JTC Running BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING MINUTES
Tuesday, March 2, 2021
Location: Zoom Video Conference
President Larry Roberts called the meeting to order at 6:35 p.m. Directors present for the meeting were Doug Alred, Jane Alred, Nicole Andress, Christy Astorga, Bonnie Brooks, James Bryant, Errol Daniels, Susan Haag, Angela Harris, Dennis Harrison, Franz Lerch, Todd O’Donnell, Ty Payne, Larry Roberts, Larry Sassa, Paul Smith, Douglas Tillett, Stuart Toomey, and Jim Van Cleave.
Approval of 2/2/21 (February meeting) minutes: On a motion by Paul Smith and seconded by Douglas Tillett, the February board meeting minutes were approved.
Treasurer’s Report: Bonnie Brooks reported the club’s financials and discussed in detail the Balance Sheet through March 1, 2021, and the Profit and Loss Detail Statement for February. Line items discussed in detail included income from memberships and interest earned and expenses for club promotions, membership costs, newsletter, and training classes costs.
OLD BUSINESS:
Timucuan Parks Event/Run Jump Throw – James Bryant reported on the responses to the recent Timucuan Parks/7 Creeks survey that was sent out via email to the members. He stated that there were 89 responses to the survey. The overall responses were good as members would be interested in participating in an event at the location. The survey included links to the park’s information so if the recipient was unfamiliar with the park, they would be able to learn about it. He detailed the responses that were submitted on the survey. Angela reported on the newest developments for the upcoming Run, Jump, Throw event that is scheduled for April 14th (or 28th if weather does not permit). She stated that we would need volunteers to assist, in which several board members said they would check their schedules and follow up if they would be available. Douglas Tillett, Todd O’Donnell, Franz Lerch, and Jane Alred said they could possibly help where needed. Angela said we would have t-shirts and masks and are expecting at least 30 kids to participate.
Marathon High to run the virtual Breast Cancer Half Marathon – Larry Roberts reported that the event from February 14th at Duval County School Board went well. We posted the information from the Marathon High webpage on our Facebook page and our JTC Running website. We were able to give $1,800 as a donation to Marathon High and they were very appreciative.
NEW BUSINESS:
RRCA Convention Orlando (April 15 – 18) – Douglas Tillett reported that last year’s RRCA convention was scheduled to be in Portland, but due to Covid-19 it was cancelled. This year’s RRCA convention will be held in Orlando on April 15 – 18th. With the convention being in Orlando, this would cost less as there would not be a need for airfare. Douglas stated that he has attended the convention for the past several years with Errol Daniels. He said he would attend and asked if any other board member wanted to attend as per the budget allows. Errol mentioned he would consider going if no other board member would be able to attend. It was also mentioned to discuss with Christy Astorga as she had previously expressed interest in attending last year’s convention.
Race Director for Guana Trail Races – Larry Roberts stated that he and Franz attended the check presentation to the Friends of Guana, which was well received as they expressed their thanks and appreciation that the money stays local for their other initiatives. Larry said he spoke with Mark Ryan, who said that 2021 would be his last year as race director for Guana and we would need a new race director for 2022. Larry suggested the Race Committee get together after Gate to recruit candidates for the position. We would like to get someone soon, so they would be able to benefit from working with Mark during the 2021 race. Doug Alred asked if anyone on the board would be interested in being the race director. It was mentioned that Franz would be a good person as he has worked closely on the race in the past. Franz said he would consider it. Susan also stated that she would be willing to assist, however her schedule would not allow her to take on a bulk of the work or commitment as director.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Bolles Wednesday Workouts – Paul Smith reported that we are back on Bolles track after the resurfacing and we have had some great comments about it. Last week we had 17 members in the morning and 22 in the evening.
Go Green Winter Beach Run – Doug Alred reported it was a great race that went well. Financially we came out well. They asked about donations. We purchased a water monster and we want our logo on it. A motion to donate $1,000 to Beaches Go Green was presented by Franz Lerch, seconded by Douglas Tillett, and passed by the board.
