January 8, 2025 Board Meeting

Randonneurs USA Board of Director Minutes

January 8, 2025

 

  1. Call to order: The meeting on January 8, 2025 was called to order at 8:01 p.m. Eastern time, over Zoom. The following members were present.
    1. Bill Bryant
    2. Dawn Piech
    3. Charlie Martin
    4. Chris Argo
    5. Gardner Duvall
    6. Dave Thompson
    7. John Lee Ellis, at 9:07 EST, before American Randonneur Award discussion
       
  2. The minutes of the December 2024 Board meeting were approved.
     
  3. The Treasurer submitted a written report for December.
     
  4. Gardner reported that the Financial Audit Committee reviewed the December Treasurer Report, without taking action on it.
     
  5. Chris made a RBA-L report. He stated that one RBA has a lapsed membership. Chris and Bill were assigned the task of developing a policy to address this.
     
  6. The Web Team submitted a written report. That report will be published at RUSA.org.
     
  7. Dawn reported that the Board had received the December report concerning member engagement with Between Controls. A draft of the January Between Controls was submitted for Board preview.
     
  8. The review of the Board’s 2024 goals and 2025 goals was set for completion at the February meeting.
     
  9. Don Hamilton submitted a report on the 2024 RUSA election, which was the first one conducted by secret ballot using the Election Buddy vendor. It was agreed that Election Buddy performed well, and there was a discussion whether to use it again or develop a different secret ballot method. A unique email address for each member is critical to conducting an electronic secret ballot, and for continued development of RUSA’s web architecture. The Web Team has a focus on this need.
     
  10. SmartWaiver was renewed.
     
  11. There was a discussion of the results of the December 2024 RUSA Gender Survey, in advance of a January 16 conference with selected RUSA members to discuss the subject.
     
  12. There was a discussion about where to lead RUSA’s marketing efforts, and about a survey of RBAs by the Marketing Committee.
     
  13. There was a discussion about membership of the Award Review Committee, and what skills would be useful to add to that committee.
     
  14. The following officers were nominated and elected for 2025:

President – Dave Thomson
Vice-President – Dawn Piech
Secretary – Gardner Duvall
Treasurer – Lois Springsteen

  1. There were a number of nominees for the 2025 American Randonneur Award. All were deemed worthy candidates, and the Board was excited to choose Susan Gryder from the excellent nominees.
     
  2. Short-term introductory RUSA memberships were discussed again. Gardner was assigned the task of documenting the obstacles to adopting this practice.
     
  3. The next meeting was set for February 13, 2024.
     
  4. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 10:09 Eastern time, without objection.