GULF WINDS TRACK CLUB Minutes

Present: Board members for quorum: Tony Guillen, Emma Spencer, Felton Wright, Charlie Yates, Judy Alexander, Annie Bowman, Herb Wills, Ron Harrison, Jane Skalski, Zack Sharlepp.  Others: Tracy Godin, Paul Guyas, Bill Lott, Jon Brown, Jacob Williams, Blake Riley, Jon Nash, Tim Unger.

The President called the meeting to order at 7:31 p.m. Quorum was established.

The Board reviewed the May 2016 minutes. A motion to approve minutes was made, seconded and passed.

New Business:

Blake Riley – Blake came to the meeting to pitch an idea about having a more formal GWTC elite running team.  Based on the fact that there is a lot of latent running talent in Tallahassee, he and his team mates want to create a team that would motivate those talented individuals to join the team and train in the hopes of competing professionally. They propose to have a team that would be a subsidiary team of GWTC, and would call themselves the “Red Hills Elite”.  The team would consist of 7-8 people and would be open to those who would commit to the mandatory trainings, 6-7 days per week. Tim Unger expressed concern that this team would be in direct competition with the already established GWTC Race Team. It was stated that the new team would not likely compete in local races. They asked for support from the Club to provide funds for each elite team member for USATF memberships ($40 per member), RRCA, race entry fees ($30 per race, 15 races per year; competing team members only), team travel stipends and training kits for team ($25 per member).  Opposition to the name “Red Hills Elite” was made and there was reluctance from the team organizers to change this. The President stated that they could not vote on providing funds and supporting this venture at this time without more information, he encouraged them to come back with a full budget, a formal report, schedule of races and to provide goals.

Felton Wright – Felton presented the budget for Breakfast on the Track 2016 to the Board. Income is estimated to be $2835, expenses $2122.15, with a total estimated net income of $712.85 to be split 50/50 between Maclay Track Boosters and GWTC.  A motion was made to approve the budget, seconded and passed unanimously.

Jon Brown– Jon returned to the Board to discuss further information regarding the Sickle Cell 5K and his desire to have GWTC involvement.  The race is on September 10th 2016 and is the 35th anniversary. Jon is hoping to encourage more races in the south side of Tallahassee and get more community involvement and the Sickle Cell race has been a long standing pillar in the community. He hopes a three step process of increasing awareness, bring more partners to the table and have more registered runners will increase participation to that side of town. The timing will be done by GWTC and he provided a flyer advertising the race. Board members stated that this race has had an issue in the past for not starting on time. Judy Alexander has been helping the race director out and has brought some of these issues to light. Jon made a request to the Board that he could add the GWTC logo to race materials and would they consider a sentence for the race that states “in partnership with GWTC,” and would the Board consider a more formal partnership in the future. The Board said they were happy to help but due to the large number of races that they put on every year, they couldn’t agree to the verbiage, but suggested Jon add “timed by GWTC” instead to use the logo. Other members of the Board suggested that they apply to be part of the Grand Prix in 2017 so that they can increase participation and Tracy Godin said she would be willing to help with setting up training runs. A motion was made to approve the use of “timed by GWTC” with the logo on Sickle Cell 5k race materials, seconded and passed.

Tony Guillen (for Mike Burns)- Tony spoke for Mike regarding the wrap up for Palace Saloon 5K. A detailed report was sent via email and is copied in these minutes.  Mike asked that someone make a motion to approve $2700 (1/2 the profits plus the direct SCMC donations) be sent to the South City Multi-Sport Club c/o South City Revitalization Council who acts as their fiscal agent. A motion was made, seconded and approved.

