Randonneurs USA Board of Director Minutes

March 11, 2026

1. Call to order: The meeting on March 11th, 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 February Board meeting were approved

3. Dave presented the February financial report

   1. Revenue and cash balance are up from last year at this same time period
   1. Due to an accounting issue discussed last month it appears that ACP UAF fees are up, but in fact we have just changed the way we account them
   1. Dave and Lois and the Financial Audit Committee (FAC) have reviewed the reports and are feeling confident and on top of the balances

4. Charlie presented the web team report

   1. Charlie has been hard at work on fixing some issues with the membership workflow, specifically pertaining to membership renewals
   1. New membership fixes are on the horizon but may not land before the Philly Bike Expo
   1. The website will be refactored to use RUSA number rather than email for account management which should help with website login issues
   1. The Website revamp task force will have a 2nd meeting to go over the survey responses about desired website updates
   1. The web team continues to work with Ted Fay to better manage the DNS, crawlability, and SEO of the RUSA site.

5. Chris presented the RBA Liaison report

   1. RBAs are enjoying the beginning of the riding season and events
   1. Chris asked for advice on how to advise RBAs who have missed controls, including staffed controls, and how to ensure that riders stop at the appropriate controls and still receive credit.

6. Dawn presented the marketing team report

   1. Philly Bike Expo is this coming weekend and will have a booth staffed by a large number of RUSA volunteers
   1. Marketing team still needs to discuss future expos for this and next year
   1. Pink and blue RUSA Voler kits have been put up for sale by Dan Driscoll
   1. The Marketing Team would appreciate graphic design support for the creation of more booth marketing materials

7. Dawn presented the March Between Controls

   1. Dawn is looking for more regions to spotlight in upcoming between controls

8. The board discussed gift memberships and membership incentives

   1. Work on making the sign up process for RUSA easier and more expedient will help with membership
   1. There was a proposal to support clubs in running non-homologated shorter or group rides, but we would need to find a way to do this with our insurance
   1. It was reaffirmed that the friction to signing up is a blocker to increased membership.

9. Climbing for perm routes

   1. There is some RideWithGPS issue with the climbing stats being updated, so Dave will work through the permanent library and ensure all perms have up to date climbing numbers

10. Climbing for old routes

    1. There was some discussion about what to do for regions that have routes that pre-date RideWithGPS
    1. Some RBAs may need help with RideWithGPS creation
    1. Dave plans to get together with John Lee, Bill Bryant, and Roger Hillas to come up with guidelines on when a historic route requires resubmission to meet current route guidelines.

11. Philly Bike Expo

    1. There is lots of excitement
    1. There was discussion on whether we should have a membership discount during the event, but none was organized for this year’s expo. The board will reconsider for future events.
    1. The PA randonneurs are running a 107k populaire that is listed on the bike expo ride list

12. RUSA Strava club

    1. With no clear use case and the expectation that a successful Strava club will take a concrete content rollout and engagement plan and a lot of work, progress on this has been shelved until or if someone steps up to champion it

13. RUSA club kit

    1. There is a need to begin creating jerseys for next year in preparation of PBP
    1. Until then the current kit from prior years is on sale thanks to Dan Driscoll

14. Ad for UK Magazine

    1. We have submitted a full page ad for the Audax UK magazine listing the domestic 1200ks for 2026

15. Posting of AR on the website

    1. There was some discussion about the timing for publishing American Randonneur online.
    1. A motion was made and carried to publish sooner on the website - 1 month after mailing starts

16. Connecting new RUSA members with nearby regions

    1. There was discussion of an RBA inquiry about how new RUSA members can connect with nearby regions.
    1. Charlie had compiled several past communications and discussions about this topic, gave an overview of where things have landed, and suggested a similar summary would be a good initial response to the RBA to ensure that everyone's on the same page.
    1. There are several measures in place today that make it accessible for new members to contact nearby regions. Allowing contact in the other direction (i.e. RBAs contacting new members) has not been pursued due to a number of issues in terms of privacy and RBA expectations/buy-in.
17. Noah is working on a proposal for a graphics committee

18. Dawn has been working on ‘Rando Radio’ with input from Kim Freitas and Emily O’Brien

    1. The goal of Rando Radio is to have a quarterly themed panel of members. Future topics in 2026 TBD. The first installment of Rando Radio theme will be to highlight women in randonneuring and a panel of 5 were identified over the winter.
    1. Dawn is also working on a way to connect more women in randonneuring. She is discussing ideas with Kim Freitas as well as Emily O'Brien and other women leaders in our organization.
19. April 8th and May 13th are decided on for the next meetings
20. Meeting ended at 9:48 Eastern