August Board Meeting Recap

Sunday August 30, 2009 at 5:00pm

Attending Board Members:
Lynn Gray President
Jackie Macaluso President Elect
June Leland Secretary
Christina Mitchelson Race Coordinator
Steve Coman Marketing Manager
Jennifer Schwartzberg Web Master
Coleen Christensen Social Director
Dana Felice Treasurer

Many topics were discussed during this 2 hour board meeting that took place at the Walk to Run Center. The board was focused on three main items which included charitable donations, membership communication, and the sale of club merchandise among other things.

As a result some changes have been made that we hope you will find beneficial to you. One of those changes involves the newsletter. Until recently you have been receiving a quarterly newsletter with pages and pages of stories, event recaps, upcoming event calendars and so forth. As we have had some major set backs bringing you this newsletter in a timely manner, we have decided to adopt this blog as a more current avenue to get this important information to you. However the newsletter will continue to be distributed on a quarterly basis with a new format. Steve Coman has graciously volunteered to take over the newsletter and revise it's purpose to include club business such as donation reports, club initiatives and items that cover the overall "health" of our club. This change will take affect immediately and Steve will work to get the first edition of this revised format published to you shortly.

On another note, we are reviewing several charities for club support in future endeavors. It is our goal to choose 3 charities that will benefit from our fund raising efforts. Each board member has submitted a list of 3 charities for consideration. The charities should have a local presence and ideally help promote physical fitness through walking or running. If you have a charity you would like to be considered please submit this to June Leland.

The sale of merchandise has been a hot topic since Steve Coman has stepped up to take over. He is working diligently to move the existing merchandise in order to increase revenue for the club. Merchandising is a great way to help promote our club through our membership and raise funds. You will start seeing special sales on our website and in the newsletter on logo'd items like running apparel, sun visors etc.

Coleen is working hard as usual planning the Sept. 3rd club meeting at J Christophers. Dawna Stone with Women's Running magazine will be our guest speaker and we are expecting a great turnout from the membership. She will be speaking about the upcoming event on November 22nd in St. Pete. Non members will be offered a special to apply the $5 non member fee to a membership of $25 that same night. We would like to encourage all of our members to bring a friend and encourage joining. Attending members should try to bring a food item. Contact Coleen to make arrangements.

Christina and Jennifer are in full swing planning of the Fall For Fitness event taking place at Lake Park on Oct. 3rd. This race is for children ages 3-13 and will include a series of events from 100 yard dash to 1 mile fun run. They are looking for sponsorship from companies interested in participating. If you know of a company or would like to sponsor please contact Christina or Jennifer as soon as possible. Race registration for your children is available at active.com

So there it is folks, your first official blog. I hope you find it to be informative and user friendly. Please post your comments here or contact me directly with any concerns or requests. Thanks for reading.

Jackie Macaluso
President Elect