To be read into the record: Report from Mike Burns. 
This one kicked my butt! And has me licking my wounds.  We’ll start with the Bad:
a) Online registrations lost momentum about twelve days out from race day. (See page 6 of Word document). We still reached over 1,000 finishers but well short of the 1,300 we had the previous 3 races. Not sure the cause though weather projections may have played a small roll.
b) Rex Cleveland took a hard fall near the finish line with Dogs being the cause (see page 9-12 of Word document). This lit up Facebook and was caught by Joe Mizereck’s camera. Rex and Mae ran the TCC race the following week and I promised Mae I’d bring it up at the Board meeting. She also understands the difficulty of enforcement. We may need to designate an individual to identify and ask the runners with dogs and (strollers) to leave the starting area. Should they choose not to step off the course, LT Dawkins of LCSO indicated we should then notify him. We should also highlight the prohibition in the emails sent the week right before the race. (I include strollers here, though I don’t recall seeing them at the race, as both dogs and strollers are included as prohibited items in the waiver).
c) Star Metro did not pick up any racers. They apparently rerouted the buses on that route. I assumed it was my poor communication skills but 1) they did it last year, 2) I highlighted their service in multiple emails, 3) I negotiated costs, 4) I have multiple emails spanning from August through September, 5) They saw and requested a modification of the logo we used to promote their service, 5) we were going to pay them up to 1500 dollars, 6) They had someone at the race, 7) I spoke with three different folks, 8) …perhaps you can hear me screaming ;). I am….not happy but besides Brian Waterman halfheartedly apologizing I haven’t taken this further
d) Orange Theory didn’t come through with the $500 sponsorship money. She said she was confused so they didn’t do anything. I pointed out they set up a table at packet pickup promoting their brand, she gave us their branded shirts which we had printed with the race design for them and they took possession of to hand out (as it turns our Rupp didn’t charge us for that printing). She then changed her tune and said they’d pay for that expense. I’ve written them off though as Jennifer Kilinski may take a stab at this. I’m of the mind of collecting the full sponsorship vs negotiating with them.

The Good:

    a) Ellie and Jackson Properties and Mike Rupp of Ragz exceeded anything I could have asked of them and I’m very grateful for their help.
b) Our volunteers are incredible. Peg, Bill, Jeanne, Tom, Sondra as leaders and Team RWB and FAMU/FSU/TCC NROTC for shouldering the water tables at the finish and the halfway mark respectively.
c) I was excited that our club members such as Angie Dempsey and David Andersen among others took home RRCA medals.
d) And that an 11 year won as first female over all. Her family was there and asked me to pose in their picture. Herb took a number of pictures of those winners some of which appear in the Word document for which I’m very proud to represent the GWTC in them.
e) Having a social at packet pickup worked very well (Those costs are sunk in the race expenses vs. Zack’s budget). 
f) Indications that our efforts to encourage members to join via discounts, last year’s shirts/glasses, and special edition was successful.   

Tony Guillen – Tony wanted to bring to the Board’s attention the number of vacancies that have occurred since Mike Burns left for Ohio. Palace Saloon 5K needed a new race director, Jon Nash said that he would take over that positon. The Grand Prix Committee needs another Board member, Judy Alexander was nominated, a motion was made to approve this, seconded and passed, and she is now a member of the GP Committee. A new Vice President for the rest of 2016 was needed, Zack Sharlepp was nominated, a motion to approve was made, seconded and passed, and he will be the VP for the rest of the year. 

Tony Guillen (for David Yon) David was not able to be present at the meeting and so he requested that Tony discuss the possibility of having an AAU GWTC children’s team as previously mentioned in an email discussion prior to the meeting. David would like for us to move forward with Angie Milford’s group, including taking the steps necessary for any qualifying kids in her group to compete in upcoming AAU meets.  He stated that he was very comfortable with this not exposing the Club to any uncovered liabilities, and the process is not that hard since Angie is a qualified coach.  David has taken a look at the insurance coverages and they are actually much better than what RRCA provides. David asked if the Board could appoint a committee to work with Angie to develop this program. Tony asked Paul Guyas and Annie Bowman could work with David and Angie on this, they agreed and a motion was made to approve the committee, seconded and passed. There were a few concerns about who could participate in the AAU team, the Board would like to make sure this is inclusive for any child who may want to compete.

Bill Lott (for Tom Perkins) Bill informed the Board that for the Summer Track Series, there needs to be a security person for three hours at these events as requested by Maclay School. Bill asked for the Board to approve $180 to pay for the extra hours needed to cover the costs of the security guard. A motion to approve the $180 was made, seconded and passed unanimously.

Old Business:

Tony Guillen (for David Yon) Tony on behalf of David, provided an update on the CHP and GWTC annual agreement proposal.  After speaking with our contacts at CHP, they would like to keep their annual donation at $22,000 rather than the $25,000 we asked for in the proposal. They would also be willing to drop the bags or co-brand with the GWTC logo.

