Present: Board members present: Zack Scharlepp, Paul Guyas, Tony Guillen, Maria Matheu, Kory Skrob, Herb Wills, David Yon, Charlie Johnson, Mike Savage, and Mary Jean Yon Jim and Kristin Halley, Katie Sack. Others present; Chris Sumner, Gary Droze.

The President called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. and a quorum was established.

The Board reviewed the January 2017 minutes, Mary Jean was thanked for providing these minutes. A motion to approve minutes was made, seconded and passed unanimously.

New Business

10 Mile Challenge Wrap Up – Zack Sharlepp presented, on behalf of Vicky Verano, the final wrap up for the 10-mile challenge.  The race had net proceeds of $803.97 and Vicky requested that 50% of that go to Capital City Youth Services to buy much needed resources.  A motion was made to approve this request, seconded and passed.

Marathon Update – Zack Scharlepp made the announcement to the Board that after a very successful marathon weekend. However, Elizabeth Rosario has announced she was stepping down as marathon race director and that we need to brain storm to come up with a list of potential race directors who would be willing to take on the task. David Yon recommended that we set up a committee or working group of the key people involved in the organization of the marathon to so as not to lose any of momentum created over the last two years.  The board agreed. The president, Zack, David Yon, Tony Gillen, Sheryl Rosen, Maria Matheau, and Michael Martinez were all suggested to be committee members.

Maclay Clock Issue – Gary Droze described to the Board how 21 years ago he had bought a clock for Maclay that cost $1500 that is used by GWTC Tuesday track workouts and also by Maclay teams 52 weeks of the year. This clock has just come to end of its life and so he found and bought a new one for $1500.  Gary requested that the Board pay for a third ($500) of the costs associated with the new clock as it is regularly used by GWTC members.  Gary was asked to leave the meeting for a few minutes while the Board voted. A motion was made to approve the $500 contribution to the clock, seconded and passed.

Trail Pride for Keep Tallahassee Beautiful – David presented a flyer to the board detailing a clean-up of the St. Marks Trail starting from Gamble Street on March 25^th 2017. Dianna Hanson is heading up this project and will have a group of FSU students and other entities volunteering. GWTC members have been asked to also get involved as we use the trails regularly and she wants to make it a fun event that would include a 3000 meter run/walk before the clean-up started to draw people to the event. A motion was made to help set up the event and provide GWTC support. The motion was seconded and then passed by unanimous vote. 

Community Track Meets – Chris Sumner and Gary Droze came to talk to the Board about the possibility of hosting a number of track meets across the city similar to the event he did at Lincoln, for those children who did not make any school running team but were interested in running and participating in a meet.  They expect to have between 4 and 5 schools participate and it is an area of opportunity to provide a running event like the Summer Track Series outside of the summer season.  Kid of all ages could participate.  David mentioned that they would have to look into insurance as GWTC current RRCA does not cover track meets, AAU or the schools own insurance may be the way to go.  Chris also discussed that scoring would be an issue that would need to be worked out. Paul Guyas asked what the cost to participants would be and whether or not other track and field events such as long jump would be offered.  Additionally, Paul asked whether or not there would be any coaching offered at the events or if the children would have to figure out individual events on their own.  Chris stated that he anticipated that a small fee would likely be charged between $5-10 and that could possibly be used as a fundraiser for the host school.  The next steps the board agreed Chris should take, were to develop a proposal that included time of year, number of events, budget and scoring system, in addition to charge amounts, awards and a potential schedule. 

Wednesday Striders – David and Paul provided an update on Coach Angie’s kid striders.  She has between 8 and 10 kids at present and the group is growing in size thanks to Paul posting on social media.

Swamp Forest Wrap Up- Kristin Halley presented the final numbers for the swamp forest races.  They got 166 runners from 6 different states including one from California.  Volunteers were the best and the race was a huge success. Earthfare provided the bagels and bananas for the race and were really excited to be a sponsor, they have let Kristin know that that they would be interested in suppling food again for other GWTC events and we should contact them again. The final proceeds were $2016.97, which were much greater than the $988.50 proposed.  She requested that the Board split the proceeds 50/50 between Friends of our Parks and GWTC. A motion to approve this split was made, seconded and passed.

Committee Reports:

Treasurer’s Report – Emma Spencer for Katie Sherron

Katie provided the Board by email account information. As of January 31, 2017, the balances in the GWTC accounts were: $76,190.66 in the Operations account; $1,720.18 in the Events 1 account: $73,798.72 in the Event 2 account; $5,926.36 in the Triathlon account; $85,000 in the Investment and Reserve account; and $15,537.38 in the Chenoweth Fund. 

Membership Report –Emma Spencer for Mark Priddy

There were 1078 members in the club as of February 7, 2017, an increase of 274 from last month’s meeting. The renewal rates stands at 62% of last year’s members.  Last year (2016) at this time we had 1060 members, a renewal rate of 63%. We also have 552 household memberships. The Tri Club has 190 members.  Mark also provided information regarding the “Membership trifolds”, of which 800 have been printed compared to 600 in 2016, at a cost of $295.  Paul Guyas was given a large quantity for the Tallahassee marathon and the rest will be given to Bill Lott for his race day table.  A printable copy is also available on the Gulf Winds website.

