USATF New England

Monthly Meeting

February 6, 2006

Association Office, Brookline, MA

The meeting was called to order at 7:22pm.

In attendance: Courtney Bird, Harry Brooks, David Cahill, David Callum, Jim Garcia, Dan Hart, Justin Kuo,, Gordon MacFarland, John Oleski, Ken Robichaud, Paul Ryan, Gary Snyder, Pat Sweeney, Steve Vaitones

Harry opened the meeting asking that there be a 5 to 10 minute Q&A with the president at the start of each monthly meeting. Gary agreed to put this into the next month’s agenda.

Justin updated the group on the status of the web improvement initiative. He said that things are in a maintenance mode and welcomes input from the board.

Background Checks

The youth chair, Pat Sweeney, will be setting up a meeting with youth oriented clubs (coaches and all others interested) in the near future to discuss the background checks which are being required of the association by the 2007 calendar year. The meeting will be set up to put the issues on the table and get feedback from those involved in youth athletics.

The Association will be looking for an upstanding member of the community to be the contact person and carry out the background checks. A committee will be in charge of finding this individual.

Treasurers Report

  1. Dave handed out the reports and summarized that there has been little activity in the past month. There haven’t been any events to bring in income. There should be money from memberships and club renewals, though he would have to talk with the managing director, Steve Vaitones, to see how that is being recorded at the moment.
  2. Employee Compensation
  3. Gary Snyder mentioned that the Association will be matching 3% of the managing directors contributions to a simple IRA set up with Fidelity.
  4. Gary will be working with a committee, chaired by Ken Robichaud, to determine the managing directors salary and percentage of an annual raise.
  5. This committee will also work on defining the managing director’s job description.
  6. After this is done, the committee will research what other managing directors are compensated to determine the managing directors salary.

By-Law Review

This same committee will be reviewing the by-laws and proposing changes at the New England Association Annual Meeting.

Indoor T&F Series

Paul Ryan and Dave Cahill gave brief recaps of the series so far. The series has been in touch with the National Office for merchandise from the USATF store to award as prizes. Dave is going to put together an email for the board to vote on allocating funds to help purchasing additional awards.

LDR Grand Prix

The LDR committee (Jim, Gordon, Courtney), Ken and Steve met to discuss the upcoming grand prix and potential improvements. They will update us further after additional meetings.

The date of the Ollie Road Race will likely be Sept. 9, 2006 due to heavy conflict with other area events on other weekends.

National Masters

  • Many athletes are registering online, which is one of two entry methods (online and mail-in).
  • The meet hotel has filled up much faster than anticipated and Steve, Lee and Gary are looking for alternatives.
  • The Thursday night dinner at Bertuccis will still be held, hosted by Gary and Lee.
  • Marja is putting together a program for the meet, which will have an insert with the participant names.
  • The medals must be ordered through Crown Awards, which has been less than totally reliable with having items in stock.
  • There is still a need to find a timing company, though there are two leads which Steve is working on.
  • The 27” hurdles will be hand made by Lee and Gary and there will be one lane set up with hurdles of that height. Steve researched and hurdles cannot be bought with that height anywhere in the US unless they are custom made.

New England Indoor Championships

There are very few entries for the meet, though most clubs and colleges do not enter until the week of the event. There is a good amount of help for the meet and only a few positions are still needed to be filled.

USA Indoor Championships

Steve updated the board on the USA Championships and how the National Office has handed over a greater portion of the meet management to the LOC because they have a proven track record now. This year there are fewer “issues” and things appear to be coming along nicely. The number and quality of the competition should be better this year since it is a World Championships qualifying year.

Other Notes:

  • The monthly Association meetings will be held at MIT in the future. However, one meeting may be held closer to the New Hampshire border at the request of some of the board members who in that area.
  • The Mountain Circuit has picked up a series sponsor: La Sportiva. The series is close to having all their dates set.
  • Gary is working on a proposal to all members which would require them to submit a proposal to a small committee to have funds (proceeds from Association investments) given to support a new program. The program must be one in which USATF memberships are generated and the committee reserves the right to veto any proposal.
  • There will be a committee working on redefining the Office Manager job description. Steve said that he has been getting help from Tolya Kuo some afternoons in the office and that Shannon Petranoff is interested in coming back to the office through the end of the summer. That gives the committee to decide what the role of the office employees will be, get the word out on an open position and conduct interviews.

The meeting adjourned at 9:22pm.

Submitted by Paul Ryan