MINUTES OF A MEETING
OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF
RANDONNEURS USA, INC.
Held: July 6, 2021
A meeting of the RUSA Board of Directors was convened by Zoom/ telephone conference and called to order by the President at 17:02 PDT.
The Directors in attendance were:
• Debra Banks
• Dan Driscoll
• John Lee Ellis
• Rob Hawks
• Dawn Piech
• Tim Sullivan
• Dave Thompson
The following e-votes were approved:
The selectable start/finish option for events;
Approval of a new region, Northeastern Oregon, and Sean Lerner as the RBA; and
Approval of Mark Dennin as the RBA for South Florida
A motion was made and passed to approve the meeting minutes for June 9, 2021.
Dan had circulated financial reports consisting of a Statement of Activity YTD Comparison and a Statement of Financial Position Comparison that were reviewed.
Regarding the litigation, Tim reported that the lawsuits have been settled and we are waiting for the final settlement agreements.
Rob reported on his actions as the RBA Liaison. Other than the approval of the new RBAs there were no other changes. Two of the RBA changes are effective as of July 1st with another taking effect on September 1st and Alabama, which will take effect on January 1, 2022. We are on the cusp of submitting the 2022 ACP event calendar but we do not know how flexible the ACP will be in 2022 event scheduling. Rob is assuming business as usual.
John Lee provided a written report on the activities of the Web Team. This included evaluation of implementation of the Super Rouleur Award if adopted by the Board, previewing a trophy case display of award icons in the member’s year of rides, supporting the purchase of Rando Scout patches in the RUSA store, making changes to the K-Hound application by including foreign events, and importing foreign grand randonnée results.
There was then discussion of award listing on the website. The web team will proceed with a clean format that will use standard columns, including a member’s RUSA number, hometown, and club affiliation plus other standard columns for most awards. The web team will revert to the prior sort for a couple of awards lists that had been changed to alpha listing of awardees
The distribution of ACP centenary medals was then discussed. Rob had sent to RBAs questions on how many would be ordering medals and if so how many medals do they anticipate purchasing. 25 of the RBAs who are hosting anniversary events responded and of those less than half stated they would be purchasing a total of 208 medals.
A motion was made and passed to initially sell medals to RBAs by the end of July. No limit was placed on the number of medals that each RBA could purchase although there will be an overall limit of 300 medals that will be sold to RBAs. RUSA does not plan on buying back excess medals should a RBA order more than necessary. The remaining medals would be offered to members to purchase from the RUSA store. The goal is to have a medal available for anyone who rides an anniversary brevet on September 11th who wishes to purchase a medal.
Dawn then discussed the electronic newsletter to be sent to members. A motion was made and passed to proceed with the newsletter. The name “Between the Controls” was chosen. It will not be a monthly newsletter but will be issued as necessary to provide members with news and current information to work in conjunction with American Randonneur.
Dawn had submitted a proposed version of the newsletter that was reviewed and will include a revised RUSA Mission Statement and a notice of the ACP centenary ride. It was decided not to include a survey of the Mission Statement. Instead members will be provided a link of an email address to respond with their comments. Deb will help Dawn with creating a template for the newsletter and Constant Contact. There was discussion of the process of creating the newsletter. Board members and committees will be contacted for topics and future topics on a monthly basis. Dawn will be keeping an ongoing list of potential topics. There was discussion of whether the Board should rank possible topics to be included based on a proposed list or instead have Dawn provide the board with her input. The consensus was to have Dawn provide her proposed topics.
The Board then reviewed a revised Mission Statement prepared by Dawn, Bill Bryant and Dave. It was agreed to delete from the statement that RUSA is a 501 c (3) and to rearrange the statement to first list that RUSA values self-sufficiency and to include in the statement that RUSA fosters camaradarie.
Dave then discussed August agendas so that the Board can consider various items including the centenary events, Board elections, the budget, a possible new award to be implemented in 2022, and sanctioning gravel events.
The next Board meeting will be held on August 17, 2021.
The meeting was adjourned at 18:58 PDT