New England Walkers 2014
O'Rourke, Edward
.
Folks,
I want to thank those of you that were able to join us for the Annual meeting last Sunday. I also hope to see and hear from those of you who were unable to attend real soon.
I am excited to become the new club president and hope you be attentive and active with this responsibility as Tom Knatt has been. I will have to say however I do not think I will have the staying power that Tom has had in this post. For those of you who have not done the math, Tom has been club president for 31 years or 50K as a measurement we can understand. I think I may be more likely to choose a shorted distance like 5 or 10K.
I want to thank Tom on behalf of the board for all his years of dedication and the great memories he has helped created for many of us. It was Tom too who got me back into race walking after a 23 year hiatus. I want to thank him for doing that. My wife does not understand my passion for the sport but is warming up to it all.
In order to grow our club and attract new athletes young and old to the sport we need to develop a plan and calendar for plan implementation. I would like to work with all of you to develop some modest and achievable goals for promoting Race Walking on the Web, through social media, clothing and handouts. I want to figure out a schedule for us to have clinics and group work outs in locations that are easy to get to for you all and for those who may join us. And lastly I want us to have fun helping the club members achieve the personal goals they have for 2014.
Thanks to everyone for putting their confidence in me to help guide the NEW this year.
Sincerely,
Ed O’Rourke
Below are the meetings minutes Charlie had prepared for us.
Minutes of New England Walkers annual meeting
The New England Walkers elected a new president, saluted their outgoing one, and laid out an agenda for 2014 at their annual meeting Nov. 10 in Groton, MA.
The club elected Ed O’Rourke president, Brian Savilonis vice president, Justin Kuo treasurer, Rich McElvery member-at-large, and Charlie Mansbach secretary. Members thanked club founder Tom Knatt for his 30 years as president, presented him with two inscribed cakes, and made plans to name a race in his honor.
The club voted to give $250 to Valia Vaitones, a 17-year-old walker from New Hampshire, to help her attend a race-walking training camp in Texas. The allocation is being made as part of the club’s mission to encourage and develop young walkers. The club will ask Valia to share her experiences on the NEW website. In addition to attracting young athletes we want to set a goal of getting at least 5 new club members this year from the Masters level athletes.
On the same theme of reaching out to more young athletes, we discussed putting our contact information on race-walking fliers that could be distributed at events and of supercharging our website and Facebook page to spread our message. We plan to have regular conference calls to discuss further steps. Ed suggested we have these meetings monthly and the mandatory club meetings quarterly. We want to develop some great ideas we can implement in promoting the sport ad the club.
We also will explore whether we could pique further interest by distributing appealing race-walking T-shirts. We will investigate the choices and prices.
After the national-level complications that prevented us from hosting the USA one-hour championships in 2013, we voted to tell our national representatives, Steve Vaitones and Justin Kuo, that we would be willing to host the national 5K, 10K, or one-hour championship in 2014.
The club listed these NE Grand Prix events for 2014:
1. Dartmouth Relays 1 mile
2. Eastern or NE Masters Indoor 3K
3. Greater Boston Track Club Indoor 3K
4. New England Indoor 3K
5. Pepperell Rail Trail 8K
6. Seacoast 5K, NE Outdoor 3K
7. Bay State Games 3K
8. Eastern Masters Outdoor 3K
Whatever local national championship we may wind up hosting, and the Connecticut 10K. Walkers may also include an out-of-town national championship.
Brian proposed regular club workouts on the rail trail in Groton, perhaps as an alternative to the often-sparsely attended races at Danehy Park in Cambridge. Ed said we need to create clusters where walkers can find us. More discussion will follow.
The meeting was hosted by Ed and Deborah O’Rourke. Also attending were Beth Katcher, Tom Knatt, Rich McElvery, Joanne and Bill Harriman, HIlary and Bob Keating, Ann Neuburg, Brian Savilonis, and Charlie Mansbach.
Charlie Mansbach, NEW Secretary
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