St Petersburg Times article

[Jamie]

We've made the newspaper! For those of you who didn't know, Clinton Wilson mentioned autocross to a St Pete Times reporter he knows, and she spent the day hanging out at the January autocross. She covers Pasco and Hernando counties, so the article appeared in the Pasco Times section of today's paper. Some good quotes from Pam Corbin and token Pasco County resident Matt Bennett. In the print edition, there's also a good thumbnail pic of Matt, and additional pictures of some gray-haired dude who lives in Dade City -- I live in Land O Lakes, so it can't be me....

The text is on-line at http://www.sptimes.com/2008/01/22/Sport" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... _own.shtml -- no pictures in that version, but I'll contact Kellie and see if we can get a scanned copy to put on the website.

Going back, I also found she posted an announcement for the February event in the 15 Jan paper -- might be able to get that on a regular basis, if we want.

[Loren]

That's quite possibly the best "civilian" autocross article I've ever read.

[Native]

not bad at all...

[Agent]

It doesn't have any negativity towards the sport at all. Whoever is the one who talked to the reporter to give them the the reality did a really good job!

[Loren]

I got the impression that they studied our website BEFORE attending the event, and so the event made more sense to them and they had a good basis for an article. More typical is for a reporter to just show up and talk to one or two people, get little in the way of relevant facts... and get most of the facts wrong.

Of course, they did commit the sin of calling our sport "racing". Which, for insurance purposes, autocross is NOT considered racing. Racing = wheel-to-wheel.

[Native]

Jamie gets the credit for being the "voice of FAST." 8)

[Solar]

Nice article, but what does "non- profit" mean?

[Solar]

EDIT: Double post.

[Loren]

Do you think someone is making money from this club?

[Jamie]

I got the impression that they studied our website BEFORE attending the event, and so the event made more sense to them and they had a good basis for an article. More typical is for a reporter to just show up and talk to one or two people, get little in the way of relevant facts... and get most of the facts wrong.

She did her homework -- we passed her some reference information, including what's on the FAST website (you doubtless recognize some of your material paraphrased on the article). Most important, I kept pointing people at her to talk to for most of the day (thanks, Pam, Bill, Matt!). The most important thing I learned in media training was to keep pushing the message -- many bad articles get written because the person writing them is left to their own devices to find information.

Of course, they did commit the sin of calling our sport "racing". Which, for insurance purposes, autocross is NOT considered racing. Racing = wheel-to-wheel.

I was very careful to lay the groundwork talking about "motorsport competition" and stressing precision over speed...but anyone who looks at 50 cars with numbers on the sides and helmeted drivers trying to push them as fast as possible around the course is going to shorten all that to "r**cing". I've even caught a couple of articles in Sports Car using the word in the same breath as Solo, and the SCCA is normally pretty rabid on keeping the two separate.

[Solar]

Do you think someone is making money from this club?

My comment was mean as "tounge in cheek" type comment.

So do I think "someone" is making money? No. But the club does make a profit, (small yes but it is a profit) so technically it's a "for profit" club which exempts it from any "non-profit" benifits.

[Loren]

The only reason it's not set up as a non-profit is that it's a ROYAL pain in the butt to set up a not-for-profit corporation. For us, the result is the same except that we have to pay taxes on our income at the end of the year. Compared to the expense and hassle of setting up a not-for-profit corporation, the tax burden is the lesser of two evils for us.

We are technically a for-profit corporation, but we operate as a non-profit organization.

Now, when we were with NASA... oh, let's just not go there.

[kickslop]

It would be interesting to examine the wedrivefast.com site stats from 1/22 to now.

[Loren]

Not what you might expect. I can't explain the zeroes on 1/22 and 1/23.

Day Number of page requests
1. December 14, 2007 37
2. December 15, 2007 34
3. December 16, 2007 53
4. December 17, 2007 173
5. December 18, 2007 105
6. December 19, 2007 93
7. December 20, 2007 84
8. December 21, 2007 58
9. December 22, 2007 36
10. December 23, 2007 92
11. December 24, 2007 104
12. December 25, 2007 33
13. December 26, 2007 50
14. December 27, 2007 41
15. December 28, 2007 66
16. December 29, 2007 26
17. December 30, 2007 25
18. December 31, 2007 57
19. January 1, 2008 49
20. January 2, 2008 41
21. January 3, 2008 33
22. January 4, 2008 40
23. January 5, 2008 32
24. January 6, 2008 32
25. January 7, 2008 56
26. January 8, 2008 46
27. January 9, 2008 55
28. January 10, 2008 49
29. January 11, 2008 71
30. January 12, 2008 51
31. January 13, 2008 66
32. January 14, 2008 137
33. January 15, 2008 106
34. January 16, 2008 85
35. January 17, 2008 110
36. January 18, 2008 111
37. January 19, 2008 70
38. January 20, 2008 51
39. January 21, 2008 60
40. January 22, 2008 0
41. January 23, 2008 0
42. January 24, 2008 58

[Alizarin]

A noticeable spike after our event, which is always nice to see. I wonder if the 0's are because the hit tracking software got overloaded?

I was joking with a fellow auto-x'er at work that I should have mentioned to her that my car was a rally car. Prepped cars, the average Neon, and even a rally car! :laff:

[Native]

I was joking with a fellow auto-x'er at work that I should have mentioned to her that my car was a rally car. Prepped cars, the average Neon, and even a rally car! :laff:

a quick letter to the editor asking for a correction oughta fix that!

[matsuwesty]

She was really nice and asked a lot good questions during the interview. She ended up talking to a lot of different people throughout the day, so she had a lot of info she could have written about if she was allowed the space in the paper. She did say that many of the folks involved said that the reason we all liked FAST was because of the comraderie and the "laid back" way the events are done. Everyone there is there to have fun, if you happen to crush the competition while doing so, that's just a bonus (just kidding)
I had quite a few people at work say they had read the article and ask me questions about FAST. That article was good publicity.

[Lava Speed 05]

I'm here because of the article... I've been wanting to autocross since I purchased my 91 300zx in 2001, but I never got around to events when I lived in NY. Since I've been down here I've been lazy about looking for an enthusiast's group...

Now you guys might be stuck with me and will regret that article and allowing people to drive around with FAST stickers on their cars....

[matsuwesty]

Welcome, we look forward to meeting you. Sorry, but our next event at Brooksville is already sold out, but if you check the forum and myautoevents.com regularly you might be able to get in if someone cancels. We hope to see at our events

[aparke]

Do you think someone is making money from this club?

My comment was mean as "tounge in cheek" type comment.

So do I think "someone" is making money? No. But the club does make a profit, (small yes but it is a profit) so technically it's a "for profit" club which exempts it from any "non-profit" benifits.

Certainly, not-for-profits don't want to be in the red. It just isn't called "profit." "Increases in net assets" wouldn't necessarily jeopardize a not-for-profit status...especially with any small amount of profit that the club may generate.

The only reason it's not set up as a non-profit is that it's a ROYAL pain in the butt to set up a not-for-profit corporation. For us, the result is the same except that we have to pay taxes on our income at the end of the year. Compared to the expense and hassle of setting up a not-for-profit corporation, the tax burden is the lesser of two evils for us.

We are technically a for-profit corporation, but we operate as a non-profit organization.

Pretty much...A not-for-profit would have to file an annual informational return - Form 990...of course, no taxes.

The dork in me just had to throw in my 2 cents.