Committee Reports:

Treasurer’s Report –Katie Sherron
As of May 31st, 2016, the summary accounts are, $72,572.87 in the Operations account, $2,120.18 for the Events 1 accounts, $2,448.25 for the Events 2 account, $8,281.00 for the Triathlon account, $60,000 in the Invest and Reserve account and $13,247.56 in the Chenoweth Fund. Katie also worked on and filed the 990 form, which was accepted and needs to be posted on the website as per the IRS. She is working on creating a budget for FY2017 based on last year’s budget of approved versus not approved numbers. There is now enough money in the operations account to move back to the reserves and investments account, a motion was made to do this, it was seconded and passed unanimously. 

Membership Report –Emma Spencer for Mark Priddy
GWTC now has 1516 members, an increase of 49 from last month (1426 same time last year), and household memberships were 786, up 25 from last month (741 households same time last year). The Tri Club has 248 members in total.  

Race Director Coordinator Report – Charlie Yates 
Charlie stated that his biggest challenge was trying to keep the 5-6 race directors from scheduling races on the same day.

Newsletter Report –Fred Deckert 
No report.

Clothing Coordinator Report –Emma Spencer for Maggie Beshara
Nothing new to report.

Equipment Report – Bill Lott & Vicky Droze
Bill said that everything is going OK, but that we still need a replacement for Vicky Droze who will be stepping down from the position in 2017. Bill stated that the storage unit can be moved closer to wherever the new person will live to make it easier for them, and that if we know of any interested individuals then please pass on the information.

Website Committee Report – David Yon
No report.

Chenoweth Fund Report – David Yon
Nothing to report, except that Pot Luck is coming up on June 11th 2016.

Triathlete Report – Ron Harrison 
Crystal River Tri Series #1 (Grand Prix Event) (Saturday, May 28, 2016) Recap. Club tent with some refreshments/snacks, manned by Keith Rowe. Good turnout and support for club members! Tallahassee YTS “Splash and Dash” (Sunday, June 5, 2016) Recap. Racers: 125. Volunteers: 30.Race timing was provided by Gulf Winds Track Club and everything went great! Jax Tri Series #1 (Grand Prix Event) (Saturday, June 18). Club tent with some refreshments/snacks to be manned by Keith Rowe. Newsletter to go out to our members by Wednesday, June 20, 2016. DRC Sports Race Registration Giveaway, via drawing, for July 16th Jacksonville Tri Series #2 Sprint Triathlon, NOT a 2016 Grand Prix Event.
Next Meeting: Monday, June 20, 2016 at Momo’s Pizza in Killearn, on Market St. Social at 6:30 pm and Speaker at 7:00 pm. Speaker: Chris Bach, MS, CSCS, Graduate Research/Teaching Assistant, Institute of Sports Sciences and Medicine, Florida State University Topic: “Carbon Fiber or Acclimatization-Which Makes You Faster?” Chris will talk about environmental stress and how to plan your training and nutritional strategy to deal with it.

Lecture Series Report – Paul Guyas 
TMH Sleep Center is the next lecture coming up on the 28th June. Chasing leads on other ideas.

Training Report –Tracy Godin 
Tracy is working on having a few fun gap runs in between when trail blazers is over and before she starts a new beginner running group.

Social Report –Zach Scharlepp 
We had a going away party at North Side Pies for Mike Burns and Pot Luck is the next club social event.

Trail Coordinator Report –Emma Spencer for Bobby York
No report from Bobby.  The Halley’s sent their report that stated June 9th is the last official Trailblazers run for spring 2016. The run will be on the Cadillac trails and then they will have the annual potluck cook out.  Attendance has been great with about 20 people at everyone.  They got a lot of new trail runners in the Summer Trail Series due to the Trailblazers, which is awesome and what they hoped for. Although Trailblazers will be officially done, they will host two more runs as preview runs for the next two Summer Trail Race Series races.  
Summer Trail Race Series: They are officially half way done, having completed race 1 on Magnolia Trail at Tom Brown and race 2 on the Coonbottom & Swamp Forest Loops out at Phipps Park.  The race series sold out prior to the first race, they opened up a few more spots for people who did single race registration and then wanted to convert to the series.  They have had about 6 single race participants at each race.  The next two races are July 9 on Red Bug trail at Phipps Park and then July 30 on Cadillac Trails at Tom Brown Park.  The last race will be in the evening with the series award presentations to follow and they hope to have the funds remaining to have some sort of food (e.g. pizza) for the participants.  They also have almost $400 in cash or checks from race day registrations to give to Katie Sherron and will get those to her as soon as possible.

Other items: 
The Secretary asked all member of the Board to provide updated addresses and phone numbers.

At 8:56 p.m. a motion to adjourn was made, seconded and approved.