The meeting was called to order by John Phillips at 6:03.

Members present:
John Phillips, Roger Boak, Annie Hadow, Randy Carlson, Bill Dubinsky, Cindy Sosa, Terry Garrett, Bob Hoekman, and Tom McBrayer.

Members not present:
Ralph Collins, Jeremy Mills, GiGi Wark, John Reich, Michele Fredenberg-Arriaga

Others present:
Michelle Wolpert, Audrey Christiansen, Shawn Smith, John Warren

Reading of the minutes:
The minutes of the October meeting were corrected by Dr. Hoekman who indicated that he was not present at the meeting. They were then approved and accepted.

Report of the President:
John introduced Michelle Wolpert and Audrey Christiansen to the board. They are candidates for the open treasurer position. They gave brief synopsis of their backgrounds and interests. He said that a decision would be made in the next few weeks and he would get back to them regarding the treasurer’s position.

He also introduced Shawn Smith and John Warren who were present to address the board on the USATK cross country meet in the spring. John then turned the meeting over to them to inform us as to the specifics of the event. I have attached two handouts at the end of the minutes that were given to us. They are a schedule of events and a Harriers document that gives a history and background on the event. They stressed that this is a big event and an important one. It is not a money making venture, rather the Harriers had to put up a considerable fee to get the event to take place in Houston. They need volunteers for all aspects of the event. Particularly the day before the race for course set up and on race days. They would also like to have the clubs provide assistance in introducing runners to Houston. Not necessarily to host them, but perhaps lead a group to a restaurant or some other activity.

Reports of Directors and committees:

Treasurer - Jeremy Mills
Jeremy was absent however submitted this report.

Attached is the HARRA Income/Expense report through 11/18/2002 (copy entered into minutes).

Footprints invoices for the Dec/Jan issue were dropped in the mail this afternoon.

I will be stepping down as treasurer in the near future, at a date that is most convenient for the Board. Over the weekend I spoke with two potential replacements (Michelle Wolpert and Audrey Christiansen), both of whom are well qualified for the position. They both plan to attend the Board meeting on 11/18, so you will have a chance to meet them at that point.

Once the President/Board selects a replacement, I will officially resign and pass off the treasurer's duties to that individual. My preference would be for this date to be 11/30 or 12/31, but I will be available to help for as long as is necessary.

I will also be handing off the webmaster duties in the near future. There are several people interested, but I have not had a chance to meet with them yet. I will provide more details once I am further along in the process.

It's been a pleasure serving for HARRA, and I wish everyone the best of luck in the future!!

Power in Motion – Ralph Collins
Was at the Just for Kids Fun Run Training Program, thus no report for PIM.

V.P of Road Race Management – Randy Carlson
1. The evaluation of the 10 miler was generally favorable towards the event with the exception of the awards ceremony which ran about 3 hours late, seemed to be unnecessarily long wait. There was also a problem at the 20K that caused some discussion, namely a problem with T-shirt distribution.

2. There was a brief discussion to get a consensus on the introduction of a fall series leading to the half marathon. There was overwhelming support of the introduction of the series. Randy will next go to the individual race directors in order to explore mechanisms using the same races as the regular fall series by simply including a half distance for any particular race.

3. Randy also put forward the suggestion that we identify a specific Social Director for HARRA to begin planning for the Spring Party and Awards Banquet. There used to be a named individual for this position.

4. All of the mile markers are in place at memorial Park.

V.P. Of Clubs - Roger Boak
1. The Club standings are completely up to date at this time in order to track club and individual performances during the fall season.

2. Roger will set up a data base for volunteers. He is planning on listing specific activities, such as water stops, or data entry for volunteers to sign up for. This should help to identify volunteers by need for a specific event and facilitate placement. Roger will write a brief note for Footprints.

Membership Committee - Annie Hadow
1. We currently have 1493 members.

