GULF WINDS TRACK CLUB Minutes

Hosted by Eric & Tracy Godin

Present: Tony Guillen, Emma Spencer, Katie Sherron, Mike Burns, Mark Priddy, Maggie Beshara, Felton Wright, David Yon, Eric Godin, Tracy Godin, Judy Alexander, Zach Scharlepp, Bill Lott, Annie Bowman, Nancy Stedman, Jay Silvanima, Maria Matheu, Ron Harrison.

The meeting was called to order at 7:34 p.m. Quorum was established.

The Board reviewed the December minutes. Motion to approve was made, seconded and passed.

New Business:

Nancy Stedman & Jay Silvanima – TUDC race report and wrap up. The race received 100 registrants over both races. Total revenue was $6,769, total expenses were $4,636.90 with the provision of the wet-dry bags contributing to the largest expense. Net proceeds were estimated to be $2,132.10.  A request was made for a charitable donation to be presented to Friends of Wakulla Springs for the amount of $1000, motion to approve was made, seconded and passed.

Mike Burns – Proposed budget for Palace Saloon 5K presented. Total estimated revenues are $23,000.00, with total estimated expenses being $19,130.00. Changes made from previous budget include subtraction of EMT costs as GWTC already have a contract with local EMTs to provide one unit at all GWTC races. Star Metro transport deal includes rides at $0.70 per person, additional sponsorship by local businesses is ongoing. The Palace Saloon 5K will be this year’s Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) Florida State 5k Championship race. Motion to approve was made, seconded and passed.

Bobby York – Swamp Forest race wrap up. Bobby to send Secretary the final wrap up expense report via email. Net proceeds amounted to $1623.50 to be split between GWTC and Tallahassee Friends of Our Park Foundation ($811.75). If Board approves and pass the donation the Treasurer can pay out the checks.  

David Yon & Eric Godin – EMS needs for Tallahassee Marathon. The club pays for one EMT unit but it has been recommended that the marathon have two units. A request was made for $450 to pay for the second unit. Motion to approve was made, seconded and passed.

Eric Godin – New GWTC race recognition idea presented. For those who run GWTC races, number of miles run will be recognized and participants will be rewarded for running a total of 50, 100 and 150 GWTC race miles with a special t-shirt or other awards, in the hopes of encouraging more people to run more miles and participate in more GWTC races. Eric Godin will manage this idea. Request for $1000 for awards/t-shirts was made. Motion to approve was made, seconded and passed.

Bill Lott & Vicky Droze – Proposed new equipment purchases. Vicky Droze, via Emma Spencer, requested approval to purchase six new timing clock covers at a cost of $85 each, plus shipping and handling. Motion to approve was made, seconded and passed.

A request was made to purchase a new wireless remote keypad (WK 100 model) and race-clock receiver (WR 100 model), as the one currently being used is twelve years old and half of the functions do not work. The cost would be $195 for the receiver and $250 for the keypad. Motion to approve purchase was made, seconded and passed. Amended motion for 1 wireless keypad and two receiver was then made, it was seconded and passed.  

Old Business:

Felton Wright – Eventbrite contract renewal. The current contract with Eventbrite ends Jan 31st, 2016. Eventbrite will provide same contract as before ($1 per registration plus 3%) if GWTC signs until April 2018 and includes all GWTC races except for the marathon and ultra. The Springtime 10K/5K race will also be included in the Eventbrite contact after it has completed its contract with Active for the year 2016. Motion to approve was made, seconded and passed.

David Yon – Club bylaw update. Another draft of the bylaws had been circulated to the Board and to the rest of the GWTC members through social media and on the GWTC website for comments.  Newest changes include the addition of several officials as voting members and having those members elected to their positions (Education and Lecture Coordinator, Race Director Coordinator and Social Coordinator now are all voting members who are to be elected).   The Triathlon Club President will now have a vote. The equipment manager is being moved to a nonvoting official. These changes will all be effective for the 2017 officials and election. The rest of the changes to the bylaws will be effective immediately upon the affirmative vote of the Board at a regularly scheduled meeting (scheduled for February). The bylaws will be out for comment having been preliminarily approved, with the next Board meeting vote being final. A motion for this was passed, seconded and approved.

