BTC Executive Committee Minutes

August 10, 2015

Attendance: Lauren Floyd, Kim Benner, Katherine Dease, Alan Hargrave, Allison Stone, 

Trish Portuese, Kemper Sarrett, Charles Thompson, Lauren Weber, Monica Henley, Alex 

Morrow, Kelly McNair, Julie Pearce, Darnell Allen, Dean Thornton

1. July minutes approved
2. Financials (Alex for Leslie) 
1. July financials 
1. Year to date income / expense (refer to handout)
2. Runs income / expense comparison year over year (refer to handout)
3. Membership (Lauren and Alan)
1. 1304 members, 1033 memberships, 1 lifetime membership, 1 5-year membership
4. Newsletter Update (Julie, Dean, Alan) 
1. 614 unique visits to the newsletter page each month
2. 662 unique visits once opened to public 
3. 399 unique visits in August to date; started blog view 
4. Mostly exclusive in the U.S. 
5. Mobile Stats 
1. Iphone – 31%
2. Android – 11% 
3. Most clicks are from Facebook
4. August Newsletter was distributed via email: 33.6% opened the email; of those that opened the email, 23% clicked on a link. 
1. Alan provided a detailed distribution of those clicks 
5. Julie showed examples of newsletter from award-winning newsletters through RRCA
6. Quarterly newsletter could be more comprehensive, with or without advertisements. 
7. Suggested additions to the newsletter: profile races, new members, race/award winners, profile a new member, add a ‘why I run’ column.
8. Pro of an e-newsletter - innovation 
9. Ideas to welcome new members: acknowledge on FB, website and newsletter – names and city/state; highlight runners with upcoming races;  include a footnote that ask members to send us their upcoming races; Julie and Lauren W will work together on this; Alan will assist
10. Deadline for September newsletter is August 19
5. Vulcan Social Recap / Retro - sponsored water stop (Katherine and Kim)
1. $250.00 under budget ($300 off of park fee; V’s fee was waived; did not have a food truck)
2. A question that was raised: why do we host this at Vulcan? Some members did not know it was in promotion of Vulcan Run 10K.  Did we do a good enough job with advertising the intent of this particular social?
3. Complaints about ending the run up the hill
4. We held off on the door prizes until the 12 minute pacers returned but we missed the 10 minute group so the 12 minute group passed the 10 minute group at some point.  There were no runners with the 12 minute group so the leader ran a different pace.
5. Next event: a small social on September 19, potentially (evening or Saturday morning?) Ideas for social location: Grill 29 (old McCormick and Schmidt building) or Hickory Tavern at Brookwood for an evening social
6. October 3 – Vulcan trial/course run; waiting to hear back from Edgar's downtown; looking for a site that will give us a discount on food; if Edgar's falls through, will pursue other options
7. October 31 – small costume social – Alex recommended reaching out to Jeff at the TS to make sure there’s not a conflict of dates.  Ask TS if they are interested in sponsoring social.
8. BTC had a water stop at the Retro Run that was organized by Kim and Kemper 
1. needed more tables (only 1 was delivered); 
2. volunteer incentive: they were offered meal tickets 
3. Next BTC sponsored water stop will be on the Vulcan 10K course 
6. Member Benefits (Kemper)
1. New partner: Mountain High Outfitter; benefit: new pair of socks or a discount with the purchase of a pair of shoes 
2. They rent shoes for $1 to demo
3. Update who’s on the website and verify their commitment
7. Ambassador Program (Darnell)
1. Black Girls Run – cancelled social due to the weather; request to postpone until the fall
2. Greg Stein – evening social: solidifying a date and time
1. Is it at Good People or the Big Benefit Run? 
2. We’re targeting the Thursday night run group
3. Eric Thomas – very interested in hosting a social
4. Could we combine the September social with the ambassador social? 
1. i. different purposes
8. Membership (Alan)
1. Sold a life membership and a 5 year membership (Covington, LA member)
2. Google: are we ready to make the switch?  Corporate decision to move forward
3. Birminghamtrackclub.com redirects to Google addresses that we manage.  We will not have to check with a 3rd party; Alan will manage it all. 
4. Deadline: 30 days to activate new email addresses and make the switch.
5. Everything will be posted on Google docs for the next board meeting (financials, agenda, etc.)  
6. All documents need to be stored/saved on Google documents
9. Triple Crown Challenge (Alex)
1. 53 registrants / 86 last year
2. Is there a course for Whistlestop? Alex is following up on this.
3. We have 6 comp entries for Whistlestop – Lauren Floyd will figure out a way to distribute these
10. Vulcan Run (Allison Stone)
1. 2015 Vulcan Budget Proposal: Approved for $61,300.00
2. Refer to handout
3. In the back end of the storage unit is a bunch of old Vulcan stuff that Alex did not want to throw away without approval of others.  
4. BellRunner program – entries: comped or not?  Can we negotiate a trade with The Bell Center?  Perhaps, they sponsor a water stop on the course.
11. Other
1. Alex is the RRCA state rep.  
2. Restructuring of the committees
1. refer to the BTC Officer Flow Chart handout
3. Katherine has asked for permission to use the BTC logo to print on a shirt for Marine Corps Marathon
1. suggestion: create a patriotic BTC apparel that can be available for all to purchase. This can be an option for Peavine, as well as Marine Corps. 
2. Any interest is printing a BTC shirt for 4 and 7 Bridges?
3. Suggestion: creating a BTC running kit to sale that could include a shirt, hat, etc.
4. Katherine Dease is looking into this option.

Next meeting – 2nd Monday of each month in the Treehouse Room, Vestavia Hills 

Library, September 14th