Montgomery County Road Runners Club

Minutes of Board of Directors Meeting

Meeting of April 3, 2008 

Called to order: 7:00 pm 

Present:  Cathy Blessing (President), Sethiya Renwick (Vice President), Chris Richey (Treasurer), Mical Honigfort (Secretary), Jean Arthur (Member at Large), Jim Farkas (Member at Large), Craig Roodenburg (Member at Large) 

Invited guests: John Sissala (clubhouse build-out)

Minutes Prepared By:  Mical Honigfort, Secretary 

  1. Review Agenda
    1. Added discussion with John Sissala re. build-out, and discussion of board liaison roles
  2. Business involving guests
    1. John Sissala
      1. Bobby Srour (clubhouse landlord) estimates cost of build-out to be $10,000 and an additional $5,000 for bathroom.  MOTION:  Jean moves to spend up to $12,000 to have Bobby Srour provide drawings, serve as general contractor, and hire contractors for the build-out of the clubhouse.  Craig seconds, unanimous.
    2. Joel Carrier and John Sissala
      1. Pam Clark is working on the logo for the race; Joel passed around one example of the logo
      2. Joel asked about the status of getting the bank account established.  Chris reported that he is in the process of opening the account with Bank of America.
      3. The race received a donation of $2500 from a vendor in DC (Document Systems, Inc.) towards the event.  We will try to use this company for computer needs during the event.
      4. The club is to go forward with a formal announcement that we have been selected to host the event.  The contract will be forthcoming.  Joel is going to work with USATF on coordinating the announcement. 
      5. The committee has three event planners (club members) that are helping with the logistics for the hotels, etc. 
      6. Pam Clark has started creating drafts for the event website.  It will be a static website that will give event information, volunteer information, and sponsor acknowledgement but will link to the USATF site for registration, etc. 
  3. Club Administrator Report
    1. Susan was unable to attend by provided the following report prior to the meeting:
      1. Jim offered to check the club phone line for a few weeks while Susan is not available.
      2. Susan proposed putting a "change of member information" form on the webpage.  When people change their address or other information, it will be sent directly to Susan.  This will hopefully reduce the cost of returned Rundowns which are 50 cents each (last month we had almost 50).  These were all due to people who moved and hadn't notified us).  Arya Akmal, the current webmaster, will help with this.
      3. Susan sent invites to everyone with an email address on file who is not a member of the Yahoo mcrrc-alert group.  In an initial "pilot experiment", Susan averaged 20% sign up.  She also hopes to have a process where she will send the invite to all new club members. 
      4. The stickers and magnets arrived and will go in new member packets.
  4. Review MCRRC Calendar
    1. Difficult Run 8k- April 5, 9:00am, Great Falls, VA
    2. Firebirds Mile- April 17, 6:45pm, Gaithersburg
    3. Pike’s Peek 10k- April 27, 8:00am, Rockville
  5. Minutes of the Previous Meeting
    1.    Chris moves to accept minutes.  Jim seconds, passed unanimously.
  6. Treasurer’s Report
    1. The total cash in MCRRC accounts, as of March 31, 2008 (not including Parks Half Marathon, Pike’s Peek, and DYR accounts) was the following:
      1. Checking (9223) $26,122.18 
      2. Savings (6828) $16,116.84
      3. Smith Barney $17,130.21
      4. Total Bank Accounts  $59,369.23
      5. Other Assets (CDs)  $85,000.00
    2. Parks Half Marathon Bank Accounts  (as of February 29, 2008)
      1.  Checking   $5,590.03
      2.  Savings   $2,360.06
      3. Total Bank Accounts      $7,950.09
    3. Pike’s Peek Bank Account  (as of March 31, 2008) 
      1. Checking    $14,404.62
      2. Total Bank Accounts $14,404.62
    4. DYR Bank Account (as of March 31, 2008)
      1.  Checking   $10,306.95
      2.        Total Bank Accounts                         $10,306.95
    5. April Financial Information
      1. Significant income was received from:
        • Rundown Ads $5,500.00
        • DARCARS Young Run $6,000.00 
    6. Motion to accept Treasurer’s Report:  Craig moves, Jim seconds, passed unanimously.
  7. Unfinished Business (action items from previous meetings)
    1. Review Action Items from prior Board meeting:
      1. Discussion of the club purchasing a chip timing system
        • Sethiya proposed a meeting of key personnel to discuss how we are going to proceed with the purchase of a system.
        • The board discussed the IPICO system and the cost.  The cost would be $50,000 for the elite package.  Chris estimated that with our three large chip-timed races (Pike’s Peek, Twilighter, and Parks Half) that the system would pay for itself in 3-4 years. The board discussed that this is in the long-term interest of the club.   Cathy also presented some information on the system she had received from Phil Quinn and talked about the demonstration she and Jim attended recently. 
        • MOTION: Craig moves to authorize spending up to $50,000 on the IPICO timing system.  Chris seconds, unanimous.
        • ACTION ITEM:  Sethiya will schedule a meeting with the key personnel to discuss the purchase of the timing system and the potential direction of RMS. 
      2. Increasing subscriptions to mcrrc-alert
        • Susan will get Craig a list of member email addresses and Craig will compare these to addresses on mcrrc-alert (cross reference with a list from Don Libes) and we will send out a mass email to invite club members to sign up for mcrrc-alert- completed
