In attendance were Roger Boak, John Phillips, Annie Hadow, Chiquita Taylor, Bill Smith, Joe Sellers, Tom McBrayer, Debbie Kempler-Smith, Barbara Shepard, Suzanne Swift, Shawn Smith, Bob Hoekman, Randy Carlson, Tom Woltz, and Richard Campbell.

Chiquita called the meeting to order. Her first item of business was to ask the group about distributing the Board reports via e-mail. She would like to continue that if it's okay with everyone.

Barbara Shepard reported that Power In Motion (PIM) has about $1000 left over from the spring program. PIM is self-supporting and has decided that it can accept up to 250 participants; they had 190 members in the spring. For future versions, they will need to increase the number of coaches. As result, the cost of joining the program will increase by $1. Ivy Martino and Bob Hoekman will be providing the required CPR training to the coaches at no cost. The CPR course is scheduled for 8/14/99. Also, PIM has established a Hotline: 713-797-8498. The fall PIM program will culminate with the Jingle Bell Run in December.

Joe Sellers reported that the HARRA Fall Series is scheduled as follows: Cross Country Relay on September 25th; 20k on October 17th; 25 on November 14th; 30k on December 5th; 10k on January 8th; and, the Houston Marathon on January 16, 2000. Joe proposed that the Board approve these race dates. The Board approved these dates for the Fall race calendar.

Randy Carlson talked about the progress he and Camille are making with planning the Bayou City 10k. They attended a meeting with Susan Christian from the Houston Parks Department. They need to submit a proposal to the Parks Board on August 11th. Once it is approved, Camille and Randy can begin soliciting sponsors for the race.

Suzanne Swift reported that planning for the Marathon Sign Up Party is going smoothly. David Hannah wrote Chiquita a letter explaining that the Houston Marathon will make an increased effort to include clubs this year. Any HARRA Series Race can have a booth at the Warm Up Party. The guidelines are included in the letter (which was distributed to the group). Clubs sponsoring a Marathon Warm Up Series race will be able to take entries for their race.

Suzanne also told how the Marathon has taken into account many suggestions from runners and they are working to make corrections/ improvements. These suggestions include displaying the HARRA discount for early registrants more prominently; requests from clubs to be accommodated better in the Convention Center on the day of the race; requests to turn the music in the Convention Center down; and, requests to have a method for people to join HARRA on the day of the Sign Up Party.

Tom McBrayer clarified that the Law Week Run will not be given space to have a booth at the Sign Up Party since the race is not sponsored by a HARRA member club. They will be allowed to have race applications out at the HARRA booth, however.

Suzanne said that John Phillips is working with the various running clubs to assign booth spaces and to enforce the rules. Two members from each club are needed to help the Marathon Committee with this. Chiquita reminded everyone that Suzanne and her group have worked very hard on this. Since HARRA is given a lot of visibility, we need to work with Suzanne to make it all happen.

Roger reported that the Club Rep Meeting/ Brainstorming Session was a success. The top three ideas that grew out of the session were improving water availability along popular running routes, establishing a vendor alliance program for HARRA races, and increasing social activities. Shawn Smith said that he plans to invite a spokesperson from each group to come to a future HARRA meeting to speak and to encourage continued momentum for these projects.

Chiquita mentioned that she thought the meeting was worthwhile. Roger raised a few of the other suggested items that were not in the top three to see if there is any interest in pursuing them. One of these items was to reintroduce the laminated HARRA cards. Debbie Kempler-Smith said that the laminated cards of the past were expensive. She will get options on what to do with the card, such as giving mid year joiners temporary paper cards and producing the laminated cards once a year. Roger mentioned that the idea of having patches from various races was suggested; the group decided it was not clear on what was meant by this. Roger will clarify. Shawn Smith mentioned the idea of having a Roads Scholar program, a reward for participating in HARRA events, such as a stipend to help offset the cost of running an out of town race. Roger also mentioned that another one of the ideas from the meeting was to investigate having a walking program. It was decided that we will need a champion for this; Randy Carlson agreed to check with Chris Rampacek to possibly involve a walking group or division in the Bayou City 10k.

Another item from the Club Rep Meeting was a request for improved statistics. Roger reported that Annie Hadow and Gigi Wark have agreed to assist him and Shawn, which should help in this area. Shawn reminded the group that making sure which members are current and which club they are affiliated with is his biggest task. He also mentioned that there was lots of positive feedback from the meeting and he feels it should be an annual event.

John Phillips reported that the party in the Park (sponsored by BCRR) will be held on September 11th from 9am to noon. It will be by the stretching area and will act as a sign up event for the Kids' Run as well as a recognition of clubs and runners at the park.

Bob Hoekman reported that the training for the AED must be conducted by a certified person. He will complete his AED certification on July 31st. Bob and Ivy Martino will conduct the CPR training (a prerequisite) on August 14th. Bob has been working on getting the necessary training videos and additional AED card for training purposes. Chiquita told everyone that she and Steve Shepard are proposing to Exxon to buy the AED for HARRA, as a gift to a non-profit organization.

Chiquita and Camille reported that they are working with Dennis Calabrese for HARRA publicity. The intent is to get HARRA's name out in the community and in front of city officials. Camille's goal is to encourage city-wide participation with the 10k. Some of the ideas include working with PIM to get people to the 10k, publishing a booklet about HARRA, and establishing a walking program (especially for the 10k).

Debbie Kempler-Smith reported that the transfer of the P.O. Box and Hotline have been taken care of. The Board agreed to have two Hotline numbers: a general one for HARRA, and one for the 10k. Debbie will get information on answering services from Barbara Shepard. The Board approved that she move forward with signing up for the service she finds to be the best deal. Debbie also distributed the prototype for the new registration form and asked the group to give her any needed changes. Debbie's next item of business was to discuss the purchase of a new HARRA laptop. She requested $1500 to purchase a new laptop. Chiquita motioned that the Board approve the purchase and the Board agreed. Debbie then moved that the Board agree to buy 75 additional T-shirts (non-purchasable) to use as giveaways. The shirts cost $3.50 apiece. The Board approved the purchase. An HARRA sock purchase was discussed and will be decided upon at a later date.

Chiquita suggested that since we have 200 Marathon Finisher's Towels remaining that we send them back to the printer to have the word "Finisher" blocked out. We can use them to give to new members as sign up gifts.

Debbie Kempler-Smith discussed the research she has done concerning having HARRA sign up and information available on-line. The program she is evaluating has a fee for signing up on-line; should we raise our membership fees to accommodate this? She proposed that we could have HARRA absorb the cost for the first year as a test, without raising membership fees. The matter will be discussed further at the August meeting.

Tom Woltz introduced himself. Tom has agreed to take on the "Footprints" Editor responsibilities.

Tom McBrayer told the group that he had requested an estimate for having the double-sided "Start" banner produced. The person he requested the estimate from went ahead and made the banner, and it was not what Tom wanted. The estimate to make the correct banner is $400; since the banner maker had produced one without Tom's approval, and did not make it as Tom had requested the estimate for, he agreed to sell it to us for $200. Tom proposed that HARRA buy both banners for $600 and we can select the logo to put on the correct banner later. The Board approved the purchase.