These are those who have been nominated and accepted nomination as of 21-Oct-2021. (Nominations closed October 20.) Candidates' statements and photos will be posted soon.

MINUTES OF A MEETING

OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF

RANDONNEURS USA, INC.

Held: August 17, 2021

A meeting of the RUSA Board of Directors was convened by Zoom/ telephone conference and called to order by the President at 17:10 PDT.

The Directors in attendance were:

• Debra Banks

• Dan Driscoll

• John Lee Ellis

• Rob Hawks

• Dawn Piech

• Tim Sullivan

• Dave Thompson

The following e-votes were approved:

Manual distribution of centenary medals and allowing members to purchase a BRM medal while receiving centenary medal;

Approval of John Sprock as the new RBA for Virginia - Tidewater

Approval of Ken Moss as the RBA for Utah – Salt Lake

A motion was made and passed to approve the meeting minutes for July 6, 2021.

Dan had circulated financial reports consisting of a Statement of Activity YTD Comparison and a Statement of Financial Position Comparison that were reviewed.

Regarding the litigation, Tim reported that we are waiting for the final settlement agreements.

Rob reported on his actions as the RBA Liaison. He had a virtual onboarding meeting with 5 new RBAs. He will do another virtual meeting with the 2 new RBAs, John Sprock and Ken Moss. John Sprock will take over as the RBA after Keith Sutton holds a centenary brevet on September 11^th. Ken Moss will take over as the RBA after Richard Stum holds a brevet this weekend. So far 3 regions have submitted a 2022 ACP calendar. RBAs will not be able to add ACP events in 2022 after the initial calendar is submitted.

John Lee provided a written report on the activities of the Web Team. Charlie Martin has made good progress on the calendaring of Audax events and for the submission of results so that it will be functional for the 2022 season. The Web Team is continuing to backfill data to support award applications. Most features are working for support of Trace events. Charlie Martin added the trophy case feature for displaying a member’s results. The team reviewed new optional columns in the ACP’s results spreadsheet. There was discussion of adding a link to the region’s website when submitting the ACP calendar so that an interested rider would be able to look at the region’s website to obtain information on a calendared event.

Dan had provided a report on the permanent audit committee. The committee has not found any issues that need to be brought to the attention of the Board. The committee will continue to do audits until the end of this year.

Dawn had sent a report on her activities as the incident liaison, the development of a mission values statement and women’s initiatives/membership diversity. She then discussed the initial issuance of the Between the Controls e-newsletter. It was sent to 2954 members and was opened by 58% of the recipients. 63.55% used a desktop device and 36.5% used a mobile device. The top 3 categories selected were the RUSA calendar at 36.1%, the Rando Scout award at 25.1% and the centenary ride link to Bill Bryant’s article at 25.1% Dawn has the next edition of Between the Controls ready to be sent on August 18, 2021. Deb suggested that approximately 3 days later placing a Facebook post with a link to  Between Controls. .

Dave reported that all 300 medals for the centenary brevets reserved for RBAs have been sold.

The Board has approved that for this year only if someone becomes a member in September 2021 the membership fee will also include 2022. Dave will prepare a message to be sent via MailChimp to past due members inviting them to renew their expired membership.

Deb provided a written report on incorporating gravel riding/routes into RUSA. She cited 3 areas that need to be addressed further: time allowed to complete a gravel ride, should gravel rides be their own category, and the formation of a committee to expand on the ideas raised in her report. There was much discussion on whether any extra time should be allowed for a gravel ride and if so how is it to be determined. Her report included her idea of a formula to add additional time based on the amount of gravel sections in the route.

After discussion a motion was passed to incorporate gravel rides into RUSA and to form a committee to provide a plan to implement the rides. Deb, John Lee and Dawn will be members of the committee and Deb will contact at least 2 other members to see if they would be interested in joining the committee.

Tim reported that the only time deadline for the upcoming Board elections is for Rob to announce by September 30, 2021 whether he will run again as the RBA Liaison.

