My Track Record

The College Club
Downtown Seattle

PRELUDE: FORBIDDEN LOVE REVEALED

Liz: “Hey T.P., did you know that you’re Bill’s spouse now, according to Costco?”
Brian: “…Although I’m sure you’d prefer to be referred to as ‘life partner’ rather than ‘spouse’….”
Bill: “I’m filing for divorce!”
Brian, to Liz: “Now look what you’ve started….”

ATTENDANCE

After a string of recent absences, Clay Stenburg made a triumphant return to the College Club, thus quelling rumors that he had moved to Nepal to train at altitude. He was joined at the table by Tom Cotner (masters liaison), Greg Crowther (secretary), Steve “Hatz” Hatzenbeler (team co-manager), Dan Hayes (membership chair), Saul Kinderis (unshaven president), Brian Oster (events manager), Thornton “T.P.” Perry (board member), Bill Roe-Perry (vice president), Martin Rudow (_Northwest Runner_ editor), and Liz Stahl (treasurer).

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING

T.P. strongly approved of the September minutes. Everyone else simply approved them.

FINANCIAL REPORT

According to Liz, Club’s current bottom line is about $28,000. This includes about $20,000 in our checking account, $600+ in our savings account, $5400+ in the form of a CD, and $1700 in the form of the latest check from Northwest Runner. The financial report was approved as submitted.

Liz asked for a clarification on our reimbursement policy with respect to Club athletes who make the “B” standard for the Olympic marathon trials. Bill confirmed that Club will pay the travel costs of athletes who make the “B” standard (2:50:00 for women, 2:22:00 for men). USA Track & Field will cover the travel costs of athletes who make the “A” standard (2:42:00 for women, 2:20:00 for men).

At this juncture of the meeting, Board members were reminded that they are eligible for Costco memberships through the Club. The caveat, according to Hatz, is that “you have to pretend to be Bill’s spouse.”

PNTF/USATF

Bill announced that PNTF’s Annual Meeting is Monday, October 18th at the College Club. Club Northwest members are welcome to attend.

MEMBERSHIP

Dan has prepared a mailing which advertises the upcoming Club Northwest Night (October 21) at the Capitol Hill FootZone to Club members. Martin offered to mail the postcards so that Dan can continue to prepare frantically (as opposed to Franekly) for his master’s defense. Bill suggested that Martin pay someone $5 an hour to put address labels on the postcards. “Five dollars an hour? That’s more than I’ve made since I took this job!” the incredulous editor protested. “Then consider it a raise and get to work!” quoth Bill.

A motion to spend up to $250 on pizza for the FootZone party and label-affixing labor was approved.

Dan reported that the last couple Club workouts at Discovery Park have attracted 12-14 runners apiece, though few competitive team members have attended.

NORTHWEST RUNNER

Martin said that the November issue would include extensive coverage of the Portland Marathon, including a cover photo of winner Matt Messner and an article by overzealous minutes-taker Greg Crowther.

Brian and T.P. will collaborate on a Club column for the December issue. That means it’s due on November 1st.

Finally, Martin reminded the Board that our profits from Northwest Runner will be relatively modest in the upcoming months, as winter is traditionally the magazine’s slow season.

EVENTS

PNTF cross country meet (November 7th, Lower Woodland Park): Bill has posted an entry form to http://www.pntf.org. According to the form, the meet begins with the masters/community/corporate/coaches/pets 6K race at 9:30 a.m., followed by the women’s 6K at 10:30 and the men’s 10K at 11:30.

Adventure Run (November 13, St. Edward Park): Saul is working with Bill Cusworth on this event. Most aspects of the race are under control. The main task remaining is to lay out the course in such a way that the runners get spread out a bit before they converge on the narrow trail through the woods.

Bill Roe said that we should send out a mailing to Club members inviting them to volunteer at either or both of the above events.

Winter 2-Mile Grand Prix (December through February): Brian distributed a memo from Tom Anderson of Super Jock ‘n Jill asking Club to (a) host a 2-mile event as part of its Frostbite track meet on February 5 and (b) sponsor an ad for the Grand Prix in the December issue of Northwest Runner. The Board passed a motion agreeing to the terms of Tom’s letter and additionally agreeing to pay the series’ PNTF sanctioning fee if PNTF does not waive this fee.

Resolution Run (noon, December 31, Magnuson Park): Brian said that the city of Seattle has fallen short of its ambitious Millennium Project fund-raising goals and is thus scaling back its New Year’s plans. He said that these developments would not greatly affect the Reso Run, which may or may not wind up being part of the Project.

