February Letter from the CRC President

February is the shortest month on the calendar and seems to fly by every year. With only a couple of days left in this month, I realized it was time for me to report back to our membership about our club’s activities over the past 4 weeks.

I would like to start off by telling everyone about the hard work that our CRC board has been doing on the club’s behalf. This past weekend, we spent close to 11 hours discussing a multitude of topics concerning our club. The entire purpose of this meeting was to come up with better ways to show our members a better return on their membership.  

Out of this meeting, we approved the following changes:

·         In June we will roll out membership cards to every member. This card will list all of the stores providing CRC members with a discount.

·         In June we will be sending each member a club car magnet so they can proudly display their CRC affiliation.

·         In January of ’14 renewing members will receive a “members only” shirt.

·         In January of ’14 the club’s renewal policy will change from a rolling membership to a Jan-Dec membership. This change was necessary to coincide with being able to provide our members with “members only” gear.

·         CRC will host its first 12 hour relay Race. Rob Ducsay is heading this effort and is looking for additional help. Email him at rducsay@comporium.net  if you are interested in either volunteering or racing.

·         CRC will host the club’s first track series during the later summer months. The 4-week series will run from the last week of July to roughly the 3^rd week of August. Times will be tracked each week and awards will be given out at the conclusion of the last meet. Tentatively, overall awards will be based on an age-graded system! Additionally, we will be posting the results in our club’s newsletter and on the club’s website. For questions and volunteering, please reach out to run.charlotte@gmail.com.

When each of our club members signup for a CRC membership, they are given the option of sharing their personal goals. This isn’t a requirement but merely an option for the joining member. I want everyone to know that we really do use this information as part of our planning process to schedule events and group runs.

Okay, I shared the big changes coming down the pipe.

Now, I want to share a little about what’s happening in the club.

We wrapped up the final To-Dos with our Winter Classic 8k race this past week. The biggest and best “To-Do” was – CRC on behalf of the Winter Classic 8k made a $2000 dollar donation to Running Works. Running Works helps the homeless “neighbors” to get back on the feet through running. This is a marvelous community service organization lead by Meredith, Justin, and Pat. Our donation will go toward helping them continue their efforts into the future.

Some of the other “To-Dos” from the Winter Classic were to distribute shirts and awards. Several racers were not able to receive their requested shirt size. We had additional shirts printed, and then we shipped them to those individuals. We also shipped awards to those runners not able to stay for the awards ceremony. These are the types of gestures which we hope will help set our race apart from other races. We feel people will realize and value these types of efforts.

Our final “To-Do” was to send a “Thank you” email to each of our sponsors. The Winter Classic 8k would not be possible without the support of these great sponsors that stepped up and contributed to our race.

Shifting topics, I would like thank Aaron for organizing and supporting the Cupid’s Revenge workout again this year. The last two years, Aaron has organized a post Cupid Cup 5k – 7.5 mile marathon tempo run down Providence Rd. The workout is open to all members. Aaron drives along the run providing music, water, support, and encouragement to those participating. I highly recommend our members check it out. Aaron usually posts it on our club’s FaceBook page.

Volunteering is becoming a major request of our club by numerous race directors. We all enjoy racing. Volunteering at a race can be equally enjoyable. I recommend everyone try it. I have a post on our club’s website talking about volunteering.  Please check it out.

Also when members do volunteer, please email us with the details to run.charlotte@gmail.com. We will be creating a volunteer tracking page. We want people to know that our CRC club is not only passionate about running but we are also passionate about community services. Furthermore, the community service activities don’t have to be the one’s listed through our club. Any community service effort qualifies to get a member listed on our volunteer page. We ask that you send us the organizations name, your name, and date of the community service.

As we try to get the word out about various things, we really try and limit the amount of emails sent to our members. Therefore, we try to publish club information to our FaceBook and Twitter accounts. We encourage our members to follow us on these two social media outlets.

I would like to finish off this post by giving a major shout out to Rob Ducsay for his efforts with the social committee. He has pulled together a great group of individuals, and they have put together a fantastic list of upcoming social events for this year. They kicked things off with our CRC Valentine’s Day group run on the 14^th, and there was an excellent turnout for it. Next up is the Easter Egg Scramble Run at McAlpine on March 30^th. Rob has some interesting ideas in mind for this run so make sure to come out for it. It should be WORTH your time (hint, hint).

Well, this is a wrap for this month.

Keep up the good running and please come out for a group run or a club social in March.

Bill Shires

Charlotte Running Club President