The next PNTF Board Meeting will be April 21, 2008 at the Seattle Parks and recreation Building, 100 Dexter Ave. North in Seattle. If you no longer wish to receive this, please e-mail me or phone 206-433-8868 to be removed.

Minutes of the PNTF Board Meeting of February 18, 2008

President Patti Petesch called the meeting to order in the Board Room of the Seattle Parks and Recreation Headquarters Building at 7:00 p.m. Those present were: Patti Petesch, Carole Langenbach, Bob Springer, Char Engelhardt, Asha Dean, George Mathews, Bill Hickman, Neal Stoddard, Kenny Emerick, Kwajalein Griffin, and Bob Langenbach.

  1. EXECUTIVE REPORTS
    1. Minutes: Bill Roe sent an e-mail correcting January 2008 minutes. He was prepared to give his BoD and Association Committee reports, but due to the lateness of the evening which might prevent him from reaching the airport for a red-eye to Indianapolis, he decided not to present anything. It was moved and seconded that the minutes be approved as corrected. The motion passed unanimously. Note: The minutes for the last several years are posted on the PNTF web site, www.pntf.org.
    2. Treasurer's Report: Gwen Robertson was not present, but had prepared and faxed her report to Carole to distribute. The report was approved unanimously. The totals as of January 18, 2008 were Youth - $16,884.18; Open - $7,630.30; Open Chairman's Fund -- $3856.00; Masters - $9,916.68; General (officials) - $1,112.56; Fred Dean Youth Travel Fund -- $7,021.92; and General - $20,707.93.
    3. President's Report: President Patti Petesch said the Seattle Officials class was good. There were 10 students.
    4. Vice President's Report: Char Engelhardt had no report.
    5. Membership Report: Janell Kaufman had not responded to Carole's request for the counts.
    6. Office Manager: Carole Langenbach had brought the IRS material for Doug Chandler to aid him in the PNTF Tax report.
  2. OLD BUSINESS
    1. Fred Dean Youth Travel Fund: Patti Petesch said the committee took money out of the fund to pay in advance for the costs of the Fred Dean Memorial Golf Tournament to be held April 25th at Newcastle Golf Course. Asha Dean is sending out invitations to it. The Committee is trying to get Sonny Sixkiller and Warren Moon to be celebrity guests.
    2. PNTF Annual Banquet: Char announced that Doris Heritage received the Ken Foreman Contributor Award. It was a great event at the Best Western River's Edge in Tukwila, in spite of several problems: 1. The caterer ran out of food, but did bring in more after everyone had been seated for the speaker; and 2. The PA system did not work, but they removed that charge. There was plenty of close free parking. Char asked if there were suggestions about holding it elsewhere. Carole said that four open and 22 masters athletes had their way paid. It was suggested that the banquet be moved to Saturday instead of Friday. Patti Petesch mentioned that Bill Roe would like to have the PNTF Awards Banquet and the PNTF Officials Association Banquet held together. Some one suggested that the banquet be held at South Seattle Community College. Their Culinary School prepares great meals and has a banquet room. Secretary's Note: Remember this as a possibility for next year.
    3. GNAC T&F and XC Championships: Doris Heritage had mentioned to Bob Langenbach and Bob Springer that the GNAC wanted SPU to hold those championships in 2009 and 2010. However, she was at the GNAC Indoor Meet in Boise, and would bring more information to present to the PNTF at the March Meeting.
    4. Washington Games: Patti read an e-mail from Ralph Morton asking about incorporating a few events at the Masters Championships and at the Youth AAU Meet of July 12th. He also mentioned a few other options. Patti said that the Youth Committee had voted to not sponsor his events, except at a good Youth meet. Patti said the concern of the Youth Committee is that the Youth schedule is already really full. This includes the JO and Hershey meets that lead to Nationals. The AAU Meet and JO Regional Meet are on the same weekend. Ralph Morton can't expect to get good officiating as the Rainier Beach personnel that did the AAU Meet last year will be in Spokane at the Regionals. Darlene suggested that a 100, SP, and LJ be added to the Masters meet. Asha said that when she was in Arizona they ran the State Games well. Youth, Masters, and Open were all in the same meet. The meet ran from 8 a.m. to noon, and then 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Carole mentioned that Ralph Morton's e-mail was concerned about childhood obesity, so maybe the AAU Meet would be better as the top Youth athletes would be in Spokane at the JO Regional. George said Ralph sold his sponsors on the obesity bit. He read the e-mail Ralph sent to Darlene. He proposed that preliminaries be held in the LJ, TJ, and SP on Friday at the Seattle Classic with the finals on Saturday. There was a lot of discussion about this and whether any events should be given to Ralph. Patti said Ralph tried to get Seattle Parks and Recreation and Scott McCoubry (Seattle Running Company) to help last year, but tried to push them too much, so both entities backed out. At this point, George moved to have Ralph Morton approach Bill Roe about inserting events into the All Comers meet series, as PNTF cannot support any of the dates he has asked for. Carole seconded the motion, and it was approved unanimously.
    5. Reimbursement to PNTF from USATF for Association Workshop: Patti said Sherry Quack at the National Office had found the bills PNTF submitted and PNTF will be reimbursed shortly.
