With all the talk of cutbacks in SCCA Solo2 and making it live on its own
for it to be a viable part of the SCCA/Johnson strategy, there is one thing
that I learned this past weekend that really got my mind wondering what's
up.
I was at the SEDIV Solo2 this past weekend. Got to registration on Friday
night and had money in hand to purchase my rulebook just like every year,
$15 in hand, when our local registration lady said $25! I was like, "Haha,
funny Denise, here's your $15." She said, "Oh no, not this year, they went
up. $25!" Plus no CD this year which is fine since you can get the rulebook
online and burn one on CD anyways. So, I paid my $25, grumbling as I always
do when I don't agree with something, thinking to myself, "Man, now I can't
afford my $800 set of A3S05s now," and moved on.
A little background on myself real quick and this will explain why I'm a
little miffed by this whole thing. I own a map/book publishing company here
in Florida. I've been printing street atlases, guide books, wall maps, etc.
for the past 15 years myself, plus I grew up around this industry. I know
how much it costs to print a book such as the SCCA rulebook. Based on what
we buy right now, $.50 to $.75 each is a good estimate of what it costs in a
good quantity of maybe 5,000 or more, all depending if you are printing in
the USA, Canada, or China. Really if you printed in China, these would be
around $.35ea. Now here comes the good part...
It is my understanding, and someone correct me if I have bad information
from more than one informed person, but the Solo program sees very little or
none of the proceeds of our rulebook. I don't know how many rulebooks are
sold every year. I've been thinking somewhere around 5,000. Sound about
right? I know our region of 500 members, about 100 of those are actually
Solo people, sells about 50-100 rulebooks a year. So, with 134(?) regions
now, I'm sure 5,000 is a realistic number. So, why don't we see this
$100,000+ worth of proceeds from our rulebook? It seems to me that it makes
the perfect subsidy for our Pro/National programs. And if we are not
receiving any of this money, something is wrong and in my opinion should be
corrected.
I don't mind paying $25 for a rulebook, not at all. But if the Solo program
never sees any of this money, that's when I have a problem with it,
especially when we're told we can't exist unless we can afford our program
on our own. Well, that's my beef of the week...
-MK
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