Hi Rich,

Thanks for your work on the club. I really like your
ideas here. I would like to help out with the camp.
Let me know what I could do or what you need. The 8K
race in Blaine is on a great new course. We have a
sponsor who is giving $1000 to make this race take
off. It will give our club great exposure and the
proceeds will benefit the Alexandra House in Blaine.

Thanks,

Dan Hauck
--- Rich Friedeman <rich.friedeman@...> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I know things have been quite for a while, but with
> spring in the air (it
> was actually above freezing when I got out of bed!),
> I figured some info was
> in order.
>
>
>
> I got responses from a number of folks to my
> December questionnaire about
> what club activities folks are interested in. The
> responses were a little
> surprising, but very helpful in figuring out what
> the club is going to try
> to be this year.
>
>
>
> Last season, I think we tried to do too many things,
> and ended up with what
> I saw as an annoying level of "OK, who wants to do
> this?" messages going out
> too frequently. This season, I think for big club
> activities, we're going
> to be better off focusing on a small number of
> things. Right now, my
> thoughts are:
>
>
>
> 1) The spring camp for new(ish) triathletes,
> some time in late April
> or early May
>
> 2) Support for the Blaine Blazing 8k on 4th of
> July weekend (sorry,
> Dan, if I butchered the name)
>
>
>
> This first of these is what has brought most people
> into the club, is a lot
> of fun to do, and I think is a very valuable event.
> The second is a pretty
> amazing race that one of the club's founders, Dan
> Hauck, has been producing
> for the past few years, and has been growing by
> leaps and bounds.
>
>
>
> I'm also thinking, as the club changes, that a
> significant change in the
> membership structure is in order (based on both my
> experience with the club
> and your responses to the questionnaire). Our dues
> have been going up for
> some time now, as we kept trying to do more and
> more, but the level of
> service the members got wasn't going up in line with
> the dues (as I saw
> things, anyway). So I've been considering the idea
> of converting the club
> to a free, opt-in organization. You want to be a
> member, sign up on the
> list and you're in. There may be a form or two that
> a sponsor requires, and
> I'll have to move our waiver of liability to the
> list subscription, but it
> really streamlines things.
>
>
>
> The benefits of membership, then, are access to
> whatever sponsorship
> programs exist (still working on those for '07) and
> communication with the
> club - email, public calendar, and a forum for
> likeminded folks of varying
> experience levels to bond with, bounce ideas off of,
> find training partners,
> etc. Club swag (t-shirts, singlets, swim caps,
> etc.) would be available for
> purchase, and may or may not be required for any
> particular sponsor's
> program (again, still working on it, but, for
> example, Erik's required you
> to race in the TC Tri/Erik's singlet for discounts
> last season). That
> allows each member to set their own level of
> involvement, their own level of
> cost ($0 to as high as you want to go), and the
> level of camaraderie they
> desire.
>
>
>
> The camp, then, instead of being free to members,
> would have a cost
> associated with it (as it costs some money to
> produce), but it sticks with
> the self-selecting mode that seems pretty
> attractive.
>
>
>
> So, my questions are:
>
> 1) Are these two events things that people are
> interested in seeing
> supported? Who would come to the camp? Who might
> volunteer for the race?
>
> 2) Is this membership/fee model attractive to
> you?
>
> 3) Is there any particular program or sponsor
> availability that would
> put you over the edge (either for or against) the
> club?
>
>
>
> Let me know what you think,
>
> Rich
>
>




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