  3. NEW BUSINESS
    1. Hytek License: George brought up that we have old software from Hytek that needs updating. Kenny explained we have partial licenses for Youth and Masters and Seattle U. George proposed we obtain an "Organizational" license from Hytek which allows us to use it for 10 Championship Meets at a cost of $250 per year. After some talk and explanations, Bob Springer moved that PNTF purchase a Hytek version 2.0 "Organizational" license and shift it from Youth, pending Youth approval. PNTF will pay for the upgrade and license and any additional expenses to implement the new license. Seconded and passed unanimously.
    2. Pacific Association Grievance against USATF: USATF awarded the 2008 Eugene Olympic Trials to the Oregon Association, and then subsequently the 2012 Trials and 2009, 2010 and 2011 National Championships without a competitive bid, and Pacific has filed a grievance.
  4. COMMITTEE REPORTS
    1. Youth: Doug Chandler was not present. Kenny Emerick said Drew Stevik had been chosen as Youth Contributor. He also said that the Combined Events for 14 and under athletes on Saturday June 28th may be shifted from to Sunday June 29th to avoid conflict with the Hershey meet. He also noted that the Youth Committee had significant discussion about the Washington Games.
    2. Open: Tom Cotner was not present, but it was announced that Open had awarded a special award to Brad Walker, and the PNTF athletes of the year were Ryan Brown and Jessica Pixler in track, and Chris Randolph and Ashlee in field.
    3. Masters: George Mathews said he was doing preparation work for the Spring Fling on April 26th and for the Seattle Classic, which includes the PNTF and NW Regional Masters Championships, on July 19-20. Neal announced that he and Carole determined the 2007 Masters Road Champions. The Road Championship events have not been set for 2008 yet.
    4. RaceWalk: Stan Chraminski was not present, but had submitted a report. The March 22nd Spring Break Meet will have unjudged/lightly judged 3k RW. The Oregon RWers are holding several RW judging sessions in conjunction with Level I and Level II Officials Clinics in late February and March.
    5. Officials:
      1. PNTFOA: Kenny said the officials had no Board meeting in February. The PNTFOA Annual Meeting and Awards Banquet was held on January 26th. Bob Springer, Carole Langenbach, and Mick Holt were re-elected as Board Members at the Annual Meeting.
      2. Certification and Training: Bill Hickman announced that there were 10 members at the February 9th Clinic in Seattle. The first 4-hour session of the Clinic was held on February 11 in Tacoma. The next session is scheduled for February 25th. Bob Sund received PNTF's Mary Reardon Official of the Year Award at the Annual Meeting. He had also been selected by the Washington State Track & Field Coaches Association as the 2007 Official of the Year! At the USATF National Meeting, Darlene Hickman received an "Andy" which is awarded to the 10 finalists for the Andy Bakjian National Official of the Year Award. Outstanding Service Awards were given to Gerald Ley, Susan Greenwood, Lane Dowell, and Gerald Hurd from the National Track and Field Officials Committee. Bill also commented on PNTF's recent successes partly because of the excellent officiating in this association. PNTF athletes won 20 major championships in the last two years, an unprecedented total for PNTF. There were ZERO in 2000, 2 in 2001, 1 each in 2002 and 2003, 4 in 2004, 6 in 2005 and 2006, and 14 in 2007. Last year PNTF athletes won 1 World Championship, 2 Pan Am Championships, 5 USATF Championships, 1 NCAA Division I and 5 NCAA Division II Championships. Moreover, two of our athletes, World Champion pole vaulter Brad Walker and ultra-runner Greg Crowther won major post-season awards as the best in their fields. Bob Springer chimed in and said that many coaches at the UW Dempsey meets have complimented the officials on the officiating the athletes receive.
    6. Web Site: Bob Springer said it is up to date. He also said that web master Mark Alexander had asked to step aside. The Web Committee quickly met and decided to ask Becca Gillespy to take over. She has accepted the job at the same compensation that Mark received. Many thanks go to Mark for the extensive reworking of the site.
    7. Associations Committee: Bill Roe was not present, but had submitted a report by e-mail. He apologized for not being here, but is home for only the 2nd time this month, and for less than 36 hours before he must return to Indianapolis. There is no real Association news. The workshop is August 22-24 in Indianapolis. The RCA Dome is being demolished, so USATF is evacuating on April 4th and moving to new offices at 312 Washington St. on April 7th.
    8. USATF BoD: Bill Roe's e-mail report said there will be a board meeting at the USATF Indoor Championships this weekend. The persons comprising the search committee to replace CEO Craig Masback have been selected, finally. It was difficult as several Board members are opposed to one or more of the search committee. Significant is that no USATF Board members are on the committee, and that's a source of the controversy that hindered the quick formation of the search committee.

The next meeting will be at Seattle Parks Headquarters on April 21st, as the 3rd Monday in March is the 17th, St. Patrick's Day. If any business is required, there will be sufficient board members at the Hickman party.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:37 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Bob Langenbach
PNTF Secretary