The end of the year is already upon us! Evidence of winter was obvious last Wednesday when runners were urging Todd to hurry up AND ran in packs (because the wind was SO-O cold!).
Another hallmark of the end of the year is the Christmas Party on December 9th,, from 6:30pm on. Kim Garman and her husband John are hosting the party. The Garman’s house is 3102 Lees in Long Beach (Drive North on Studebaker, cross Spring, make the first right, go one block to Lees.) You are welcome to bring food or drink; call Kim at (562) 429-3502 to see if she needs anything specific. Hope to see you there!
Board Meeting. On November 29th, we held our 4th meeting of the year. Topics included the budget, club gear, membership renewals. website and upcoming events/runs.
Financially speaking, AREC is doing well. Prior to reestablishing the club in 2000, we were nearly at zero in our bank account with no source of income whatsoever. In 2006, membership grew to 160 members (up from 20 in 2000); we even had a discussion about how the club is a fun, diverse group of people.
Due to our good fortune, we are able to leave membership at $25/year ($40/family). The club giveaway this year will be a Technical Fabric Hat with the AREC logo on the front. We are also looking to order some singlets (from comments that members don’t like running in the shirts), which will be available for purchase.
Membership (as mentioned above) runs January 1 through December 31. If you joined for the first time after the marathon, we have already applied your membership to 2007. Otherwise, we are starting to take membership and renewals starting in December. Renewing members have pre-printed forms, which are available at the Wednesday runs or can be requested (PDF format) by e-mail and mailed in. We are hoping for a goal of most renewals by the end of January, to prevent a large drop-off from the e-mail list February 1st. To that end, a suggestion of…
Gift Membership was suggested. Why not give the gift of AREC membership to a family member or friend? AREC will provide a personalized gift card and the right size AREC gear (if they are new, we still have some T-shirts!). If your gift is for someone at the same mailing address, you can pay the extra $15 to make it a FAMILY membership.
Website Updates. I am working towards making the AREC website a little less static (but not too many bells and whistles – we still want a quick upload). Already, there are quick links at the top and details about upcoming AREC Bonus Races, favorite links, Statistics, and so on. If you have any ideas, please forward them to me… or if you have advanced technical skills in website production and would like to help, contact me.
Runs/Events. For 2007, we would like to organize some more events. These don’t all have to be running-related, though that is our central theme here. For example, I would like to have a team (or teams) do the Tahoe Relays in mid-June. Cost for the relay is $200/team (7 people, 10 miles each), plus transportation and accomodation (we may know people with lodging in the area). We have also been looking into doing a winetasting event, but essentially, we are open to whatever activities members are interested in. It was also suggested to me to add a e-mail list for “other AREC activities,” though I am not certain that this should be a separate list. Again, just talk to anyone on the board, because the better input, the more fun we can have!
Trail running. Mark Fell began a trail running group on Saturday mornings, meeting at Joe’s Crab Shack at 6:45, and driving to various trailheads (usually 20-50 miles away) and running. The goal is the Catalina Half Marathon in February or any other trail race that you would like to prepare for. One big difference in trail running/racing is that you have to concentrate more and your times tend to be slower… but the scenery is usually a lot more interesting. If you are not already on the list, you can ask me to be added or contact Mark Fell at markfell@charter.net for more information.