March 19, 2025 Board Meeting

Randonneurs USA Board of Director Minutes

March 19, 2025

 

  1. Call to order: The meeting on March 19, 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
       
  2. The minutes of the February 2025 Board meeting were approved.
     
  3. The Treasurer submitted a written report for March.
     
  4. Gardner reported that the Financial Audit Committee reviewed the March Treasurer Report, without taking action on it.
     
  5. The Board reviewed the 2024 IRS 990-EZ. Tim Sullivan reviewed the draft at the request of Dave. The Financial Audit Committee reviewed the draft. The Board approved filing of the 990-EZ.
     
  6. Chris made the RBA-L report. He has been conducting meetings with RBAs who are taking advantage of the opportunity to chat with him. Chris reported on an RBA who has not been responding to Chris’ outreach. The prior discussion about quarterly meetings with the RBA community continued with a discussion about the best topics to begin with. A new RBA application was received, but the applicant was referred to the new form for RBA applications to complete that.
     
  7. The Web Team submitted a written report. That report will be published at RUSA.org. An effort to improve the member sign-up experience was discussed, including integration with signing up for the permanent program. The involvement of Membership with this project was discussed. The time calculator for events at RUSA.org has been improved by using the one developed by Jake Kassen.
     
  8. Dawn reported that the Board had received the February report concerning member engagement with Between Controls. Dawn also reported on coordinating our social media outreach on Instagram and YouTube, and will continue to work with Ben Everett and Lisa Charlebois to refine and coordinate our Instagram. Dawn has identified the need to increase our post cadence more to continue to increase the engagement of our community and beyond our organization for marketing.
     
  9. Dawn provided an initial report on RUSA’s presence at the Philly Bike Expo, which was extremely positive. She is planning a full report for the Board in April.
     
  10. Regarding Board goals, results for 2024 and goals for 2025 were approved. Dawn will format the appearance of these reports for RUSA.org.
     
  11. In further follow-up to the December 2024 Gender Survey, an additional meeting with the consultation member-focused group was scheduled for March 30, 2025.
     
  12. There was a discussion about the use of DOB on RUSA waivers. It was agreed to eliminate DOB on waivers for adults, in favor of an affirmation that the member is an adult. The use of DOB on waivers for minors remains for further consideration.
     
  13. The continued uptake of SmartWaiver by RBAs was discussed.
     
  14. There was further discussion about membership of the Award Review Committee, and what attributes would be useful to add to that committee. Several names were discussed, with Dave to follow up.
     
  15. There was a discussion about who should be on the RBA listserve in addition to RBAs, and a decision that non-RBA list members can bring a topic to the list without joining it, and stay in the discussion as long as replies are to all.
     
  16. There was a brief discussion about cell phone use by riders, legal compliance, and distracted riding, initiated by an RBA. The subject was carried to the April meeting.
     
  17. Gardner led a brief discussion about how to address applications for route approval, including RBA approval of routes for team events, if the submitter indicates that the route intentionally avoids roads that are not suitable for riding.
     
  18. The next meeting was set for April 16, 2025, and then May 14, 2025.
     
  19. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 Eastern time, without objection.