USA Track & Field - New England Association

Board of Governors Meeting

Association Office

June 3, 2013

Attendance:

Stephen Peckiconis

Steve Vaitones

Steve Viegas

Yvonne Green

Justin Kuo

Mike Travers

Tom Derderian

Jim Garcia

Lisa Doucett

Eric Narcisi

On the Phone:

Joe Navas

Jim Burgoyne

Jason Ayr

Victoria Barnaby

Jason Cakouros

Meeting called to order at 7:17. It was determined that there was a quorum.

Tom Derderian opened with some kind words about what Paul Kirsch is doing with the mountain series. Tom was pleased with what he saw at the Wachusett race.

Secretary’s Report

Posted online, Secretary moved to have them accepted as is. Motion passed unanimously.

Treasurer’s Report

A few items were highlighted, including the P&L statement. The difference in account 5021 is due to the awards banquet. Overall, the $10k of negative net income difference is due to timing. Memberships are up compared to this point last year. The balance of the investment stands at about $107,000. Currently there is about $343,000 of cash in the bank.

Motion to accept report, seconded, passed.

Track & Field

Yvonne Green sent out the updated rules to include the east region meet as part of the T&F grand prix series. (see email for full details). This shouldn’t deter anybody from running our own championship. Yvonne would like a link on the site for people to opt in for informational emails about the region. She would like a due date for when the link will appear on the site. Paul & Steve are working on getting regularly scheduled Delivra messages.

Master Track & Field

Mike Travers spoke about the committee convening next week for the 2014 indoor championship meet (March 14-16, 2014). They’ll be responsible for executing it all, making decisions. They have a tentative logo already. The committee will be meeting every 4-6 weeks or so.

One major difference from last year is that they’ll have to provide drug testing this time. They will need to set aside space for the testing. Overall it’s going to cost more than in previous years, as expenses are up. The meet did make over $20,000 last year. Numbers have been trending up in last few years.

Misters Viegas, Vaitones, Kuo and Travers have been working the mini meets the last couple of weeks. There has been lots of youth in attendance along with some decent open & masters numbers. One more coming up this coming Wednesday.

Road Racing

Lisa Doucett spoke about the next GP race on the schedule, which is the Hollis Fast 5k. It is an evening race in Hollis, NH, on a Thursday night. Lisa and several committee members went up to visit the race organizers recently. They looked at the course because the organizers wanted to split the start for the men and women. They had to certify both, because they changed the course from last year. The men will be starting on the road, with the women starting off the road in a school parking lot. About 1,800 or so runners have signed up so far. Race organizers have been doing a good job of offering discounts to teams, keeping it open for association members.  There is going to be a huge post race party and there will be USATF-NE awards on top of their usual awards. There is also a prize money structure in place, with approximately $4,050 total cash available.

Also of note, we are still looking for a new men’s long distance running chair and are taking nominations. Tom says we need to start focusing on the 2014 GP slates. There will be a committee meeting between now and Carver (end of July).

Race Walking

Justin Kuo mentioned that the New England championships will be on the same weekend as the nationals, with NE’s at Regis College (later this month). A request has come in to move the National two hour championship to the spring. The meet is normally run in October and our association had been running it for decades. Seems like it’d be impossible, so it was moved to the summer.  We couldn’t come up with a date, so they pulled it from us. There’s an option to reapply for it as a masters meet, which Justin will do.

The date for the Can/Am dual meet challenge, at East Boston stadium, is Sunday August 4th. It was very well received two years ago, expecting similar.

Cross Country

Jason Cakouros said that he’s waiting for dates to firm up for the series, and then get word out about the series. The WMDP had to change the date of their race to 9/8 for the Stanley Park race. Still looking for a course to put in a bid for the national championship.

Old Business

For the communications manager position that had been discussed, Victoria has found someone willing and able to do the task. Jenny Gardynski works at Pan Communications, a PR firm, and she also runs for GBTC. Jenny has had practice pitching stories, so she could reach out to various media outlets. She would do a lot of content creation. Possibly take over a lot of the AoM duties. Mike suggested a three month trial, to be reviewed again after that. The position would pay $200/mo. Expectations are for Jenny to be able to handle things like blog post, summaries, and assist on Athlete of the Month material.

New Business

Jim Garcia mentioned that a lot of people are expressing interest in the grant program now, and it wasn’t an issue in the past because we were always well under budget. Now we’re getting requests that go far over it.

Mr. Viegas emailed the board ahead of the meeting about the need to change our bylaws. The current bylaws appear to be a little outdated in terms of the way the board functions with modern technology. Need to put it together for September meeting.

No website news to address.

Motion to adjourn at 9:21 pm. Seconded, passed.