Board Meeting
The meeting was called to order
by John Phillips at
Members present:
Roger Boak, Audrey Christiansen, Annie Hadow, Bill Dubinsky, John Phillips, GiGi Wark, John Reich, and Camille Yarbrough
Others Present:
Noah Mathews and Bill Smith
Reading of the minutes:
The minutes were read. Audrey Christiansen moved to accept the minutes and John Reich seconded the motion and so moved.
Reports of Directors and committees:
V.P. of Communications – GiGi Wark
The report was brief and that the issue was to be delivered to the printer and was on schedule to be mailed by the first.
Annie Hadow raised an issue about an invoice from NowDesign for charges related to the ballots and notice of the banquet. GiGi was unaware of the invoice and said that she would have to check with Susanne Bynum. Annie pressed about whether it was for printing, design or mailing. GiGi would have to check. Annie questioned the need for this. Weren’t the ballots supposed to be included in Footprints? Bill Dubinsky pointed out that with the change in the date of the banquet there really wasn’t enough time for people to respond by mail. Annie noted that in the past that someone on the board would do all of the Xeroxing and then the board would get together to fold and label ballots and then send them out. She suggested this as a possible way to save money in the future.
Membership Committee - Annie Hadow
Membership is currently at 1665 in a total of 1167 households. She is also getting applications to HoustonFit whose members will once again be encouraged to join HARRA.
V.P. Of Clubs – Roger Boak
The team, club and ironfoot results will be ready this weekend and distributed.
The issue of age and performance in the series has raised its head again with a new twist. This time, masters women are turning in the outstanding performances and winning overall. Thus they take both the open women and masters prizes for the series. Roger noted that some of the women locked into the open division by age have been complaining that masters women are getting all the prizes (not even age graded). There was some discussion about the fairness of this outcome. A number of suggestions were put forward. Roger suggested that we may want to reconsider how awards will be divided up between the masters and open women divisions before the next season.
Treasurer – Audrey Christiansen
Audrey has completed all of the paper work for the transition into treasurer. She expressed concern that if the programs are using the HARRA tax-free number that she will have to include their budgets in the HARRA budget for the sake of the IRS. After looking over our statements, Bill Dubinsky asked where the entries were for PIM and BCC for the last several years. Camille Yarbrough stated that she had just handed over the BCC budget statement to Audrey as she does every year at this time. It is not clear why there are no entries on the general balance sheet.
Annie Hadow raised the issue of the budget for Footprints and wanted to know what GiGi was doing to contain costs. GiGi responded that she had written to John Phillips and Audrey Christiansen that she would not have a budget ready for discussion at this meeting but would for the next. Annie pursued the point wanting to know more about how GiGi was spending the money and if printing costs etc weren’t excessive. GiGi responded that she would really like to have additional time and be prepared for this discussion. John Phillips intervened and said that everyone should be prepared to discuss budgets at the August meeting. Roger asked if it was possible to determine roughly what percentage of dues was spent on the different expenses – fixed costs such as insurance, Footprints, awards, etc. Annie reiterated her comments about Footprints and its high cost and that we should discuss this issue further. John Phillips set the August meeting for further discussion of Footprints and other issues on the budget.
Camille talked briefly about the race and the success that it is becoming. Numbers were up and a significant corner was turned. Sponsors and participants alike were pleased with the outcome. She then turned over a check to Audrey for $10,546 to be deposited in the trail fund. $10,000 were from the proceeds of the race and the $546 represented additional donations that were made mostly by checking the box on the application form and including the donations to the trail fund. Camille and the committee were congratulated for their outstanding effort.
Students Run Houston – John Reich
This was John’s farewell meeting. He offered his sincere thanks and gratitude to the board and HARRA for supporting him on this endeavor. The board thanked him for his efforts and wished him the very best of luck on all of his new ventures.
Road Race Management – Randy Carlson
(Randy submitted this report by email)
1. Spoke with Steven Karpas and he advised that they are going to partner with the Astros instead of being a part of the Fall Series so we are back to ground 0 finding a replacement for the Brazosport Run. Still will pursue Marathon Relay for the '04 series.
2. Visited with Shawn Smith regarding a cross-country event in Feb. as part of the Spring Series. The Harriers have their big meeting late and June and it will be discussed there. There appears to be much enthusiasm.
3. The Nike Track is somewhat bogged down with legal matters for right now. One of the stipulations would be that the Parks Dept. or the Park's Board " indemnify and hold harmless Nike, Inc.,its vendors and partners." Rick Deweese is looking into before we proceed.
4. Hope to have HARRA Requirements finished and out to the HARRA endorsed race directors soon.
5. Michelle should have something to report on the Banquet. Things moving along fine.
I have included the text of Michelle Fredenberg-Arriaga email regarding the preparations for the banquet:
Just an update on the party being
held June 7th at
Please note that the party this year has a new time
and we need to have someone send out a msg to all
members regarding the time. The party will begin at
Cindy and I will arrive at the party at
Flyers went out last week to all members and a big thanks goes to GiGi for handling that end of it.
Robert Gulliver will be coordinating the ballot counters and door greeters for the banquet.
As for the donations for door prizes, Victor Aguirre and I are in charge of this task. We will be contacting a number of running stores, clubs, restaurants, etc...If you have any suggestions, please do not hesitate to call or write me.
At the present moment, that is all I have to report. Please let me know if you have any questions.
John invited Bill Smith to address the group. Bill had several copies of an issue of the newsletter of a large local biking group, The Final Draft. He commented on its simplicity, conciseness, and low cost of production. He noted that the group was on the order of size of HARRA and they seemed to be happy with this publication. Perhaps HARRA should consider this.
John encouraged everyone to attend and to get your fellow club members and running buddies to attend the banquet.
The awards are all in order and being taken care of. Roger will send an email that checks will be given to the winners at the banquet.
Annie Hadow complained that she had received email sent out by Jerry Smith that was forwarded by our webmasters. This was a nuisance and should be discontinued. She told Bill Dubinsky to get in touch with the webmasters to cease mailing her this stuff. Bill Dubinsky responded that they were new to this and simply trying to get information to the board. After all they are volunteers and not familiar with much of the running community and that they were doing a great job with the website and answering HARRA Online, a job that others had refused to do.
Meeting was adjourned at
Respectfully submitted,
Bill Dubinsky