Minutes of the PNTF Board Meeting of January 19, 2009

President William Hickman called the meeting to order at 7:08 p.m. in the Seattle Parks and Recreation Building at 100 Dexter Ave. N.  In addition to President Hickman, the following were present: Bill Roe, Neal Stoddard, Ed Viering, Char Engelhardt, Kwajalein Griffin, Gwen Robertson, George Mathews, Bob Springer, Lawrie Robertson, Tracy Silva, Patti Petesch, Tom Cotner, Carole Langenbach, Tom Potter, Erika Daligcon, and Bob Langenbach.

  1. EXECUTIVE REPORTS
    1. Minutes: It was moved and seconded to accept the minutes of the November 2008 PNTF Board meeting as published on the web site.  The motion was approved unanimously.
    2. Treasurer's Report: Gwen Robertson handed out her report as of December 25, 2008. The report was approved.  The balances in the various accounts are: Youth $13,303.68; Open $8,679.57; Open Chair Fund $$2,731.00; Masters $9,995.48; General Officials $923.97; Fred Dean Youth Travel $12,108.80; and General $21,417.92
      1. At this point, President Hickman asked all present to introduce him/herself as there were a few new faces present
    3. Vice President's Report: Kwajalein Griffin had no report.
    4. Membership Report: Tracy Silva announced that there were 925 Youth, 262 Open, 432 Masters, and 20 Clubs thus far for the 2009 membership year.
    5. Office Manager's Report: Carole Langenbach gave the new office address: 3779 S 191st Pl., SeaTac, WA 98188-5258.  She then gave her complicated Sanctions Report which is summarized as 125 sanctioned events, up from 113 in 2007 with a net income of $6,000.30.
  2. OLD BUSINESS
    1. Fred Dean Foundation: Chair Asha Dean was not present, but Patti Petesch said that the Foundation received $5,086.88 from United Way.  They will not be having the Golf Tournament, but will do the other fund raising that was involved with the tournament.
    2. Hytek Independent Contractors License: Kenny Emerick was not present
    3. West Seattle Stadium & T&F Facilities: Patti Petesch reported that nothing has been happening at Parks about this.  Maybe they are re-thinking their proposal.  She had talked with Asha Dean, Kwajalein Griffin, and Doris Heritage about keeping it.
    4. Golf Course Cross Country: Bob Springer said he has been unable to meet with Andy Soden.  However, he understands that there will be a possible bid utilizing Jefferson Golf Course for the 2010 USATF Club Nationals.
    5. USATF Annual Meeting Review: Bill Hickman spoke about the complete change in how USATF will be governed as a result of the Bylaws changes that were approved at the 2008 Annual Meeting in Reno.  The Board will now have only 15 members, and the only officer elected by the USATF membership will be the President.  The Board will select its Chair, which may not be the elected President!  Darlene Hickman is the chair of The Nomination and Governance Committee that will select board members from those proposed by the various committees for the 12 non-athlete positions.  There are three athletes who have already been selected: Deena Kastor, Aretha Thurmond (of PNTF), and Philip Dunn.  Darlene Hickman said that good candidates for all positions have been proposed to their committee.  Of the 12 non-athlete positions, 3 must be independent, i.e. having no previous connection to USATF.  Several PNTF members received awards.  Char Engelhardt received a President's award; Darlene Hickman received a Youth Contributor award and the prestigious Giegengack award.  Bill then noted that new CEO Doug Logan gave an outstanding state of USATF presentation and his goals of 30 clean medals at the 2012 Olympics, an increase in the budget to 30 million dollars, a 30% increase in membership, and by 2015 the USA will host a World Championships!  Bob Springer will take over from George Kleeman as Equipment and Facilities Chair, and Ivars Ikstrums will produce the Equipment and Facilities newsletter.
    6. PNTF Annual Awards Banquet: Char Engelhardt said it would be at the Best Western Rivers Edge in Tukwila.  The speaker will be UW T&F and Cross Country coach Greg Metcalf.
    7. Official's Insurance Coverage: Bob Springer said that USATF's new policy would cover certified officials for any organized competition.  The limits are $1 million per incident, and $2 million per year.  To be a USATF certified official, one must be a USATF member.  At present, there are about 9,000 certified officials, of which about 3,000 are USATF members.  PNTF will offer a special USATF membership fee of $25 for officials, normally $30, of which $2.50 will go to PNTF instead of $7.50.  In PNTF, for 2008, there were about 215 certified officials, and only 58 were USATF members. PNTF will offer three options for officials: 1) USATF certified with USATF membership and the USATF provided insurance coverage; 2) State certified officials, without USATF membership and without USATF insurance.  PNTF will provide a badge for these officials; 3) Volunteers without USATF certification and insurance and without state certification who can volunteer as they please at events.  This will have an impact on WIAA's efforts to have certified officials at meets, as they wish to deal only with the Washington Officials Association (WOA) for certified officials.  Bob Springer wants to set up a task force to figure out how to approach WIAA and WOA.  The following will be on the task force: Bob Springer as chair, and Geof Newing, PNTFOA Chair, Andy Newing, PNTFOA Treasurer, Tracy Silva, Membership Chair, Darlene Hickman, PNTF Official's membership keeper, and Lawrie Robertson, Officials Training Chair.
