Rich - I hope it's not a firestorm but rather a way to communicate and have people listen. Thanks for the apology and taking the time to listen.
I'm not here to bash, but would like to help as I think many of us racers want to do. On-Road is declining and we all have to pull together to make a positive change.
I would really like for you to look at the entry fee's. Do we really need 3 - 4 officials at the races? Maybe we do at some of the larger events maybe we don't. If we reduced the amount of officials how much could we lower the entry fee?
I know we are trying to attract more racers to the event's and that's a good thing. My question is why mess with the largest class we have (17.5). Why not just introduce sportsman class as a test case to see how things go? The 13.5 and Mod have had the smallest turnouts in the past couple of years. Yet 17.5 is one of the largest and most competitive classes we have to race.
If you look at On-Road gas racing we don't have this problem. We have .12 and .21 We don't have an issue with non-sponsored or sponsored racing in either of these classes. Why do we have this issue in Electric On-Road? Not all .12 or .21 motors are created equal, just like not all speedo's are created equal, yet we worry about sponsored and non-sponsored drivers racing together. We don't tell the guy who won his first Nitro sedan nationals that he has to move to .21.
I'd like to see some of the money from entry fee's or membership fee's go to advertising. How hard would it be for the regional director to make a few phone calls or to send a flyer to the local hobby shops advertising the Nats and or Regionals. You don't have to make a 1,000 copies. A simply flyer that the local hobby shops in or around the area could post on a wall would be better then nothing.
Scheduling races within a week or two year after year would be great. So if 2010 the Carpet Nats is held on March 25, 26, 27 then you should shoot for that same time frame for 2011, so that people can schedule leave around the races and they know from year to year when each of the nationals are going to be and or that matter the regional.
Like you I don't have all of the answers, but I'm sure if we all put some thoughts together we can come up with some ideas and test the water to see if things are moving in the right or wrong direction before making law.
Hope this helps,
Mark