A Message from the Flyers President

Doug R

It is a great honor to be elected President of the NY Flyers, even if my election competition was limited to “none of the above” and an aggressive write-in campaign from a tall, green, metallic lightpost known as “E7210.” While the Election Committee scrupulously prohibits the release of exact numeric results, it would seem from the committee’s declaration of my victory that I won at least a narrow plurality of the votes cast and will now be serving as your President in 2015. Sorry, E7210.

In taking office, I am blessed with an able, enthusiastic and collegial Executive Board and a thoughtful, supportive Advisory Board. Their skills and insights made my decision to adopt a consensual, committee-based approach to governance of the team a very easy and so far very successful one. We work together as a team and, while we may not always agree on every matter, we have candid and respectful discussion and debate on key issues facing the team.

As I look forward to the coming year, I have a few key priorities and initiatives:

1. Implement an inclusive decision-making approach both within the Board and with the membership. No one has a monopoly on good ideas and it is important that everyone, both board members and members, feels comfortable bringing forward items for thoughtful, respectful discussion and evaluation. Our decisions as a Board are made after appropriate amounts of discussion, concluding with an Executive Board vote where majority rules.

2. An emphasis on running events where our scale, skill and resources allow us to provide a valuable, unique offering to our members. The team’s Three Bridges runs have always been one of the most successful events that we do and are particularly successful in attracting new members. As a Board, we have decided to build on the success of Three Bridges by initiating a Flyers Long Training Run Series each month between March and November. These supported runs, with fluid stations and bag check, will culminate in the Three Bridges and Last Ten runs leading up to the New York Marathon in November. I am pleased to say that our first event in this series was a tremendous success – we had nearly 80 runners participating, aided by a dozen volunteers (please click HERE for the post-run survey results). Total cost to the team? About $300, making it one of the most cost effective events we produce. The Flyers Long Training Run Series will continue on April 25th, with the Little Toot run down the Hudson River from Central Park to the Battery and back and continue every month through the NYC Marathon.

3. Retain and attract members. The Flyers remains one of the largest running clubs in New York and this scale gives us the ability to do things like produce the Three Bridges Runs and our new Long Training Runs, support an extensive array of coaching programs throughout the year and provide for an active social agenda. We will strive to increase and diversify the demographics of our membership. As a Board, we will introduce a new marketing campaign to attract new members, while offering a variety of new running and social events to retain the existing membership.

4. Maintain financial balance while providing “good value” member services. Many years of prudent financial stewardship by successive generations of Boards has provided the Flyers with a comfortable cash balance. It is our duty to maintain that balance for the financial health of the club. In 2015, we will seek to achieve financial balance by focusing on cost-effective running events like the Long Training Run Series while still providing an attractive array of social events, including of course our Gala Awards Dinner.

I hope to end my term by working with the Executive Board to hand the next President and Board some key accomplishments – a robust Long Training Run Series that becomes a team tradition, a balanced budget that keeps our finances strong, and increased membership that diversifies our demographic mix. But, most importantly, I hope to end the year with fellow Board members and the membership believing that their views were heard and thoughtfully considered, with no one feeling marginalized and everyone believing that they always have a place in the club. 

I am honored to serve as President and am privileged to serve with such an able and collegial Executive Board and thoughtful Advisory Board. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and suggestions as members – please email me or another member of the Executive Board (or your Team Captain) with your ideas, suggestions, and complaints.

Respectfully,

Doug Runte

President, New York Flyers