Race Director Coordinator Report – Mary Jean Yon

Mary Jean briefed the group about the success of her first meetings of the GWTC Race Directors which occurred on Monday, January 16, 2017 and featured discussions about the Leon County Emergency Medical Services agreement, RRCA insurance needs for club races and the care & feeding of race participants. There was a positive response from the Race Directors and they were able to share a lot of information.  The next meeting is scheduled for March 5^th and will include topics such as secrets of a great race budget by Katie Sherron, how to keep your volunteers happy and legal talk with David Yon, as well as some open discussion and sharing.  In summary all is going well.  Zack shared with the Board a plaque they had made for Charlie Yates and it was suggested that it be presented to him soon.

Newsletter Report –Fred Deckert

No report.

Clothing Coordinator Report –Maggi Wilson

No Report.

Equipment Report – Katie Sack & Bill Lott

Katie reported that she and Bill are still looking for a new storage unit and that everything else is going well.

Website Committee Report – David Yon

Research is still be conducted on creating a website calendar that can be pushed out by users or downloaded by them.  David and Peg are looking into ways to push other web information to GWTC members, maybe by creating some kind of app or newsletter.

Chenoweth Fund Report – David Yon

David informed the Board the Chenoweth Fund had received and approved a request from Coach Jacobs from Jefferson High requesting $1000 to buy track equipment.  This request was approved by the Chenoweth Committee. David made a motion to approve this Committee’s decision. The motion was seconded and approved unanimously. CCR just delivered $750 of its sponsorship for Turkey Trot, with another $750 promised.  Since the accounting for Turkey Trot had been more or less closed out and the club had done well, David made the request to put this money into the Chenoweth Fund. A motion was made to do so, seconded and passed. David also let the Board know that sponsors such as John Manry from CCR, would prefer to provide one lump sum sponsorship instead of providing multiple checks for different GWTC races, this is an area that we should look into and perhaps provide a sponsorship package that could be rolled out to the larger sponsors of GWTC races.

Triathlete Report –Charlie Johnson

Charlie Johnson provided the triathlete report to the Board. The first Grand Prix event for the club will be the St. Marks Duathlon on March 12, registration is open on Active.com, with a price increase due March 1^st, 2017. Charlie thanked David Yon for helping with the RTA verification and waivers. The timing system has been confirmed by legendary Peg Griffin and they will have mats set up in transition.  The event is USAT sanctioned and participants will have to sign the usual USAT waiver. Race divisions will include Fat Tire, Relay and Individual.  They have organized traffic control with the FHP but are still in need of at least 50-60 volunteers to man the more dangerous intersections and the test of the course. Wakulla EMS will provide free support but cannot guarantee that they will stay if they are called away to another emergency.  Post-race awards will be at the Riverside Café where Charlie hopes to present local honey as the prize. Mike Savage suggested that Charlie get in touch with a club member, Rob Cooper, as he is a beekeeper. The next Tri-Club meeting will take place on Monday, February 20, 2017 at Momo’s Pizza on Market Street starting with a social at 6:30 A shortened version of club’s newsletter will be sent out in the next few days and will feature Gina Tran and Kenny Walker in the Triathlete Spotlight.  The speaker at the meeting will be Dr. Brad Schmidt who will tackle the subject “dealing with anxiety in sport”. There is an upcoming biking event, the Havana Hills bike ride, on February 26^th 2017 that will benefit the local fire department, distances include a 48 and 88 mile ride.

Lecture Series Report – Kory Skrob

Kory is having her first event Sunday 12^th February, 2017, 3pm at Premier Health and Fitness, with the Olympic Trial runners from Zapp Fitness.  Eight runner and two coaches are scheduled to talk to the group.  Her next event is on March 26^th 2017, location to be determined (likely Premier) featuring A.J. Smith who will give a talk on runner safety.  Kory is also working with Jim Halley to look into hosting a lecture on trails, she also has other things in the works. 

Training Report – Kristin Halley for Tracy Godin

Kristin reported for Tracy that the marathon training group was now over and had been successful. She also reported that the Springtime training group had kicked off a couple of weeks ago with Katie Sack now being the leader.  Tracy is also hoping to start up a fun run on Thursday evenings with different locations, then when Springtime training has finished she will start up with the Trailblazers training again.  

Social Report – Kristin Halley

Kristin is hosting her first social event with a fun fitness run/hike at Torreya on Sunday 12^th February 2017. She hopes to have a picnic afterwards. People should come and hang out and either walk or hike and just explore Torreya.  Kristin is also working on having a runner trivia night at the Brass Tap, potentially in March.

Trail Coordinator Report –Jim Halley

Jim reported that the Ragnar Trail event he and Kristin hosted last month had great attendance and that they are likely going to send a few GWTC teams to the event in April.  He is working on getting shirts for the team members. On January 28 2017, Jim went to a new park site visit to support the building of a multi-access trail. It should take about 6-8 months to complete the trail.  On February 18^th Jim will be part of a panel for the sustainable summit and will discuss what outdoor amenities are available to the public.  Mary Jean publically thanked Jim for his hard work and input on writing a grant to apply for $5000 from Keep America Beautiful for trails, they should find out the outcome in June.

A motion to adjourn was made, seconded and passed. The meeting adjourned at 8:35 p.m.