Minutes of 2019 RRTC Meeting (December 7, 2019)

Attendees

David Katz

Justin Kuo

Jane Parks

Andy Carr

Ric Wilson

Jim Gilmer

Kevin Becker

Ron Scardera

Mike Scott

Phil Stewart

Christo Landry

Todd Byers

June Sterling

Robert Platt

Teren Jameson

Registrar report

Jane stated that she no longer had the ability to create reports in our new on-line system. As a result there are no statistics to report for 2019. She said that she hoped to have that capability in the next version of the program.

West Vice Chair report

Jane Parks introduced the Western Region Certifiers attending the meeting: Ric Wilson from Alaska and Ron Scadera from California.

East Vice Chair report

2019 Special Service Award

Jim Gilmer, Kevin Becker, Josh Merlis, Kyle Farmer, and Larry Galluzzo for online certification system

Online certification system

Jim Gilmer reviewed the history of the project to create a new online certification system. Version 2 may be targeted for June 2020 and release by the end of summer.

Plan to get team together to determine what features will be included in version 2.

Best Practice for measuring cross country courses

Members from the USATF XC Committee have been tasked with providing a best practice for measuring cross country courses. This will not result in cross country courses being USATF certified, but will hopefully result in cross country courses of more accurate length.

Ted Corbitt Awards

Scott Hubbard

Ron Scardera

Bios will be put on RRTC and USATF websites

Verification Report

Andy Carr distributed a list of the courses with their verification status.

Mark Neal mentioned that the Fifth Third 25k where an American Open record was set in 2019 was not on the list. Andy agreed that it should have been on the list, but since it was pre-verified nothing more needs to be done with it.

A future meeting with Mike Wickiser (not present at the meeting) will be set up to review protocols for verification.

Website Update

Mark Neal stated that USATF has done a major redesign of their website. Mark said that with this new website design and maintenance system, he no longer has any ability to edit the RRTC sections of the website.

Several things related to RRTC information is missing or incorrect on the new redesigned website. Mark plans to send a note to the USATF webmaster with a list of those items and request for changes/additions. While waiting for those changes to be completed Mark suggested that he can include that missing information on the RRTC website.

Strategic Planning

Zack Raubuck our USATF liaison led a discussion on Strategic Planning:

All committees are being asked to complete a worksheet about the future planning. This includes a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis.

Ric Wilson said one strength of the RRTC is that we have a good process for course measurement and certification that is easy to teach

Robert Platt said one weakness is that many people don’t care that much about course accuracy

David said quality control is a problem for us. Several courses failed validation over the past year. He also said we have some measurers who make poor maps. Finding new measurers who stay with it is also an issue.

Jim Gilmer suggested an apprenticeship for new measurers.

Ric said he would like to see the whole submission system simpler. Some people are willing to do the measurement but don’t like the hassle of submitting for submission.

There was much talk about trying to generate interest among runners for certified courses.

Todd Byers said getting involved with running groups and writing articles about certification for their newsletter is something that he has done that has generated interest and appreciation for course certification in his area.

Mark Neal suggested we have a brain-storming session for what we can do to generate more demand for certification.

The consensus on what would constitute success:

● Showing an increase in course certifications year over year.

● Increasing percentage of sanctioned courses that are certified

● Reducing number of verification failures

● Increasing number of measurers who do more than a single course

Budget

David Katz stated that we are still within our budget for 2019. Zack said the 2020 budget should be similar to the 2019 budget. David said expenditures for 2020 will include a clinic for creating new A and B measurers, travel expenses to send A and B candidates to measure with existing A and B’s, and the V2 update to the online certification system.

IAAF / World Athletics

IAAF Changed their name to World Athletics on November 1, 2019.

Eliminated all their committees and established new ones.

Established a ranking system for road athletes. The only race results that will be used is for performances on IAAF/World Athletics certified courses.

We are in the process of getting new IAAF A and B measurers in order to create more World Athletics certified courses in the U.S.

Olympic Trials

Multiple World Athletics A and B measurers will be asked to come to the Trials and be in charge of overseeing the setup of sections of the course.

2021 World Championships

Jane Parks has been nominated as the lead measurer for the Marathon. If she is selected she will be the first female lead measurer for an international championship event.

Jones Counter Update

Sales have been brisk and the business has been profitable and doing well.

Electronic Jones Counter

A new counter device that is expected to be much less expensive that the current JR Counter was introduced at the meeting. The new device still installs on the hub of the front wheel of the bicycle and turns mechanically with the front wheel. However, the Veeder Root counter of the old JR device has been replaced with a much less expensive optical encoder to count the wheel revolutions. A prototype was shown at the meeting. Multiple prototypes will be available for testing in the summer.

Measuring Contest

The results of the “pacing” contest were announced.

The true distance of the course was 441.75 meters.

1^st Place: Jane Parks (432.0 meters)

2^nd Place: June Sterling (415.2 meters)

3^rd Place: Christo Landry (415.0 meters)

Map Requirements

Jane Parks presented her proposal for map requirements document.

Several comments were made, and Jane said she would update the document based on the comments.

Jane will schedule a teleconference in mid January to finalize the document.

Course Configurations

We will follow World Athletics lead on this and have Loop, Point-to-point and Out-and-back. A “Loop” will mean a completely closed loop.