The race will be held at Magnuson Park because it may be used free of charge and is close to where our equipment is stored. Race distances will be 2K (one meter for each year) and 5K (slightly over eight feet per year). In addition to the usual in-kind sponsors, Sugoi will provide apparel prizes and Brooks or Saucony will hopefully pay for some other stuff.

Brian promised that music from Prince (“1999”), David Bowie (“Space Oddity”), and the movie _2001: A Space Odyssey_ will be featured at the race; “we have to go over the top on this one,” he said. “There will be champagne,” he continued — “not for anyone underage, I’m sure.” Bill suggested that we consider incorporating some other Y2K tie-ins into the race; T.P. proposed that we give a defective floppy disk to each finisher.

TEAM

Jennifer Tonkin and Karen Steen have qualified for the U.S. Olympic marathon trials. Tonkin ran 2:38 at Twin Cities, while Steen recorded a 2:46 at the St. George Marathon in Utah.

A query about Tonkin’s current affiliation led to a thread-by-thread discussion of Club uniforms. It was eventually decided that our current policy is to insist that Club-sponsored athletes wear Club singlets at Club team races, cross country races, track races, and national championship events where Club has paid for some or all of the athlete’s expenses. Furthermore, funding standards must be met while in a Club uniform.

Hatz said that cross country team participation is down somewhat this year and that he’s not sure why this is the case. On the men’s side, there are some new faces but not many returnees, while the makeup of the women’s team is not yet clear.

The national masters cross country championship has been moved to Long Beach so that it now coincides with the fall Club championships. In light of this, the Board passed a motion to pay for six masters runners to attend the meet: the top three finishers at the PNTF race on November 7th, plus three at-large selections. Bill called the Board’s silent approval of this motion “another unanimous vote, or another unanimous legacy of apathy.”

Liz has looked into airfares for nationals. Our two main options are to fly into LAX on United Airlines for $196 per person or to fly into the Orange County/John Wayne Airport on Alaska Airlines for $205 a pop. Each airport is 22 miles from Long Beach. Liz will check the van rental rates at each airport and, assuming that they’re approximately equal, will reserve a block of tickets on the Alaska Airlines flight, since John Wayne is a nicer airport than LAX. Bill estimated that, including airfares, hotel rooms, and van rentals, the trip to nationals will cost Club about $6000. This assumes that about 21 people (seven men, seven women, six masters men, and a team manager) will attend the meet.

OLD BUSINESS

Bill said that we can get a one-sided Chronamix clock with four-inch digits for $900 and that we can get Seiko watches for $325 apiece to replace the ones John Crawford took to Virginia. Relying mostly on input from Brian and Bill, the Board decided that we should try to get a two-sided Chronamix with bigger digits and that we should hold out for a better price on the watches.

Rather than conducting a detailed discussion of Club’s bylaws and how they should be revised, Bill went over them fairly quickly, noting in particular where ampersands and italics need to be employed, and asked the rest of the Board to e-mail him their comments and suggested changes, as former Board member Mark Davies had done earlier that day. (Thanks, Mark.)

NEW BUSINESS

Saul suggested that, to facilitate future revisions of the bylaws and other statements of Club policies, any modifications of Club policies made at a given meeting should be summarized in a separate section of the minutes for that meeting. The secretary thinks this is a good idea and will try to remember to implement it.

Mark Davies asked the Board via e-mail whether he should start working on contracts with Seattle Sports Medicine and Seattle Sports Physical Therapy for the upcoming year. In response, the Board said, sure, Mark, go for it.

Tom noted that the results section of the Northwest Runner website has not been updated in several months. Hatz said that Jonathan Swanson is willing to help Club out on web-related things. And then the meeting was adjourned.

MODIFICATIONS OF CLUB POLICIES

None this meeting.

HANDOUTS

1. Register Listing of checking account activity (Liz Stahl)

2. Request for Sponsorship Support (Tom Anderson via Brian Oster)

The next Board meeting will take place Monday, November 8th at 7 p.m. at the College Club in downtown Seattle. Anyone who attends will get his/her name in the November minutes. How’s THAT for an incentive?

Greg Crowther
Secretary
Club Northwest

POSTSCRIPT: PRESIDENTIAL CLUELESSNESS CONFIRMED

Saul, on the 62-mile Haney to Harrison Relay: “Is that in Lincoln Park?”
Hatz: “Good God, man. Where the hell have YOU been?”