Gate River Run/Elites/Expo/USATF-FL – Doug Alred reported that everything is going as planned. Emails will be going out with detailed instructions for the race and emails are being sent multiple of times to those who don’t open the emails. We will be running from 2 different staring lines. We have all the volunteers we need. We have all the bands and water stations set. We are currently hoping for more people in the 5K as we currently have 800 registered but would want at least 1,000. We are waiting on the medals, which should be here soon. VIP passes are ready for pickup. He mentioned that not many have switched over to the virtual race, however he did give the streakers the opportunity to switch to the virtual option.
Jim Van Cleave reported that we currently have about 108 elite runners with a stacked women’s field and a strong men’s field. We had about 40 withdrawals and 17 on the waiting list. We are still getting interest this late in the planning stages. The athletes are appreciative to get the opportunity to race. Our volunteer challenges include airport transportation in regard to vans and covid contract tracing. If you want to help with transportation you need to provide a negative covid test within 7 days of the event. Douglas will be helping with transportation and Todd is taking care of the elite staging area. A press release went out recently with top 5 athletes’ information but no Galen Rupp confirmation yet. Colleen helped with the press release. USATF board member Mitch Garner will be here to view event as it is an USATF championship race. There has not been a start list posted by USATF yet, but we need to put one together soon for our website.
We are also set with the USATF-FL 15K championship as we will be giving out awards. They will give out medals for 1-3, but there is no awards ceremony. Todd has the American flags and mentioned that the USATF will have their tent set up for their awards as well. Bonnie mentioned that she needs to send the $400 check to USATF.
Jane Alred said the expo will be watered down this year as they have rented 15–18 spots. A lot of their recurring vendors are still under travel restrictions and masks mandates due to covid-19 so they will not be there. Larry mentioned that we would like to have at least 1 board member during each time slot for the JTC booth and we currently had several slots open. Several members signed up for time slots and a few others said they needed to check their schedules and would follow up shortly.
Global Running Day for Marathon High (June 2nd) – Larry Roberts said we’ll participate in Global Running Day by matching entry fees for Marathon High, which will be another chance to drive membership.
Tijuana Flats Summer Beach Run (August 28th) – Doug Alred reported we are all set with the beach but wanted to wait a little while to confirm everything before contacting Tijuana Flats due to covid.
Finance – No Report.
Community & Public Relations – Larry Sassa reported that we looked at the committee structures and changed them to be more effective. Communications will be split into 2 sub-committees, a Social Media and a Newsletter committee. Christy Astorga will chair Social Media and Douglas Tillett will chair Newsletter.
Communications: Social Media – Christy reported on the initial target areas that will be focused on, which included the track workouts posted by Paul Smith. A suggestion was mentioned about surveying club members on what content they wanted. The idea of having a member only page vs. an open page was discussed and brought up the notion of how and who would monitor such pages.
Communications: Newsletter – Doug Tillett reported that the articles for the next newsletter would need to be submitted by March 13th. We are trying to plan more in advance for articles and content to correlate each issue with seasons and what events are going on, rather than scrambling around looking for content.
Membership – Stuart Toomey reported that we will be using better software to track membership, which will give us a better view on membership trends and detailed numbers. Membership committee will be getting together to revamp the membership emails that we send out to new and existing members to be more informative and promote more engagement.
Classes & Clinics – Jane reported we would not be having an awards banquet this year based on the safety and the fact that we have not had that many races for awards to be given.
Vision & Planning – Doug Alred posed the question about the possibility of ceasing the print version of the newsletter. He said that he really doesn’t read the print version. A brief discussion ensued regarding the costs associated with printing and shipping the newsletter versus the costs of the email version. It was mentioned that it may be a good time to discontinue printing it or at least something we may want to consider going forward. Larry said maybe after Gate we can see about discontinuing the print version or at least having a more detailed discussion about it.
NEXT MEETING – The next board meeting will be Tuesday, April 6, at 6:30 pm via Zoom Video Conference.
The March meeting was adjourned at 8:04 pm.
