Committee Comment
2021 certainly has been a year of ups and downs requiring us to have a flexible approach to the conduct of events. Fortunately, such flexibility was planned into our race program so that, when the State was plunged into a weeklong lock down, we were quickly able to find alternative ways to conduct our April race meeting and communicate our plans straight away. As such, a great meet was had almost wholly unimpacted by COVID. Thanks to all involved whether they be competitor, official, contractor or part of our admin team for approaching a problem with an optimistic outlook and producing a great result. It’s that culture of positive collaboration and cooperation that we want to maintain.
Rob Janney Memorial Studio
Committee have approved a proposal to name the commentary room in honour of one of its doyens, Rob Janney. The room will be known as the Rob Janney Memorial Studio. A suitable plaque will be produced and affixed to the door. We trust that all who serve in it will be inspired by Rob’s quiet, dignified and knowledgeable commentary.
Financials
The Committee reviewed the mid-year financial reports at a recent meeting. The figures are encouraging, and we can be hopeful for a good end of year result that will enable us to plan for facility upgrades with confidence.
New Sub-Committee
To that end, a new sub-committee has been constituted by Committee, the Capital Works and Facilities Committee. This committee, chaired by Tim Riley and also consisting of John Hurney, Laurie D’Alessio and Brad Wheeler, will concentrate on the various capital upgrades and essential maintenance required for such a large and complex facility. Tim will provide an update of the activities of that committee in future newsletters. There are some exciting things on the horizon.
Farewell Coleen
We have a bit of sad news to impart – after over eight years of being a fixture in the WA Sporting Car Club office, Coleen Vidler is moving onto new adventures. Before she departs for the sunny shores of Queensland in a couple of weeks, we will be holding a function open to those involved with the Club who would like to attend, to say farewell. Date and details to come. I’m sure you’ll join us in thanking Coleen for all her hard work and wishing her well for the future.
Membership Dues
Along with the enjoyable task of approving new members each month, the committee is also presented with the difficult task of reviewing members that have been struck from the register for non-payment of their subscription invoice. It is important that members are aware of the Constitutional requirements that must be adhered to and which cannot be arbitrarily overlooked or over ridden. An invoice for annual membership subscriptions must be paid by the due date or the Constitution decrees that the person is no longer a member. Committee has the discretion (and applies it as a blanket) to extend that time by 30 days. Beyond that there is no way that the process can be reversed. The invoice becomes a bad debt, and the member is struck from the register. The only option is for the person to make application for membership from scratch. This can be problematic for people as the benefits of membership such as discounted entry fees and allocation to a garage are completely contingent on being a member.
If you do not wish to continue membership then please, a quick note to admin@wascc.asn.au indicating your resignation would be better than being written off. If you are experiencing difficulty, please don’t stay silent; contact the Club. We will do what we can to assist and advise you as to the best options.
Garages
The Garage Committee has turned over nearly half of the 150 or so garages in the past 3 – 4 years. And the wait list continues to grow. This is encouraging as more active race drivers are seeking to keep their cars stored close to where they race in the very reasonably priced facilities available to members. Garage Committee will be scrutinizing the conditions for retention carefully against the use of the garage by the allocated holder and will contact garage holders accordingly. If you are racing at the Club and wish to apply for a garage, please follow this link: GARAGE APPLICATION.
Online volunteer portal now live
As part of the WA Sporting Car Club’s commitment to developing the volunteer official database we have recently refreshed the Official’s page of the website and introduced an online volunteer management system (VMS). Both the page and the VMS complement each other to make the registration process attractive and easy as possible and bring to the forefront the many opportunities available at the Club.
Volunteers can now register for WASCC events in advance, indicate their preferences for roles, give other vital information in a couple of clicks, access resources related to the event, add the event to their digital calendars and more.
Go to the Officials page of the WASCC website to view the improvements.
National Volunteer Week
National Volunteer Week was held on 17 – 23rd May. The WA Sporting Car Club took this opportunity to thank volunteers for freely giving their time, knowledge, and skills to us for the betterment of the sport.
A spotlight on officiating at the WASCC was also shone via some media coverage in the local papers covering our timing volunteer Michelle Simpson’s experience. You can view the online version of the article here.
Tarmac Sportz
The Club continued the successful Tarmac Sportz club level motorsports program in 2021 with a variety of standalone events and competitions combined with race meetings. To date there has been over 130 unique entrants into the series across the different disciplines from sprint, point to point, hill climb and regularity. The series will continue through the second half 2021 with the Club looking forward to continued growth of competitor numbers in these unique format events. We invite all members to come enjoy a day of Tarmac Sportz with our next event being held on the 19th of June.
WASCC Race Season
With 3 rounds of the WASCC racing championship completed, we have seen some fantastic grids with some incredibly close racing across all categories that have competed so far. We have not been without some challenges, with our April meeting being held a week later in May due to the COVID lockdown in Western Australia. Our team and competitors were ready for the challenge and we delivered a successful event with the lighter restrictions in place. With only a week and a half until out next race meeting, we are looking forward to more of the same through June, July and August.
WASCC Trophy Presentation and Sundowner
Around 120 people enjoyed a lovely and fun evening at Royal Perth Yacht Club celebrating the WASCC Champions for 2020. It was a wonderful way to celebrate what had been a difficult year. We are going to do it all again on Saturday, 27 November 2021 and again at Royal Perth Yacht Club. Save the date. More details will be advised throughout the next month.