Recent Announcements

Logo Search Project Concludes

In 2016, the Board formed a committee, comprised of Deb Banks and Jennifer Wise, to evaluate RUSA’s logo.  The committee solicited designs from members and while that process garnered a number of creative submissions, none of them were compelling enough to merit replacing the existing logo.
 
During this project, the RUSA store did not restock logo-branded items. With this project now at an end, we will re-stock some logo items in the online store and work with an external vendor on apparel designs.
 
Deb and Jennifer, and the members who answered the call for logo submissions, are commended for their hard work and dedication to this effort.  If RUSA revisits the logo in the future we will involve our membership in the process.

RUSA Board Elects 2017 Officers

RUSA’s governing body is pleased to announce the list of officers for 2017. The election was held during a board meeting in January:

  • President — John Lee Ellis. Ellis, the RBA for the Boulder region, was elected as president.
  • Vice President — Lois Springsteen. Springsteen, former Santa Cruz region RBA, was elected as vice president.
  • Treasurer — David Thompson. Thompson, a Central Florida Randonneurs member, was elected as treasurer.
  • Secretary — Paul Rozelle. Rozelle, the RBA for the Central Florida region, was elected as secretary.

The 2017 board will be comprised of Deb Banks, John Lee Ellis, Nigel Greene, Susan Otcenas, Paul Rozelle (RBA-Liaison), Lois Springsteen, and David Thompson.

The board extends its sincere appreciation to departing board members Lynne Fitzsimmons, Spencer Klaassen, and Mark Thomas for their many years of service.

Bill Beck to be the ACP SR600 Representative for the USA

Bill Beck is the new ACP Representative in the US for the ACP Super Randonnée program.  Bill will be the prime contact for SR 600 route organizers in the US: validating their routes, answering their questions, and providing them with materials such as control cards and bike frame placards.

If you are interested in creating an SR 600 route, or have questions about riding one, please contact Bill

Rob Hawks resigns from RUSA Board, Lois Springsteen to serve remainder of term

We regret that Rob Hawks has resigned from the Board due to private reasons. We are delighted that Lois Springsteen has agreed to serve the remainder of his term. We are grateful to both of them for their service to our sport.

John Lee Ellis will serve as RUSA President until the January Board meeting, when Board positions are elected for 2017.

2017 Board Election Results

We are pleased to report that David Thompson and Nigel Greene have been elected to the RUSA Board of Directors. Paul Rozelle has been elected as the RBA Liaison.

The vote tally for board candidates was:

  • Hamid Akbarian: 102
  • Roland Bevan: 128
  • Dan Diehn: 97
  • Lynne Fitzsimmons: 240
  • Nigel Greene: 271
  • Stephen Hazelton: 80
  • Timothy Sullivan: 124
  • David Thompson: 303

In voting for the RBA Liaison, these votes were recorded:

  • Paul Rozelle: 18 
  • Jake Kassen: 16
  • Spencer Klaassen: 16

Only RBAs can vote for RBA Liaison candidates.

We express our thanks to all of the candidates who stood for election this fall.

RUSA Board Response to Requests to Modify Event and Award Completion Criteria

From time to time, situations arise where a RUSA member has participated in a RUSA event and, owing to reasons recognizably beyond his or her control, has not met the criteria for completion of the event.  Occasionally, the RUSA Board of Directors has been asked to waive the criteria for completion.  In some of these thankfully rare instances, the reasons preventing participants from completing the event have been heart wrenching to consider. 

Over the years, RUSA has matched its membership growth with newly designed events and awards which encourage participation on all levels. RUSA now has an expansive list of events and awards on offer.  Consistent with the traditional ACP core events of 200, 300, 400 and 600km brevets used to qualify for Paris-Brest-Paris, all new events - for example permanents and populaires - and their related awards have clear requirements for route design and for completion. For example, a populaire route must be between 100km and 199km long, and has straightforward criteria for achieving completion: complete the entire route as designed within the time limits calculated for all controls.

One of the fundamental concepts behind the rules and criteria is that they apply to everyone in the same way.  When responding to requests to waive the criteria, the board needs to be consistent with responses from past boards, and to consider all the other participants that have met the completion requirements. To do otherwise would almost certainly mean that more than one set of criteria has been applied.   Additionally, there is the problem of where to fairly draw the new line to determine what exceptions are valid, which in the end would simply redefine the group of participants who would have come heart-breakingly close to meeting the new criteria but would in the end fall short of that.

Therefore, the board has reached the conclusion that it can not waive the fundamental requirement that a route must be completed to earn credit for the event.  We do not support rule changes that would give partial completion for distance completed prior to a DNF, regardless of the extenuating circumstance that prevented completion. Similarly, the board does not support rule changes that would allow awards to be granted without completion of all of the events required to earn the award.   We understand that this decision may have the unfortunate consequence of preventing or postponing a member's pursuit of a RUSA award, and we regret and empathize with the disappointment that will inevitably be the result.  

Rob Hawks, President-Randonneurs USA, for the Board of Directors

2017 Board and RBA Liaison Nominations Open

Two positions on the RUSA Board of Directors will become available at the end of the year. Members may nominate two current RUSA members to run for those two positions.

Additionally, RBAs may nominate an RBA for the position of RBA Liaison.

A nomination form is included in the Fall 2016 issue of the American Randonneur, or is available here.

Email nominations to president@rusa.org or mail this form to:
Rob Hawks, 5630 Santa Cruz Ave. Richmond, CA 94804

Nominations must be received by September 23, 2016.

RUSA Website Committee Seeking Additional Web/DB Developer

The all-volunteer RUSA Website Committee is looking for a new member with a strong Perl background, who is interested in building a new REST API on top of MySQL in NodeJS. RUSA maintains its own website and database and is embarking on new enhancements. Please help us move the site forward!

In addition to the skill set listed above, potential new committee members must be RUSA members. Contact webmaster@rusa.org.