MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING

OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF

RANDONNEURS USA, INC.

Held February 8, 2017

A regular meeting of the RUSA Board of Directors was convened by telephone conference and called to order at 2003 EST by the President.

The following Directors were in attendance:

• Debra Banks
• John Lee Ellis
• Nigel Greene
• Susan Otcenas
• Paul Rozelle
• Lois Springsteen
• David Thompson

None were absent. No others were in attendance.

The minutes from the regular meeting of January 4, 2017, and a special meeting held January 25, 2017, were both approved.

Discussion was held concerning the Board meeting highlights documents that had been prepared concerning the October, November, and December 2016 Board meetings. After discussion, those documents were approved.

ACTION ITEM: Publish the January 2017 regular meeting minutes and the October, November, and December Board meeting highlights on the website. Publication of the minutes of the special meeting would be deferred pending presentation and announcement of the American Randonneur Award.

A motion to award credit for R-12 purposes to a rider who completed a flèche in April 2016, but was later credited with having completed the event in March 2016 based on a Thursday start date (where in prior years, the flèche was credited on the Friday of the event) had been made, seconded, discussed, and voted on by email. Salient points of the discussion included that (1) the rider had completed the event in April; (2) the region had submitted the event expecting that it would be given credit for April, based on a Friday start; (3) the rider was unaware that the event had been credited for March until after April because the website was closed to flèche submissions due to being redesigned; (4) starting in 2017 and going forward, flèches are uniformly credited based on the Friday of the event; and (5) it was not expected that this situation would occur for any other rider and it would be unlikely to ever occur again in the future. The motion to credit this rider with an R-12 based on the flèche being counted as the April 2016 ride passed in the email vote. Further discussion was held, a motion to confirm the email vote was made and seconded, and the motion confirming the email vote passed. 

A report and update was received and discussion was held concerning the American Randonneur Award, its surprise presentation to Bruce Berg at an upcoming 200K, the status of the write-up for American Randonneur on that award, and obtaining photographs of Bruce and the award being presented to him to accompany that article. Discussion was also held about other forums for announcing, and the timing for announcing, Bruce’s achievement of the award and its presentation to him.

A report was received from the Website Committee, including the status of ongoing projects and personnel updates.

Discussion was held concerning whether to accept electronic verification for passage through controls on permanents at the discretion of the organizer and on the prior agreement of both the organizer and the rider.

ACTION ITEM: Further discussion will be held and input solicited from the Permanents Coordinator on amending the rules to permit the electronic verification of passage through controls on permanents.

Discussion was held concerning the status of the project to redesign the RUSA jersey, including integration of the new jersey design into the forthcoming RUSA jersey for PBP 2019 and potentially a special-edition 20th Anniversary jersey (RUSA’s 20th Anniversary will occur in 2018). Thompson was charged with leading this project.

ACTION ITEM: Thompson will investigate external designers and vendors for a new RUSA jersey that will ultimately be responsible for jersey stock and order fulfillment. 

Discussion was held concerning RUSA’s communication strategy and initiatives and the various forums such as the website, listservs, social media, email, and American Randonneur, where communications between and among RUSA members can take place.

Discussion was held concerning Board goals for the year, including the new jersey, implementing a forum that would facilitate member communication, completion of the transition of the website to Drupal, and the completion of other ongoing, long-term projects including website functionality and interfaces.

ACTION ITEM: Ellis to initiate further discussion concerning goals by email.

The meeting was adjourned at 2221 EST.

Next meeting: March 1, 2017, at 2000 EST.