The meeting went quite well and the Sicilian Pizzas from Piccola Italia were wonderful – the best pizza in Raleigh, actually the best pizza I’ve ever had. The deserts were some excellent cookies and a Key Lime Pie.
Calendar: We got the following commitments for the season’s final events; Sept. 11 Mihai will get permissions and run registration, and Josef will design and set the courses; Oct. 23, Bill will run registration, Artem will design the courses, and Bill, Mihai and Josef will set the controls; Dec. 11, Joseph and Ruth will direct the event.
Bubba Goat: The November 6 event is now the Bubba Goat. This is still a “Regular” event in that everyone is welcome and we will have a White and Yellow course for beginners as well as a beginners class. The format for the Orange and advanced courses is slightly different. There is a mass start with a long course for the Bubba Goat, and a shorter subset, the Pigmy Goat. The difficulty is at the Orange level, and you are allowed to skip one control. Following is permitted. We will have commemorative shirts, and a contest for the best “Goat” costume with a prize for the winner. Advanced registration will be required for the “Goat” part of the event, and there will be an increased entry fee with a discount for members. (So this isn’t a free event for members if you are running the Goat event.) There will be a registration page soon with all the details.
“A” meet this spring, possibly a US Champs: We are planning to bid for the US Champs on our new Birkhead Map for March 9-11, 2012. We will work on the logistics and permissions and make a final decision as soon as possible.
Equipment: We are going to purchase some additional control boxes to replace the ones we have lost. While they are expensive (about $100 each) we have only lost 2 in the 3.5 years we have been using them. We will also update the website where we sell the Finger Sticks to clarify that we don’t send them, but only deliver them at our events. We are looking into possibly getting a map printer that we can take to the events in case we are short of maps. We confirmed that the batteries on the regular controls are in good shape and should last longer than the 7 years they are expected to last. The only batteries needing replacement were the result of a software error that prevented them from sleeping, and the Print and Clear box that were used at every event.
Charles Scharlau showed off an app he wrote for the IPad that layers our maps over the “Open Streets” map and shows where you are in real time. It is a work in progress and not available at this time.
Annual Meeting Date: We have set our annual meeting for October 12, 2011. Where at the very least we will elect directors and set the 2012 schedule.