2. Annie sent out 3 sets of mailing lists to races, which will produce $345 in additional income.

V.P. of Communications – GiGi Wark
Bill Dubinsky reported for Footprints. The next issue will be coming out on time the first week of December. The issue looks good in the galleys that he saw and it should be an interesting issue. He also noted the next deadlines for submission of articles for the general issue and the extension only available for Marathon stories.

GiGi is still working on getting the mailing permits straightened out.

Just For Kids Fun Run
Bill Dubinsky reported for GiGi Wark.

1. Can any one help to buy food and does anyone have a Sam’s Club card. Cindy Sosa volunteered to do the shopping with Michelle Fredenberg-Arriaga to get the food for the Kids Run.

2. We currently have 146 entrants in the race.

3. Other housekeeping items: John Phillips will bring the BCRR tent and a generator for the moonwalk. The Portacans are arranged for, Admission to the picnic loop has been arranged for and all permits have been obtained for the park and food distribution.

Students Run Houston - John Reich
John was unable to attend the meeting and submitted the following report.

I apologize for missing a second meeting in a row, but I have a work commitment that I can not reschedule. Here is an update on SRH. If anyone has any questions please let me know.

1. Zach Gonzalez and I have met to work on the 2003 schedule, school recruitment and sponsorship.

2. Sponsorship for SRH has fallen short this year. Zach will be approaching several contacts he has through his job, and I am working on some leads within the running community. Regardless of whether we sign a new sponsor for the spring we will be able to carry out the program.

3. Schedule: We have not finalized the dates yet but are planning to kick off SRH in early January and have the final event be the Bayou City 10K. Our volunteer event will probably be the XC National Championships and we are planning to do one less race in order to have an additional training session. The students enjoy the races but races don't allow for much coach/student interaction and we think this dilutes the value of the program.

4. We are also considering ways to continue working with students beyond the Bayou City Classic.

5. School Recruitment: Sam Houston, Austin and Lee High Schools will be participating this year. Our goal is to sign up 30 students from each school and have over 60 of the 90 be active throughout the program. Last year our participation was down so we are working on ways to increase the interactive of the program. The biggest change we are planning is to offer some training on the school campuses in addition to meeting in the parks. We hope this will lessen transportation problems and bring new students into the program.

6. I will invite Zach Gonzalez to the next board meeting so those of you who don't know him have a chance to meet him.

Bayou City Classic
John Phillips announced that Terry Garret had resigned from the Bayou City Classic Race Committee and thanked him for his ideas and participation.

Equipment - Tom McBrayer
Tom reported that he met with Shawn Smith to arrange for the needs of the USATF for the Cross Country Meet. Their equipment needs are minimal and we could meet all essential needs with the exception of flagging. Tom was authorized by the board to purchase what was needed since we would have to replace our current supply which has been damaged due to normal wear and tear. Our overall donation to the USATF for the equipment will be about $350.

AED – Bob Hoekman
1. Dr. Hoekman reported that the fall season saw a very good response from volunteers and dropped a few that never participate in race day activities. Currently there is a stable of 47 volunteers including a physician and several nurses.

2. The AED unit that was donated to the park is in questionable usage. Bob will look into its accessibility and usage.

New Business
1. Bill Dubinsky suggested that we have the December meeting at Star Pizza and invite representatives from member clubs to join us. This might facilitate improved relations between the clubs and the board. This was unanimously approved, as it has been successful in the past.

2. A membership list will be forwarded to the RRCA for updating insurance policies through that organization.

3. We will have a booth at the marathon expo with the BCC as in the past. Roger also brought up the issue of towels vs bandanas for HARRA marathon finishers. There were many bandanas left, and the towels seemed to be more popular. We decided to stick with the towels.

4. Tom McBrayer noted an article about the problems that Austin is having with complaints about traffic during the marathon. They too have a very active running community but are beginning to receive many complaints. The concern is that this may become a general problem resulting in further restrictions on big races.

Old Business
1. Kids Run – There was a question about the sound system and a DJ. That was taken care of by GiGi.

2. Camille Yarbrough will remain as race director for the BCC10K.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:32 pm.