Who provided guidance to your Presidency? It was a lot of people but primarily Gar Williams, Jeff Darman, and Jerry Kokesh.
What do you believe were the biggest accomplishments during your tenure? I moved the RRCA from the
typewriter and card files to computer word processing and database files for the various club documents and listings. My main emphasis was on communications and expanding the State Rep program. I assembled the various RRCA “how to” club information sheets into booklets and published a quarterly President’s Newsletter that ranged from 8 pages to 44 pages. My quarterly article in each issue of RRCA Footnotes was to bring the message of the RRCA to the members of the RRCA clubs. I was the last RRCA President in which the RRCA National Office was in the home of the president. With wife Louise serving as the volunteer staff, we prepared the RRCA to move the national office with no paid staff from the president’s home to a national office in Washington, DC under the outstanding leadership of Henley Gabeau who served as the next president and followed that as the first RRCA Executive Director.
Are there any humorous stories from your RRCA involvement that you would like to share? All the events surrounding the Catoctin Park Race in which President Jimmy Carter ran and in which the RRCA Board also participated.
What do you believe are the biggest challenges for the RRCA today? Move beyond being a source of liability
insurance and non-profit tax-exempt status and back to being the complete grass roots organization it was before the 2002 debacle. The recovery has gone well with some good people, but it is far from being complete and the RRCA being the organization it once was. That will require excellent leadership, financial sponsorship and communications. It is imperative that the RRCA bring back a hardcopy RRCA Footnotes as a vehicle to promote the sponsors, communicate the RRCA message to the individual club members, and publicize the RRCA outside our organization.
Do you have any “words of wisdom” for its current & future leadership? The RRCA Board should avoid
confidentiality, except in the case of executive sessions to discuss personnel issues, with the clubs they were elected to represent. There is no requirement in the RRCA Bylaws, or the referenced Robert’s Rules of Order, to conduct the organizations business in secrecy or without full disclosure.
HENLEY GABEAU - RRCA PRESIDENT (1986 - 1989) How did you begin running? Who provided “inspiration” for your running? My daughter,
Robin, who, at the age of 12 beat the entire school in the PCPF 600 yard run, inspired me. Subsequently her father started coaching her in the spring of 1975. I started running in the fall of 1975.
How did you become involved in the RRCA?
By running in DCRRC meets and races, and then volunteering with them, which led to attending the RRCA convention in Baltimore in 1978. Women’s running issues were also a factor. Jeff Darman saw my interest in the latter and appointed me chair of the RRCA’s “Women’s Olympic Distance Committee.”
What were the biggest challenges facing American running & the RRCA then, particularly “grass roots” running? I got in a fight with the then-AAU when I was putting on a women’s race. They wanted me to make
every “ordinary” (i.e., all the casual women runners which were 99% of the race) woman runner be required to buy an AAU card. Jeff Darman (then RRCA president) helped me fight them in the controversy. They backed down at the 11th hour. Back then the issues with the AAU, who were trying to bully the RRCA, were paramount. The RRCA was having lots of problems with the AAU, which later (‘78 or ‘79, I think) became USA Track & Field.
How big (# of clubs/members) was the RRCA when you were President? Right before I became president, the
RRCA lost its insurance, and lots of clubs dropped out of the RRCA. We were down to about 300 clubs from a high of over 400. Because of the loss of insurance, I strove to build other programs to retain and attract clubs back to the RRCA fold. We created children’s and women’s running programs, in particular the ones for women runners’ safety. Clubs came back. I regained a liability insurance policy for the RRCA in early 1990. By the time I stepped down as President we were almost back up to 500.
Who provided guidance to your Presidency? Jeff Darman, Harold Tinsley, and Carl Sniffen
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