2016 Election Candidates

Fran McDermott – Standing For President

Member since 1982, member of VRRA since 1983, Board member of BMA and past Board member OFTR (offroad orgs.) racer USCRA, WERA, AMA/CCS endurance series. A member of Calabogie SSR trackdays, also past Ontario Forest Management Planning Team member for good measure of a wide spectrum of process experiences, it all helps.

Enough of that, let’s look forward – if given this last for me term of office I would continue to take the next methodical steps toward building a real DOCC culture of collaboration, challenging ourselves rather than one another. Executive accountability depends on commitment including chucking the long-held attitude of executive privilege in the bin.

Thank you for your support of the DOCC and readiness to vote for your management team for the coming term of office! Your club has prioritised better quality trackdays since 1977 and continues to be recognised as the most enduring not-for-profit track provider going. Our history is legend but an enduring future depends on our present choices and capacities. We have a capable team of officers (and candidates for office), and your interest and support is equally important so vote, slam that button down!

Eric Nogueira – Standing For President

• Personal Background

While I’ve only been a member of the DOCC for two years my connection and knowledge of the club reaches back much farther thru uncles and family. I’m 26 years old and herald from Acton, Ontario and make my living as a salesman for a group of mechanical contracting companies along with running a car storage business. In addition to my Ducati Panigale and a Yamaha R6 I enjoy all things mechanical, be it snowmobiling, ATV riding or dirt-biking. I may be relatively new to the track but I have a strong understanding that the DOCC constitutes a family; a very diverse family but a family nonetheless. If you passed by our trailer in the pits you would have noticed that we are a large family affair and were it not for them I would not be able to participate in the DOCC track events.

• Getting The Word Out

My vision for the DOCC is to grow the club and bring back some of the characteristics it has lost over the years. I have heard the stories of the “glory days” when all three riding groups were full to the max with European type motorcycles at every track event. What happened? Since I have been a member of this club I have only ever seen the events at half capacity with minimal visible efforts to turn this tide. We live in the social media age and as a salesman I understand just how important it is to get the message out. The club has access to the power of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, mass emails, forums and the DOCC website. These are the tools of the age (tools I grew up using) and quite frankly they seem vastly underused by the club right now. Only by harnessing the power of these tools can we get the message out there that what we offer is special and different. A quick example: In the run up to the clubs 3 day Calabogie festival I took the initiative to post a Kijiji ad for it. I posted that ad two weeks in advance with a few pictures from our Facebook Group and provided some detail about the event. The ad received approximately 450 hits, 450 people that now know about the DOCC track events. We need more of this and we need it driven from the top. Only by once again working constantly at getting the message out can we return to the “Glory Days”.

• The Dealers Are Our Friends

Being in full-time sales I know the significance of establishing business relationships with the right people. I want to reopen communication with bike dealerships to build mutually beneficial relationships. We have things we can offer such as making available a limited number of heavily discounted or even free track days to new Ducati buyers. If we can help a dealer differentiate themselves by pointing to the rider training offered by our track marshals, it can be used as a sales tool to encourage riders to attend track events. I believe riding on the track is very addictive, and if we can lure sport bike riders to just try a track day that includes rider training than it will boost our attendance numbers in the future.

• Back To The Future

At one time this club was more, much more, than just track days. It had a strong following of people who never went out on the track. To say that aspect of the club has been neglected recently is an understatement. Yet those people, the people brought into the fold for a road ride or a pub meet, are like the feeder system of minor leagues to the big team. We need them as a healthy road side to ensure a healthy track side. I would start by organizing a DOCC BBQ show and shine at my family’s farm in Acton. We have space to accommodate well over 100 motorcycles and space for camping. Prizes would be awarded to the winners of the show and shine contests. This event can be for all friends and family regardless if they have a motorcycle or not. As they say from small seeds large oaks can grow, but as I see it no seeds have been planted for quite a while. I would try to bring back bi-weekly DOCC meets at a couple of centralized coffee shops starting in May 2016. This gives everyone in the club a chance to catch up, but it also gives us a chance to meet other riders and introduce the DOCC to them. These have been done recently and have been quite successful. What we need now is commitment from the top to make them more so. Combine any of these events with a large motorcycle cruise that incorporates the best motorcycle roads that central Ontario has to offer. There are a lot of great routes out there that would be fun to explore as a group.

