TVFR Meeting Minutes - October 1, 2015

Attendees: Kerrie McFeeters, Ted Tyler, Mary Tyler, Mike McMullin, Gary Atlas, Danny Finch, Sarah Parks, Mike Nixon, Ron Walker, Phil Crocker, Chris Kivior, Mark Capparella, Dan Davin, Jill Duhaime, Leigha Nixon, Marie Paturzo

Dan kicked off the meeting by thanking Ron Walker for working with Papa Gino's to donate pizza to all of the runners and volunteers at the Larry Olsen race. Dan also thanked PR Running and all of the volunteers.

Larry Olsen 10K Recap: (Chris) Chris can't thank the volunteers enough for all of the work they did at the race to make the event such a success.  The weather was ideal and participants really seemed to prefer the later date.  The revised course worked well.  Special thanks to Dave Morin and Ted and Mary Tyler for all of the photos!  Gary noted that pre-registration was 89, and 27 post-registration, with 106 finishers.  Thanks to Jeff Hattem for adding the race to the Greater Framingham's grand prix series.  We got a great turnout from GFRC!  He is looking to get it added to the Wamp's grand prix schedule next year.  Another thanks to Ed Finnegan for the custom road signs.

Annual Banquet: (Dan) Mark your calendars!  The annual banquet is scheduled for November 12 at the Crystal ball room in Milford.  Once the room is booked with the venue, e-vites will be sent out.

Soup Group: (Dan) Joe Hamm is going to once again coordinate the Soup Group this season.  He is looking for a budget of $200 per month, less $90 carried over from last season.  We may be looking at a new location in Bellingham.  These will start the first Sunday in November, location TBD.  A motion was approved to allocate $910 towards the soup season budget, equal to $200 for 5 months, less the $90.

Milford Christmas Parade Run: (Dan) Milford fire fighters host a Santa parade in December, and a couple years ago TVFR was invited to run the route just before the start of the parade.  Dan reached out to John Dumont to see if we could do this again this year.  They are interested in a short course run of 1.25 miles, with details still to be ironed out.  If it can't be done as a race due to the short time to get it set up, there is still interest in doing this as a fun run.  Gary is going to forward to Dan the race agreement that we typically share with other organizations that we provide timing for.  This would be an excellent opportunity for us to host a local race in a location where the road closures and town approvals are already in place, and with spectators lined up all along the course!

Website: (Sarah) Rawson is in the process of converting our existing web pages into the new template.  He's just finishing up the last few pages and we should have it complete shortly.

Boston Tune-Up 15K: (Jill) The date is tentatively planned for Saturday, April 2, 2016.  Mike Nixon is going to get the process started of notifying the town of Upton, police chief, and school.  As soon as this date is confirmed with the town we'll get the registration open, with the Frank's special early bird pricing.  Best deal in town!

Volunteer Raffles: (Jill) Jill would once again like to give away raffle prizes at the annual banquet.  Last year we gave out 5 gift certificates to PR Running, to people who had volunteered over the past year.  Jill made a motion to double this amount this year.  $200 was approved, so we will be giving out (10) $20 gift certificates at this year's banquet.  Volunteers will get their name in the raffle once for every time they volunteered during the year!

Bellingham Music 5K: (Chris) John McCue is heading up this race on October 18.  He notified us that TVFR will be on the race shirts for the assistance we've provided in getting this race set up.  Chris is going to be working at a TVFR booth to sell apparel at memberships, and is looking for some friendly folks to join him!

Signage at Bellingham Track: (Mark) Mark inquired about getting a TVFR sign at the track in Bellingham.  There is an annual fee for a 4x8' sign of $500, with a renewal rate of $350.  It was decided not to pursue this at this time, but Mark will look into this option at other local tracks.

Speed Workouts: (Chris) Workouts are going well and continue to be well attended.  The October workouts will take place in Milford for the final month of the season.

Monday Night Pond Runs: (Jill) Official pond runs wrapped up this past Monday.  Overall attendance was high at the beginning of the season but dwindled in the summer and into September with about a half a dozen runners each week.  Some of us will probably still continue to meet there unofficially on Mondays until we lose daylight, meeting there around 5:30.

Membership Report: (Danny) We currently have 295 members in 164 households.  We have 2 new members since the last month, one returning member, and 3 non-renewals. Please welcome Paul Barrows, Annie Crowell, and Jeff Grupposo.

Treasury Report: (Mike N) The bank is in good shape.  We still have a few deposits pending for the Larry Olsen race day registrations.  We currently have $2800 in the Larry scholarship fund, and $640 in the Martin Auty fund.

Incentive Reimbursement Program: (Mike N) We have $189 left in the Q3 reimbursement, and Q4 reimbursement is open as of today, with the first eligible race for reimbursement being the Leclaire/Vacca trail race this weekend.

Dam Cure Run: (Mike Mc) Mike and Linda have been working on t-shirt sponsors at $50 per donation and have gotten 12 of them!  So far pre-registration is on the low side and Mike is hoping for a boost in registration.  We will work to actively promote this over the next couple of weeks.

Timing Services: (Dan) Dan would like us to establish a policy for loaning out race equipment (timing clock, etc).  Several local races have reached out asking to borrow our timing clock or assist with timing.  It was agreed that Gary will inform the club officers if the clock is being requested, and a TVFR member must attend the event.  Any request to assist with timing any race needs to be passed by the TVFR board, so that we can determine if compensation and marketing is appropriate.

The meeting ended with road tales!

Upcoming Volunteer Opportunities:
Oct 3 - Upton VFW Run to Remember 5K
Oct 10 - Dam Cure Run, West Hill Park Northbridge

Upcoming Grand Prix races:
October 4 - Leclaire/Vacca 5k trail race - Grafton
October 10 - Dam Cure Run, West Hill Park Northbridge
November 15 - Durtyfeets Trail 10.5k - Upton Forest
November 26 - Whitin 5 miler - Whitinsville