JTC Running BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING MINUTES
Tuesday, April 6, 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, Christy Astorga, Bonnie Brooks, James Bryant, Errol Daniels, Susan Haag, Angela Harris, Dennis Harrison, Franz Lerch, Ty Payne, Larry Roberts, Larry Sassa, Paul Smith, Douglas Tillett, Stuart Toomey, and Jim Van Cleave. Directors Nicole Andress and Todd O’Donnell were absent. Guest presenter Alex Goodwin from Marathon High.
Approval of 3/2/21 (March meeting) minutes: On a motion by Franz Lerch and seconded by Paul Smith, the March board meeting minutes were approved.
Presentation by Marathon High: Alex Goodwin from Marathon High presented a season in review for his first year as the director of Marathon High. He thanked Larry and JTC for assisting him in his first year and for supporting Marathon High. He spoke how it was a challenge of pulling off a season in the peak of covid-19 and the challenge with just being able to run. Luckily, we had tremendous leadership within the running community with JTC and 1st Place Sports we were able to put on Back to Running 5k and Virtual Donna Half Marathon events that benefited the organization and the kids in the program. JTC has provided support of $12,905 in the past 12 months. The program is a 4-month program to run a half marathon (Donna) that usually starts in October and follows the Galloway training method. To finish the season runners have to complete the Donna Half, which this year was virtual and we ran from DCPS building downtown. This year there were 194 runners with 13 streakers who finished. The streakers are students who did it all 4 years of high school. He thanked all the sponsors for getting the program going during covid as otherwise they would have had to start over from scratch. He is currently looking forward to season 11.
Treasurer’s Report: Bonnie Brooks reported the club’s financials and discussed in detail the Balance Sheet through April 3, 2021, and the Profit and Loss Detail Statement for March. The main line items discussed in detail included income from memberships and expenses for donations that included Guana and Beaches Go Green. She mentioned that we would need to make sure we are above our account minimum balances in May to avoid any bank fees. Other topics to be covered in Finance Committee Report.
OLD BUSINESS:
Timucuan Parks Event/Run Jump Throw – 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 asked for the shirt sizes of the volunteers that will be assisting.
Study of Stopping the Print Version of the Newsletter – Larry Roberts asked Larry Sassa to speak on the subject regarding the newsletter. Larry Sassa mentioned that we are in the process of synchronizing our communication efforts and want to deliver the best messaging to our members. The question has been brought up do we want to discontinue the print version of the newsletter. We may want to poll our members to see do they prefer online versus in print versions of the newsletter. In an effort we may want to find out from other clubs about their communications in their respective footprints. We are just now at the beginning stages and we are not going to jump into anything lightly.
NEW BUSINESS:
Summer Camp Scholarships – Douglas Tillett reported that he has been reaching out to Brevard College about summer camp. He has also been paying attention to NC regarding their regulations regarding covid. Currently Brevard is open to having camp, as they currently have runners signing up for camp. They are going to limit our numbers (50 kids). Their website says they are not open for registration however they are taking registration. Doug Alred mentioned they may want to look at 1st Place’s website regarding verbiage for guidelines, covid waivers, and protocols to add. Our website post is ready to release to start taking applications and we can add the covid acknowledgement on the application.
Track Series for 2021 – Douglas Tillett reported he has been talking to the UNF coach, Kaitlin King. We would rather have morning meets and she gave us 6 dates that would and would not work. June 19th was a date given for a meet at Bolles, May 8th, June 8th, June 28th, for morning meets. He said he has also spoken with the timing company, Half Mile Timing, who are not available for any of those dates given. Elite Timing was another timing company they recommended. Angela Harris has contacted Gun Lap Timing and will follow up with them regarding their availability.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Bolles Wednesday Workouts – Paul Smith reported that we had 2 weeks of black outs for the evening track. The morning sessions are getting an average of 16-18 runners and the evening has been getting 18-25. We have had more recently as the result of Gate.
Gate River Run/Elites/Expo – Doug Alred reported it was a great day for running. We are fortunate to be the only large event to have been run. The 8,000-runner cutoff worked perfectly. We had 1,500 for the 5k, which he felt was disappointing. The money we took in for entry fees should put us in a good financial position. We did a lot of things that worked well. The expo worked well in terms of the traffic and assigned bib pick-up times. There were a few little issues leading up to the race that were handled. He stated he would have the final financial report next meeting.
Jim Van Cleave reported he had a lot of volunteers that made it work well including volunteers from the board that helped with airport transportation. We had storms on Thursday when a lot of the elites came into town, but the volunteers worked very hard and did a great job. Top 9 men runners finished within 12 seconds of each other, while Emily Sisson ran great from the start and with those conditions. We had a total of 74 elites with a surprising number of withdrawals. We came in well under budget. There were a lot of good comments in the elite staging area after the race regarding being able to do a big race with spectators on the course. We may want to get JTC logos for elite volunteers as there was not any real representation for the club in this regard.
Larry Roberts reported that we did a great job at the expo, as we did 2 times as much as we usually do. We were able to do $5,600 worth of business in which was most from memberships. We had a lot of 1-year memberships converted to 3-year memberships. Doug Alred said they didn’t have any complaints about the staggered packet pickup times.
Global Running Day for Marathon High (June 2nd) – Larry Roberts said Global Running Day for Marathon High will be on Wednesday June 2nd. Registration will be in waves like race day starting lines and will be open shortly on the website. We will be able to offer food and beer.
Tijuana Flats Summer Beach Run (August 28th) – Doug Alred reported Just In Queso Foundation is in with the tacos and specials. We are all set for Summer Beach Run. He stated that the last 2 years the numbers have gone way down as there has been a push back for running on the beach. We need to try to get our numbers back up. He said he looked at the history of the race and thought it may be a good idea to have a Facebook page for SBR like the Gate River Run page. The 5-mile race will start at 6:30 pm.
Finance – Bonnie reported she received a request but wanted to talk to Angela about it. She stated she called Mrs. Wright regarding the event that has already passed, which took place this past weekend and had about 500 participants. Angela mentioned that she assisted Mrs. Wright with the request. We have assisted them in the past, but Bonnie wanted to ask the board how they felt before she just rejected it. Bonnie motioned for $500 for event timing of the Cheeseborough Ribault Run, Doug Tillett seconded, and it was passed by the board.
Community & Public Relations – Larry Sassa reported that we had several articles and coverage before and after Gate River Run, which was great publicity. There is opportunity to promote the club to the elite runners. We have made it a mission to keep it simple and to engage with our members around certain areas.
Communications: Social Media – Christy thanked Larry Roberts for his Facebook posts and Errol Daniels for his Gate River Run posts on Instagram. She spoke about the benefits of member only FB pages.
Communications: Newsletter – Doug Tillett reported that they are currently editing the new issue of the newsletter, which will be going to the press soon and will also be sent via email blast.
Membership – Stuart Toomey reported details on the recent changes and trends in our membership. We have lost memberships; however, we have converted a lot of 1-year memberships to 3-year memberships.
Classes & Clinics – No reported.
Vision & Planning – Doug Alred spoke about his recent visit to Tomahawk Park. He mentioned that the boardwalk is still good, but the path is overdue for a repair. He proposed that we commit $20,000 to upgrade the trail this year. There is no rush, but it should be put on our radar. It was mentioned that there be a finance meeting before the next board meeting to discuss. Finance meeting at 6pm before next meeting on May 4th was scheduled.
NEXT MEETING – The next board meeting will be Tuesday, May 4, at 6:30 pm via Zoom Video Conference.
The April meeting was adjourned at 8:03 pm.
