Glenn, I realize you never said forget about the new track, and I'm coming from a point of frustration, not anger (just so we're clear :wink

I just find it ironic that you are claiming to be on a budget so tight that there's little or nothing left to donate, yet in the same breath you're advocating additional out-of-state racing (and the associated expenses).

I dug through my old emails, last October I spent a lot of time corresponding with Lance Lee (USBA Treasurer) to formulate a plan for a joint event. We had at least 99% of the logistics worked out, and I still have all my notes. The problem is that it keys on reciprocity. Rather than reinvent the wheel trying to explain it, I'll paste in part of one email I sent near the end of our exchange. This was after he relayed that his club didn't want to travel to PMP or MPH (the first line is because he was worried I/we would take that decision as an insult):

Lance, I don't take any disrespect or anything like that from your position, nor that of your members. If I had MMP 30 minutes away I wouldn't see the reason to travel either!

The reciprocity really is the sticking point, though. <irrelevant crap removed> The problem is that if we agree to do a joint event then we are telling our members that in order to earn points towards an MRA championship they must race with another club, where things like race procedures, dispute resolution, etc are not under the control of the MRA board. This is something we cannot justify without the reciprocity. I brought the idea up at our general meeting last Thursday and while the idea in general had support, without reciprocity the support went away.
I added the emphasis, because that was the main sticking point for me and the rest of the board.