8/11/03 by Ted Ingraham
The first planning meeting for the 2004 season was Monday, August 11, 2003 at 6:00 pm. Eight members attended: Ted Ingraham Shawn Adams, Jim Gilmore, Josh Blubaugh, Chris Westover, Catharine Scott, Russ Stapleton, and Becky Blice.
Becky went over some of the details of the Fall Challenge road race, now rescheduled for September 21st. Much of the initial planning is in place. Becky still needs volunteers for race day. If you are willing to marshal, work registration, or drive a lead vehicle, please contact Becky.
Ted summarized the progress of the current year. The club is in excellent shape financially–to the point that we need to find ways to spend some of the money the club has accumulated. We started the year with good success in obtaining sponsors. RATL was very successful this spring. In addition to great racing, the club made more money than usual from the series due to larger fields. TOP has been even more successful than usual this year with numerous large races. The club continued to improve the number and quality of racing members this year. Our Cat +3 team got off to a great start but has been hampered by injuries since early July. We hope to continue to improve on all these areas in 2004.
There was discussion about a number of the above topics and how to approach them next year. We want to continue to recruit more members and racers into the club. We discussed organizations we might contact to locate interested potential cyclists but no definite plans were made to follow-up on the ideas. Developmental training was briefly discussed. Ideas to spend more money in 2004 focused on additional reimbursement for uniforms, helmets or race fees as well as increasing the Race Rewards Program. Some good ideas were proposed but final decisions on 2004 programs will wait until the 2004 season is closer. Ted said an excellent course for a downtown criterium should be available when the S. Broadway bridge is completed and he hopes to do the state crit again in 2004.
Sponsorship is always a critical area for the club. We discussed the potential for renewing current sponsors and seeking new ones for 2004. A Josh, Chris, Doug, and Becky all said they have potential sponsors they will be contacting.
The 2004 uniform was discussed. It will be the same color scheme although there will probably be changes for sponsor names. We will use Voler again and will be able to have the uniforms extremely early next year. Based on what we learned this year, we should get the order by late March or early April in 2004.
Reimbursement for the race team and other active racers was discussed. We hope to expand our reimbursement programs next year. We need to find ways to encourage members to race, reward those who do race, and still keep it very simple to track and administer. Potential new Cat 3 racers for the team were discussed as well as efforts to formally develop the women's race team. There was discussion on getting more information out about the race activities of the team, including the observation that the race team website has not been updated. More discussion is needed on all the race team/reimbursement plans for the 2004 season. The club needs more people to step forward to help with the plans for next year. At the next meeting, we will designate people to be responsible for the various activities in 2004. In addition to other areas, we need someone to handle membership, the sponsor drive, uniform order, indoor training sessions, and 2004 races. If you have any interest in any of these, or other areas, pleas contact Ted to let him know if you are willing to help.
A tentative schedule was reviewed for the next twelve months, as follows:
August: Final TOP races for 2003
August - December: sponsor drive
September: Fall Challenge RR, September 21
October: Elect officers for 2004
November - December: membership renewal
December: uniform order
January 2004: Annual Banquet, Indoor training session(s)
February: Indoor training session(s)
March: pre-season skills sessions and training
April - May: Races at the Lakes (RATL)
June: Ohio State Criterium
June - August: TOP Series
July: Club Picnic
Next meeting will be early October.