Small Formula car HST elimination...

[CheckeredFlag]

Thank you for your letter....

[Peter Olivola]

General 1. #38377
(Peter Olivola) Change Requests
Thank you for your letter. The Club Racing Board does not recommend this change. CRB letter responses published in Fastrack identify the writer making the request and normally disclose the nature of the writer's request in the title of the letter. In many instances, however, the specific information or data submitted by a writer is intended to be confidential and is not meant to be shared with other competitors. Requiring publication of the contents of all letters and documents submitted through the Letter Log System would have a chilling effect and would dissuade members from providing the most comprehensive information and data available. In addition, the CRB and its advisory committees typically receive more than 100 letters per month, some of which are many paragraphs long and often include attachments, and therefore it is impossible to publish the contents of each letter submitted, even without the confidentiality issues described above. Also, awaiting other members' feedback in response to a writer's request would neither reduce the volume of letters received nor lessen the advisory committees' review time and would in fact increase the time required for the CRB to render decisions. Members are free to submit letters and data through the Letter Log System if they believe the CRB did not receive accurate or complete information from a writer or otherwise reached an incorrect result. Finally, in addressing the concerns expressed in letters submitted through the Letter Log System, the CRB does its best to publish responses that make clear what was requested and to the greatest extent possible provide the rationale for its decisions.

To borrow a very old expression, it wonders me how thoroughly the CRB can repeatedly misread and misrepresent to justify themselves.

[CheckeredFlag]

To borrow a very old expression, it wonders me how thoroughly the CRB can repeatedly misread and misrepresent to justify themselves.

When I read their response, I wondered if they actually read and comprehended your letter. I honestly don't think they did. My BoD member being chair of the CRB leaves me without hope these days.

I mean, so what if there are a 100 letters a month. Big deal. Post 'em and let us get lost in the weeds if we want to so we can write our own letters in support or against before the CRB votes. Geez.

[John LaRue]

Pick up the phone and call. I advocated for this on a couple of occasions and there was resistance. It wasn't a hot topic, so I didn't push. Some of the letters do have information that the person may not want to be made public, but I can't say that the majority of them did. It would seem that if this is a concern IT could provide an option for the author to request that the letter be private. On the other hand, why shouldn't all of the letters be public? If you can't say it in public, should it be whispered in privacy? GCR 8.1.4 provides an avenue for compliance review that should remain confidential but otherwise perhaps it should all be published.

[Peter Olivola]

Pick up the phone and call. I advocated for this on a couple of occasions and there was resistance. It wasn't a hot topic, so I didn't push. Some of the letters do have information that the person may not want to be made public, but I can't say that the majority of them did. It would seem that if this is a concern IT could provide an option for the author to request that the letter be private. On the other hand, why shouldn't all of the letters be public? If you can't say it in public, should it be whispered in privacy? GCR 8.1.4 provides an avenue for compliance review that should remain confidential but otherwise perhaps it should all be published.

Picking up the phone is exactly how this started. In this case, a conversation with my Director, Steve Strickland, who suggested writing the letter, which I first did to the BoD, then, again at Steve's suggestion, to the CRB to get a reference number. The CRB certainly didn't exceed my expectation.

[John LaRue]

Picking up the phone is exactly how this started. In this case, a conversation with my Director, Steve Strickland, who suggested writing the letter, which I first did to the BoD, then, again at Steve's suggestion, to the CRB to get a reference number. The CRB certainly didn't exceed my expectation.

I would suggest calling the CRB members to get a better read on this. If it meant anything to Steve he would have been in the ear of the CRB and the liaisons as he was on other occasions.

[FVRacer21]

"In many instances, however, the specific information or data submitted by a writer is intended to be confidential and is not meant to be shared with other competitors. Requiring publication of the contents of all letters and documents submitted through the Letter Log System would have a chilling effect and would dissuade members from providing the most comprehensive information and data available."

If I am following them correctly, I see several problems.

First - if you are asking for a rules change, not sure that it needs to be confidential. If I am lobbying for a rules change, it would be best if I do as much promotion within my class as possible. Keeping it confidential might be construed as trying to come up with a personal or professional advantage, which I would think is against the spirit of the club.

Second - Not all supportive documents would be necessary to publish - just the summary wording of the letter. Again, if there is backup data then that information would be best distributed amongst the class. We should not be the Secret Car Club of America.

I would be happy to entertain hypothetical examples of why something would have to be kept confidential. I would assume that it would be more in the realm of the more expensive classes, where rules changes could have expensive consequences.

[I do believe the first qualification for any rules change is to examine how it would affect the cost or racing.]

On the other hand - maybe that is the problem. This confidentiality may lead to increases in cost. Nothing is perfect and you cannot balance out a class by continually making everyone faster.

ChrisZ

[mmi16]

If the purpose of a submission is a change to the rules - any documentation must be public.