Minutes of December 7, 2004 NVRC Meeting.

The regular meeting of the Nittany Valley Running Club was held on Tuesday, December 7, at the Hi-Way Pizza on Westerly Parkway. In attendance were Jim Taylor, Bob Radzwich, Marty Klanchar, Bob Boozer, Boyd Brumbaugh, Dave Eggler, and Marty Mazur. There was also another guest of the Club whose name has since evaporated from my memory banks.

There was a bit of recapping of the Nittany Valley Half-Marathon. Dave Eggler and Morgan Wasikonis put on another great race! This one was a record breaker, with over 300 registrants and 299 finishers. Nice weather, too. And it was a good thing it was warm. Though we were grateful for the use of the (unheated) ROTC Drill Deck, we're hoping to be able to use the IM Building once again for next year's race.

We talked about the upcoming Indoor Mile Series. Details will be firmed up soon, but it looks like there will be at least 3 events in January and February, including a 3000 meter race to go with the miles.

We discussed ways for the Club to be able to donate more to the Centre Volunteers in Medicine. It had been proposed that the First Night Race could be used as our official fundraiser for this eminently worthy cause. However, because we do not "own" the First Night Resolution Race, but only put it on for the Art's Fest people, we are not at liberty to designate the beneficiary, which is currently another charity. We discussed making the Art's Fest 10K race (which is ours) the Club fundraiser for CVIM. Since the AF 10K is also the main revenue generator for the Club, we cannot donate all proceeds from this race. However, we can consider donating all proceeds above a certain amount (TBD) necessary for the Club's yearly operating expenses beyond what we get from dues and other race fees. Dues pay for the Newsletter and not too much else. (Until we went mostly electronic, they came nowhere near even paying for that!) Most other Club races are either dedicated to charitable causes already (e.g. Knights of Columbus 5K), or are basically break-even affairs (e.g. NVHM). The AF 10K fits the bill of an already established race with a large turnout (NVHM turnout fluctuates considerably with the weather), and is also associated with a big townie/tourist gig, facilitating getting more sponsors. More decisions will be made about this soon.

Also, WRT the AF race, we will be discussing with Beth Parker, the RD, choice of course for next year's race. Last year's new course was very popular. However, there are two problems with it. First is emergency vehicle access (it's tough to get to the one mile stretch of the bike path below College Heights). This was actually an issue this year, and could be more of one in hotter years. Second, if we want to increase participation (to give money to CVIM), we might want to consider running a 5K as well. This would be easiest on the old campus double looper. Of course, then we'd only have to contend with the University ripping up our course every year...

There was a brief report on the imminent update of the NVRC web site by an IST student. This really is about to be unveiled! The student who has been working on it for us just got bogged down in school work (of all things!).

Next Meeting: February 1.

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