MINUTES OF A MEETING
OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF
RANDONNEURS USA, INC.
Held: January 13, 2021
A meeting of the RUSA Board of Directors was convened by Zoom/ telephone conference and called to order by the President at 17:04 PST.
The Directors in attendance were:
• Debra Banks
• Dan Driscoll
• John Lee Ellis
• Rob Hawks
• Dawn Piech
• Tim Sullivan
• Dave Thompson
A motion was made and passed to approve the meeting minutes for December 16, 2020.
Dave presented a treasurer’s report including a Statement of Financial Position Comparison, a Statement of Activity year to date comparison, a cash flow projection for 2021 that were prepared by Lois Springsteen who served as treasurer. The Board thanks Lois of her services as treasurer. There was a discussion regarding creating an advertising committee for obtaining advertisers for American Randonneur with regional representation on the committee. Dan will be contacting Jay Fichiolas, who handles the advertising for American Randonneur to discuss advertising and obtaining new accounts.
The next item on the agenda was the selection of officers for 2021. By unanimous vote the following officers were elected:
President –Dave Thompson
Vice-President – Deb Banks
Secretary – Tim Sullivan
Treasurer – Dan Driscoll
The Board then discussed the 2 nominated candidates for the American Randonneur Award. Both candidates were equally qualified but for her services as editor of the American Randonneur magazine which benefits the entire membership the Board selected Janice Chernekoff as the 2021 recipient of the American Randonneur Award
Tim reported on the ongoing litigation. The insurance companies are still in communication with each other. The January 18, 2021 trial date in the Starr case has been vacated and a scheduling conference is set for January 26, 2021.Trial in the Romo case is scheduled for September 13, 2021.
John Lee reported on the work of the Web team. The team has been working on: a program for the American Explorer award to support members who attain multiple 50 state series, making the processing of the R10000 and the R5000 awards consistent, and resolving some leftover issues for permanents registration and payment. In addition the web team is working on plans for improved administration features to help volunteers so that some of their work will be automated and less labor intensive. This includes many functions that are processed through the RUSA store. The web team is also considering moving the database to a more current system since the present system has become antiquated.
Dawn is replacing Lois as the Safety officer and has discussed the position with Lois. The Board decided to rename the position as the Incident Liaison since one of the roles of the position is to serve as a communication link between the RBAs and members and the insurance company. There was a discussion regarding what RUSA can do for safety other than what is in the Rules for Riders and to insure that riders follow the traffic laws and regulations. Dawn will be reviewing the Safety presentation prepared by Nigel Green and the RBA procedures.
Dan has formed the committee to randomly audit member’s permanent results and the committee has audited approximately 20 results. The goal is not to disqualify any result but to insure that the members are complying with the rules. The committee has had instances of a member not responding to an audit request and there was a discussion on how to contact the member and whether Dan should have access to the RUSA database in order to contact the non-responsive member. Initially Dan will be provided with the member’s phone number so he can contact the member.
Other agenda items will be handled by email exchanges by the Board members assigned to the item.
The Board will meet on January 27, 2021 to discuss 2021 goals for RUSA.
The meeting was adjourned at 19:27 PST