by Amber Wipfler
DSE held its annual General Membership Meeting on August 9, 2015, at the Presidio Sports Basement. We had a fantastic turnout, and the DSE Board would like to thank all the attendees for their excellent ideas and input. In fact, it was such a great experience that we’ll be doing it again in the not too distant future—several members requested that we hold general meetings more frequently, and the Board is committed to make that happen. In the meantime, here is a rundown of some of the topics we discussed:
- Treasure’s Report: Despite an approximately 15% drop in race registrations this year, our club is financially healthy and solidly in the black. The Double Dipsea remains our most profitable event, bringing in approximately $8,000 this past June. To offset the decreased revenue from our Sunday races, we are looking for small tweaks that will cut down on costs—for example, slight course modifications can result in lower permit fees.
- Membership Report: DSE memberships have leveled out in 2015, after 5% annual growth for the past few years. We are looking into the possibility of auto-renewals and multi-year memberships, as well as the option to pre-purchase a block (or even a year’s worth) of races.
- Double Dipsea: We did not have enough DSE volunteers at the 2015 Double Dipsea, and the assignment of volunteer positions did not go as smoothly as we had hoped. To remedy this, we plan to begin recruitment for Double Dipsea 2016 volunteers at a much earlier point, and we hope to return to our old system of having a captain for each aid station/checkpoint assigned ahead of time to help with recruitment.
- Code of Conduct/Stroller Policy: We presented the new DSE Code of Conduct and a draft of our Stroller Policy for consideration, and received a lot of great input from our members. We are revising the policies to reflect certain member suggestions, and will post drafts for members to review within the next few weeks.
- Open Discussion: The most fun part of any general membership meeting is hearing from our members! Per our members’ suggestions, here are some things the DSE Board is looking into implementing in the near future:
- Online form to submit candidates for the Eco Awards presented at the Gala
- Way to donate those old race medals and trophies to a good cause
- Subcommittee focused on DSE’s charitable giving
- Improved first aid kit and race director resources
- New DSE merchandise to celebrate our club’s 50th Anniversary
- More frequent General Membership meetings
Those who attended the meeting have the Board’s sincerest thanks. For those who couldn’t make it, please be sure to make your voice heard by e-mailing a member of the DSE Board. You can find our contact information at https://dserunners.com/about-us/officers/, and we always want to hear your comments and suggestions.