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President's Report
AGM April 21st 2017
2016 was a good year for the PEI Roadrunners Club. Leaving last year’s AGM with an updated constitution and an almost full board of fabulous people allowed the Club to grow and thrive over the season. I cannot thank the 2016 Executive & Board enough for all their support & guidance. Working together we made great things happen!
In an effort to keep you all informed, members are invited to attend all our monthly meetings and the President’s Report & Meeting Minutes have been posted on our website. The website might not be pretty but we’ve done our best to put the information there that you need to keep you up to date on all our Club activities.
You told us you wanted us to post all known races, so last year we posted a Calendar for your information, as well as our sanctioned race schedule. This year we’ve combined them, putting the name & date of unsanctioned events on our schedule, for your information, so you can go google the details if you are interested in knowing more. Our Insurance prevents us from promoting unsanctioned events so we hope you’ll like this compromise.
Our race schedule grew in 2016 and is even bigger in 2017. In 2015 there were 32 events on the schedule. In 2016, 6 of those events no longer existed and 3 did not return. However, our schedule grew to 38 events, 7 of those were new events and 8 were events that left our schedule after the 2014 season and returned to us in 2016. This year we are currently at 47 events, 7 of these are new, 1 more returned to us and Stan has resurrected the old Charlottetown Rural Raiders Run. That makes 15 more events than we had in 2015. These events range from small town church fundraisers to the PEI Marathon & the Bridgefest IWK Run for Families on the Confederation Bridge. This puts me at a race every Saturday except 2, at this point, from last week until the week after the PEI Marathon, with the exception of May 27th when I’ll miss the Rural Raiders Run to be at the Calgary Marathon with Alex as he represents PEI there as our Provincial Flagbearer.
My highlight, aside from the growing numbers, is being told “Being sanctioned by your organization would certainly provide the credibility and exposure we are looking for.” – this from the Bridgefest organizers.
I have greatly enjoyed working with Race Directors to help provide you with safe & enjoyable events. I see our role, as a Club, as one of supporting our Members and the Race Directors on our schedule. We support our members with information like upcoming events and race results and with platforms for you to connect with us and each other for information & support. We cover you with insurance at all sanctioned events and work hard with Race Directors to make sure you never need it.
Our Membership numbers also grew in 2016, gaining back 50 of the 100 memberships we lost in 2015. We had 285 Members in 2016 and I hope we can add another 50, at least, this year. You get a lot for your $20, from insurance & Member discounts to snazzy Member bibs & Championship Points, and we do good work, so encourage your fellow runners to join, if they haven’t already.
Even our Executive multiplied in the past year – big congratulations to Heather MacAulay & Maureen Peters on the birth of their babies in February!
We have 12 new signs warning the public of “Runners ahead”, we’ve replaced missing mileage markers so you can count your way to the finish line and we were gifted with a big, beautiful inflatable arch to greet you once you get there. Big thanks to Miguel & Troy at Atlantic Chip Timing for this generous gift!
The clock got a new battery, after finally dying at the Brookvale Ultra last summer. It also finally got its smashed plexiglass panel replaced although the damage done to the numbers on that side of the clock was not repairable so it is now a one sided clock.
The money to pay for all this comes mostly from your membership dues. As you’ll see in Pat’s Treasurer’s Report, Insurance is costly and replacing and repairing equipment and buying a steady supply of bibs & pins sure adds up. Your safety is invaluable to us and worth every penny we spend to try to ensure you have safe & enjoyable experiences. That said, our Bank Account has also grown substantially in the past year.
We did have a Fall Fundraiser, selling our hats & Westjet tickets just prior to the PEI Marathon. This brought in just over $700. We intend to once again offer WestJet tickets this Fall.
We are selling off our remaining hats at a deep discount and will soon have our wonderful singlets for sale. This is not a fundraising effort. We decided to offer the singlets at a couple of dollars over cost to you because it’s something you asked for and we know you’ll all look great wearing them. We will have half our order next week and the remainder should follow next month. If demand dictates, we’ll order even more.
We brought back out Race Guide booklet for 2017 because 2 very special people wanted it – Salem Hashem, who sponsors the booklet, and Ewen Stewart, who is reason enough on his own. Race Directors were keen to have it back and I’ve heard some very favourable comments from our membership. Every listing includes a web address for the most up to date information to account for any changes after publication.
We tried to get our old paper bibs back this year after the disappointing Tyvec ones last year but that material is no longer available. The new material looks to be much closer to the old paper than Tyvec so I think you’ll be happy with the size & material of this year’s member bibs. We also have new membership cards, they look a lot like the old ones but should fit into your wallet better. We are working to offer you more Membership Perks so stay tuned for news on that.
Another thing we’ve been asked for by our Members that I hope to provide this year is a running Points total through the year. This will mean you don’t have to wait until the end of the season to see how many Points you have. This will take a little work to set up but once it is, I hope to keep you updated shortly after each Point Race. Since Chip timed races will need to be manually entered in our database there will be delays at times but I hope to give you updated points at least Monthly and certainly more often than once a year.
Also new this year, and in the next 2 years, is our involvement with the Atlantic 1 Mile Championships. New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and our Club are working to provide this event, once a year, in one of our Provinces. We will be encouraging our fastest Milers to attend this year’s Championship Race in Saint John NB during their Marathon weekend. You’ll be hearing more about this in the future. Next year’s race will be in NS and we will be hosting it in 2019.
So, as you can see, the Club is in a good place. 2017 looks like a great season ahead.
We have 3 spots on our Board to fill: Secretary, Prince County Rep and Director at Large. Club Secretary is responsible for taking notes during meetings. They help chooses bursary winners and help with preparations and notes for AGM. The Prince County Rep helps promote events in Prince County. They also help with decision making on the executive. Directors at large are members that are supportive with background knowledge of the club history. They advise the executive on policy and help with decision making.
Also we could really use a bunch of volunteers for our various committees. While I tried to organize this last year, the step of then organizing those who expressed interest was one I was just too busy to do. So tonight I’m handing out some sign up sheets so you can again express your interest in helping out. You will be invited to our next meeting where we will work to organize our committees. If you can’t make it, don’t worry, put your name down and we’ll be in touch after the meeting. The Board worked really hard to get us to where we are and a few more hands would greatly lighten the load and could make even more things possible. Our Membership is a diverse & talented bunch and any of you would be a great asset to our Club’s Board and committees.
Please continue to express your comments & concerns with us. We will listen, hear you and continue to respond to you. If we can make things happen – like the booklet, the singlets, the bibs, the information we put out, we’ll do our best. If you have safety concerns, or any concerns at any sanctioned events, please share them with us so we can help the Race Directors to improve things. We are here to support our Members & Race Directors. If we can do a better job of that, please let us know.
And lastly, Thank you all for your warmth & co operation over the past year. As a non-runner it’s been an honour to be entrusted to run the show. My term will be up this time next year but I’d certainly welcome anyone who wants to share the position with me this year or even take it over so I can concentrate more on the practical week to week event support. I’m more than happy to keep doing all the work I have been doing but very little of that is actual President’s work. If you’re interested, throw your hat in the ring in a few minutes when that opportunity presents itself. Either way, I look forward to working for you all in 2017.
Thank You!
janet norman-bain
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