Meeting Minutes
Grand Strand Running Club
3/18/09 Meeting
The March 2009 meeting of the Grand Strand Running Club was held on Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at the Grand Strand Senior Center on 21st avenue north in Myrtle Beach. Present: Terry Layton, President; Dan Monarch, Vice President; Pat Maccariella-Hafey, Secretary; and members Carol Cook, Paula Loehr, Tim Loehr, Debra Peters, Karen D'Alessio, Murray Honick
Terry Layton opened the meeting at 6:45 p.m.
Terry updated everyone on the Kids Running Program which has started at Myrtle Beach Middle School. There are 52 6th graders signed up. Shirts are being ordered, $4.00 for kids, $6.00 for adults. Sponsor's logos will be on the shirts. The 3 sponsors are also covering incentive awards for the kids. Kevin Kinsley "Coach K" is heading up the program in PE class. The goal will be for the kids to run in the Little River Blue Crab Festival 5K. Entry fee for the kids will be $5.00.
Terry proposed that the GSRC hold a club run at the Doug Shaw stadium track one Saturday to complete speed work. The track is awesome if you have not yet had the opportunity to run on it. The track is open the same hours as Pepper Geddings gym, unless there is a meet or other activity going on.
The Saint Patty Day Run Fest was held Sunday March 15, with a 10K, 5K and 1 mile fun run. About 102 runners participated. The Coastal Running Group is looking for ways to increase runner participation of this event.
Terry discussed the Georgetown Harborwalk 8K. He and Dave Hansen have mapped out a route that will keep runners out of the downtown throughway area as requested by Georgetown police. The next step is to get runner participation higher and vendors to help sponsor the race. Hopefully we can get the advertisers for the Georgetown Harborwalk to include the 8K race in their public advertisements for the festival. We also talked about using the festival shirts instead of getting new shirts because of the cost. The festival and race are tentatively scheduled for June 27, 2009.
Terry has asked the club to brainstorm on what the charge should be to organizations that ask the GSRC to put on a race. Terry has outlined all of the duties of putting on a race and attached man hours to them. The man hours needed to put on a race comes out to about 90 man hours. IF we charged $10 per hour this would amount to about $900 per race. A $2.00 per participant charge could also be incorporated which would come out to close to $1000 which is about what the club was paid to put on the Sun Fun BBQ 5K. The members also talked about ways to give charities a benefit, either by charging a reduced rate or by giving back some of the proceeds by the GSRC as a donation. If you have suggestions, please let Terry know.
Terry is talking with the new Director of the Chamber of Commerce Festival Committee to see about the particulars of another 5K race of the Saturday morning of the Sun Fun festival. The chamber has less of a budget this year due to budgeted money for tourism promotion being down across the state. Care Team has asked the GSRC to put on a 5K race in early November.
Modifications have been made to the Market Common 5K course for future races to keep runners off the main roads. Murray Honick volunteered to chair the Sponsorship Committee to get sponsors for GSRC races to help offset costs. Paula Loehr also agreed to be on the committee. If you are interested in being on the committee contact Murray. A separate email regarding the sponsorship committee has already gone out.
Finally, nominations for officers were conducted. If you are interested in one of the below positions, please let me know and I will put you on the list. I vote will be conducted at our April meeting. You will be able to vote by email if you cannot attend the meeting.
Paulette Flench will become President of the GSRC in April, 2009 (She is currently President elect. This position automatically moves into the President's position)
Up for nominations are:
President Elect: Dan Monarch
Vice President: Murray Honick
Treasurer: Phyllis Monarch
Secretary: Open
Membership Chairperson: An appointed post however if you are interested please let me know.
The members also discussed obtaining running related speakers at our next meetings to help increase attendance. Several speakers are being contemplated at this time for future meetings. If you have any suggestions, let us know.
The NMB running group invites you to join them for a night of fun and socializing aboard the Sun Cruz Casino Boat with our own Captain Rick Lanigan at the helm! The date is Thursday March 26, 2009 from 7 pm to midnight. If interested call Karen D'Alessio at 843-424-2046 or Rick Lanigan at 843-241-7580. A flyer is posted at http://www.nmbrunninggroup.com/
Don't forget the NMB running group has runs on Tuesday evenings.
Paula Loehr won the free race entry drawing for any GSRC sponsored race at this meeting. Congratulations Paula!
The meeting adjourned at 8:10 p.m.
The next meeting will be tentatively in April 2009 at 6:30 pm in North Myrtle Beach at the Grill House. I will give you more information about this meeting when I have it. Not sure at this time if it will be Tuesday April 14 or Wed April 15, 2009.