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Reply to "Kevin Lucas' Proposed Amendment"

Kevin Lucas proposed a wide sweeping change for the USA road running community. I commend Kevin on his comments, ideas and his defense. While some of his ideas warrant consideration, I do not believe it is necessary to restructure the current Road Running Technical Council into a committee similar to the Officials Committee.

Given the current state of the USATF associations, I do not believe most associations will be capable or willing to undertake the enormous task of training, measuring and certifying road courses. Moreover, I cannot image that requiring the RRTC to add 57 new members would result in a worthy increase in the number of quality measurers. That can only be accomplished by promoting, training and getting the word out on what a measurer does and why courses need to be certified. There are several folks in the running and track community (including some in the upper ranks) that have little or no idea what the RRTC does. It may be worthwhile to approach the LDR sports committees at the annual meeting and present what the RRTC does. We may get a few folks interested enough to eventually become measurers.

The national office has taken on the big task of publishing and making available the huge volume of maps and certificates that previously sat in file cabinets and floppy disks. Currently, there's just one full time information systems employee and one intern. That will likely change when the USATF membership costs increase in 2007. In the meantime, it will take some time to speed up the process of getting the courses online. We can start by suggesting ways to speed up the process on the measurers and certifiers end. For example, the measurement certificate itself, can be made electronic and the data either automatically posted online, or prepared for posting online. Maps may be scanned by the measurer, certifier, reviewer, etc., submitted electronically, or may be added later.

The newsletter is important and serves as a permanent record on RRTC activities. That newsletter, however, has merged with the electronic age. In the past, the newsletter was the sole source of information. Although, it's distribution was limited, it got a lot of attention and resources. Nowadays, the newsletter is just one of several sources of information. With the addition of the bulletin board, email, MFN subscription list and the web site, anyone can access information about the measurement process.

I do agree that the RRTC annual meetings need to be held together with the USATF National Annual meeting in December. Scheduling the RRTC meetings away from the national meetings was a cost cutting measure and may have had a better attendance, but it also distanced the RRTC from the running community. The RRTC does have one meeting planned at the 2005 USATF National Annual meeting. We'll meet on Saturday, December 3, 2005, 8:30 am to 12:30 am.

All of the changes and suggestions Kevin proposed may be implemented without restructuring the RRTC. If voted on at the annual meeting, I do not think Kevin's amendment will pass but do hope Kevin will be able to push some if his ideas and work within the RRTC community to implement those ideas.

Sincerely,

Justin Kuo
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