wait for Kathy to get back to us. Kelly Doan piggy backed using the new system with the old system. She emailed 15 questions to Joe and he did answer most of her questions and said he is working on the other problems. VII. New Business- a) 2006 State Season- Alice Bixler stated that it is going fine. Rider count is down, but it is being contributed to gas prices & hotel prices being too high. Registration fees were decreased again; however we did add a qualifier. b) Florida Competition Congress- Alice stated that she did speak with her son about having it in Clermont again this year. Alice asked if everyone was in favor or if we wanted to go somewhere else. Competition is tentatively scheduled for the first weekend in June. Alice would like to ask Irma Miller to attend. VIII. Good and Welfare- Dave “Smitty” Smith- wanted to state that parents and riders are behaving more now, than they have in the past. John pointed out that the incident that happened today was right in front of the trophy tables. a)Kelly Doan stated that she has a concern about the incident that happened today. She feels that if you’re a volunteer for the SSA and you get angry like Butch Garcia did today, then she does not believe he should be a volunteer. Kelly stated that she was taken back by his actions today. She saw him run from the tower and knew what was getting ready to happen. Brian Fell stated that Butch Garcia reacted how every parent out there does. Steve Doan stated that Butch did not know what was said to his child, until afterwards. Kelly stated that since he was a volunteer, it looks bad on all volunteers and the SSA. Dave Otterbein stated he knows that the problem actually started in the first Motto, with the riders getting in the wrong gates. Charles McGuire stated that this goes back to what he was saying that the riders had no clue that he could protest and that this is something we should be teaching at our home tracks. Alice Bixler stated that what Butch did was wrong, Butch knows what he did was wrong and she will take care of the issue on a local level with the Sarasota track director. b) Background Checks- Charles McGuire stated that issue of background checks was brought up in the Track Directors meeting at the National Competition Congress. Steve Doan stated that the NBL is going to start requiring them, however Charles stated that the problem is that no one wants to pay for them and some of the tracks can not afford it. John Pingol stated that he had heard about this and Steve Doan stated that “all” volunteers have to have them done. Vicky Nichols started that it is a Florida requirement for anyone in childcare. John Pingol stated that he thought that was only for employers. IX. Adjournment Jim Szasz motioned to adjourn meeting. Kelly Doan seconded. John Pingol adjourned the meeting at 9:30 p.m. Minutes submitted by: Tammi Geary/ SSA Secretary Minutes approved by: Tammi Geary/SSA Secretary |