Committee Reports:

Treasurer’s Report – Katie Sherron
Summary amounts for accounts are, $23,296.58 in the Operations account, $2,133.38 for Events 1 accounts, $19,744.97 for Events Two account, $7,313.70 for Triathlon account, $85,000.00 for Investment and Reserve account and $13,013.09 for the Chenoweth Fund. Total Assets for December 2015 were $150,501.72.

Membership Report – Mark Priddy
GWTC membership was 1696 individual members at the end of 2015. 1060 members have renewed/joined to date for the 2016 year, and this is compared to 926 members at the same time in January 2015. A second mass mailing is to be completed by Eric Godin to remind members to renew their membership for 2016. The Tri Club had 328 members at 2015 year end, to date 176 have renewed compared to 188 members in January 2015.  Having a list of members on the website was discussed, but issues of privacy were brought up. One solution included having member only password protected access to this information and race discount codes available on the website, it was decided this could be discussed further at a later date.  

Race Director Coordinator Report – Charlie Yates 
No report.

Newsletter Report – Emma Spencer for Fred Deckert 
Nothing new to report.

Clothing Coordinator Report – Maggie Beshara
Plans are to sell the rest of the fall collection at the marathon expo to make way for new spring and summer clothing.  A request was made to purchase a folding table and a pop up tent; however discussions revealed that there were a number of these items available in GWTC storage so it was suggested that Maggie could use these items whenever she needed instead of purchasing new ones.

Equipment Report – Bill Lott & Vicky Droze
One time machine was broken and sent for repairs as the battery would not hold a charge, repairs were estimated to cost $142.  Also, see report under new business from Bill Lot and Vicky Droze.

Website Committee Report – David Yon
Nothing new to report, although a request was made to update the Board Officers and Board Members at Large on the website.

Chenoweth Fund Report – David Yon
A request was made to approve the Chenoweth Fund Committee’s recommendation for a $1,000 award to Jefferson County Middle High School track program through Coach Henry Jacobs to assist him in restarting the schools track and field program. Motion was passed, seconded and approved.

Triathlete Report – Ron Harrison 
The monthly tri meeting will take place at Momo’s on Monday 18th Jan where Rodger Hawkes from Higher Ground Bicycles will be presenting on bicycle maintenance. A newsletter is being sent to members as well as social media messages to improve membership and remind members to renew membership. The first Gulf Winds Triathlete Grand Prix event will be Red Hills Triathlon, April 9th 2016. A membership table for the tri club will be present at the Red Hills packet pick up.  

Lecture Series Report – Emma Spencer for Paul Guyas 
Nothing new to report.

Training Report – Tracy Godin 
The Trailblazer group had two or three practice runs for the Swamp Forest race. Marathon training is ongoing every Sunday, routes have been flagged with orange flags prior to the training run for ease of travel. The Thursday El Jalisco fun run continues to grow with over 30 people attending the previous week.  February 1st, 2016 will mark the start of the Springtime training group, pacers are needed. Following the marathon, the Gulf Winds Runs Long beginning long run training group will likely start up again, with the Tails and Trails half marathon being the target race at the end of training. 

Social Report –Zach Scharlepp 
December was a busy month with the success of both the Christmas party and the awards ceremony. A monthly social will be planned and any suggestions for these events are more than welcome.  Bobby York mentioned that there may be the potential for GWTC members to have free entry for the Tennis Challenger at the end of April.

Trail Coordinator Report – Bobby York
Work on the Summer Trail series has commenced, however, a conflict between one of the Summer Trail Series races and the Pot Luck Bash may occur, as the Pot Luck Bash is set to move a week later than its normal date in order to support the Pints for Paws race. Bobby and David will work this out amongst themselves. 

At 8:48 p.m. motion to adjourn was made, seconded and approved.