Racer Fees Increased

[sharon spring]

Aloha VITA members and racers,

Please be advised that Racer Fees for all classes will be increased by $5.00 for the remainder of the 2006 season starting with our June event.

The fee increase is necessary due to the ever-rising costs associated with operation of monthly race events and maintenance of the 40-acre Maui Raceway Park facility.

The revised racer fees will be updated on all postings as soon as possible.

[TimVFR]

I find it hard to believe no one has responded to this yet. I think that it is a big mistake to raise race fees half way through the year when the fee structure just had a major change at the beginning of the year. The reason given before was "increasing costs" as well. I think this will only turn away more racers, for some reason the racer turn out has already gone down. We need our club to be strong and keep ALL of our racers racing. We have seen what happened on Oahu when the racers go different directions.

[nakamura1336]

Yeah it is crazy to raise the fees halfway through the year. Did we lose a track sponsor or something? I don't think the entry fee is to blame for the poor turnout. I think it is the purse structure. Money from the purse should never be taken away. A higher entry fee is ok for non members and they won't be earning points either. To me it would make no sense for a non member to even show up to race. And some racers who only race once or twice a year shouldn't have to be a full on platinum member just to get a full payout. Just charge more on the entries for the non members and don't give em points. But don't cut the payout. IMO that is a big reason for the drop in racer turnout.

[Girlie]

It is true, why are the fees increasing in the middle of the season? I believe our problem is the non-participation of members. Perhaps the Maui board should meet with Kauai and Big Island board members and compare notes on how our programs are run. It's an option and at this point we should keep our options open.

This program needs to survive and we should all work together to keep it alive.

girlie

[Eric Pacheco]

I was wondering why any of this wasn't mentioned in the beginning of the year at some of our member meetings. I also thought as reported that we were in pretty good finacial shape for the last couple of years. I think that we might want to audit ourselves and see how much expense is incurred,and what the profit margin/receivables are for a "typical" or average race weekend. Another suggestion is recruiting new sponsers and donations to help defray some of the costs as well? I know personally that when I race on a given night and all said and done, VITA gets almost $200.00 both from me my crew and all the family and friends that pay to come see us run..... Just thought you might like to know that is some food for thought.

[sharon spring]

Aloha VITA members,

After careful scrutiny of financial records, we discovered that our club has actually been operating at a loss for the last five years. Since fees have not been increased, we have been operating at a deficit of $5,000 per year.

With the approval of our membership, we first raised membership fees by $5.00 effective the 2006 season. However, since the new membership package also included complimentary admission, the increase was not enough to offset higher operating costs.

Platinum members will actually still be paying less to race than they did last year. For example, last year a racer in the Street class paid $32.00 - $7.00 for admission and $25.00 racer fee. Starting this month, a Street racer will be paying $30.00 to race since admission is still complimentary.

The board is constantly striving to increase receipts and reduce expenses. We created new Sponsorship Packages this year resulting in seven new sponsors. We also changed our trophy provider resulting in a savings of $3,000 per year. In addition, we've made changes to our Vendor program.

We will hold a General Membership meeting later this summer to provide complete financial records to our members. We expect to receive the 2005 financial report from our accounting firm soon. At the meeting we'll provide an itemized spreadsheet of receipts and expenses - our major costs are track labor and racer payouts.

We look forward to sharing the complete financial records with our membership this summer in order to receive your feedback. In the meantime, we're happy to provide you with the latest monthly statement upon request.

[nakamura1336]

Sharon,
Is it possible to get some sponsors to name a class after? For example: Budweiser 11.90 index? How much would you want per year for a sponsor to have the class named after them? Just an idea. A lot of racetracks use sponsors money for the payouts. I don't see why it would be any different here.

[John Hultquist]

Jay has a good point, we could do some things like that, but how many of you know Life's a Beach sponsors a $50 gift certificate for the 12.90 Pro Street class? The announcer doesn't announce it each time the class runs and that is the least he could do!
As racers, when we receive any kind of certificate or other donated prize, we need to write that sponsor a thank you note. Now, how many of us have the time to chase sponsors, pitch um, and follow through so they know they are getting something back?
Guess maybe we should have that "later this summer" membership meeting sooner, rather than later. cu at the races. John