National Meet Coordinator position

[Guest]

The National Meet coordinator

Last summer I asked Mike and Nancy Book to do a proposal on a National Meet Coordinator position. There are several reasons for this and why I asked the Books to do it.

First: Mike and Nancy work with the club database. Because they work with the database they are in the best position to do National Meet registrations. Registrations are one of the biggest problems at National meets. When a member registers they can catch mistakes right away and make sure all forms are filled out correctly, this includes any cars listed on their judging forms.

Second: As anyone knows who has run a large meet either Regional or National, a lot of money passes through the club. Mike and Nancy are bonded to handle the club funds, local chapter members are not. Contrary to what has been suggested, there have been several times in the past, where serious questions about the funds for a meet could not be answered. At one National meet a large amount of cash could not be accounted for. It never was accounted for. This caused big problems for a chapter and took them years to recover. This is not to say it may ever happen again, but it could.

Third: The National office is set up to take credit cards. This year we are extending help to the Flint chapter to help with foreign members. This helps then get a better rate of exchange as well as easier registering. Since we have only a few foreign members, the cost to do this is small. However members could use their cards to register for meets which they can not do now.

Forth: This was done to do just as I had hoped, get discussions on this idea going to work out a good program.

Fifth: Payment. Whether Mike and Nancy, Roy, or anyone else is selected to do it. This job takes a lot time and at the National meet, they will spend all the time behind a computer inside and not able to see any of the meet. Since any well run National Meet should make money, some of this should be paid to the person doing the registration. This is a lot of work. We first proposed 1/3 to each; the chapter, the coordinator and the BCA. This is one item we need to look at and make sure it is fair to all.

Last: One idea was that the person in this position should have experience doing large meets. They can act as an advisor to a chapter for hotel selection, setup and operation or what ever is needed, IF the chapter needs help. We do have large chapters that can do a meet with very little help. However we have many small chapters all over the country that may want to do a meet, but who could greatly profit from having help in determining a site, allocating personnel, setting up a budget and writing a proposal. This is where a coordinator would be of help and take much of the burden off the chapter so they can run the show and other items needed at the meet. The National office or the Board is not trying to take over the National meet, but we are trying to reduce the workload on a chapter and remove the areas where the worst problems occur. We are not overwhelmed with chapters volunteering to host Nationals for future years. Some people have expressed interest but a big area of concern is whether or not their chapter has the experience, the number of active members and the desire to bring it off. A Meet coordinator could really help a small chapter allocate their resources to maximize the fun of the meet and minimize the hassles.

We may need to change the name of this position from National Meet Coordinator and that would be fine. I agree with vice President Pat Brooks, this is The National Meet. It is for ALL members to attend. The judging is National judging with a National form. The trophies are National trophies with final design concept by the local chapter, but using a National medallion. The meets need to be well run so ALL members have a great time and experience no problems. This is fairly long but I am trying to present the reasons why the need for this has been brought up again. Those of you who have been in the club for a long time, know that the idea of having a National Meet Coordinator is not new. The need for one did not seem as great years ago when 4 or 5 chapters were bidding to host each National. We have been receiving many good and helpful responses from BCA members. I would like to see this information exchange continue for a while and then the Board can make a good decision on this matter.

Bill [color:\\"blue\\"]

[NTX5467]

Bill --

Thanks for this very detailed explanation of this issue!

In further considerations of the Stated Proposal, I tend to agree with a suggestion that has been made by, as I understand it, Mr. Rick Schick which proposes that the BCA National Office only be concerned with the aspects of the national meet which would concern the BCA National Office itself (i.e., judging activites, judging records, various judging materials/implements, and possibly a standardized registration form). I do not feel the National Office should handle the registration funds (although you have a compelling argument for such) due to how and when these funds would be transferred to the host chapter for their various activities which would require pre-funding/deposits (which might exceed the seed money they would request from the National Office as host of the meet). Having these funds first travel to a basically third party before they reach the chapter could potentially cause more problems for the host chapter than having to deal with the other problems you mentioned. Could some of the problems you alluded to have been minimized/eliminated with some altered confirmation documentation activities, perhaps?

On the surface, the "split" of profits from the meet might seem reasonable, but a decrease in the "profit motive" in doing a meet could also result in fewer chapters wanting to be involved. It could also expose the BCA to losses in some extreme cases, I suspect. I recall hearing of the bad financial mess from the prior AZ meet of many years ago.

I do strongly believe that any chapter which desires to consider hosting a BCA National Meet should receive as much assistance in those early "talking about it" and pre-bid stages as possible. I would also like to see more positive dialogue about why chapters need to consider doing these things instead of "why not" do to them.

An alternative to the "profit split" could be having a menu of services available from the National Office from which host chapters could decide for themselves what/where they might desire assistance (in the areas other than which the National Office would be normally concerned with, as mentioned in the Schick Proposal). These services could be priced just a hair above or at "cost" of making them happen to increase the affordability for the chapter.

As the BCA has had minimum specifications for the banquet facility and related activities for many years, it would seem that if the National Office would be involved in actual site selection, there would be some travel expenses involved and how those would be funded might be of concern. This might be an area where some discussion might be beneficial.

One main concern is that the BCA itself not be exposed to any more financial risk in the National Meets than it currently is. It would seem that if the National Office is going to be actively involved in a meet's profits, it would conceptually be actively involved in the losses which also might similarly occur. By the same token, if the meet is planned and run correctly, about the only reason there should be an operating loss would be from non-attendance or otherwise poor turnout with respect to the expenses of putting the particular meet together.

