Rocky Mountain Regional USAT Board Meeting Minutes

The Rocky Mountain Regional USAT Board Meeting was held at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs on November 24^th, 2002. Attending in person were Larry Seidman, Penny Bergsten, Phil Hackbarth, Rob Ladewig, Jim Flint, and Mary Sue Dickerson. Attending via conference phone call were Jose Valdes and Trajan King.

The meeting opened with the financial report. The 2002 income for the regional chapter was $5322. Expenses were $1,731.98. After expenses the total money available is $9182.36. A spending plan for 2003 will be developed based on $4258, which is 80% of 2002’s income.

Next Larry Seidman presented notes from the regional President's meeting. The USAT membership rates will be raised in 2003 to $9.00 for a day and $30.00 for a year. The regional chapters will be responsible for regional awards next year; however, National will give the regions another $500 to help pay the regional official coordinator.

The possibilities of club competitions were discussed. If done they will tie into existing event series, such as the Colo series or the Southwest Challenge in New Mexico.

A discussion followed of better ways to serve our triathlon community. Larry, Rob, and Penny took actions to create a schedule printed on a pocket-sized card of all the USAT sanctioned triathlons in 2003. These will be ready to put in the race packets by the first race, which will be February 22, 2003. The cards will be put in other spring triathlons race packets and selected stores such as Runner’s Roost.

It was decided to reimburse officials of USAT to attend club meetings promoting USAT. A suggestion was made to hold more official’s clinics in Utah in 2003.

Other suggestions to serve the triathlon community can be sent to Larry.

Each region is entitled to one list of labels or one free email broadcast. It was decided to use the one time email broadcast after the schedule has been put together. Jim took the action to write the email.

A discussion was held concerning the regional web site. USAT will send out a monthly newsletter and it can contain a link to our regional web site. The schedule of USAT sanctioned events will also be put out on the web site. It was decided to leave the regional newsletter as a Yahoo group; however, to make it easier for members to subscribe to the newsletter.

Larry has been working on the regional rankings. We approved expenses for Larry to buy this information from Timberline who has the information because the do the national ranking and offer regional rankings.. Larry will decide later if he wants to spend the money or continue doing this himself because Timberline will not be able to have the rankings until next February. We decided to send medallions to the people who win the rankings in the region rather than get patches.

Race events that were not well organized can now be put on probation, giving them one year to clean up the race if they want USAT to continue supporting them.

In 2002 there were 38 sanctioned events, up one from 2001. The regional membership increased 33% over 2001.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 pm.

Mary Sue Dickerson