ESR Board Meeting

Tonight was a board meeting of my running club. I was dreading telling everybody about my relocation situation, but in the end everybody was supportive. Some even offered to help pick up the slack if I ran out of time to do things before the next event. Others joked that they would set me up to get married if that would make me stay. ;)

I'll be around for the next board meeting, in April. Later in April are two more club events: one is the Mt. Si Relay on April 17th, and the other is the club general meeting on April 25th. The general meeting falls under my responsibility, as social chair. We decided to have a general "get to know each other" type of meeting, rather than bring in a speaker. Attendance is variable at the speaker meetings, and we think that is because people see what the topic is, decide they aren't interested, and then don't attend. This time, we'll just have some food and snacks, and let people mingle. The Boston Marathon is the previous Monday, so that will be an easy topic of conversation, especially since we have several members participating. We are also thinking of showing slides or pictures from other races and events, in the background.

I'll try to stay for the relay. My friend Jen would like to form a team, so if that comes together, I'll participate. Otherwise, I'll volunteer at it. What isn't so certain is if I can delay long enough for the general meeting. I'd like to, as a way to wind down my involvement in the club, but it depends on the timeline I work out for relocation. I'll know more about that soon.

I've really enjoyed being on the board of this club. Everyone is fun to work with, and there are enough people involved that nobody is overwhelmed. Participation in other clubs I'm in is sometimes lacking, which eventually wears down the enjoyment of helping out, but that isn't a problem here. It is enjoyable even handling the minutae of running a club: checking on the status of various payments, club membership, altering the annual membership fees, club clothing purchases, other events, and just general topics on marketing the club and putting together activities... I've had a great time with it all.

Before I was on the board, I was involved in the triathlete subgroup of the club. Most everybody there was very new - for example, I was one of the more experienced triathletes! - and through that I met a bunch of others and wound up helping to form the ESR Tri Yahoo! Group. This is the sort of thing I'll have to be on the lookout for after I move to Florida - getting involved in activites I like, meeting others, etc.

Karen, the President, had some good news about real estate. She said that inventory is very low right now, so it is a seller's market. Many homes wind up in bidding wars - this of course doesn't mean mine will, but on average this is a good time to sell. The theory on this is that interest rates are so low, everybody refinanced and locked in a low rate. Thus, people are sitting tight, not wanting to sell their home. This is slowing down the usual turnover and as a result, not many homes are on the market. She said most of her recent business has been with pre-sales (new home sales), some of which won't be ready for occupancy for 9 or more months!