CRCA Board Meeting-Minutes

Date:June 3, 2014, 7:15 pm

Location:99 Claremont Ave, NY, NY (home of David Carr)

In attendance: Jayson Jacobs (president), Ken Edwards, Roger Parmelee, Josh Sakofsky, Ann Marie Miller, Robert Duncker, Barb Blakley, Ashley Doane, and David Carr . By phone: Joe Grgic and Liz Marcello.

1) Club financials – Ken Edwards, treasurer, gave a report on club finances through the year. Profits from Grants Tomb and Bear are donated to the juniors in order to maintain tax-fee status for those events (and police support free of charge). A combination of not having the Floyd-Bennett Race or the Masters Throwdown and not having the level of sponsorship that we had last year means that we appear to be set to close the year about $6300 below where we started.

For future discussion: We will have greater clarity on the financial position for 2014 at our next meeting, before which Ken will have a proposed 2014 budget and 2015 blueprint for us to discuss and (for 2014) vote.

2) The question of composite teams: 

For 2014 Jayson will move forward on seeing what can be organized for CRCA composite teams without direct use of club funds.

Ken Edwards will see what is possible for CRCA to do to support the efforts of CRCA members to do fund composite teams without compromising our tax status.

For 2015 we will develop a preliminary proposal for composite teams and include in the member survey a question about the level of member support for the use of member fees to support men’s and women’s composite teams.

3) Jersey and other CRCA-ID Issues: 

Ashley will contact the Bold Racing team to work on modifying their bikereg profiles to include CRCA\ in the team identification for their riders. Bold also needs to modify their jersey design by 2015 to be in compliance with the team rules about placement of the CRCA logo.

Roger agreed to develop some graphics to illustrate even more explicitly what constitutes compliance and non-compliance.

Ashley will work with team managers into the close of 2014 on a process for securing team director approval for kit designs.

The president will notify membership via email that wearing a CRCA jersey is required for racing. Robert Duncker will walk the registration line at the next race and enforce the rule.

4) Marshaling – 

Check-in is going better, but there is still an issue with having identifiable marshals on the course a full 15 minutes before the race. Ken Edwards will check with CPC to see if the time window can be reduced. Josh Sakowsky will work on strategies to insure that marshals are wearing their vests so that they are identifiable. Liz Marcello will work on a process for more securely indicating to the marshals that they are done.

The board discussed the increased use of paid marshals in CRCA club racing and the increased risk to teams that produces when such marshals fail to follow through on their commitments. Teams competing for team cup points should take such risks into account in relying on paid marshals. The board voted down a motion from David Carr to loosen the team consequences for an isolated instance where a paid marshal fails.

5) Responsibilities around races -- promotion, etc. 

Jayson has drafted and will re-circulate to the board a media plan for comment.

A number of things have been done to delegate tasks once done by the director of open racing, e.g. number and waiver stapling, registration organization, reporting of results to USAC. There was talk last year of a non-board associate director position, but that has not been actualized so far. Some of the open races coming up are in the park, and so they involve far less logistical work than Grants, Bear, or Orchard. Nevertheless, Joe will see if there are other parts of his job that can be done well by a team or individual as part of team duty or marshal credit. One possibility, mentioned by Barb, was to have different board members take primary responsibility for the remaining open events.

6) associate member rules and fees: 

The board discussed the ongoing purpose of this category. On the one hand, given our club financials this seems a bad time to contemplate eliminating or reducing a category of dues-paying members. On the other hand, there is concern about losing teams because the category is less functional than it once was because of USAC rule changes.

For future discussion in relation to 2015 budget.

7) Club Archives (David)  

John Tomlinsen’s work on the CRCA archives - Budget for scanning photos (estimate $540) and storage for 10 bankers boxes (Museum? NY Public Library, the Museum of the City of New York, the New York Historical Society, and possibly Brooklyn College which holds a collection of material about boxing in New York City)

David will check with a club member about the scanning portion. Ken Edwards may be securing storage space for the boxes.

8) Club involvement in advocacy re. planned GWB closure (David) 

Lucia Deng has taken leadership on this issue.

9) 2015 Board elections process suggestion (Liz) 

The board voted forward the following proposal: Beginning with the 2015 Board of Directors election, all candidates will be required to submit a statement not exceeding 150 words explaining their qualifications for the position, their interest and motivation for running for the position, and why they feel they will be a valuable asset to the Club.

Explanation: Not everyone knows everyone in CRCA. The Club is quite large and during the voting process, some members do not know who they are voting for. Not only will doing this allow members to have a better idea of who they are voting for, it will also require that those thinking of taking a position on the board think deeply about why they would like to be on the board. The statements will be placed on the website and promoted through Facebook and other means so that club members can make more informed decisions about the future board.

10) Sponsor Search Update -- Roger Parmelee reported on the difficulties in nailing down further sponsor support. He and Ken will follow-up with one recent prominent sponsor.

NEXT MEETING: to be decided by doodle poll. In July, preferably not July 11-18 (Ann Marie not available).

Submitted, David Carr, Secretary