My Track Record

The College Club
Downtown Seattle

Board attendance for this historic meeting, the first of the Kinderis presidency, was a strong 87.5%. New president Saul Kinderis called the meeting to order with the support of fellow Board members Sally Bergesen, Greg Crowther (secretary), Dan Hayes, Thornton T.P. Perry, Bill Roe (vice president), and Liz Stahl (treasurer). Also on hand to usher in the Kinderis era were Steve “Hatz” Hatzenbeler, Nicole Holleran, Brian Oster (events manager), Erik Probstfield, Martin Rudow (Northwest Runner editor), and John Sweeney.

The minutes of the February Board meeting were approved as written.

In light of last month’s elections, Secretary Greg agreed to distribute via e-mail an updated roster of Board members and their contact information.

FINANCIAL REPORT

As per usual, Treasurer Liz distributed a handout which summarized recent checking account activity. As of February 14, the balance was $5,290.99. Club’s $5252 CD matured on February 18 — oops! — and will come up for renewal again in August.

Amidst a discussion of upcoming expenses and income, Brian Oster said that Club would earn approximately $1000-2000 for its role in the LifeCenter Northwest “Share Your Life” road race on April 10, and Martin Rudow said that Northwest Runner’s next major payment to Club would probably not occur until June. This comment served as a convenient lead-in to the …

NORTHWEST RUNNER REPORT

Over the next three months, Martin will be incurring the expenses of his direct-mail campaign targeting Washington state Runner’s World subscribers who do not currently receive Northwest Runner. This is one reason why Club will not be seeing much income from Northwest Runner this spring.

In health news, Martin noted that he came down with the flu on the weekend of the national cross country meet in February and thus was unable to sell all of the meet programs as he had hoped. According to Martin, the virus was traceable to Erik Probstfield, who infected him at the February Board meeting. Erik did not dispute Martin’s account, however, and any thoughts of a tussle between the elite hammer thrower and the former elite racewalker were quickly squelched.

Finally, Martin said that he would welcome the assistance of web-savvy Club members in bolstering Northwest Runner’s web presence. Rob Cook, Club’s resident webmaster, was cited as a possible source of help.

EVENTS REPORT

0. St. Patrick’s Day Dash (Sunday, March 14): The Guinness centipede — piloted by Rob Cook, Hatz, Brian Montgomery, and “a host of other idiots” (as Brian Oster put it) — was a sight to behold. If you missed it, there’s always next year.

1. Spring Break Open Track & Field Meet (Saturday, March 27, 10 a.m., Edmonds District Stadium): Bill forced everyone in attendance to take several dozen copies apiece of a flier advertising this meet. Geoff Newing of Pacific Northwest Track & Field (PNTF) will provide a head official for each event at the meet. In order to cover the cost of paying the PNTF officials, entry fees have been raised.

2. LifeCenter Northwest “Share Your Life” 5K/10K (Saturday, April 10, 9 a.m., Seward Park): Seward Park has been reserved and the appropriate permits granted. Club will need to supply 15 to 20 volunteers, who should plan to be at Seward Park by 7 a.m. and can expect to be done by 11 a.m. Mark Davies is presumed to be the volunteer coordinator for this event. Brian distributed a draft of the contract between LifeCenter Northwest and Club Northwest. The contract guarantees $1000 of revenue to Club, plus an additional $2 per entrant for the first 750 race entrants and $1 per entrant thereafter. In its current form, the contract also states that the purpose of the race is to benefit “the community and … the Everett Rotary”; Brian assured the Board that this wording would be changed in the final contract.

3. Northwest Twilite Track & Field Meet (Friday, April 30, 4 p.m., Civic Field Stadium, Bellingham): Bill is reviving this meet in order to provide a competitive opportunity for local athletes who can’t (or don’t want to) participate in the Oregon Invitational on May 1. As always, volunteer timers and officials are welcome.

4. Road Runners’ Club of America convention (April 29 to May 2, Spokane): a chance to find out what RRCA President Don Kardong and his cronies are up to these days. The convention will take place in conjunction with the Lilac Bloomsday 12K road race, which this year will double as the Washington State road race championship, complete with residents-only prize money thanks to the sponsorship of U.S. Bank. Numerous educational and promotional events will round out the weekend’s proceedings.

5. All Comers Track Meets (Wednesday nights starting May 26, Edmonds District Stadium): Brian said that increasing participation among high school athletes will be a goal of this year’s series.

6. Seattle International Track Classic (Tuesday, June 15, Husky Stadium): Bill and Hatz are two of Club’s three representatives appointed to the board which oversees the meet. They will cajole a third person into joining them. Volunteers?

7. Firecracker 5000 (Saturday, July 3, 11:55 p.m., Seattle Center): Nothing new to report.

The Board approved a motion to extend its oral contract with events manager Brian Oster through the end of April. T.P. said that he would prepare and bring a formal contract to the April Board meeting.

TEAM REPORT

At the U.S. national indoor meet, Nicole Hunt placed 8th in the 3000-meter run with a personal best of 9:31. Hatz said Nicole sent a nice letter to him thanking the Board for their support. The Board appeared to be ignorant of this letter, so Hatz said he would forward it to them.

Aretha Hill is currently in Australia but would like to compete for Club this spring. Hatz will take the contract outline given to him by Saul, revise it, and pass it on to Aretha’s agent.

Since the Club Handbook does not spell out a clear, comprehensive reimbursement policy, Hatz said that he would work on updating the wording of the policy.

SOCIAL/MEMBERSHIP REPORT

Membership czar Dan Hayes reported that the Club listserver is now up and running but does not have many subscribers yet. The listserver offers Club members the opportunity to arrange group runs, swap results, discuss training methods, etc. Visit http://www.onelist.com for easy-to-follow instructions on how to join. Coming soon: the Club Northwest chat room! (Just kidding.)

Dan continues to pass on volunteer and membership information to Rob Cook so that Rob may post it to the Club website, http://www.cnw.com. Dan is also drawing up a membership card that Club members may present to local merchants in exchange for discounts on running shoes and apparel.

Club members will soon begin to receive _Footnotes_, the RRCA’s quarterly newsletter/magazine. Martin still has yet to send a list of Club members to the RRCA, but he’s going to do it in the near future. Really. He means it this time.

NEW BUSINESS

Bill made a pitch for putting together a bona fide Club budget in the near future. He suggested that the budget be subdivided into the categories of Northwest Runner (Martin), events (Brian), team (Hatz), and social (Dan). Liz said that she could e-mail people a rough breakdown of yearly expenses.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 8:20 p.m., giving everyone ample time to go
home and watch _Ally McBeal_.

NEXT BOARD MEETING

The Kinderis Administration will be back in action on Monday, April 12 at the College Club. As usual, the meeting will start at 7 p.m.; those wishing to eat dinner should come very early in order to take advantage of the College Club’s slothlike service.

HANDOUTS

1. register listing of checking account activity (Liz Stahl)

2. draft of contract between LifeCenter Northwest and Club Northwest (Brian Oster)

3. numerous Spring Break Open Track & Field Meet brochures (Bill Roe)

4. Northwest Twilite Track & Field Meet brochure (Bill Roe)

Respectfully submitted,
Greg Crowther
Secretary
Club Northwest