This month I’d like to talk about two things.
     The first is I’d like to thank Greg Hightower for the many years he was the webmaster of this site. He developed its first format, updated the information and kept the site running. Most of the time, very few people knew he was the one behind all the hard work. Building a Website from scratch is not an easy task and when Greg took on this challenge some ten years ago, there wasn’t nearly as many or as sophisticated web-design programs available as there is today. Looking back through the old files, I can see there were several false starts, some things were tried that didn’t work out and yet Greg never wavered in his dedication to putting together a Website for the NWRC they could be proud of. I, and I’m sure all the people involved in the NWRC, would like to thank Greg for his years of dedicated hard work. Good job and good luck in your future projects, Greg.
      Last month I wrote an editoral challanging the Board to form a “think-tank” committee to look into the future. Its task would be to search out the challenges we will face and to propose to the Board solutions to those challenges. Since then, several individuals have told me that it simply wouldn’t work. There have been many reasons: The Board has no real power and is only there to provide insurance for the clubs. The Board provides structure for dealing with the day-to-day operations, like running the Website and posting the results of the events. ORCA really runs the show and what they want is what happens. The Clubs are too diverse in their interests to ever come to any reasonable agreements. Blah, blah, blah.
      In many ways, the NWRC is like a business and every successful business has a business plan. A plan that covers every aspect of the business and attempts to foresee any future problems and determines the best course of action to deal with those problems. A plan that outlines the short, medium and long-term goals and sets forth a detailed roadmap for achieving those goals. In a normal for-profit business, the Marketing Department has different goals and challenges than does the Manufacturing Department, than does IT, or Human Resources or even Building Maintenance. Yet under the leadership of the Board of Directors and CEO, a successful company’s individual departments, despite their own areas of interest, all work toward the common goals set forth in their business plan.
      The NWRC Board is, in a business sense, a misnomer. In business, they would be the executives (President, Vice-President, CFO, etc) that run the business day-to-day and follow the policies set forth by the Board of Directors. In this case, the Club Representatives would be the Board of Directors and it would be their responsibility to provide the vision, the direction, and the policies for the business. Yes, each club has their own area of interest. There are clubs that prefer gravel over tarmac, Friday Nighter trap rallies over Monte Carlos, and even one, if given the choice, would start and end their rallies at the craps table at a local casino.
      Since becoming involved with the Website and the officers of the NWRC, I’ve become aware there are some problems within the organization on several levels. The Constitution and Bylaws were last revised and ratified in May, 2004 but when they were first drafted, I have no idea. There are problems within the Generals that need addressing and we seem to be facing an aging and shrinking membership within the clubs. And, whether we want to acknowledge it or not, Motor Sports will be undergoing a change in the near future because of the public’s awareness of the environmental impact of the sport, the depletion of our natural resources, and the ever expanding urban areas.
      As the representative of the Soggy Bottom Rally Club, it is my intention to propose to the the Board and the other Representatives that a committee be formed to look at the organization as a whole, attempt to identify future issues and problems and to come up with a “business plan” and possible solutions to address these issues. No area will be “off-limits” to the committee and once the committee has completed its goals, it will submit to the Board and the Member Clubs, it’s recommendations for discussion and ratification.
This will not be a quick or easy process and for some, a painful one. However, it is my belief that for the good of our sport and its continued existence, this is a necessary step in the evolution of our Organization.

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The opinions expressed in this editorial are strictly those of its author and are not indorsed by the NWRC.