Greetings

Chuck Kenlan

2018-03-23

OBRA Membership -

First of all, I cannot tell you enough how excited I am to serve as your Executive Director. Thank you to all of you that passed along your good wishes and to the OBRA board and staff for all their hard work serving our membership.

I have been following the conversation regarding the Kings Valley Road Race specifically the issue of equal payout at this race and all others. I appreciate the spirited conversation and I believe there are sound arguments on both sides of the issue.

As Mike stated in his comments, a rule requiring equal pay would fall under OBRA's administrative rules. In researching the discussions at the 2018 annual meeting, I found that there were no notes taken at the meeting so there is no record of a vote being taken. I will address this issue later in this post. I interviewed a few members that were present and the consensus in their memories seems to be that no vote on a rule change was taken. Rather, there was a sentiment to make a rule change and there was an agreement among those present to research the issue further to come up with a plan that worked. I understand that others may have remembered differently bit with no record, I am not comfortable with rule change that doesn't have specific language. This issue is important enough to the membership that we must bring representatives of women's racing and promotors to the table to research and come up with a proposal to present at the 2019 annual meeting.

I have tremendous respect for all the promotors that stick their necks out taking risks to host the great race in Oregon. This, to me, is the brilliance of OBRA's model: To provide the resources that make race promotion as easy as possible.

" Insurance
" Equipment
" Local officials
" A platform to promote the races, handle registration and provide timely results

I commend the OBRA Board of Directors of making a pledge of transparency. Board meeting minutes will now be available for the membership as well as minutes from OBRA's annual meeting. We are lucky to have this dedicated group of volunteers that do the hard work behind the scenes.

As stated first in OBRA's guiding principles: "Our members are our priority. We do what is in their best interest to help them succeed, be it in participation or performance. We are keenly aware our members have choices and will not take them for granted. We keep an open discussion with OBRA members to ensure we are meeting their needs." I have printed this statement and posted it above my desk to remind me why I am here and who I work for.

Have a great season and keep the rubber side down.