One other possible issue might be that if few chapters desire to host a meet by themselves, how many would want to work at one if it was not "their" meet? Similarly, I don't recall there being anything written which states that several chapters might not band together to host a national meet or that a BCA Region could be the host. That might be an option too!

I would not desire the chapters to generally bail out or be less involved with the national meets with respect to their past level of involvement. It might come to that, but I don't feel we should encourage such to happen.

Of course, if the BCA gets into the national meet business, whether with a Meet Coordinator or via the National Office, there can be many positives involved--specificially that meets could be planned several years in advance. That could be good. If properly planned, profits for the BCA would similarly result, but I don't see the suggested involvement and its 3 way split of profits being enough individual financial motivation for those involved to justify their investment in time and effort.

From my observations, I feel that Mike and Nancy have been doing a good job for the BCA and its members. I like their enthusiasm and willingness to do what they can to make things as good as they can be.

I'm aware that BCA requires a financial statement from the host chapter on the meet's financial aspects. As the chapter is the primary financial entity involved with the meet, I don't perceive why the BCA would need to oversee what went on financially at the meet other than as a matter of information. I would expect the chapter operatives to make any in depth investigations and corrections if any were necessary. If the BCA was the primary risk taker and operator/promoter, it would certainly be different.

I'm also aware that when anything "kapoots" at a national meet, the BCA is looked upon as the "enforcer" to guarantee customer satisfaction when the meet participant perceives the host chapter's operative(s) aren't responsive to their requests. Having the National Office/Meet Planner as the main meet operative would make things easier, no doubt.

There are many other expenses involved in putting on a National Meet other than just arranging for tours and banquet accomodations. One of the largest expenses to the host chapter is from National Meet trophies and castings. These items must be purchased from the BCA by the host chapter and then presented by the host chapter to the award recipients.

It would seem that anything other than the castings for the actual award plaques which each class level winner would receive, should be provided by the BCA itself. That would include any Senior and other similar awards. It would seem that the BCA receives the "glory" of how many Senior award vehicles it has rather than the BCA chapter that hosted the meet it was awarded at. No doubt, the BCA operatives shop for the best prices on those things, but it's still a significant amount for the host chapter to fund themselves.

One significant issue I would have with the Stated Meet Coordinator/Planner Proposal is that I've not seen anything about it being "optional". I get the impression that it would be mandatory. In heading toward this grand plan, decreasing the profit motive for the host chapter could also result in capable chapters not desiring to be involved in hosting national meets any more.

I am aware of several issues from several past meets (in recent history) where the BCA President and other board members had to handle concerns by participants and other post meet issues. In one respect, if everyone tends to look to the BCA Board for resolution, as if they were running the meet themselves, perhaps they should be running the meet themselves? These would be issues which the general membership might not be aware of also.

I concur that there are many positive aspects to the Stated Proposal, but I feel the Schick Proposal should be the maximum level of involvement of the BCA in any National Meet unless the host chapter desires otherwise. Whatever expenses would be involved in the level of BCA involvement with the Schick Proposal would be budgeted for in the annual budget of the BCA National Office and not passed on to a host chapter. A higher level of involvement by the BCA National Office could carry appropriate charges to the host chapter or a "division of net profits" that would be negotiated between the host chapter and the BCA, perhaps.

I perceive that although the Stated Proposal has some solid advantages, there are also several other areas that would need more discussion (i.e., travel expenses regarding meet site selection, approval of such by the authorized BCA operatives, "mandatory" or "optional" issues) and consideration. Other aspects might also tend to be good on paper but might not be as advantageous in operational reality.

In researching and formulating the Stated Proposal, were there any simulations run for the prior meets to see how things might have been different or is the Stated Proposal based on "reactions" to what went on at those meets?

Whatever the outcome, I concur that the end goal should be a BCA National Meet that is enjoyable for all attendees, all participants, the hosts, and all support personnel involved in making it happen. Hopefully, that will happen.

Thanks again, Bill, for your detailed explanation of the Stated Proposal. Thanks for your time and consideration.

Willis Bell 20811

[Guest]

Just to update everyone on the latest idea for the National Meet Coordinator position....Nancy & I have formally withdrawn our proposal for the National Office to handle the registration & administrative portions of the National Meet. When we took over the National Office we promised ourselves that we would not permit the Office to become a center of controversy. There seemed to be some differences of opinion as to whether it was proper for the National Office to handle this, so we withdrew. We spoke with a member that is extremely skilled in computer programing who is considering taking on a newly proposed position as "National Meet Administrator" or in layman's language he would be in charge of "everything computer related". This individual would handle the registration, the printing of the windshield cards, the computer entry of the judging tabulations, and the printing of any and all reports needed. The proposal would be that the Host Chapter pay this individual's travel expense and furnish him with a "comp" room, and pay an as yet to be determined fee for his services. This would add consistency to the National Meets and drastically reduce the possibility of major computer problems. This would also allow the Host Chapter to accomplish a National with less people involved and less headache. The National Office would then assume a position of "checklist checker" and would just review the overall guidelines that need to be followed to assure the National Meet falls within the standards set forth in the BCA By-Laws, i.e. is the hotel large enough, is the parking area suitable, is there enough banquet room available, etc. The National Office would then be available for backup on an as needed basis. Any and all comments would be appreciated.

Mike & Nancy Book

BCA National Office Managers [color:\\"blue\\"]