General Meeting Minutes
Date: January 13, 2022
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Mohnton Fire Company
Treasury Report – Shaun Luther—Account balances discussed. Insurance was paid in December. The target amount to have in reserve in the club’s account is based on non-race (NR) expenditures accrued in the previous year. (Target account balance = previous year’s NR expenses x 3.) The club did not use the NR amount from 2020, since our expenses that year were so low, which would have made the required reserve number too low. However, due to our current spending and accounting practices, our NR expenses have not reached the level of pre-COVID years. Media expenses have been going down—media, social events, and Pacer swag, postage expenses were negative (retrieved our postage account money), and application expenses with Pretzel City Sports are down. According to Shaun, if the club uses the NR amount from 2019, our account is currently at 121% of target. But if the club uses last year’s NR expenditures, we are at 191% of target. He will discuss with the executive board how the target amount should be calculated.
He received a letter from IRS that he has to file the club’s taxes electronically, which is something he will have to look further into doing.
Races:
- Charlie Horse Half Marathon (Sunday, May 29, 2022) – Shaun Luther – registration is now live on UltraSignUp. The race is Sunday of the Memorial Day weekend. Brecknock Township still needs to approve the event. It will be the same course as last year—with a possible return of the Dirty Pony 5K.
- Run for the Ages 10K Trail Run (Sunday, June 26, 2022) – Donna Hey – Registration will go live very soon. She signed the USA Track & Field agreement, so the event will be listed on their calendar. Swag will probably be shirts this year.
- Grings Mill 5K and 10K (Sunday, August 7, 2022) – Jason Karpinski. – Event is on Pretzel City Sports calendar. Registration will go live soon.
- Blues Cruise 50K (Sunday, October 2, 2022) – no report
- Oley Valley Country Classic (first weekend in November 2022) – Barry Goodhart – Changing the date to the first weekend in November. It will be at the Oley Valley Fair Grounds again.
- Kris Kringle 5 Miler (Saturday, December 31, 2022) – Polly Corvaia – For the 2021 race, just concluded, total runners number was approximately 600, Polly is doing the finishing up activities. Thanks to Mike Whalen who stepped up to do the on-site medical evaluations. Date of next year is SATURDAY, December 31 (New Year’s Eve day), due to the day that Christmas in 2022 is falling. Cross Country donation is approx. $2500, due to some on-line donations.
- Shiver by the River 5K and 10K (Sunday, February 13, 2022, & Sunday, March 13, 2022) – Sue Jackson – January’s Shiver is this Sunday, delayed from last week. Need volunteers due to the date change. Dieffenbach Chips and Home Light are this year’s sponsor. Help with the trailer is appreciated, but depending on the conditions, Sue can do things the old-fashioned way and load up items in her car. In March, she will be looking for door prizes for the on-site banquet, which as of now, is still scheduled. The directors will continue to limit the 10K time that the volunteers have to be on the course, meaning that runners need to be at a certain pace or continue the race on their own.
- Jr. High Cross Country Fall Invitational — no report
Committee Reports
Social Committee:
- Christmas party – Dave ‘Swampy’ Feinauer – attendance down a little this year, which was expected. But otherwise had a good event.
- Checking into the WR Pickle Ball Association, which has courts at the West Reading Playground.
- Wilshire pool contacted Michelle Henry using the pool after 8 p.m. on evenings during the summer. Michelle is considering some Thursday evenings (not to conflict with monthly meetings or Thirsty Thursdays) to do a run or bike ride in the area, and then going to the pool – so, could be something a little different for a summer’s evening. Will look into the evolving details.
- Bad asked about Wallyball at Colonial Hills – he will organize for Friday, February 25th, pending confirmation with Colonial Hills. Pizza, snacks, beer, cheap wine, etc.
- Velodrome Park, Breinigsville – Mike Whalen will look into this for a Spring/Summer time event.
Communications Committee:
- Facebook – Jane Setley – has been doing the FB page management. Steve Vida will manage the weekly run FB updates. We will keep in mind the consistency between the web site, FB official page, and the FB public discussion page.
Community Service
- Weekly runs – Michelle Henry – The club has been posting a short run and a long run offering, which has been going well for safety reasons and general knowledge. Matt Brophy has been doing this. The run courses are improvised as needed. Matt and Steve Vida are switching off leading the short and longer distances.
- Trail Maintenance—Mike Whalen went through recently and it is clear.
Charity & Scholarship Committee – Committee has room for one more person, and they have received one application so far.
Membership committee: Jason Karpinski is now the membership coordinator. They are putting a table out at Pacer race events. A QR code has been created that goes to the home page of the Pacers. In addition, they will have a table at “Guts and Glory”(?) – more details to follow. Then Fleet Feet in discussion about an “intro to trail running” event at Antietam Park – on the national trail day to have a Pacer group represent for trail running.
Old business: None
New business:
- March meeting – doing BP checks and “quickie” CPR training and AED training – one hour before the meeting, so at 6 p.m. Mike Whalen and Karin Long are hosting.
- At the May meeting, Stephen and Sandie Kincaid – Berks Trail Works – will talk about the work they do for that local organization.
- Next month’s meeting (February 10) will be a Mimmo’s Restaurant.
- Race results – Karen Rule would like to possibly pass the race results updating along to someone else. She does not get a lot of input. Do we still want to have this feature in the newsletter?
Pagoda Pacers News 