The following is a recap of the decisions made at the HubFest 5K planning meeting on Thursday night, 6/30/05. Thanks to each of you who stuck around to offer their suggestions.

1. It was decided that the HubFest 5K will be held Saturday, Oct. 8, 8 a.m.
2. The race will feature the traditional 5K and 1-mile run/walks, as well as a new shortened “Kids Race.” The kids’ race will be something along the lines of a ¼-mile with no entry fee.
3. For awards, we plan to use mugs again, with special prizes for the major category winners as we did a year ago. A $300 cap was placed on the amount we intend to spend on the major awards.  For the kids’ run (and possibly the 1-mile) we are planning to collect old trophies from club members and will purchase new tags. Becky and Hollie will coordinate this effort. So dig through your closest and get those old, dust covered trophies to the Ryders.
4. The Fall 5K series will be held at the Longleaf Trace on Thursday nights, beginning at 6:30 p.m., each Thursday, from September 9-30. The club members present felt that we had good success with the Trek the Trace series, so the decision was made to hold the events at the same location and time, as well as encourage the “pot luck” format of the events.
5. Among those who volunteered as “committee” chairpersons are:

Keith Barrett – Race Director, securing a lead vehicle

Deborah Barrett – Registration, securing a national anthem singer

Becky Ryder – Securing of course monitors, Measuring

Barbara Ross? – Restrooms

Steve Ulery – registration forms

Jim Coll – publicity

Keep in mind Keith will need help in many more areas, please contact him at keithusm@megagate.com if you want to offer your assistance.

6. While no one person plans on tackling the job of acquiring sponsorships, we hope that those of you who helped in that area a year ago will do so again. If you have a business in mind, Becky has a typed list of “sponsorship packages” that we offered a year ago; please contact her --  hryder29@comcast.net  – for that  information.

    

   In addition to HubFest 5K, the club also reached decisions on some other business items:  

• The club will donate $25 to the Friends of the Longleaf Trace to gain status as a  “Friend.”
• The club elected Becky and Hollie Ryder as the club’s Friends of the Longleaf  Trace liaisons. Becky and Hollie will serve as the club’s representation at the quarterly “Friends” meetings.
• The club will donate $26.20 to Ginny Dufrene’s Team in Training effort.  
• Any decision on the purchase of a clock will be tabled until the club can further investigate the clock donated to us by the Mississippi Track Club. 

No other items were discussed.

As always I welcome your input.

Jim

06/30/05  We will have a HubFest 5K planning meeting immediately following the Trek the Trace event on Thursday evening 6/30. Much to the collective chagrin of club members I am sure, I would like to add a few items to the agenda that I feel like we should address to keep the club moving in a positive direction. In the interest of those of you only interested in meeting about HubFest, I’ll wait until after the HubFest portion of the meeting to address other items. If you have any comments about any of these items, but can not attend the meeting, please send them my way -- james.coll@usm.edu  – and I will pass your comments along to the rest of the club.

Below are the items I want to address time permitting:

1. HubFest 5K – Of primary importance is the selection of a time and date, as well as job allocations. I believe last year we had everyone fill the roles they did in 2003. I’m assuming that unless Keith tells us differently, we all agree he should continue as race director. I’m also hoping that we have additional volunteers whom we can use to lighten the load for others who carry a heavy burden each year. I suggest we set a goal of 170 runners and walkers in the 5K this year, and let’s be creative on how we can get there.

2. 5K series – We need to set dates, times and location(s) for our yearly 5K series leading up to HubFest, assuming that is that we want to continue holding those events.

3. E-mail responses – I would like to address how we handle e-mails that are sent to info@pinebeltpacers.org . My concern is that some are not responded to.

4. Strategic Plan – As I have mentioned to several of you in recent months, I would like for the club to establish some long term goals, i.e. – Do we want to grow the club to a certain number of members? Is the current slate of events/races sufficient, just right, too much? I also want to review our slate of offices – not the people, but the positions. For instance, we have positions that are not being utilized simply b/c little or none of the work falls in the job description. I believe that we need to either 1. re-distribute the workload under the current slate of offices or 2. change our offices to reflect our current slate of activities and needs. I’ll elaborate further at the meeting.

5. End of the year meeting – Traditionally we have held club elections and Christmas party as one event at the end of each year, but with the Steam Whistle 12K becoming one of the most important events on the Pacer calendar, I recommend that we hold club elections and an end of the year "banquet" the same day as the Steam Whistle run anticipating will get more participation and input by doing so. We can honor the winners of our Gran Prix series divisions on that day as well. Additionally, each year in the months preceding the Steam Whistle 12K I would like for the club to consider each year nominations for Lifetime Member Awards. To refresh everyone’s memory, a few months back we named Khalid Khannouchi the first "Lifetime Pacer." Basically it is a way to honor people who have given a great deal to the club. In addition, we said that "Lifetime Pacers" would no longer be required to pay the $15 yearly fee to maintain their memberships. (Although this certainly does not mean we forbid them from paying dues should they desire to continue paying.) Lifetime Pacer awards (if any are given) would be distributed at the end of the year "banquet" as well.

6. Logo – We have talked for some time about developing a new logo for the club – it is time to make some progress on this topic.

7. Membership cards – Yousri and I have talked about the possibility of approaching running/walking-related businesses in the area about a discount card for our members. In other words, we would develop a card that on one side would contain a person’s membership information and on the other the list of businesses offering discounts. In exchange for participating, we’ll offer the business an opportunity to place a button on our highly-successful Web site with a link to their Web page if they desire. This membership card would work well with our Gran Prix series as well. For races offering discounts to our members, a membership card would be an easy way to identify a person as a Pine Belt Pacer.

8. Clock – The old MTC clock is sitting in my office, and unfortunately I have not had time to take a look at it. I am of the opinion, although a few others have voiced to me they differ, that if this clock functions properly, and we decide that it will for the foreseeable future, we forgo purchasing a new clock. If that is the decision we come to, we need to talk about the donations (in some cases, large) people have made toward the clock.

I look forward to seeing each of you on Thursday, although I’m certain I’ve scared a few with the length of the agenda.