The FLRC Board of Directors will be having its monthly meeting on Wednesday, January 11th, at 6:30 PM via Zoom. All our meetings are open to the public, so if you’d like to attend, email board-meeting@fingerlakesrunners.org to receive the Zoom connection details via auto-reply. If you’ve previously requested the Zoom link, get it again since it’s new this year. If you’d like to bring a matter before the board, let me know, and we can discuss adding it to the meeting agenda.
Our board meetings revolve around updates on club and committee activities, including a report on the club’s financial activity and position from the Finance Committee and coverage of recent past and near future races from the Race Committee.
I open each board meeting with a quick acknowledgment of those who have gone above and beyond in volunteering for the club in the past month. To give credit where credit is due in public, I’d like to thank Sarah Drumheller for directing the Winter Chill 5K Series, the first race of which was the third-largest ever. I’d also like to thank Kate McCormick, who has been leading the little kid workouts during our Tuesday night MITHACAL MILERS workouts and helping wrangle the middle-school runners she helps coach at Ithaca High School.
This month’s meeting is the first for our new board members, who were approved unanimously by the 101 FLRC members who voted in our recent election and runner survey. We’ll share more results from the survey in the future, but we also wanted to congratulate the winners of our random drawing for free entry into all 2023 FLRC races (other than Finger Lakes 50s): Art Weaver, Malte Ziewitz, and Jules Johnson!
For 2023, the members of FLRC’s Board of Directors are:
- Mike Allinger: Mike serves as the Newfield Town Supervisor, along with helping out on the board and FLRC’s Finance Committee.
- Heather Cobb: Ultramarathoner Heather Cobb coordinates FLRC’s regular group runs, is a stalwart on the Communications Team, and tirelessly advocates for runners of all paces on various other board committees.
- Amy Dawson: An educator in Trumansburg who also makes custom cakes for Emoticakes, Amy was one of the top runners in the FLRC Challenge and just completed the Philadelphia Marathon.
- Scott Dawson: Scott works remotely as a user experience designer; he was third in the FLRC Challenge Most Miles competition and just finished the Philadelphia Marathon.
- Adam Engst (President): Adam times races, coaches MITHACAL MILERS workouts, captains the High Noon cross-country team, wrangles FLRC’s tech, coordinates the FLRC Challenge, directs the club’s track meets and the Hartshorne Masters Mile, and has taken over Skunk this year.
- Tonya Engst: Tonya captains the FLRC women’s cross-country team, chairs the Communications Team, and provides a sounding board for Adam’s crazy ideas.
- Charlie Fay (Treasurer): Along with the essential job of managing FLRC’s finances, Charlie designs and coordinates FLRC’s local PGXC race each season.
- Ian Golden: One of the best-known figures in the local running scene, Ian is the owner of the Finger Lakes Running Company and director of races for Red Newt Racing—his experience informs many of the club’s Race Committee decisions.
- Diana Hackett: Diana is a librarian at Cornell and joined FLRC’s cross-country team after completing the FLRC Challenge this summer.
- Amelia Kaufman: One of the top ultramarathoners in the area, Amelia is a graphic designer who also works at the Finger Lakes Running Company, helping local runners find the right shoes.
- Pete Kresock: Pete Kresock has served on the FLRC board since 2017, directs the Danby Down & Dirty trail race, is part of various club committees, and assists with FLRC’s website. When he’s not chasing after his toddler twins he enjoys running long distances—mostly off-road—and works as an x-ray tech.
- Tim Logue: Trail runner Tim Logue is the Director of Engineering Services for the City of Ithaca and a strong supporter of building more trails in our area.
- Bethany Schiller: Beloved by local kid runners, Bethany coaches the Ithaca Youth Bureau’s track and cross-country programs while working at Cornell and training for her own races.
- Jeney Wierman: After a stint away from Ithaca, Jeney returned last summer for a permanent job at Cornell and to renew her acquaintance with her favorite trail runs.
Also, we’d like to welcome some new race directors.
-
Kris Haines-Sharp and Gill Haines-Sharp have taken over the Twilight 5K, which will return to the marina at Allan H. Treman State Park with a 7 PM start on June 14th.
-
Laurel Gilmer and Kristina Harrison have taken over the Tortoise & Hare Trail Run, which has moved to a new date on Saturday, July 29th.
-
Nancy Kleinrock, Steve Vanek, and Steve Shaum have taken over (and renamed) the Two Hollows Monster Marathon and Half Marathon, which returns to its Labor Day weekend date and explores some new-to-FLRC trails in Kennedy State Forest in Virgil.
Finally, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank our outgoing board members and race directors:
- Mickie Sanders-Jauquet has stepped down from the board and as race director of Twilight and Tortoise in part due to her responsibilities on the RRCA Board of Directors, but she remains the chair of FLRC’s Philanthropy Committee and our Merchandise Manager.
- Nancy Kleinrock and Steve Shaum have stepped down from the board after many years of service to the club in a wide variety of positions, but they’re applying their experience to revitalizing Monster.
- Charlie Trautmann has stepped down from the board to write a book after leading our Governance Committee’s efforts to update our bylaws and create formal policies.
- Bill Watson has stepped down from the board to accept a new position at Harvard after serving as FLRC’s secretary and bringing his legal expertise to the Governance Committee and Communications Team.
- Dave Kania has stepped down from directing Monster but remains a race director of Super Frosty Loomis and a member of the Timing Team.
Thanks to one and all!
