HTC Executive
Board Meeting – 23 July 2007
Board Members
Present: David Purinton (President),
Kathy Youngren (Treasurer), Anne Park (Secretary), Suzanne Taylor (Appointed
Member—
Board Members Absent:
Ashley Cain (VP-Programs), DeWayne Satterfield, (Appointed Member—Past Officer)
Also present were
Dave Bonwit, Mike Dahl and Huntsville Track Club Member, Wanda Franklin.
The HTC Executive Board met in the Lodge at Southwood
Presbyterian Church,
·
The
race would be called the Heroes Run.
·
Battery
K of the Marine Corp would help staff the run with as many volunteers as are
needed, and the remaining Marines would run with the warriors in the race.
·
We
would reverse the race starts so that the 5k would start first, and allowing
for adequate safety on the route, the Half Marathon would then follow.
·
The
wounded warriors could start along with the rest of the race participants. It was determined that the width of the road
would allow the possible discrepancy in pace to be a non issue from a safety
standpoint.
·
Medals
would be provided for each wounded warrior participating in the run and would
be presented during the awards ceremony.
·
Sergeant
Shahan of the Huntsville Police Department has agreed to cooperate with our
efforts to provide for the safety of all participants.
·
This
could possibly become a recurring event depending on its initial success.
These ideas and others will be worked through as actual race
plans are made. Dave Purinton moved that
we accept this proposal for a Heroes Run, Dink Taylor seconded the motion, and
approval was unanimous.
There was a short discussion involving a race to honor former
track club member, Earl Jacoby. The
board had considered this at a previous meeting and agreed that the
Suzanne distributed an updated expense sheet from the
Memorial Day Cotton Row Run, and it appears that the race will realize an
approximate $5,000 overage when all figures are in. Suzanne has compiled a step-by-step timeline
regarding preparations for this particular race so that a new race director
could readily take up these responsibilities.
Reporting on the 2008 Rocket City Marathon, Suzanne plans to
have registration forms ready by the September Monte Sano Road Races, and all
other race preparations are up-to-date so far.
Dink, Suzanne and Todd White are pursuing some interesting possibilities
regarding a guest speaker. Hopefully
Nike will become our title sponsor by covering the cost of the shirts; all 2006
sponsors are again committed for the 2007 race.
This year there will be a need for a slight course change on
Harold briefly reported that there may be some problems with
the present RRCA management, and he will continue to monitor how situations are
being handled. He also pointed out that USATF
now has a rule in place which outlaws all headphones during sanctioned events races. This rule allows for the disqualification of
participants found in violation of the rule.
The next item of business was a request from Carl Smith
regarding HTC policy concerning using club equipment for non-club races. It needs to be made clear who will be
responsible for computer equipment if there is a problem during usage. After discussing different options, the board
decided that computers should be rented in the same way as all other club
equipment (although we will continue to be very restrictive in renting them out). The board agreed that a $25 charge for each computer
rental would give the club a “rental agreement” with the person renting the
equipment, which would protect our interests regarding damage and loss. In this way, the renter of the computer
equipment could then make arrangements to pass on any repair or replacement
costs to those responsible for the non-club race, depending on what kind of
computer problems surface during that use.
The board also agreed to document all computer equipment that we own in
order to be able to update or replace pieces as needed. And along that same line, Craig requested
that we also compile a list of all other equipment that we have.
It was again brought to the board’s attention that there is
a movement underway to charge fees to organizations that require police
protection during their events. This has
been an ongoing issue but it seems to finally be coming close to being
implemented. Our club does have
excellent arguments as to why our events should be excluded from this policy
but we also realize that we can’t expect to be treated as an exception. Harold suggested that when the charging of
fees becomes fact we should insist on some kind of credit from the city based
on tax income and the tremendous benefit our activities provide to the city,
monetary and otherwise, and we could then apply that credit to the fees that we
are charged. David is closely watching
the city’s board meeting activities, and Craig also has a source who will alert
him before any fees are to be implemented so that we can discuss with the city
how it will effect the club and the activities we
supply as a service to residents.
As the VP of Races and Equipment, Craig has brought to the
board his frustration with club members’ use of the equipment in our storage
sheds. We previously made an attempt to
limit the number of keys that are circulating, but equipment is not being
returned promptly after use and the few keys that are out are not being
returned in a timely manner. Our attempts to make our equipment rental process as convenient as
possible is not being met with an attempt on the part of some who are
using the equipment to cooperate. Users
don’t seem to realize the problems engendered by their haphazard return of
equipment and keys, and how their lax attitude causes great difficulty and
concern to those responsible for providing needed items to other users. The board discussed different possibilities
that might bring this system under control.
Another piece of business involved David’s mention that,
unlike previous years, after the 2005 Liz Hurley Ribbon Run we did not return
to the Liz Hurley Foundation some of our proceeds from the race as we had done
after the 2004 event. After a brief
discussion Craig moved and David seconded the motion that we return $2,500 each
from the 2005 and 2006 races in two separate checks, which will alert the Liz
Hurley Foundation that we are continuing our contributions in the same manner
as previously. The motion was passed.
It was agreed by the board that a Harold and Louise Tinsley
Scholarship be awarded to Gwen Kyser, who will be entering UAH in the fall and
running on their cross country team.
This motion was made by Craig and seconded by Kathy, with all present
voting yes.
Suzanne brought to the board’s attention the fact that the
Big Spring Jam 5k might be discontinued and there will be no 2007 race unless
the HTC steps forward and conducts the race.
The city is still willing to fund the race in the amount of $5,000; however,
it’s questionable whether free tickets to the Jam would still be given out to the
first 500 participants. The board agreed
that without those tickets the race would only draw a fraction of the runners as
in past races. It also would be improbable
that we could find a race director and set up the race at this late date. After some discussion it was determined that
if we could get Lou Hovatter to agree to direct the race once more and if we could make some arrangement
with the Big Spring Jam to provide free tickets, perhaps in exchange for using
their name to advertise the Jam, then we could continue the race in 2007. We would then have time to decide about a
2008 race, and to find a race director.
Dave will talk to Lou about her willingness to once more direct the race
for 2007.
Since there was no further business, the meeting adjourned
at 9:10 p.m.