The meeting was called to order by John Phillips at 6:02.

Members present:
John Phillips, Roger Boak, Cindy Sosa, Michele Fredenberg-Arriaga, Annie Hadow, Bill Dubinsky, Jeremy Mills, Terry Garrett, John Reich, Mercedes Tarley, Bob Hoekman, and Tom McBrayer.

Members not present:
GiGi Wark, Ralph Collins, Randy Carlson

Others present:
Rosie Schmandt of Bayou City Road Runners, Rick Burris and Robby Sabban of Clear Lake Fitness Club, and Jo Ann Luco of Houston Masters

Reading of the minutes:
The minutes of the August meeting were approved and accepted.

Report of the President:
John made a brief statement regarding the postponement of the Just for Kids Fun Run and the associated problems. He then welcomed Cindy and Michelle to the board.

Reports of Directors and committees:

Treasurer - Jeremy Mills
Two spreadsheets were sent by email to the board (they are attached to the official minutes). The first is the normal 2002 income/expense report, the second is information on last year's Kid's Run.

Account balances as of 9/15:
Checking: $23,977.83
Trail Fund: $26,891.47
Money Market: $10,672.10
TOTAL ASSETS: $51,620.77

Membership dues received through 9/15 are up to $22,641 for the year. This is 65% of the total amount received during calendar 2001.

Due to the recent influx of membership renewals, HARRA now has a positive net income for the year of $3,950. In 2001, HARRA finished the year with an income of $1,942.

After a one year hiatus, we have resumed invoicing for Footprints advertisements. Invoices for the Oct/Nov issue went out on 9/12 and are due in 30 days.

Power in Motion - no report

V.P of Road Race Management - no report

V.P. Of Clubs - Roger Boak
Pacesetters club is now defunct, rolled over into Team PTI.

The Clear Lake Fitness Club is a new club that recently joined HARRA.

Raised the issue of getting race data posted on the website to make it more readily available to all members.

Reported on the Memorial Park Planning Board and progress in the development of a new plan for the future use of Memorial Park. The plans are posted on the internet and emails will be sent to members, clubs and other interested parties to alert them to both the site and the necessity to respond to a call for support for any of the plans. Roger had the impression that one of the strongest factors in the final outcome would be the public response to the plans. Bob Hoekman reiterated the importance of our input in the final outcome of the parks plan. Briefly there were 3 plans under consideration, all of which had expanded running trails, although there was some reduction in the number of trails through Ho Chi Minh. The outcome could be very favorable to the running community if we were to demonstrate our support.

Membership Committee - Annie Hadow
We currently have 1171 paid members.

Membership activity has been high. We are getting very good response from the renewal reminder postcards we sent out. We also had good activity at the Marathon Sign Up Party. We reintroduced the membership card there and it was very well received.

Annie and John will be attending the Team PTI meeting this Saturday, September 21.

We should continue to have strong membership renewal interest as we approach the Fall Race Season.

V.P. of Communications -
In place of GiGi, Annie Haddow reported on the estimated publication and mailing date of FootPrints. Bill Dubinsky Briefly talked about the new layout and printing arrangements.

Students Run Houston - John Reich
John conveyed to the group that there was a possibility that he would be leaving Houston in the coming year and sought a replacement for his position. He would like to name someone as soon as possible in order to introduce him to the various contact people and train him in the operation of SRH. Because of the pending changes to the program, the board agreed that this was an important placement.

Bayou City Classic
Terry Garret has been in contact with Camille Yarbrough regarding his taking over this event for the 2004 season. They are making arrangements at this time and Terry will go to a workshop designed to train Race Directors in all aspects of putting on such an event.

AED -Bob Hoekman
Bob has sent out emails requesting support for races in the fall series. He has also notified those in need of recertification and set training classes for them. He organized a special CPR class for PIM coaches and noted that many of these are also AED certified. Finally, the Memorial Park AED unit should have been put into service the day of this meeting

New Business
There was a request before the board to loan equipment to the Houston Harriers in support of their hosting the 2003 USA Winter Cross Country Championships in February. There was considerable discussion about HARRA involvement. A final motion was made by Terry Garrett to commit available equipment at no cost.

Jo Ann Luco brought our attention to a letter sent from the RRCA soliciting $1.00 per runner from each affiliated club to help defray costs of running RRCA . It seems that they have been running severe deficits the last few years and are trying restore their operating fund. She wanted to know what HARRA was prepared to do about the RRCA situation. Since the board was unaware of the solicitation there was a discussion about the problems leading to the losses. Rick Burris pointed out that the problems are pretty well described in documents on the RRCA website, mostly indicating a severe loss this year. Jeremy Mills interjected that this is an ongoing problem, and that at the annual meeting they reported losses approaching $100,000 per year for the last 3 years. Jeremy will look into the problem more carefully. If the solicitation is serious, then Jeremy will look into the possibility of funneling payments through HARRA to help eliminate “double dipping” for members that belong to more than one club or belong to a club and HARRA. Roger Boak will communicate with clubs and their representatives to correlate any actions by our affiliates.

An email was received from an individual who will be in town for only 4 months. They request pro-rating his membership fees. The notion was rejected.

Old Business - None

The meeting was adjourned at 7:20 pm.