General Meeting Minutes
Date: February 11, 2021
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Virtual meeting via Zoom
Treasury Report – Shaun Luther—we are at 118% of target. Starting to see income from Blues Cruise and Charlie Horse registrations. Savings were taken from an unused bulk mail account, which hasn’t been used in 2 years, and closed the account. The residual money in the account will be refunded. RRCA is refunding money for the music licenses that weren’t used. The IRS sent a letter that stated the 2019 had to be filed—which they already were. So Shaun is trying to resolve this by providing copies of the tax return and the mailing receipts.
Races:
- Charlie Horse Half Marathon—Shaun Luther—May 29, 2021, he and Libby have been reviewing options of how to hold the race. Thinking is that people won’t want to ride on bus with other people, which is the traditional transportation, or hire 3 buses. But this is an expense. Starting a Rustic Park is difficult, especially with the minor vandalism to the marking in previous years. The third option is start/end at Sleepy Hollow. Shaun was able to get this option approved by Brecknock Township. They had a few reasonable conditions that would allow this to happen. So, this is the 90% most likely course that will happen. There are some road crossings. Shaun will be looking at places for aid stations. This year will be a half marathon only (no 5K). No day-of registration, or post run awards, celebration, or eating. (See the PP Discussion Group FB page for updates.)
- Run for the Ages 10K Trail Run—Donna Hey—Nolde still has restriction on group activity. She has some dates in mind, and will continue to monitor the situation.
- Grings Mill 5K and 10K—Jane Setley—they have the date, and will be starting the planning.
- Blues Cruise 50K—Dan Govern—registration is open. About 40 people are registered. Has the permit and the pavilion reserved. Caught up on the details for now. He is planning some training trail runs. Fleet Feet has offered to do an aid station.
- Oley Valley Country Classic—no report.
- Kris Kringle 5 Miler—Polly Corvaia—the profit was more than budgeted this past race due to limited expenses. Polly would like to give to a few charities. First option, $900 each to the coaches, a charity, and Pacer general fund. Second option, $900 each to coaches association, IM Able foundation, and the Schuylkill River Trail (SRT) Fund, to improve the section of trail in West Reading that is having security issues. Polly is asking for people to donate additional funds to either the Schuylkill River Trail or IM Able. The club voted to give $800 each to the three charities (coaches, IM Able, and SRT) and reserve $300 to the clubs general fund. Polly will post additional information on the PP Discussion Group about individuals volunteering on 3/27 for the “Reviving the Reading Gateway Section of the SRT” and/or donating to the $70,000 needed for the project.
- Shiver by the River 5K and 10K—Sue Jackson—Regarding the 2/14 scheduled race, the condition of park and the course were not good, and the weather forecasters are calling for more bad weather. The decision was made to postpone this race until February 28. There will still be a race on March 14. Sue will need volunteers, mostly for people to manage the traffic and runners on the road.
- Jr. High Cross Country Fall Invitational—Tom Chobot—still a fluid situation, no updates yet.
Committee Reports
Social Committee:
- Movie night at the Goggleworks was looked into by Polly. Max occupancy is 25 people in the theater. They sell wine, beer, beverages, and food. The cost is $10 per person, so it would be no cost to the club. If interested the theater must be reserved for at least 6 people. They have a list of movies that can be shown. Larry Sundberg will take this project on.
- Possibility of something in the Spring at Mike Whalen’s.
Communications Committee—Jon Durand—will still try to plan a Wawa-type run.
- Newsletter—Matt Brophy—nothing to add. Ideas for content are welcome.
- Facebook—Jane Setley—has been keeping up with the Discussion Page.
Community Service
- Weekly runs—Steve McGuire—good attendance for these WNRs. Shaun Luther mentioned using an e-blast in Constant Contact for a “new runner” to try to reach a larger crowd to perhaps get a better showing. Focus on one that’s more centrally located. Steve will look at a good location. Mike Whalen offered that the club should be more cognizant of any new people and their running paces. The group agreed that we should try for a better focus on making this work. Do an e-blast, choose a night that seems central, or perhaps designate a particular night in the month. Will try to start in April, when there will be daylight for the start of the WNRs.
- Trail Maintenance—Mike Whalen—some areas need clean up, so he will coordinate a few people to do this when the location is accessible.
Charity Committee
- Scholarship committee—Beth Kohl—she wants to bump the deadline for application submission to the end of March (March 31st), as the applications are usually due the end of February. An e-blast for the Pacer-related portion of the scholarship will be sent. Tom will send an email to the head of the coaches association, who can forward an email to county coaches.
Membership committee: No report
Old business
- Donna Hey—donation to Nolde Forest to improve the trail markings (as described in January’s meeting minutes). They want to enhance the markings there now. It would be a $1400 donation to the Friends of Nolde Forest. The donation amount of $1400 was proposed and seconded by the membership present. The Friends are agreeable to the ‘big check’ presentation, and posting on their social media sites
New business
- Fleet feet is looking to expand its involvement with the club, such as an aid station at Blues Cruise. They put a paid-for article in the newsletter, which was not its traditional advertising method. They may have some shoe fittings at WNRs and are offering more trail shoes in their store to cater to that running market.
- Tom Chobot—Dylan McKissick wants to put together a morning run program in Spring Township. If we have members in this area who are interested, Tom is forwarding details to Matt for the newsletter.
- Georgine McCool said that Constant Contact is going to do an upgrade on March 1st that will require a new template. Not a lot of races use this, so Georgine will take care of creating a new template.
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