State of the Union

[JWL]

This note is intended to hopefully clear the air a little and set some expectations on where AI is headed from here forward. We have not been ignoring these discussions, but we did decide to let things run their course and then cool a little before we came out with any definitive statements on where we stand.

 

To begin, we never intended to give anyone the impression that we are anti-sponsor or anti-contingency. Much to the contrary, we have always welcomed contingency programs and have never charged sponsors admin fees or imposed other conditions on them that are so common in most racing contingency programs. I also find it remarkable that people are complaining about the current programs in place for 2004 when they are beyond generous and very easy to obtain. It borders on insulting to our current sponsors to see the complaining going on and it is extremely embarrassing for me to have our racers acting this way. This is probably our fault because the way things were set up before created a sense of entitlement and we became lax about requiring strict adherence to sponsor programs. We are working on a new approach for sponsors that will be up shortly on the main AI site, but I will summarize it for you here. If a region or an individual racer has a sponsor lined up, it should be brought to my attention simply so I know what is going on and can help where I can. I will see to it that the program gets posted where it needs to be and that local officials are notified so that they can verify sponsor requirements. We will not collect data in-house and manage the programs as we’ve done in the past, but sponsors can provide forms to verify results and part usage to the racers and we will facilitate verification for the sponsor by NASA officials at the track. This should be easy to work and will solve the problem of us having to bust our humps to chase down racers who then never collect on the contingencies after hours of our work, which has been the source of our discontent with the AI contingency situation. The onus will lie on the racers and they must be prepared to do some work and be responsive if they wish to collect prizes. The sponsors will hopefully receive the benefit of their bargain by gaining more sales from AI racers, exposure in the magazine features that come from AI (over a dozen at last count), and by being listed on the various websites as a sponsor. Again, we want to have contingency programs to award our grassroots folks, but we don’t want things to become lucrative enough to attract professionally funded teams that will run over the “little guys” who are the core focus of NASA. No matter how tight the rule package is, a team that can afford new motors, new tires, and a fund a team of mechanics for every event will have a big advantage, which is what we want to avoid if we can.

 

As to the management of AI going forward, there will be no changes at the top level. Our recent dealings with the National Director position taught us that we have no business entrusting the leadership of the series to someone other than ourselves who might have their own motives no matter how busy we are. We believe our leadership is sound and we will continue as the “bosses” for the foreseeable future with an eye towards being more conscientious and proactive. We will, however, pass more responsibility for sponsor programs to regional directors and the racers themselves as noted above and we plan to create an Advisory Board to help us with rule decisions and other matters. There is no plan to pass any decision-making authority to this Board and it will be purely advisory in nature, as we again want to keep AI on the course that we set and in line with our vision. I know this will be unpopular with some, but this is the way it’s going to be. I would ask that any negative blasts regarding this approach be kept off the boards and between us for now. If you can’t be civil and polite, let’s leave it out of the public eye as the bickering casts a cloud over us all. We will hold nominations for the Board soon at the events nationwide to select a representative from each region by vote of the active racers in that region. Those elected representatives will then work together with Ryan, me, and the other AI region directors on matters of import to the series.

 

As to the near future, we do plan on having a National Convention for AI and perhaps some other NASA classes at Lawrence’s Mid-Ohio event in August. Ryan and I have committed to attend and we are going to try and bring our cars to race with you all. There is a nice gap in the AI-West and TX schedules in August, so we will try to work out some incentive to get people from other regions to come out. We plan to hold a rules discussion and a roundtable discussion at this time so that we can all get on the same page for 2005 and beyond. We want to foster the passion and interest that AI has sparked by meeting with you all and perhaps gaining some of the perspective we have lacked in the past.

 

As for AI as a “pro” series, I don’t think we’re ready yet. We can’t seem to scrape together the bucks among us to haul cross-country consistently and we haven’t found a sponsor to fund such an adventure, so I don’t think we as a group are ready for such a deep plunge. Perhaps we can do this in the future, but a cold hard look at the reality of the situation and a quick glance at the empty stands at this weekend’s IRL race show that mounting a pro national tour will be a daunting task. We can discuss this further as things come along and we hopefully get our collective stuff together both as competitors and as an organization, but we’re nowhere near where we need to be to guarantee a pro tour won’t leave a big smoking hole in the ground filled with charred dollar bills.

 

I hope this note calibrates everyone and lets you all know that we care, but we plan to retain control of AI as we feel this is the best path. Democracies are generally a Good Thing, but they don’t work well in a setting like this where everyone has different opinions and different motives for those opinions, which results in deadlocks and stalls decision-making in the name of consensus. Even though it will not be a democracy, AI will continue to grow and be the best show in grassroots racing as we continue to develop it. We will of course consider everyone’s input, but this does not mean we are going to follow it simply because the majority or even just a vocal minority wants things one way or the other. Our focus will remain on the quality of the racing first and foremost, as it should be. It is our hope that the remaining issues will fade as they are resolved and we can work in harmony rather than in the discord that has been present since late last year. Let’s leave the past behind and let go of the anger and resentment so that we can get on with the serious business of having fun.

 

Yours truly (and I mean this),

-JWL