I do not think it's feasible from a time standpoint to open up all meetings to the members. Meetings right now go past the 3 hour mark. Adding more people to the meetings would make it extremely daunting.
There's also the issue of renting a venue to accommodate all the people that may or may not show up. If anybody has cared to look at the meeting notes for 2014, they'll see that the club was in the red for the year. So, the club lost money. But you're proposing to spend more money on stuff?
As the secretary, I am hearing a common theme that people want to be more involved which is awesome.
I will propose to hold an open meeting for all members twice a year throughout the race season. This will be voted on at the AGM and majority will rule. I will vote for this motion as there seems to be a demand. I will also vote that you organize it as the person who is pushing for non-exec volunteering efforts
I'm not sure what people think happens in these meetings, but operational logistics and responsibilities are identified and handed out to exec members. I suppose to manage expectations, here are some examples:
* e.g. "Our garbage cans are overflowing. Let's contact Castrol and get them to up their game.... Who wants to do this?... OK, this task has been assigned to Wilson to be completed by <date>"
* "Question: We were behind schedule last race round, how do we keep up with the schedule?" "Answer: It's hard to answer that because we are at the whim of nature and crashes. Some things are beyond our control."
It's really nothing more than that.
I'm also not quite too sure I follow on one of your points. You want the club to reduce the number of exec, but you also want the exec to create a promotional group (i.e. add more people in the process) for a job that currently one person is doing? More people to do a job that one person is doing... but you want to decrease the number of exec? It seems counter-productive to your goal.
You bring up awesome thoughts, but in order to push anything through, we need specifics. I think where your thoughts fail is that you do not see where the work and effort that you are trying to save is transitioned. Make a value case and propose it at the AGM because none of us are going to do it. IMO, your whole argument to decrease the exec... I personally don't care because I didn't race so I didn't get anything out of the benefits of being exec. Personally, to me, it's more work and for what? Literally, what is your goal? To squeeze out the extra $800 from each race round by decreasing the exec by 5 people? By decreasing the amount of exec, you are creating other bodies (i.e. more people) that are doing the job thereby throwing the organization and effort load onto the remaining exec people that are left. This is the biggest part. The amount of tasks to complete during the race rounds will not decrease. So, even if you create groups and committees, you are putting the stress and effort of coordinating and organization these groups of people on the few exec that remain. Speaking candidly: Nobody wants to do that much work, man. We're here to run a club that allows people to race. It's really that simple. If we can do this without losing money each year, fantastic.
Also, the groups that you mention that are in charge of tasks/stuff, do they get anything out of it? Are they paid? Get breaks of fees? Free track time? How much will that cost the club vs getting rid of 5 exec members? Edit: There are 2 exec members that raced 1 round or less all year.
This is what I'm getting at. If you want to make a push for it, by all means, make a case. The exec is not resistant to change, but come up with specifics and not just ideas.
If someone cares to complain, I challenge them to come up with a solution, steps, actions, specifics, and own the process to make the change happen. Run for exec, BE THE PERSON YOU THINK OUR EXEC NEEDS! But please, don't just complain. (not directed at you, but just in general -pet peeve when people are all like, "I don't like this... I don't like that" but do nothing to improve whatever they're complaining about.