MOBRA Meeting Notes from 2/11

Here is a quick run down of the items discussed at MOBRA's February meeting.

We did in fact have a decent turn out from those looking to represent the interests of Penrose for 2013. For those who were not present, this review of the meeting is going to be very vague, as items on the agenda are progressive, and cannot be clearly defined after one meeting.

At MOBRA meetings, each team is allotted one vote as stated in MOBRA's bylaws. The teams represented at Monday's meeting were Quantum, The Hub, SpokedSTL, Mike's Bikes, Lindenwood, Big Shark, and Dogfish.

1. The first item on the agenda was MOBRA's board reconfiguration. The board was comprised of 4 individuals acting in traditional roles (ie: President, vice, secretary, treasurer) and is now a body of 7 who will be taking on a broader range of duties such as:

• Race calendar updates,
• Officials Director
• Management of Website
• Event permitting
• Budget management

New board members are: Mike Weiss, B.J. Keane, Reid Cranmer, Sarah Rodney, Nick Hand, Mark Ewers, and Marijn Braadbaart. (I apologize for any name misspellings)

2. Budget. Lists from Riders, Race Directors, and Officials were made to determine the items necessary and items that are wanted for 2013 that can be allocated by MOBRA's current budget. The budget will be discussed more in-debth at next month's MOBRA meeting, however it was voted upon to increase the rider fee (BAR) given for each race to MOBRA by that race's Race Director. This fee will help provide funding for a new program to be used for registration (making it FASTER) and tallying of scores (making it more ACCURATE) called "Race Manager".  More to come on this program.

3. Future Meeting Planning. 

The last thing to happen was planning for upcoming MOBRA meetings. March's meeting will have an intensive focus on MOBRA's budget for 2013. I know it sounds dull, but it's incredibly important for those who want to put on a race in 2013 OR 2014 and those who complain about race fees, race organization, etc. This way you know where the money comes from, and how it gets spent.

We have also decided that each cycling discipline will have one meeting this year dedicated to the future of that category. April will be a meeting exclusively focused on Track Racing. In order to be well prepared in front of the board with things like a budget wish list, short and long term goals, etc. we will be having meetings working up to the April MOBRA meeting to bring our preparedness to the table.

Our first meeting for track will be held February 18 at 7pm. Location TBD. 

We had a lot of good work done at this meeting. A couple of especially exciting tidbits include financial assistance in track funding from Nick Hand's team, Quantum and our AWESOME Bike advocate alderman Scott Ogilvie's arrival at the meeting with some guidance about the election of Penrose's district alderman and potential funding from St. Louis Parks Department. 

That's all. 

-Molly