The Board then discussed the implementation of a new award proposed by Bill Bryant that he named the Super Rouleur Award. Bill’s written presentation was reviewed by the Awards Committee that provided a report on June 6, 2021. The Award requirements as recommended by the Awards Committee are completion of the following in a calendar year:

a 100-124 km populaire

a 125-149 km populaire

a 150-199 km populaire

a 200-220 km brevet, and

an 8 hour Dart of 120 km or longer with at least 3 team members completing the ride.

Permanents and foreign events do not qualify and longer rides cannot be substituted for a shorter ride.

The Board approved the Award renaming it the “RUSA Rouleur Award”. A member can earn one award a calendar year for rides entirely on roads and another award for gravel rides conducted in a calendar year.

There was then a discussion of the 2022 budget. Lois Springsteen has been asked to prepare an estimated expenses based on the 2019 actual expenses. Then Dave and Dan will review it and projected income analyzing various revenue options that were discussed by the Board.

The next Board meeting will be held on September 20, 2021.

The meeting was adjourned at 19:03 PDT

The RUSA annual election season is upon us! Now's the time to nominate your fellow members and/or you who may be interested in serving on the RUSA Board. Nominations opened October 1.

• No Experience Necessary. On the job training will suffice.
• Passion and commitment to Randonneurs USA and moving our organization forward are what's needed.
• If you're interested, feel free to reach out to any board member for the real scoop.
• Terms for the 2 open regular board member positions are for three years.

How do you do this? It’s easy! To nominate a fellow member or yourself, all you need to do is send an email to election@rusa.org listing the member(s) you're nominating, yourself and RUSA numbers. John Lee Ellis and Deb Banks have termed out and are not eligible for reelection.

The Regional Brevet Administrator Liaison (RBA-L) position is also open, a one year term. Only RBAs are eligible to nominate and vote for the RBA Liaison. Rob Hawks holds the position and is eligible for reelection.

The deadline for nominations is October 20.

As the second edition has just been sent out, a big welcome to our new e-newsletter, Between Controls, a supplement to American Randonneur magazine. 

Between Controls is an additional way to keep you informed on RUSA happenings. You can expect both American Randonneur and Between Controls to keep you up-to-date.

Links to previous editions of Between Controls, can be found via the "Between Controls" menu option on the Members dropdown.

When you view your member results by going to Search for Results, you will now see a "trophy case" of icons representing your awards for each year. You can click on any of the trophies to read details about that award.

Thanks to the Web Team for this imaginative new feature!

We've added a feature to the website to highlight our advertisers in American Randonneur magazine. The Support our Advertisers page takes you to a page with images, ads, and links to these advertisers. It's added visibility for them, and an added way for members to access these offerings.

You may also find this link under the Members dropdown.

Thinking about how to contribute to RUSA outside of your local club or region?  As RUSA creates or enhances programs, we're always on the lookout for folks to help. So we've added a Volunteering Opportunities or "Help Wanted" page. You can also find that option on the "Members" dropdown in the menu bar.

Have a look and see if there's an activity that suits your skills and interests!

Get 'em while they're hot ! Voler will be discontinuing their "Produce on Demand" service in July. That means that our 4 jerseys - the RUSA "national" jersey, two different K-Hound jerseys, and the PBP '19 jersey will not be available, nor will the shorts.  We don't know what we'll setup as an alternate arrangement but there may very well be a period of time during which there's no RUSA jersey available. If you've ever thought about buying one of these jerseys or the shorts, now's the time !

You can view the items at the link below, and order them directly, to be shipped to you by Voler:

Randonneurs USA Collection at Voler

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The Cima Coppi lightweight jersey - first introduced in late 2017 - is now available for order. Please place your order soon so that CC knows how much of the custom wool to order from the supplier. Questions ? See the email address on the order page:

https://cimacoppi.cc/en/content/17-rusa-preorder

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