• A Vision To Strive For

We all want more track time at more places. I would at least like to see four track events per year that would include Mosport, Calabogie, Grattan and Mt. Tremblant. By offering this unique selection of tracks I believe we can support this many events. However the finances need to be there. The only way to get those finances is by growing this club, and attracting new riders to the track. I strongly believe the way to achieve this is through new marketing techniques and incorporating more off track events in the DOCC event schedule. Establishing a tight community off the track will keep our members, and future members, engaged in what is going on with the DOCC. We have a great foundation on which to once again build this club. So many of you have a vast amount of knowledge and experience that needs to be shared with the younger generation of riders. With less and less track riders every year at our events I believe it is time for a change. With less track riders we are limiting ourselves to less track events, which is a huge problem for me and everyone else who wants to ride. I want the DOCC to be on the track as much as possible, and with everyone’s support we can make that happen.

Rob Marshal – Standing For Membership Secretary

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Rob Marshall. I have been a member of the Ducati club for over 15 years now. I first joined the club when I owned a yellow 1974 750 Sport Bevel (I still miss her), and have since moved on to a Pantah, and currently ride a heavily breathed on 1994 Ducati 900SS, – in red of course.

For the past few years you may have seen me at the rallies, helping with Tech, and occassionally marshaling, or helping with the crash truck.

Outside the club I work within the technical side of the satellite telecom industry, here in Ottawa. Which means the major aspects of my job are generally engineering, technical, or project based in nature.

I thought I would apply for the job of Secretary, as another way of helping the DOCC. I think that my structured background would be a good fit for the postion of Secretary. It seems that organization and attention to detail are primary skills here and I know I can help in that respect. By applying for the position of Secreatry, my intent is to make the club better, and to make things easier for the person who takes on this position in the future.

Jennifer Waterland – Standing For Membership Secretary

Over the course of the last 9 years I have in all likelihood talked to the vast majority of you without you knowing just who I am. So, for those who might not I am Jennifer Waterland and for the past 9 years have been the DOCC’s Treasurer and for the past 6 years and Secretary/Membership coordinator. While Iwould like to continue in both positions I had to make a choice and as such I’m now running for the Secretary/Membership coordinator position only. While I get great enjoyment from both roles I hope that in the role of Secretary I can maintain contact with you the members, the best part of the club.

Over my time serving the club there are very few areas I have not had the privilege of helping with. I started by simply volunteering at pit out and then taking on any task that was passed my way.

Along with the more obvious jobs of my assigned roles I have spent days working the club stands at bike shows, arranging and being the club presence at multiple dealer open houses and arranging with the dealers to get donations of door prizes for multiple club events including the Mosport festival.

To try and bolster the social side of the club away from the track I arranged (for many years) and hosted an annual club barbeque at my home, put together multiple pub nights in both Kitchener and Toronto and arranged for meals at both Bogie and Mosport.

I am well versed in all aspects of putting a track day on from insurance requirements and sourcing, preparing documentation for the registration process, or documenting your little on track mishaps for submission to the CMA (part of our legal requirement). I have assisted when needed for the past 2 events coordinators and hence know just what it takes to put on a successful event. Be it the membership package you receive in the mail, the documents you sign at the track or just the person you talk to wanting to know if you’re registered, I enjoy it all.

When I took on the role of Secretary/Membership coordinator six years ago I inherited a series of disjointed spreadsheets that provided the club with little history on who had attended our track days in the past, or when people had slowly disappeared from the fold. Extracting information from it was a chore with names coming from multiple places. With my assistance the clubs records are now kept in a dedicated piece of software I helped to design. We now have the ability to dissect and extract member information using multiple criteria. Information that is both accurate and timely. When the club started at Grand Bend it allowed us to easily extract the contacts for both old and new members living within a reasonable radius of the track; people that I then contacted to try and make that event fly.

Lastly I just want to point out that those 9 years of serving the club have been for one reason only. I enjoy the people and comradery of the club. I want it to succeed and I want to continue to be a part of it. I may not ride on the track or own a bevy of bikes but I know what truly makes this club tick, and that’s the people I’ve had the pleasure of talking to, and becoming friends with each year.

I hope you will let me keep being part of this wonderful club.