October 20, 2008 Board Meeting
ATTENDEES (b=board member): Don Hamilton (b), Eric Vigoren (b), Mike Dayton (b), Lois Springsteen (b), Jennifer Wise (b) Susan France (b), Mark Thomas (b), John Lee Ellis, Edward Robinson, Bill Bryant.
I. Minutes.
Minutes from the Aug. 12, 2008 board meeting (full meeting) and the Oct. 9, 2008 board meeting (2009 calendar discussion) were approved by unanimous vote, with Jennifer Wise making the motion to approve and Mark Thomas seconding the motion.
II. Email votes.
Email votes of events, included in a separate e-mail, were approved by unanimous vote, with Don Hamilton moving to approve and Mark Thomas seconding the motion.
III. Votes.
Mike Dayton announced results of the latest board election. Current board Eric Vigoren was elected to a full term (he had been filling an unexpired term); Edward Robinson was elected to a three-year term; John Lee Ellis was elected as RBA-Liaison. Mark Thomas requested that the election results be posted as soon as possible on the RUSA Web site.
IV. RUSA Store.
Early discussion focused on whether to stock holiday items in the RUSA store, and whether some slow-selling items should be phased out, such as travel mugs and wind vests, once the inventory was gone. New RUSA souvenirs, including RUSA cycling caps proposed and designed by member Jerry Phelps were also discussed. The board decided to pursue the caps.
IV. Possible New RUSA Awards.
John Lee Ellis led the discussion on proposals for new awards. The first, the Gamut Award proposed by Greg Olmstead, generated lengthy discussion. It was decided that the award should revised and resubmitted for further consideration. Next up for discussion was a RUSA distance award. Several board members felt it was too similar to the UMCA mileage challenge. Final discussion centered on a proposed RUSA SR medal but questions were raised about its conflict with the ACP SR medal and the problems that would be generated in regions where RBAs only schedule one ACP series. This proposal was rejected by a majority of the board. The board discussed issuing a Super Randonneur jersey for members who earned SR status. The board voted to moved forward on this plan, and to announce a jersey design contest in the November 2008 issue of American Randonneur.
V. Texas 200K Rider Appeal.
Dan Driscoll asked the board to approve the results of two 200K riders on one of his events that finished outside of the actual time limit because of a card error on his part (the card had a longer distance and longer time than had been approved by the board). The board agreed to approve a retroactive adjustment of the distance. The board agreed that as a matter of policy distance changes should only be approved in emergency situations and on RUSA brevets where the RBA discovered a road closing or other problem during a pre-ride of the course. The board agreed to send out a notice to RBAs about procedures for changing route distances.
VI. Suggested Change to Rules for Riders Article.
Discussion on this was led by Mark Thomas and Edward Robinson and centered on a question from RBA and former Permanents Coordinator Robert Fry. The issue was what guidance to give riders who run into an unexpected road closure while on the course. A motion to approved the following language carried:
The only exception to the "no detours" is provided when a road is In such a situation the rider should attempt to contact the ride organizer to obtain permission to take a rider detours without permission due to a road closure, the rider shall report the route deviation to the organizer at the rider's If a detour is taken, the rider(s) organizer are responsible for ensuring rider(s) have completed the required event distance.
VI. Expand Permanent Committee to 3 Members.
Permanents Committee Chair Edward Robinson said the number of permanent routes application had increased, and that former Robert Fry had suggested that he recruit help with that time-consuming task. Eric Vigoren moved to approve the expansion of the committee to the three members, and Don Hamilton seconded. The vote was unanimous.