Minutes of April 5, 2005 NVRC Meeting.

The regular meeting of the Nittany Valley Running Club was held on Tuesday, April 5, at the Hi-Way Pizza on Westerly Parkway. It was a big crew on hand and we had to keep adding tables as more arrived. In attendance were John Domico, John Daley, Marty Klanchar, Boyd Brumbaugh, Chritine, Bob, and Kelly Rice, Kim Gasper, Bob Radzwich, Ken Poli, Dave Eggler, Jim Taylor and Marty Mazur. The group ordered the pizzas and Sam Adams before diving into a smorgasbord of Club business.

The first item on the agenda was the announcement that Jim Taylor will be stepping down as President of the NVRC as soon as a replacement can be chosen. Jim has been a great President and has helped bring about quite a few beneficial changes. One of the most beneficial changes is that he has made the President's job a bit easier (and hence more attractive to a successor) by disengaging the NVRC Presidency from automatic Directorship of the Arts Festival Race. We'll be putting out an official call for nominees soon. Please consider helping your running club by serving in this important post.

Speaking of the Arts Festival, the Directorship is now in the able hands of Morgan Windram. Beth Parker, who had originally taken that post, had to step down because she is expecting a child. Morgan directed her first race, the very successful Run For Relief of Tsunami Victims, just two months ago. She is eager to make this year's 30th running of the Arts Fest race another success. Please give her your support when the request for volunteers comes. The race itself will be held on Sunday morning, as usual. It was initially thought that the time could be changed to Saturday evening, but there were too many complications in that choice at least for this year. The race will feature an added 5K race. As it turns out, we have not completely escaped the problems of course selection by moving the course to the West campus. As you know, every year the University rips up numerous roads as part of its massive public works program. We will have to make at least a few adjustments to last year's popular course to avoid the construction areas.

We next heard a report about the Egg Hill 10-Miler. The race did well because of generous sponsorship, but turnout was much lower than last year. It was likely due to the weather, which was great at race time, but had been horrible almost up to the gun.

One big item of discussion was the possibility of setting up a running foundation to help support local running programs. This topic was initiated at the last meeting, and a little progress was made at this one. However, to really get things going, we'll probably need to get a committee together to work it. The story is this: We have received request over the years for support in setting up youth running programs, usually at the middle school level. The support that has been requested has usually been for advice, volunteering help, timing, etc. However, we have also been asked if we can donate money. Our Club's mission statement would not preclude such support. However, our net income every year is generally measured in the hundreds of dollars. We have recently taken to donating some of the proceeds from one of our races every year to the Herm Goffberg Athletic Scholarship Fund, which benefits collegiate athletes and we hope to continue to support this fund to honor Herm's memory and all the support he gave to local running. The Club has a substantial bank balance. Dave Eggler reported that we have about $18000 in cash assetts, a legacy built up slowly over the 30 odd years of the Club's existence. We of course want to hold on to some of this to cover rainy day expenses. Dave says that the idea has always been to keep at least enough to cover one Arts Fest race if we lost our current sponsorship. That would be on the order of $5000. Even doubling that would leave a substantial pot to start a "foundation". We want to start developing a plan for such a foundation. The plan would include criteria for distributing the money, burn rate, fundraising plans to replenish the fund, etc. This will be a topic of the next meeting.

Other news:

 - After all the accounting was done,  December's Half-Marathon cleared nearly $800, all of which will be donated to the Herm Goffberg Athletic Scholarship Fund.

 - Tom Cali needs someone to direct the Our Lady of Victory Summerfest Mile and Kid's Races. He has a previous commitment and can't be there the morning of June 4. It's my understanding that he'll be doing all the legwork before the race such as ordering shirts and trophies, etc. If you can step in for Tom, please contact him at tgcrun@adelphia.net.

 - Maybe we can get our act together in time to have a picnic this summer! Any volunteers to organize it?

Next Meeting: June 7.

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