August 13, 2026 Board Meeting

Randonneurs USA Board of Director Minutes

August 13th, 2026

 

  1. Call to order: The meeting on August 13th, 2026 was called to order at 8:00 p.m. Eastern over Zoom. The following members were present:

    1. Dawn Piech
    1. Charlie Martin
    1. Dave Thompson
    1. Emily O’Brien
    1. Noah Swartz
    1. John Lee Ellis
    1. Chris Argo
  2. The minutes of the July Board meeting were approved with some minor pending edits
  3. The July financial report was presented by Dave Thompson.

  4. Charlie Martin presented the Web Team report.

    1. A tweak was made to the event search map functionality so that it now shows upcoming events
    1. Charlie is nearing completion on the member service workflow
    1. Next work for the webteam will be 3 new awards listings that need to be created

  5. Chris Argo gave the RBAL report

    1. RUSA has received 4 new RBA applications
    1. The board discussed each of these applications and how to best respond and work with the incoming candidates

  6. Dave Thompson led a discussion about issues with the Santa Rosa region.

    1.  Dave will followup with the RBA and keep the board informed.

  7. Chris Argo RBA Round Table report

    1. Chris noted that the RBA round table event was well attended with over 20 participants and had a lively discussion
    1. Chris is hoping to do another session in October

  8. Dawn Piech presented on Between Controls

    1. It is planned to go the week following the board meeting and will include information and rationale on the new awards changes

  9. A vote was held to formalize motions made over email relating to the 3 award changes

    1. The Rouleur award will be updated

      1.  to include the team event requirement which can be either the Dart or Dart Populaire.
      1. To allow for permanents to replace any of the fixed distances or team event requirements from Oct 1 - EOY
      1. Require that at least one qualifying ride is ridden as a scheduled brevet
      1. Permanents substituting for the team event will be by application only.
      1. Motion passes

    1. The Grand Tour award will be accepted

      1. This award will require a rider to collect 12,000km of 1200k, 1000k, 8k600, or SR600 rides over any period of time, and will be applied automatically and retroactively
      1. There was some discussion about non-LRM sanctioned 1200s in the US such as Boston-Montreal-Boston (BMB) around the time RUSA was incepted
      1. It was agreed that LRM sanctioned pre-RUSA 1200s (BMB) would count
      1. Motion passes

    1. The Ultra Team award passes

      1. The award will be granted to riders who have ridden 3600kms of team events. It will granted automatically and retroactively and will count nominal distance rather than distance ridden.

  10. John Lee Ellis presented on updates from the rules committee

    1. The rules committee has formalized the rules around route segment closures such as bike paths or parks that are only open daylight hours
    1. There was some discussion around whether RUSA should formalize a procedure for postponing or cancelling events due to adverse weather conditions but the discussion was only exploratory.

  11. There was a discussion about the formation of a Gender Committee

    1. The board discussed issues such as rider statistics, gender collection and reporting.
    1. The committee will develop a charter around these issues and present them to the board in a future meeting.
    1. The motion to create the committee passes with Emily O’Brien being the chair.

  12. The submissions for 1200ks in 2027 were discussed

    1. There are 4 submissions for 2027 which will be held
  13. The board discussed the possibility of sending small awards such as patches for applicable awards at no cost to the awardee.
  14. The meeting was adjourned at 9:55 Eastern
  15. Next meeting date to be determined via email.