Minutes of the New England Walkers Annual Meeting
Sunday, October 13, 2012
Groton MA
New England Walkers members pledged support for the 2013 US-Canada Junior Racewalking meet, reelected officers, and heard a request for a new president to come forward next year during the club’s annual meeting Oct. 14.
Members reelected Tom Knatt as president, Ed O’Rourke as vice president, Justin Kuo as treasurer, Brian Savilonis as member at large and Charlie Mansbach as recording secretary. Upon reelection, Tom said his tenure as president has now reached 31 years and he would like someone else to step into the role a year from now.
Steve Vaitones furnished details of the US-Canada races, which will be held in late July or early August at the same East Boston site that was used for the 2011 event. The meet will mark the 25th anniversary of the series and may be broadened to include participants from other nations. He asked that NEW members help organize, promote, and conduct the races and take part in an all-comers race. Club members voted to set aside $500 to support the match.
Members also voted to allocate $200 to streamline and personalize the Jeff Salvage racewalking flier, adding information about our club and distributing it at races.
Steve, Ed, and Brian talked about updating our newalkers.com website and our NEwalkers page on Facebook and asked that members offer thoughts on what is most needed to make the sites more effective. Bill said he would post information on upcoming races.
Charlie raised the question of whether to change our Grand Prix, which has grown to include more than a dozen events, most of them short, without creating a discernible increase in participation. Steve suggested an alternative of setting up a shorter series of races for walkers to complete during the year — perhaps a 3K, 5K, 8K and 10K. Members’ thoughts are invited.
Steve told the gathering that the One-Hour National Championships will be moved to the spring next year — somewhere between late April and the end of May — because the national calendar is being revamped. The location is uncertain; if the Bentley track is unavailable, we will look elsewhere.
Those attending the meeting were Tom Knatt, Annie Montgomery, Bob and Hilary Keating, Bill and Joanne Harriman, Brian Savilonis and Ann Neuburg, Steve Vaitones, Ed O’Rourke, Bob Ullman and Charlie Mansbach. The meeting was held at Ed’s house in Groton, MA, preceded by the traditional untimed and unmeasured walks of the Groton rail trail and the traditional potluck lunch.
Charlie Mansbach
