Houston Area Road Runners Association
Board Meeting
February 17, 2003
The meeting was called to order by John Phillips at 6:07.
Members present:
John Phillips, Audrey Christiansen, Randy Carlson, Roger Boak, Bob Hoekman, Annie Hadow, Bill Dubinsky, Camille Yarbrough, GiGi Wark, Zach Gonzalez and Tom McBrayer.
Others Present:
Noah Mathews
Report of the President:
John will look into getting the Elks Lodge for the banquet and will select a date on the basis of availability. It was also reported that Terry Garret had resigned from the board.
Reports of Directors and committees:
Treasurer – Audrey has assumed the position of Treasurer and presented a brief report on the finances for the month of January. Since she has just assumed the position it will take until next month to report on all of the accounts. She was unable to get check writing privileges until the minutes are explicit about her appointment.
Reading of the minutes:
The minutes were emended to note specifically the appointment of Audrey Christiansen as treasurer with the unanimous approval of the board at the January meeting. The board then approved them.
V.P. of Communications – GiGi Wark
The special Marathon edition of FOOTPRINTS will be mailed out shortly. It has a good look and a nice marathon section. The deadline for submission of the reports of the directors and various letters is 2/28/03 for the April/May issue.
Randy brought up the question about the date of the LP run. GiGi said that it would be corrected in the next issue. Apparently there were some problems in choosing the date for the run itself.
Webmaster:
Jeremy sent an email that he had to step down from the website as of 2/20/03. The person he had initially identified declined and he was unable to identify a new webmaster. Bill Dubinsky will contact Jerry Smith to find volunteers. Zach Gonzalez offered to help identify a volunteer.
Bill Dubinsky will be the contact person for web related matters.
V.P of Road Race Management – Randy Carlson
1. Revisited
the issue of pledges to the Parks Department for the following sums:
$12,500
for Memorial Park
$10,000 for Friends of Herman Park
There is approximately $27,000 in the
Parks Fund earmarked for such expenditures. Randy put forward a motion that
HARRA make a $10,000 pledge to the Friends of Hermann Park to assist in
achieving their goal of $500,000 in order to receive a matching $2,000,000
grant. There was brief discussion and a unanimous vote of approval for the
motion.
2. Annie Hadow raised a voice of concern regarding the budgetary matters of HARRA. She suggested that we should have a meeting to focus on our current assets and plan a budget for the next year. Her suggestion was well received.
3. The Run for the Arts is up in the air. Randy talked with Melissa Hurta about the directorship of that race. He also talked with Andy Stewart about combining a 15K relay with the 30K for a race with in a race for the “Fall Short Series”. No enthusiasm there. Randy will meet with all of the fall series race directors in April to once again make a pitch for the short series.
V.P. Of Clubs – Roger Boak
1. Complimented the Harriers on the excellent job they did with the Cross Country Championships. He also reported that they made some improvements to the Allen Parkway trail, thus the running community derived some additional benefits from having this run in Houston.
2. Runner of the Season has been forwarded to Jeremy. There were 4 masters women that scored in both the masters and the open category.
3. The awards will be ready to pass out at the BCC.
4. Raised a question as to how we calculate the number of members. The RRCA insurance now requests not only the number of households but also the number of members. Audrey will pursue this discussion.
AED – Bob Hoekman
The team will be starting their spring series coverage beginning in February. The training and recertification is proceeding. If any one knows of any volunteers please contact him. GiGi asked him to write a note for Footprints and she would publish it in the next issue.
Students Run Houston – Zach Gonzalez
Zach thanked USAFIT for their support and noted that they had been invoiced for their contribution. He reported on the group – about 30-40 regulars who were all enthusiastic and generally a good group of kids. There is interest in proceeding with either a spring or summer program. He will pursue this and report back. There are 2 events remaining, both 10K’s.
Bayou City Classic – Camille Yarbrough
Camille reported that they went to Austin to promote the run at the expo for the Motorola Marathon and initiated the “Texas 10K Challenge”. The Texas 10K challenge includes races in 5 cities and invites runners to visit and run in each of these competitive events.
With regards to the BCC, HEB has been a real supporter this year. They are running a big promotional campaign in the Chronicle and in other venues.
John Phillips thanked all of those who participated at the Party in the Park to promote the BCC.
Membership Committee - Annie Hadow
Membership count is currently at 1567. Randy was interested in how these numbers compared to the past membership count. It is a little hard to estimate at this point as members are still getting used to the dates for membership renewals.
John Phillips wanted to know if there was someway of combining the club members and the HARRA members into a single database. Annie said she would look into data management programs.
Equipment – Tom McBrayer
1. The equipment provided to the harriers for the Cross Country meet was a real benefit to the event. The estimated value of the loan was $300.
2. The new clock that was approved at the last Board meeting came in.
3. The insurance costs for the equipment has gone up considerably. They are now $2.15 per $100 with a $1000 deductible. HARRA, RaceRun and the Marathon each pay a share pro-rated on their initial investment (80% HARRA, 10% marathon, 10% Race Run. All equipment is valued at replacement value. Audrey will write a check for the full amount and will be reimbursed from the other groups.
John Phillips will not be at the next meeting. Roger Boak will preside in his absence according to the by-laws
The meeting was adjourned at 7:35 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Bill Dubinsky