Extended CRC Board Meeting 1-21-2012
Yesterday was my 2nd official board meeting and first of the extended board meetings. We spent 5 hours meeting at Mike's company's offices going through a multitude of agenda items. Aaron as president took the lead in getting our agenda put together while Nicole and Emily covered the snacks.
I have been on a number of boards through the years but so far the Charlotte Running Club has more initiatives being put in flight both inside the club and outside the club than any of the other clubs that I have been a member.
Letting thought wonder around for a moment, it is hard for me to say if this is good or bad because really there is no right or wrong answer here. The members of the club elected the board members because they felt these people were the best people to do job and represent the club in a positive matter. Thus, the values of the board should pretty much represent the values of our club.
Yesterday's meeting covered a gambit of items: dates for the board meetings, volunteering at races and in the community, how to make the news letter better, how to promote the club group runs, so on and so forth.
Maybe the best exercise that we went through was exploring the club's strengths and weakness. A little introspection is always good and there were a number of items in both lists. What I like best was that we took the weakness and made those weaknesses 1, 3, or 5 year goals for the club achieve. The idea of taking weaknesses and turning them in to strengths is not new but watching the process work its way from beginning to end can be a great exercise. Watching how people turn over ideas and twist thoughts to create something new is exciting to watch.
The other facet to the board is the diversity of the group. There are mothers and fathers. There are single people. There are "un" hurried people. There are people that ran in the Olympic Trials. There are people from different generations.
What's great about this is that they bring their own perspective in to the meeting. Often they share ideas that might not have ever crossed the mind of another member. Although, stating one's opinion is not always easy and sometimes the desire to share an idea can be tempered to the point of being a little intimidating. However, CRC board as a whole does seem to do a good job of reaching out and encouraging each and every individual board member to participate.
The reality of our club is that we will only be as effective as our members are willing to be involved. Being active member is more than just reading the news letter. Members need to support the group runs, come out races, volunteer at races etc. This is not say that they have to be at every single social, group run, or club event. Would it be great? Yes. But the reality is that we all have lives and families beyond running and they come first.
But if our members strive to reach out a couple of times per month, across 500+ members, we can have one of the most active clubs in the entire area.
Share one thought at time,
The Cool Down Runner
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