SMAC Board meeting      Wed. 4/18/07

 Minutes - I asked that the minutes of the March 22 meeting be amended.  I will attach at the end of these minutes the relevant portion of the minutes of the March 22 meeting as well as tonight’s amendment.  The point of my amendment was, first, to clarify what we had and had not done in passing Chuck’s motion about insurance money for the XC series, second to remove the too-sweeping statement about race directors’ autonomy, while leaving firmly in the record what I thought was the most important part of that discussion, the unanimous and strong opinion of the board that:

 The Tuesday night XC races, like all SMAC races, MUST have insurance coverage.

 The minutes, as amended, were approved.

 On with other business.   As usual, I will delicately not include some of the observations made during the meeting, using my own excellent judgment (which some of my readers often feel is insufficiently delicate) as to what can and cannot be included in minutes intended for a family audience.

 The treasurer’s report was introduced and approved, after some discussion.  We now have about $2K in the bank, a sufficiently small sum so that we should be cautious and not rush to spend money unthinkingly.  There were a number of suggestions for increasing income, e.g., have the winter track meets earlier in the season, raise some entry fees, etc.  Dave Martula currently does routine website updates, which is cheaper than having Steve do them.  (In fact, what I should do now with minutes is send them to the board, Dave included, and let Dave post them on the website.)  Dave thinks he knows someone who might do the web updates for nothing, in return for some free race entries and perhaps some SMAC socks or other goodies.

 

10-Miler -

    Donations?  Last year, the Seven-Sisters race made big bucks, some of which were donated to SMAC.  As for our donations to others, Barry suggests that we make a “wish list” of running-related organizations to which we would like to give money, and then prioritize it at a future board meeting.

 What about trying to get the 10-miler as one of the Grand Prix races in ‘08 (as it was one year, almost 10 years ago now, I think).  No need to decide now.  We did lose money on it the previous time; Dave is confident that we wouldn’t if we did it again.  (Here is a gap in the record that has to be omitted for reasons of delicacy - sort of like Nixon’s 18-minute tape gap and Cheney’s millions of “Oops, I really didn’t mean to delete those millions of emails.” Except that no criminality, no impeachable offense is involved - only some raunchy comments that ought not to be embalmed in SMAC minutes.)  Perhaps if we do the Grand Prix thing again, we should emphasize teams.

 

Membership - Mailing list is 243; with multiples (because of family memberships), the overall total is about 360.

SUN - Every one agrees that the latest issue was excellent. (No negative implication about other recent issues is in any way implied.)  Ben repeated that it would help him a lot if he were to get stuff early, rather than at the last minute.  (One of my own personal guiding principles is this: BE NICE TO EDITORS.    I must admit that I did not formally adopt this principle for my own behavior until I was appointed editor of a scientific journal back in ‘88.)

 

Youth track meets - We have now paid for them to have a coach.

 

Eaglebrook track workouts.  Barry reports that the insurance is OK.  People pay for these workouts, donations will go for support for our people to go to Ohio.

 

Other races - Ron Hebert race was good.  Seven sisters looking good.  (Race director Scott has an interesting way of reporting, referring to himself constantly in the third person.)  Barry commented on the amazing snazziness of Scott’s clothes.  I’ve known Scott for a long time, and I never imagined anyone saying anything like that about Scott.  Scott blames Kate for any changes in nattiness.  And the one who brought this up, Barry, was sporting what I think is the first necktie I have ever seen at a SMAC board meeting.  How things change!

 

“Scott’s life is going to change now”, Scott says.  Planning more travel, less work, much less landscaping, possible retirement from race directing.  There are serious implications here for Seven Sisters and Mt. Toby. 

 

The Famous Hadley 4.33-Miler is coming up at the end of May.

 NoHo cycling club.  This discussion was postponed.

 Then, somehow, we got into an item that had not been on the agenda, putting ads on our website and in the SUN.   It was moved to have ads in the SUN, a motion that passed 5-1-1.  Dave Martula abstained.  I voted “No”, primarily because I thought it was a serious matter, one that had not been on the agenda, one that probably merited a bit more thought than it was given, arising as it did with no prior notice at the tail end of a meeting.

 

Bob Romer, Sec.

 

 

Amendment of the March 22 minutes –

 

Immediately below is the “insurance” part of the minutes of the March 22, 2007 meeting:

At this point, we began a lengthy discussion of the important topic of insurance coverage (both on the specific issue of coverage for the Tuesday night XC races for the coming year and more generally, on policy concerning insurance coverage for all SMAC races.) The discussion was initiated by a motion from Chuck that we pay from SMAC funds $750 to cover the cost of insurance for the XC series for 2007.

About an hour later, we passed Chuck’s motion. Along the way, we had intense discussion of insurance in general. Barry asked what exactly is the level of exposure of a board member? He is not certain, though he thinks that our status as a non-profit gives us some protection. Various board members expressed their distress that the 2006 XC series had in fact been run without insurance coverage.

At some point, I suggested that the following was club policy: A SMAC RACE ABSOLUTELY MUST BE INSURED. To put it in other terms: IF THE INSURANCE COVERAGE DOES NOT EXIST, THE RACE CANNOT START. I invited anyone to voice dissent, if any; no dissent was voiced.

As a further comment on that, it was agreed that races that lots of people think of as SMAC races had to be considered as such for insurance purposes. All or most of us on the board think of the XC races as SMAC races (put on for all these years primarily through the dedication of the Grant family); even if in some quarters they are thought of as “Don’s XC races”, there is more than enough association with SMAC so that the XC series is governed by our newly reinforced policy on insurance coverage. (And even if we tried to maintain that they are “not really SMAC races”, such a claim would be unlikely to protect the club in the event of a law suit.) No one wishes to interfere with Don’s autonomy in how the races are done, EXCEPT that they MUST have insurance coverage. The same rules apply to any other races for which SMAC is a sponsor.

 

 

I suggest we amend those minutes in two ways.

 

First, at the end of the first paragraph above (“... series for 2007.”) add the following sentence:

The only thing that was settled with regard to the source of the money for insuring the 2007 XC series was that SMAC would up-front the $750 fee.  There was no definitive conclusion on the issue of whether or not SMAC expected the money to be returned from the proceeds of the 2007 races.

 

Second (since the only thing that was really decided with respect to “autonomy” was that race directors do not have autonomy about whether or not to have insurance!), replace the penultimate sentence in what was quoted above (“No one wishes ...  insurance coverage.” with the following shorter sentence:

The Tuesday night XC races, like all SMAC races, MUST have insurance coverage.

 

 

And then, a less important correction about an item later on in the minutes, delete the sentence “Coaches will be needed.” in the paragraph about the practice program of the SMAC track team.

 

 

 

And here is the list of upcoming board meetings –

 

Upcoming  Meetings

Thursday,  May 17, 2007   (I’ll be away)

Wednesday,  June 20, 2007

Thursday,  July 19, 2007

Wednesday,  August 15, 2007

Thursday,  September 20, 2007

Wednesday,  October 17, 2007

Thursday,  November 15, 2007

Wednesday,  December  19, 2007

Sunday,  January 6, 2008 **

 

**ANNUAL MEETING , FUN RUN AND POTLUCK

 

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