What is the SCCA smoking?

I just recieved not one but 2 large envelope mailings from the SCCA thanking me for my weekend membership purchase each one containing a copy of Sports Car, a DVD/CD (who knows it is unmarked), several brochures, and a form letter. First of all I have never purchased a weekend membership, also I have been a full SCCA member for well over 5 years now. Is it so hard to check a database for mistakes before wasting god knows how much of the clubs money. I know this isn't the place to get my point across and I probably should go over to their forums and complain but the inefficiency just irks me.

Sounds like the SCCA to me. What is the problem? Not to say they don't try hard, but they are mired in their own rich history and it makes it hard to see the forest for the trees. Given the choices though, they've got a lot going for them. Especially in areas that don't have a local NASA presence

Most likely your local club didn't have you registered as a member for a couple of events. After each event the local club has to submit a list of WE members (i.e., not regular members) to Topeka so they can send out the stuff you got in an attempt to recruit you. Total BS program that has put a large burden on the local clubs.

Tires. Or Cones.

WOW, Detroit Region has seemed to be very down to earth and efficient. I like alot of the people, and we don't seem to be "mired in our own rich history"

Don't confuse SCCA locals with the SCCA in Topeka.

I was wondering if the stupidity was relegated to only my region. Try this one on for size (I just sent a letter to the SCCA prez advising him of same):

I bought the stupid weekend membership. I too received the wondrous package of temptations. Then I read the form letter, which thanked me for participating with my local region and suggested I contact the Steel Cities Region about joining.

Except...that region is 3.5 hours from where I live. It is also not the region I got my weekend membership from, which incredibly is the region right where I live. So, the SCCA manages to not only confuse the potential member, but has effectively sold a membership to a region other than the one that did the work to get the potential member onto the SCCA mailing list in the first place.

Oy. Vey.

Yes, I did mention in my letter that I had joined NASA after considering the pros and cons of both clubs some time ago.

I got that packet a few days ago, I recently bought a couple of weekend memberships for rallycross. It was most definitely a waste of their money, I have no interest in becoming an SCCA member unless I absolutely have to for the racing I want to do. Their publication was also really crappy, IMO, definitely aimed towards people that live and breath SCCA more than a casual weekender that they'd be trying to recruit to the dark side. The worst part of the packet was the 3x5 size card that (going by memory) had the steps it takes to get a racing license with several steps in small print that filled it front and back. So, part of their recruitement strategy is to showcase how entrenched they are in process, rules, etc.

It's too bad SCCA has become what it is today, it's got so much wasted potential.

Bryce

OTOH, at long last they have finally realized they are not the only licensing organization on the planet and have started to accept other racing licenses as an equivelent. So, a NASA racer can now run an SCCA race.

ddavidv wrote: OTOH, at long last they have finally realized they are not the only licensing organization on the planet and have started to accept other racing licenses as an equivelent. So, a NASA racer can now run an SCCA race.

Yet a NASA license won't let you autocross with SCCA!

Must be your dopey region. Around here you don't need any kind of license other than a state driver's license. Before this 'weekend membership' nonsense anyone could show up and run with our SCCA region.

why would you need a license to autocross, NASA or otherwise?

To cover you under the scca insurance in case of an incident.

Total BS. Membership in SCCA covers you, not the license. That's the whole purpose of the new weekend membership nonsense. A license is just another fee.

I was an SCCA member for years before I dropped out. When I signed up for a weekend membership to run an event I got the same packet you were describing even though I'm obviously fully aware already of what SCCA is. The enclosed copy of the magazine was a old back issue so they were probably just dumping old stock.

They can't be all that bad.

I just saw that the SCCA runoffs are going to be at Road America in 2009.

http://www.roadamerica.com/races_runoffs.htm

Chub City.

My thought on the the SCCA is that they forget that it's a car club and thus lives or dies by it's members. We do activities because they're fun. When it ain't fun anymore we go else where to play. The SCCA isn't loosing members to other clubs, they're kicking them out the door.

I got another packet exactly the same as the one I got less than a month ago. I sure hope they don't send one out for every time I get a weekend membership, that sure is wasteful, it just goes straight to the recycling.

Bryce