  3. NEW BUSINESS
    1. PNTF Contributor of the Year/Ken Foreman Award: Bill Hickman said Doris Heritage was the winner in 2008, and opened the floor for nominations. Carole nominated John Sweeney of the Eastside Runners, Char nominated Greg Metcalf, UW T&F and CC coach, and Patti nominated Andy Newing, PNTFOA Treasurer and Equipment manager.  It was moved, seconded, and approved that the nominations be closed.  Each nominator spoke briefly about the candidate they nominated, and a secret ballot was taken.  Patti Petesch collected the ballots and said she would have an awards plaque made for the winner who would be revealed at the Awards Banquet.
    2. PNTF Meeting Dates: President Hickman had appointed Kwajalein Griffin to propose appropriate meeting dates for 2009.  The change in Bylaws says that there will be no less than 6 PNTF Board Meetings.  Additional Board Meetings can be called by the President, or at the request of 3 members. Kwajalein proposed that meetings be held in February, April, June, August, (September is the PNTF Annual Meeting), October, and November.  After some discussion, it was suggested that the February meeting be changed to January.  It was moved, seconded, and approved to have PNTF Board meetings in January, April, June, August, October, and November.  Secretary's note: The next PNTF Board Meeting will be APRIL 20, 2009.
    3. Washington State High School Track Coaches Association Official of the Year: President Hickman announced that the WSTCA Track Officials of the year were Bob and Carole Langenbach.  He also mentioned that last year the official selected was Bob Sund, a very active PNTF official.
  4. COMMITTEE REPORTS
    1. Youth: Asha Dean was not present.  Patti Petesch said that Darryl Genest gave a review of the past year.  The Youth Committee is requiring background screening for all coaches and volunteers that have "alone time" with youth. Tom Potter said the Youth Cross Country meets were fantastic this year.
    2. Open: Tom Cotner reported that PNTF had 8 Open National Champions and had 19 members on Team USA events.  The PNTF Open T&F Championship will be switched to be with the Meet of Champions at King's HS.  Mike Sayenko was 12th at the USATF Half Marathon Championship in 1:03:52!
      1. MUT:  Tom reported that Scott McCoubrey was given the award of MUT Contributor of the Year at the USATF Annual Meeting.
    3. Masters: George Mathews reported that the masters held their meeting immediately before this meeting.  April 25, 2009 was selected for the Spring Fling.  Throws will be in the morning and a throws pentathlon in the afternoon.  The Seattle Classic will be July 17 for the Hammer and July 18 for the remaining events, including the steeplechase.  This year, the Weight, Superweight, and Ultraweight competitions will be held August 22-23 at the Concordia Throwing Center, operated by Mac Wilkins, near the Portland Airport.
      1. Events: Neal Stoddard reported the masters champion road races may be changed from the events they've used the past few years.
    4. RaceWalk: Stan Chraminski was not present.  Neal mentioned that the Masters Regional 10 km RW will be held the same date as the Spring Fling, April 25, 2009.
    5. Officials:
      1. PNTFOA: Neal said the PNTFOA Annual Meeting will be January 25, 2009 at a new location, the Embassy Suites in Tukwila.  Business meeting at 1:30 pm, and meal at 3 pm.  The Officials held their January meeting and had purchased barcode reader for scanning race tags.
      2. Certification and Training: Lawrie Robertson and Darlene Hickman announced that a 2 hour clinic was held in Everett with Ivars Ikstrums and Lawrie as presenters.  There will be a 2 hour clinic in Edmonds on February 19th, and the 8 hour introduction to officiating February 7 at the Seattle Parks and Recreation building, and one split into days on February 9th and 23rd at UPS in Tacoma.
    6. PNTF Web site: Bob Springer said it is mostly up to date.  A few items were delayed a bit as webmaster Becca Gillespy Peter was on her honeymoon.
    7. USATF Association Committee: Bill Roe said Karen Krsak had been elected the new chair at the USATF Annual Meeting.
    8. USATF Board of Directors: Bill Roe said there will be a conference call February 2nd, still with the old board as the new board has not been selected.
    9.  Pacific Association Grievance: Bob Bowman was not present.

OPEN MEETING

Patti Petesch commented that Western Washington University cut its men's football program.  This was somewhat surprising, as in most other cases, the schools cut men's T&F and/or Cross Country or wrestling, or some other men's sports.

Bob Langenbach said that Ralph Heritage would be having hip replacement surgery on January 20th.  Please wish him and Doris well.  Note:  Ralph was on crutches at the PNTF Annual Awards Banquet and told me he is doing fine.

 

The meeting was adjourned about 9:00 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Bob Langenbach

PNTF Secretary