ATTENDEES (b=board member): John Lee Ellis (b), Pierce Gafgen, Don Hamilton, James Kuehn, Cecil Reniche-Smith (b), Lois Springsteen (b), Eric Vigoren (b), and Jennifer Wise (b)

  1. Online Membership Renewal System. Don Hamilton reported that he and Mr. Kuehn had completed comprehensive "end-to-end" tests of the proposed online system for RUSA membership applications and renewals. Mr. Kuehn reported that major functions were operational, namely: new memberships, renewing memberships, and adding and removing individuals from family memberships. A phased roll-out was discussed and approved.
  2. American Explorer Award. Discussions continued regarding the RUSA American Explorer Award. Pierce Gafgen described award design options for an underlying plaque, with possible designs for individual state "plates." A number of potential award sizes, shapes, and configurations were considered. With design issues narrowed, award development was to continue.
  3. Director Reports. Jennifer Wise, on behalf of the RUSA Store, reported that the Store's inventory of PBP '11 stickers had almost sold out. Separately, the Board considered updating RUSA's shipping fee policies for items purchased from the RUSA Store.
  4. PBP Review. Lois described US riders with chip-recording issues at the finish (resolved through the efforts of Mark Thomas) – including one rider whose finish annotation in the carnet was also missing / invalid. Rider penalties were addressed. It appeared that the RUSA reflective license tags distributed to riders at PBP were quite popular. The idea of publishing a PBP 2011 yearbook was discussed. A volunteer already had stepped forward to work on that project, subject to Board approval.
  5. Search For New Newsletter Editor Effective 2012. After eight successful years as editor of the American Randonneur, Mike Dayton had announced that he would step down at the end of 2011. Possible successors were discussed, as were the scope of duties involved. It appeared that the role might be broken into several tasks, including layout functions, advertising work, and editorial responsibilities. The Board agreed that there should be a candidate search announcement.
  6. Safety. A candidate in RUSA's Board of Directors election had raised safety and safety studies as campaign issues. The Board considered what additional or different actions and positions RUSA should be taking, if any, on the issue of event safety. Eric Vigoren favored a qualitative approach, such as stating measures RUSA was taking to enhance safety, over a quantitative approach, which could result in a wide variety of disputable statistical conclusions based on unknown or arbitrary assumptions. Options such as newsletter coverage highlighting safety items, along with safety-related articles, were considered by the Board.