May Letter from the CRC President

When the end of the month falls on a weekend, I am almost always caught in a bind. I know that I have to publish my CRC President's Letter. However, there is just too much to do on a weekend, and I let it pull me away from finishing it. Please read through the rest of my letter so you are all caught up with our CRC news.

I hope everyone enjoyed our Birthday run and our miler event at UNCC. If you missed them, there are more events coming. Each month we focus on having one or two events scheduled.   

In June, we are doing a Happy Hour at BlackFinn and our club’s Summer Picnic at Freedom Park. In July, we are holding our CRC Summer Track Meet at UNCC on a Tuesday night. We will follow it up a week later with a group trail run at the Whitewater Center. Our Aug schedule is a little bit in flux. We know we will be joining the SLR group for their 1/2  Marathon on the McMullen Greenway. There is a chance that we could do a BBT Stadium stairs run one evening possibly in August or September. The conversations are still in the early stages but I wanted everyone to put it on their radar for a fun mid week event.

 Oct, we are still planning our 12 hour run/relay. Rob is working on the exact location. It will most likely be different than last year.

Don’t forget to check-out our FaceBook and www.CharlotteRunningClub.org for the most current listing upcoming events. Changes do occur and we always update those two locations to keep our members in the know. Usually a day or two before the event, we will send out a reminder email. I never want to overdo the emails, but I certainly believe a little reminder email never hurts a few times each month.   

 

 

Upcoming CRC Activities and Events:

Our board is working hard to have a CRC presence all over Charlotte this year.

· 6/11/14 CRC Happy Hour – BlackFinn @ the EpiCentre 5-7 PM (Wednesday night)

· 6/14/14 CRC Summer Picnic June (Freedom Park –Shelter #6) 11-3pm - 6/14/14 (Saturday)

· Tour de Charlotte Group Run Series

·         7/15/14 CRC Track Night 5k under the lights @ UNCC Irwin Belk Track

·         7/24/14 CRC Group Run – Whitewater Center 6:15

·         7/27/14 Brain Freeze Run – afternoon run

·         8/10/14 SLR Half Marathon – McMullen Greenway

·         Aug/Sept BBT Stadium Run – Uptown Charlotte

· Uptown Throwdown 12hr Run/Relay Oct 10/4/14

· CRC/Run Safer Clinic Oct

· Holiday Lights Run - Dec

 

CRC Summer Picnic:

6/14/14 we will be holding our CRC Summer Picnic in Freedom Park at shelter number #6. CRC will be supplying the hamburgers, hotdog, and buns. Members supply the side dishes and desserts. We will be setting up between 11 and 12. Cooking should start at noon.    

 

CRC Happy Hour at BlackFinn – June 11:

Our Happy Hour earlier this year seemed to go over very well so we are planning another one on June 11. BlackFinn @ the EpiCentre Uptown will be kicking in some appetizers from 5-7. Drop by and check it out.  

Tour de Charlotte:

As the summer heats up we are looking to have some fun with our runs. We are planning to have our CRC Track Night at UNCC on July 15. We will follow this up the next week by journeying out to the US Whitewater Center for a group run under the shade trees. We will finish off July with a Brain Freeze run from the Metropolitan.  We will finish off the summer events by joining the SLR group for their ½ marathon on the McMullen Greenway.

There is something for everyone so come out an experience it.  

CRC’s 5 year Birthday:

We had a great evening to celebrate our 5^th year in existence at Triple C Brewery on 5/8/14. Really appreciate Triple C for all they do in welcoming us to their location. I hope everyone got a chance to taste our CRC Birthday cake.

Adventure Run

TrySports held their second Adventure Run on 5/1/14 and we were on site to promote our club. The number of runners definitely grew. This prompted Kat to give away a “cruiser” bike which retailed for about $400. Their next run is coming on 6/5/14. They may give away a tread mill. Show up to find out.

CRC All Around Miler:

CRC continues to grow and to keep our members interested and motivated; we need to give them alluring running activities. The All Around Miler event fell right in with this line of thinking. Running a mile on dirt, on pavement, and on a track with just a short rest presents a nice workout. I was happy to see that our members took advantage of it.

I personally learned a lot from organizing this event, but then, I learn a lot from every event that our club does. The real key is leveraging this knowledge to improve our next event. 

Mileage Program:

Audrey has tabulated the April results for our club and posted it to our CRC website.

You can still join our mileage program by replying to Audrey’s monthly email. If for some reason, you don’t receive it, you can still email Audrey at run.charlotte.miles@gmail.com

Member Status:

Growing again, this month our club broke the 290 member mark and now stands at 295.

Board Members:

I wanted to bring everyone up to speed on our board member status.

During our Wednesday meeting Loril Gossett will be officially approved to be a CRC board member. Please join me in thanking Loril for sharing personal time and energy on behalf of our club.

Earlier this month, Laurie emailed me that she needed to step down. We are in the process of researching a replacement board member. I will keep you everyone posted on our progress.

 

CRC Membership shirts and cards:

A few shirts and cards were delayed delivery until the first of May, but otherwise, each member should have their membership items by now.

The late items were due to inaccurate addresses in our membership database. Usually, there was an apartment number or a box number being left off. The USPS assumes nothing and returned the packages to us. I have since followed with these members to correct their addresses and resend their membership items.

For those that don’t know, you can update our CRC member address. Our club’s membership database is stored with RunSignUp.com. Each member has their own individual logon. If you have never logged on to the system, there is a process by which members can calm their accounts.  

Let me know if you don’t know how. I will get information to you.  

 

Board Meeting Update:

We had a number of board members that could not able to meet on our typical last Thursday of the month meeting date. To accommodate everyone’s schedule, we decided to push the meeting back a week to 6/4/14. Once this meeting takes place, I will make the meeting minutes available to everyone.

Whole Foods South Park - Meeting location – (May) 6/4/14 Board Meeting

 Review and Approval of previous month's meetings

·         Board Approval of Loril Gossett – to the open board position

·         VP position discussion

·         Nominees for open board position

·          Treasury report

·         Happy Hour BlackFinn – Status Update

·         Summer Picnic 11-3 – Status Update

·         Tour de Charlotte – Status Update

o   CRC Summer Track Night July 15

o   WhiteWater Center Thursday night run in July

o   Brain Freeze Run

o   SLR 1/2 Aug – Status and Participation.

o   BBT Stadium (tentative) – Aug/Sept

 

Wrapping Up:

Summer finally feels like it has arrived and my winter gear is in the process of being migrated to the bottom of my running drawer. I am ready for it. I like the longer days. This give me more time to run and enjoy being outside. Here’s is hoping that each of you is off to having a great summer.

If there is every a question, a concern, or just general feedback about our club, reach out to run.charlotte@gmail.com. Our board members monitor this email inbox and usually respond to emails within 24 hours.

 

Come run with me,

Bill Shires

CRC President

run.charlotte@gmail.com