Houston Area Road Runners Association
Board Meeting
March 17, 2003
Roger Boak called the meeting to order at 6:00.
Members present:
Audrey Christiansen, Roger Boak, Bob Hoekman, Annie Hadow, Bill Dubinsky, Camille Yarbrough, John Reich and Tom McBrayer.
Others Present:
Tony Deandra, Ken Gonsalves, Donna Gallegos and Paul Cooley
Reading of the minutes:
The minutes were read and approved.
Report of the President:
John was in New Zealand. Roger Boak presided over the meeting.
Reports of Directors and committees:
Bayou City Classic – Camille Yarbrough
The BCC was a successful event and went off with minimal problems. Camille thanked all the sponsors and those who either helped put on the event or participated by running in the event.
The major problem led to a rather vigorous discussion of the lack of cooperation received from the EMT service provided by Cypress Creek. They refused to maintain the service at the finish line and would not cooperate with the requests of the Race Director. In response to a question Roger Boak pointed out that HARRA requires 2 EMTs at sanctioned events. There were 4 at the BCC, however they pretty much did their own thing and would not man the Med tent at the finish line. Bob Hoekman reviewed his procedures with the AED team. He always contacts the Race Director to coordinate with the EMTs and the Ham Radio operators. His initial impression was that there would be good cooperation, but finally they refused to place anyone at the finish line. Thus despite the fact that they looked really good in their sharp looking bike clothes, they were in the end totally uncooperative. Thus both Roger’s and Bob’s comment reinforced and punctuated Camille’s concerns with this outfit. Bob closed with his own observations of the behavior of the EMTs and suggested in no uncertain terms that their service not be requested for any future HARRA events.
Another problem had to do with parking. In some areas that were previously open for free parking during the event broke tradition and charged for parking. They had not informed anyone of the changes. Next year every effort will be made to warn the participants of these changes and any others.
The above discussion on EMTs led into a further discussion of HARRA requirements. Randy will be sure to inform all race directors of the HARRA race requirements for series events. There is a published set of guidelines for race directors. Tom McBrayer also commented that there had been a race evaluation form that evaluated each race with a point system for everything from safety requirements to the number of porta-potties, things required of the series races. Camille would forward the forms to Bill Dubinsky for distribution to those interested. He also noted that the Law Run does not have enough EMTs at this point and would follow up.
We also apparently have lost a 5 mile race this spring and may well lose the Brazosport Arts run in the fall. The notion of a marathon relay was considered. Previously there had been such a race but seemed to have a lot of trouble with the city in the execution of the event. It was generally felt that this was not an avenue that HARRA should pursue alone due to the logistics of putting on a race in another city.
Finally the issue of the parallel fall series was discussed. Paul Cooley reported that the clubs involved in the fall series met and discussed the issue in detail. The consensus was that they would be willing to give it a try. It looks as if it will be possible to fit it in and that there was an obvious benefit to the warm up series, the clubs and to HARRA. Details had to be worked out as to the mechanism that would be used to incorporate the second run into the first. The main concern would be to have a consistent process for all of the races, such as different colored bibs for the parallel series. The race directors also suggested that HARRA might want to address the issue of a competitive award for the “Luke Warm Up Series”. Keep an emphasis on finishing the series. To encourage competition have an award of some sort since there will no points benefit to the clubs. Bob reiterated his concern that the new series would have to take place on the same course as the longer runs in order to insure AED coverage of the entire field.
Camille pointed out that with both the spring and fall series HARRA was missing an opportunity to publicize the organization and suggested that we put together a HARRA PR sheet to include in all of the race packets.
RRCA Meeting – Paul Cooley
The annual RRCA convention will be held in Washington towards the end of April. The Houston Masters Running Club sends two members to the convention each year. Paul went last year and was confronted with many interesting problems associated with the restructuring of RRCA. Most significant was the attempt to put all of the power of naming officers in the hands of the President and taking it out of the hands of the members and their votes. The issue was made more difficult since if you were not the President of an affiliated club, in order to vote you had to have a proxy from your president. There was considerable confusion and frustration, but the members got together sufficient strength to defeat the measure and retain power to elect the officers. Paul is seeking to represent HARRA by proxy at the meeting and make our voice heard at the next convention.
One issue of concern is the method by which members are counted. The motion is to have all families represented by their individual number of heads that are 13 or older on September 30th. This will increase the fees to individual clubs and HARRA for their membership in RRCA.
Annie Hadow made the motion to authorize Paul Cooley to serve as proxy for the president of HARRA at the annual convention of RRCA. Roger Boak acting as president called for a second. Bill Dubinsky made the second and the motion called for a vote. The motion passed by unanimous vote of the board. Roger Boak signed for the president of HARRA.
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.
V.P. of Communications – GiGi Wark
Bill Dubinsky reported that the next issue of Footprints was at the printers and would soon be mailed.
Webmaster:
AED – Bob Hoekman
The team is all set for the Spring series and the Tour de Bayou
Students Run Houston – John Reich
Just about to wrap up the season. A little disappointed at the turnout for the BCC, but it seems as if we are running into the regular track season at this point. In general the participation in the training sessions was quite good. The banquet will be held this next Saturday. Plans are being implemented to recruit more teachers next year in an effort to expand to beyond just the athletic coaches to reach a wider spectrum of students.
Membership Committee - Annie Hadow
Membership is currently at 1632.
Year end numbers look like this:
2000: 2133 members
2001: 1856 members
2002: 2044 members
2002 numbers include the extended (extra 6 month) membership period due to
the expiration date move from Dec. 31 to June 30.
Year end 2000's number of 2133 is the all-time high for HARRA membership.
Treasurer – Audrey Christiansen
Still working on some signatures.
V.P. Of Clubs – Roger Boak
Tom McBrayer opened a discussion regarding the duplication of awards in the fall series and other races. If a masters wins both the open and masters division should they be awarded both awards. Pros and cons were discussed and the consensus was that the issuing of awards should be determined by the race director and the sponsoring club and not an issue for HARRA to get involved in.
Bill Dubinsky introduced Tony Deandra, a database manager who would be willing to help HARRA move to a new database system. Annie Hadow and Roger both addressed the need for such a system. Roger felt that Oracle was perhaps designed more for handling large databases and not appropriate for HARRA’s needs. Although Annie had some problems with the data base she was using, these were relatively minor. Bill Dubinsky raised the question as to whether it might not be useful to consolidate and have a uniform database for membership, statistics, mailings and so on. Such consolidation was deemed unnecessary. Annie would get in touch with Mr. Deandra to help eliminate some of the problems she was having.
Bill Dubinsky then introduced the two new webmasters to the organization. Mr. Ken Gonsalves and Donna Gallegos. They each made a brief statement and Donna asked the group if they would like to see any changes in the website. A brief discussion ensued regarding the purpose of the site. Since it was primarily informational, there were no major changes at this time.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:37 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Bill Dubinsky