Any Scoop on the RYC Schedule?

[DonnaP]

I see alot of chatter about the USFA regular schedule but would love to know if there is any "inside" scoop on a proposed RYC schedule - It's hard enough to plan for the USFA and NAC events with typically very short notice - but the RYC's for the kids are their qualifying paths for Summer Nationals. Now with the Super's as the primary way for the kids to get points for seeding, (since USFA doesn't support giving out ratings) they've become really important. Anyone??

[oiuyt]

The RYC coordinator jobs required applications by July 15th, with the selections scheduled to be announced (on the YDC site) by August 1st. Clearly this latter date has slid a bit.

The Supers are handled separately from the RYCs. Bids are due to the YDC as of 8/15 with the announcement of which events have been selected coming at the end of the month.

Once the regional coordinators have been announced they are responsible for determining 3 RYC events in their region for this season, getting organizers, and getting the information from the organizers -- who will be running the events -- and passing that information back to the YDC for national-level posting. It has been suggested that a bid process for assigning RYCs be an option that the coordinators look into, although in many/most regions I suspect it'll end up being more a matter of having 1-2 events that really want to (and are capable of) running, and then the coordinator trying to convince another organizer or two to run events. Especially this year, which will be the first with the new regions and officially designated coordinators.

Donna- for reference, the regions near you are North Atlantic (which, includes only about a half of the section of the same name, being comprised of New England, Northeast, Green Mountain, and Connecticut divisions), Metro (Westchester-Rockland, Metro NYC, and Long Island divisions), and Pennsylvania (Hudson-Berkshire, Western NY, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Central Pennsylvania, and Harrisburg divisions). Any (age-eligible) fencer may fence in any region(s).

Expect all official information about the RYC program to be released on the website I linked to above. Some of the information is already slightly overdue, much more should be expected this month. There are also at least a couple of YDC members (FluidFencer, Andrea) who read/post here that likely have more (and more up-to-date) information than I do.

-B :)

[heretic]

I was a member of the YDC (Youth Development Committee) and a regional coordinator under former USFA President Stacey Johnson, and I feel your pain.

FYI, the YDC is run jointly by Chairperson Kelly Williams (kelwilliams@earthlink.net) and USFA VP Ro Sobalvarro (sobal001@umn.edu). I submitted an application to be a Regional Coordinator in the North East well in advance of the deadline, and emailed the following memo to Ms Williams and Mr Sobalvarro after the 8/1 (when appointments were supposed to be posted on the website).

Memo: August 2, 2005



To: Youth Development Committee (YDC); Michael Massik; Nancy Anderson; Donald Alperstein; EC



Re: RYC Regional Coordinator Position



Pursuant to the posting on the YDC website, applicants for the above referenced position were to be notified July 31st and appointments would be officially posted on August 1, 2005. My application was faxed two weeks prior to the July 15th deadline, and its receipt was confirmed by the USFA office. Additionally, the posting stated that “the YDC will contact the Division Chairpersons within the regions for each applicant.” Jonathan Jakus was the Divisional/Sectional Chair of the Met division, and he was never contacted. To date, I have not received any notification and no posting has appeared on the website. Since schedules are currently being formulated, it is imperative that the YDC appoint coordinators as soon as possible to allow for timely planning of these events in conjunction with divisions and sections. This is especially important in light of the scheduling conflicts that occurred last season in the North East Region.

The ongoing success of this program is dependent on the efforts of dedicated individuals within their localities. Neglecting or ignoring the concerns of these workers will lead to a decline in the number and quality of these events. Last season was the first time in the brief history of Regional Youth Competition that many events experienced lower levels of in participation. If the YDC acts quickly, hopefully this trend will be reversed.


To date, neither Ms Williams nor Mr Sobalvarro has responded.

As a concerned Parent or Coach, I urge you to email all members of the YDC (email addresses appear on the YDC website (http://www.usfaryc.org/) in addition to Michael Massik, Nancy Anderson and General Counsel Donald Alperstein (dalp@aol.com) or Associate General Counsel Steve Sobel (ssobel4@optonline.net.).

IMO, both the Chair and USFA VP have been negligent, and the RYC movement has been damaged. If enough people complain, maybe they can be compelled to act or replaced.

[fluidfencer]

The only thing I can add to what is stated above is that the number of RYC events per Region will be between 3 and 5. This is at the discretion of the RYC Coordinator based on the geography and needs of their Region.

I cannot provide any other specific updates or announcements.

By the way, did I mention that I cannot add to what was stated above or cannot provide any updates?