SCCA Membership Programs

By now, many of you reading this have heard the headlines:  SCCA now requires a paid membership to compete in RoadRally. While I firmly believe it is the right direction for our club for many reasons, the sequence of events that brought this to be left us with no communication plan, and we launched at the SCCA Annual Convention without sending information out. The concept had been in the works for most of the second half of 2019.

To preface this change, I believe a little backstory is necessary. As a club, the SCCA BOD and National Staff operate under the following in terms of participation:

1. To actively compete in an SCCA event, you must be a member of the SCCA.
2. We have two types of memberships: Regular and Weekend. 
3. All competition programs should be aligned in their administration of membership
4. Weekend Members are an essential part of our culture, and we need the means to communicate with them about upcoming events, join discounts, etc.

The resources spent on all the unique “deals” associated with Weekend Members were not sustainable. Writing “passenger” or “free” was problematic, and we ended up reversing a large number of invoices each year that were unnecessarily created by those errors. Step one was to come up with a form and process that eases up on resource requirements. We processed 27,000+ weekend memberships last year. We have created a new Weekend Membership form that also includes a Trial Membership (available in the File Cabinet when you log in to my.scca.com). The Weekend Member side is for active participation; the Trial side is for those that are just there casually and want a brief experience. 

As a side note to the above, the initial concept meant that both Driver and Navigator had to be either full or weekend members. We have since adjusted and went back to the original Weekend Membership intent where at least one individual in a Road Rally vehicle must be a member, so concessions were still provided for RoadRally.

Here are some notes from the National Convention from my perspective.

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Convention takeaways:

1. The new form is THE form to be utilized for all SCCA sanctioned events as it relates to Weekend Memberships and passengers.
2. To actively participate in an SCCA sanctioned event, you must be an SCCA member (Weekend or Regular). 
3. Trial membership is designed to cover anyone not actively participating yet in a “hot” area, Solo/RX passengers, specialty volunteers that are observing/learning the specialty, and potentially lunch ride-along sessions at TNIA and Road Racing events (TBD).
   1. a. RoadRally is the only “exception.” For purposes of SCCA Road Rally events, the Trial Member will be considered a participant. A road rally team must have at least one SCCA Member (see above for types). For those that do not have a Regular member, the team is to utilize the new Weekend Membership Form. For simplicity of discussion, Driver is WM and the Navigator is TM (this is likely the preferred method for Risk Management purposes).
4. The changes are/were needed to align all programs on the above. Regions are still free to charge what they want for Weekend Memberships, yet Regions will be invoiced $10 for each
5. During the Town Hall Meeting, the RRB had asked when the new programs were effective. I stated that from my perspective, The Convention was the launch of the new program. The RRB asked for a brief pause for RoadRally to get the word out to Rallymasters, Organizers, and participants. The effective date is April 6, 2020.  

Road Rally was initially granted a pause in the Weekend Membership program (2008ish) in large part due to falling rally membership and concerns over participation as the economy tanked; it was never meant to be a permanent solution. As membership and other areas have recovered, the programs probably should have been reviewed and adjusted some time ago.

I will agree that there is room for improvement in discussing the value of an SCCA membership (at any level), but I do believe that value is there. I also understand the concerns over program viability when there is a membership fee involved. Yet, we need to work through our value proposition and the associated costs it takes to administer programs like RoadRally. I love the sport — always have and always will. I have paid more to enter a RoadRally event than I have a Solo. Having to be a member is just part of the investment of participating in something I love. In its most basic form, SCCA membership dues help ensure that the events we love will continue for another 75 years.

My fellow National Staff and I welcome your feedback. I know the 2020 United States Road Rally Challenge is going to be hosted by my home, Detroit Region, in November. While I can’t promise to make that weekend of challenging rallies, I hope to find my way back to Road Rally events in 2020 — it’s been too long.

Rick Myers, Manager, Region Development