CRCA Board Meeting Minutes (2016/04/25)

CENTURY ROAD CLUB ASSOCIATIONMEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

April 25, 2016

The Board of Directors (the “Board”) of the Century Road Club Association (the “CRCA”) held a duly noticed meeting on April 25, 2016 at the offices of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher at 200 Park Avenue, New York, New York.

The meeting was called to order by Alexis Kraft, President of the Board, at approximately 6:30 PM.

The following members of the Board, constituting a quorum of the Board, were present in person or telephonically:

Alexis Kraft – President
Gabrielle Fisher – Vice President, Racing
Tara Parsons – Vice President, Rider Development
Fred David – Secretary
Ken Edwards – Treasurer
Russ Bogin – Public Relations
Tomi Ketcham – Marshalling Director
David Wen Riccardi-Zhu – Communications Director
Ted Teyber – Director of Open Racing

TREASURY / FINANCIAL

Ken Edwards provided a detailed update on the status of the CRCA’s financial position, including a presentation of the CRCA’s available cash, the current revenue from membership enrollment and donations (which is still currently trending slightly down compared to 2015) and open race registrations.

The Board discussed potential avenues for increasing donor membership numbers and agreed to reach out to their subteams to encourage members to upgrade to donor memberships. The Board also discussed adding additional benefits to donor memberships, and agreed to continue that discussion at a later date.

OPEN RACING

Ted Teyber provided an update on the status of preparations for the CRCA Bear Mountain Classic and the Lucarelli & Castaldi CRCA Orchard Beach Criterium.

The Board discussed a request from a CRCA women’s racer to shorten the distance of the women’s Pro/1/2 field at Bear Mountain, and agreed to do so in order to incentivize additional riders to enter the race.

The Board discussed in detail the impact of the size of prize pools on registration numbers as well as the “prestige” of the CRCA’s open races. The Board agreed to emphasize the size of prize pools for women’s and men’s elite fields in order to increase the quality of elite fields, thereby increasing the prestige of those races.

The Board also discussed in detail the charity to which a portion of the proceeds of the CRCA Dave Jordan Central Park Classic would be donated, and the Board recommended the proceeds be donated to the Century Road Club Developmental Foundation (“CRCDF”), subject to the Jordan family’s approval. The Board also discussed ways to strengthen the ties between the CRCA and the Jordan family in order to ensure that the CRCA Dave Jordan Central Park Classic becomes a fixture on the Northeast racing calendar. Mr. Edwards agreed to prepare a presentation for the Jordan family regarding the CRCDF and its selection as the charity to receive a portion of the proceeds from the Dave Jordan Classic.

The Board considered a proposal to host race number pickup event for the Hincapie Omnium, and Russ Bogin agreed to discuss with Bicycle Habitat hosting such an event.

ELECTION OF CRCDF BOARD MEMBERS

Tara Parson and Mr. Edwards volunteered to serve as the Board’s two appointees to the board of directors of the CRCDF, and the Board unanimously approved the appointment of Ms. Parsons and Mr. Edwards to the CRCDF board.

COACHING

Ms. Parsons discussed the current compensation structure for CRCA’s coaches and noted that the current rate being paid by CRCA to coaches was below the market rate. The Board discussed in detail the current compensation structure, the number of coaching sessions currently offered, alternative forms of compensation other than cash that the CRCA could offer coaches (including mentioning coaches on the CRCA website’s sponsors page, waiving coaches’ marshalling obligations and waiving coaches’ membership and/or season pass fees), and the prevailing market rate for coaching. Ms. Parsons agreed to discuss the compensation issue with CRCA’s other coaches and to present the coaches’ compensation request at the next Board meeting.

The Board also discussed the timing for hosting a second race clinic, and determined that the best date for holding the second clinic would be during the June 19 club race.

CLUB RACES

Gabrielle Fisher discussed race morning logistics and proposed that season pass waivers be accepted only via e-mail submission for the remainder of the year rather than accepted in person the morning of club races, in order to reduce race morning complications. The Board approved the proposal and David Wen Riccardi-Zhu agreed to send an email to the CRCA’s members to announce the change.

The Board also discussed the ideal starting order for fields at CRCA’s races in Central Park in order to reduce the number of times fields, particularly women’s fields, need to be neutralized to allow another field to pass. Ms. Fisher and Russ Bogin agreed to discuss the matter with Alex Rodriguez, and the Board will re-address the matter at a later meeting.

FALL ACTION ITEMS

The Board discussed additional items to be included on its running list of various topics that the Board will consider later in the year, including moving up the timing for the first meeting of new CRCA boards in future years, the re-establishment of a CRCA newsletter, obtaining sponsors for the CRCA’s 2017 open races, generating a list of tasks for its web developer, Nick Black, to work on to improve the functionality and usefulness of the CRCA’s website and changing the B and C fields at club races to Cat 3/4 and Cat 4/5 fields, respectively (currently B fields are open only to Cat 4 racers and C fields are open only to Cat 5 racers).