JTC RUNNING BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING MINUTES
Tuesday, December 7, 2021
Location: Zoom Video Conference
President Larry Roberts called the meeting to order at 6:37 p.m. Directors present for the meeting were Doug Alred, Jane Alred, Christy Astorga, Bonnie Brooks, James Bryant, Errol Daniels, Susan Haag, Dennis Harrison, Franz Lerch, Larry Roberts, Larry Sassa, Paul Smith, Douglas Tillett, Stuart Toomey, and Jim Van Cleave. Directors Nicole Andress, Angela Harris, Todd O’Donnell, and Ty Payne were absent.
Approval of 11/2/21 (November meeting) minutes: On a motion by Douglas Tillett and seconded by Paul Smith, the November board meeting minutes were approved by the board.
Treasurer’s Report: Bonnie Brooks mentioned she wrote the check for Emerald Trail for $11,450. Bonnie also mentioned that she has not heard anything from Smoak Davis & Nixon as they are still processing our 990. She reported the club’s financials and discussed in detail the Balance Sheet through December 5, 2021, and the Profit and Loss Detail Statement for November. She discussed in detail main line items including income from Emerald Trail and Sumer Beach Run races, Guana and Last Gasp race entries, memberships, and our training classes as well as expenses for club promotions, race team entries, QuickBooks, Guana and Last Gasp race expenses, and newsletter costs. Bonnie presented a motion to give $7,000 to Just In Queso, which was the profit amount from SBR and an increase of $3K, that was seconded by Franz Lerch then passed by the board.
OLD BUSINESS:
2022 Track Series – Douglas Tillett reported that we will be putting on a winter track meet on January 29th, which will be at Bartram Trail. Packet pickup will begin at 9am and the meet will start at 10am. The meet will be timed by ½ Mile Timing, which the costs for timing has gone up since the last time we put on a track meet. He suggested that the board should plan to come out to the event to volunteer and/or run.
JTC Running Race Team: Expectations – Christy Astorga reported that she is in the process of working on a letter and communications for the race team regarding expectations. The expectations consisted of 4 areas including running 10 grand prix races in a 12-month period, wearing team singlets at the races, volunteering at 1 race or event per year, and showing up for races they’re registered to run. Questions from the board arose regarding the number of team members on team, which there are about 28 active team members. Jane Alred mentioned that the letter is a great idea and needed to manage expectations.
2022 Board of Directors: Expiring Terms – Douglas Tillett reported that the 10 board members who had expiring terms confirmed that they would all be returning for another 2-year term. The members included: Doug Alred, Jane Alred, Christy Astorga, James Bryant, Angela Harris, Dennis Harrison, Larry Roberts, Larry Sassa, Paul Smith, and Jim Van Cleave.
NEW BUSINESS:
New Treasurer Needed – Bonnie Brooks stated that she had previously spoken with President Larry Roberts and the Executive Committee about needing new blood in the position and that she would not be able to continue as club treasurer forever. She confirmed that she wants to remain on the board, however not as treasurer. She promised that she would assist and make it a smooth transition for the next treasurer. Douglas Tillett asked if the person had to be a board member, which the answer was no they did not have to be a member. A list of treasurer responsibilities was displayed, which was previously sent along with the meeting’s agenda.
New Editor for the Starting Line – Douglas Tillett reported that the position of newsletter editor is now open as our last editor recently left the position vacant. We are now looking for someone to take on the responsibilities of our newsletter, which a list of responsibilities was displayed on the screen in addition to being sent out with the meeting’s agenda. The board was asked to contact Larry Roberts and Douglas Tillett if they were interested or capable of the doing the job or knew of someone who would be a good candidate for the position.
New Club Officer Position: Events & Membership Director – Larry Roberts proposed that we are create a new officer position of Event and Membership Director. A list of responsibilities was displayed. Larry mentioned that he was not proposing a paid position.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Bolles Wednesday Workouts – Paul Smith reported that we will be terminating this year’s registrations this month and turning on registrations for next year’s track workouts. This is the process we do each year as we start with new registrations every year. We will send an email out this week to inform members about the upcoming registration.
