@laurbeam20, that's a great idea.  It's likely a standing order fun run.  I like it!  You should run with the idea.

Do you think we could put out a call for volunteers to be kind of the "host" of the meetup? They don't have to do anything other than show up and take whoever else shows up on a run. What do you all think the best first step is? 

I just would personally love to have a little more comradery within the club. I obviously know a lot of you from my parents, but I think a lot of younger members haven't had that opportunity to meet others and unless you end up running several miles together at a race it is hard to meet everyone.

@laurbeam20, I think you just start small, simple, and sustainable.  Do something that's fun and share it with the community.  Honestly, it's not likely something a volunteer will run with.  It's likely going to take one of us old guard to get it rolling.

OK. I am not currently released to run. I can volunteer Aaron to hold one in our area. Does anyone here want to volunteer to hold one in their area? I can make a FB post in the club and maybe Charlotte can also put it in the newsletter. 

The trail fest event certainly appeared to be mostly to be part of the snowshoe marketing machine. Maybe not interesting to us as participants and maybe something we want to stay away from entirely. But if it could be a way to spread interest in our club, or other events, we might be able to squeeze some community benefit out of it? The benefit of weird, quasi commercial events is they tend to snag a whole different set of folks; folks who maybe don’t know how great these events can be…

as for regional club runs, I agree that a group run that happens organically will be the easiest to sustain. If there were a listing of group runs that often happen and some way to contact a representative of the group, it would be a great resource for club folks to utilize as we travel around the state for work or other sports (anybody running in the Twin Falls area this weekend??) 

@laurbeam20, I wish I could take on something like this, but I just have too many irons in the fire currently.  Also, I keep blowing hamstrings like I had to.

Group runs are fun!  I hosted weekly runs for a few years through the local Kanawha Trace Trail Running Group on FB.  Most that showed are regular runners of WVMTR events and are/were club members.  Like your experience, sometimes it was just me and others it was 8-10.  The trick is being able to be consistently there which has been my problem due to work the last couple of years.  We still do them, but it's more adhoc than regular.

@laurbeam20 If Aaron puts on together, send me the info and I will definitely add it to the newsletter.  I might also add a little blurb about the idea of hosting regular runs and see if anyone else wants to put one together in their area.  Might be a member out there who wants to start one.

@charleannej, if you get any bites, please circle back.  That's certainly something I imagine we would have consensus to financially sponsor (if necessary).

I had plans of starting a group run in Morgantown with my Track/XC club students. I ran with them for 2 weeks in a row, then I got busy with Sept/Oct racing and travelling. I plan to get back into the group runs, but maybe weekly was too ambitious. I'm also terrible with scheduling more than a few days out.

Maybe I'll retry with monthly group runs with the Club Team, then incorporate WVMTR.