    2.   Review in-progress items from prior meetings:
      1. Christina will ask Lyman about the “Property of MCRRC” stickers- Sethiya and Craig confirmed that we have plenty of these stickers; completed
      2. Club credit cards (0712-6e-i)- Chris explained that all card users will sign a ‘terms of use’ statement in order to have a club credit card; in progress
      3. Criteria for lending club equipment (0711-7e)- draft criteria for lending of club equipment; Christina is continuing work on the document
      4. Strategic Plan - Club Program Reports (0703-7a)-  Christina will continue working on requirements for the club program reports.
      5. Presentation on running club as part of wellness seminars- Covance Wellness in Gaithersburg is interested in having someone come to talk about the club and its training programs- Jim is presenting next Friday, April 11.
  8. New Business
    1. MetroSports DC-VA-MD Magazine booth (0804-8a)
      1. MetroSports asked if they could have a booth at a number of low-key races as well as at Twilighter, in order to distribute their publication.  Craig is taking the request to the Twilighter committee, since we discourage commercial businesses at our low-key races.  ACTION ITEM:  Craig will respond to them on the issue of low-key races. 
    2. Club training personnel Program Liaison (0804-8b)
      1. Wanda Walters asked about becoming a club training program liaison for the 5k,10k, and 8k programs.   The board will tell her that we appreciate her help as programs transition from under the “BFF umbrella” but we don’t see this as a long-term position.  ACTION ITEM:  Cathy will talk to Wanda Walters. 
    3. Volunteer picnic (0804-8c)
      1. The picnic is scheduled for June 15 at Cabin John.
      2. ACTION ITEM:  Cathy will talk to Jean about picnic details.
      3. A previous discussion as to whether to open up the picnic to the entire membership was re-opened, and it was decided to continue to have the picnic for club volunteers only.
    4. National Marathon team competition (0804-8d)
      1. Craig proposed that the club write the National Marathon to request that participation on teams not preclude runners from other awards.  If the rule does not change we would give serious consideration to not fielding teams next year.  ACTION ITEM:  Craig will draft the letter.  ACTION ITEM:  Cathy will talk to Angelo Witten and ask him to please have team coordinators review team rules for future races.
    5. New board liaisons
      1. The board decided on the new liaisons for club programs, as follows:
        • Communications and member involvement- Jim
        • Training programs- Sethiya
        • Weekly workouts- Leonard
        • Commercial activities and sponsors- Susan
        • Races and race series- Jean
        • RMS and equipment- Craig
  9. Standing Items
    1. Strategic Plan – Compiling/updating governance policies-  Mical proposed to work on creating an updated policy guide.  This document will be a collection of decisions and policies made at board meetings.  She will start with present minutes and work backwards.  The board agreed with this approach to creating an updated guide. 
    2. Strategic Plan – Increasing participation and volunteerism.  Cathy proposed an idea for coordinating volunteer projects, and having a contact person for people interested in working on particular items. ACTION ITEM:  Cathy is going to pursue a coordinator for organizing groups of volunteers for programs and projects.
  10. Business Between Meetings
    1. The following by-law change to facilitate vendor payments was approved at the March Annual Meeting:  E. Check Signatures - Checks and/or electronic debits issued for over $200 by the MCRRC shall require the written documented approval (e-mail or otherwise) and/or signature of two officers.
  11. Announcements
    1. Beginning Women’s Running starts April 8 at 6:30 in the GHS cafeteria. 
    2. Carderock starts next Thursday, April 10.
    3. FTM starts April 12. 
    4. There were 8 people in the CPR class held in March. 
  12. Closure
    1. Action items:
      1. Sethiya will schedule a meeting with the key personnel to discuss the purchase of the timing system and the potential direction of RMS. 
      2. Craig will respond to MetroSports on the issue of having a booth at low-key races.
      3. Cathy will talk to Wanda Walters about the Program Liaison position.
      4. Craig will draft a letter to the National Marathon committed expressing our disagreement with their rules related to team members and individual awards. 
      5. Cathy and Jean will discuss details for the volunteer picnic.
      6. Cathy will talk to Angelo Witten and ask him to have team coordinators review team rules for future races.
      7. Cathy is going to pursue a coordinator for organizing groups of volunteers for programs and projects.
    2. Motions passed:
      1. The board approved spending up to $12,000 to have Bobby Srour provide drawings, serve as general contractor, and hire contractors for the build-out of the clubhouse. 
      2. The board authorized spending up to $50,000 on the IPICO timing system.
    3. Review Plans for Next Meeting
      1. Next meeting is May 1, 2008 at 6:30 pm at the Stella Werner Council Office Bldg, 5th Floor Conference Room, 100 Maryland Ave. Sethiya offered to bring food.
 

Meeting adjourned: 9:45 pm 
 

Respectfully submitted,

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Mical Honigfort