Vystar Emerald Trail 5K (October 23rd) – Larry Roberts reported that we were able to present a check to Groundwork Jacksonville in the amount of $11,450 from the Emerald Trail 5K race. Groundwork received a total of $20K, which included our check and funds from Vystar Credit Union and other sponsors. Next year’s race is scheduled for October 22rd and hopefully we’ll be running on another section of the trail by then.
Guana Trail Race (December 5th) – Franz Lerch reported that it was a great race, maybe the best Guana race ever with a dash to the finish. It was the closest finish in race history with 2 runners coming around the corner then sprinting down the final trail leg. One runner leaned and crossed the finish line first, however his chip time had him finishing in 2nd place. We had a lot of online registration and Venmo payments. The 12K winner was a 14-year-old was a walk-up race day registration. He said it was a great race with a nice after party, and it was a great time catching up with the runners. It was an overall success with about 240 participants. He also mentioned that he had not received any negative feedback.
The Last Gasp (December 26th) – Larry Roberts reported we currently have 105 runners signed up. He said he would be talking to Herb this Friday for more updates.
Gate River Run Training Class Kickoff – Larry Roberts stated that we already have 13 signed up for the class. We have a new trainer, Alex Bowles, taking over for Jennifer Desantis. Jennifer will help with the class. The kickoff will be on January 4th at 6:15pm, which is the same night as our next meeting and why the time is tentatively set for 7pm.
Go Green Winter Beach Run 10 Mile (January 30, 2022) – Doug Alred reported that he met with the city today and things are good to go. We will be handing out medals again. This year we will be offering a 10-mile and 5K option. Registration is going well, and we hope to increase entries this year with the added race distances.
Gate River Run 2022 – Doug Alred reported that registration is currently at 3,500 entries and he hopes to be around 6,000 by the 1st of the year. He stated that Jim is currently working on the sanctions and bid with USATF to secure the race for 4-5 years as the 15K Championship. He said most of the sponsors are returning and he is going to need to get people to assist with various tasks as we get closer. He mentioned that he will have a call with Gail regarding the fairgrounds and will need to schedule a meeting with the city about the race start and expo hall. Jim Van Cleave reported that his focus has been on the bid package with USATF for becoming the official championship for 2022. He said that there has been some elite interest, which will pick up after the beginning of the year. He said he has monitored and spoken with the race coordinator from the recent half marathon championship race regarding various aspects of the race. He also mentioned that he had received information request from international runners, however they would not be able to get any assistance or compensation for the race.
Finance – Included in Treasurer’s Report.
Website Revamp: Final Payment – Errol Daniels reported that the final payment has been submitted as we had some issues with the calendar and supporting links to update and fix. The website looks good and can be viewed online and on web enabled phones, however some of the pages may look different.
Community & Public Relations
Communications: Social Media/Newsletter – Larry Sassa reported that that Gate River Run is up and running as entries continue to come in. He stated that Trish will be able to help with promotions as she has already begun working on various projects. We will need to start getting ready for our hospitality tent as in terms of what we want to do and feel comfortable doing, for example: serving food and drinks. The newsletter has been mailed out and should be arriving in mailboxes shortly. Christy Astorga reported that she has started working on the Facebook page. She mentioned ideas to create ways to get the Bolles track members and the training classes together to bring the different demographics together to assist us with promoting the club, our events, and our social media presence.
Membership – Stuart Toomey reported that membership was currently at 930 households, which was up 15 from last month.
Classes & Clinics – Jane Alred reported The Festival of Lights races saw about 2,200 runners and even more spectators for the overall festival, but we did not have the traditional JTC Running Christmas Party inside 1st Place Sports this year because of ongoing pandemic concerns. We hope, though, that everything will be fine for the Christmas Social next year in 2022. A question was proposed regarding us having an awards banquet, which at this point we are not sure if we are planning to have one next year.
Vision & Planning – No Report.
NEXT MEETING – The next board meeting will be Tuesday, January 4th, at 7:00 pm via Zoom Video Conference.
The December meeting was adjourned at 7:50 pm.
