Petition to recall USFA President

[heretic]

She's never renewed her auto registration before it's expired? Or bought milk before the fridge was empty? Arrived at an NAC before it was over? Written a congratulatory e-mail to a fencer immediately after a particularly good result? Managed to get her kid's costume sewn before Halloween?

You stand on your self-erected soap box, place your hand over your heart, and boast that you stand behind every utterance you have made on this board concerning her behavior. We then see that the above statement is an out and out falsehood.

I suggest, sir, that your veracity is severely lacking. This begs the question: what else have you been exaggerating, distorting or lying about during this discussion?

You got me, Cap. I never considered the milk expiration date question; her timely auto registration renewal; or the Halloween costume controversy; all uniquely germane issues which impugn my credibility. FYI, I did get a good look at how masterfully Nancy dealt with Rene during the 2004 NYC WC; and I guess I should never have presumed to use the "tu" form when I spoke to him. He prefers the more obsequious "vous" form. Thanks for keeping me on my toes.

[kalivor]

Speaking about on-line registration:

It's not just Canada, The Long Beach (USA) Invitational reigstered fencers on-line using "Ask Fred". Likewise Duel in the Desert is registering fencers on line. So your argument about the differences in govt's and legal systems doesn't hold up. So far as I can tell no one has been able to offer a valid reason why the USFA has not implemented on-line registration. All the reasons so far advanced have largely been red herrings.

I don't claim to know either way -- but comparing it to other events in the same country (hence using the same rules) is surely better than comparing it another country's system.

[Capt. Slo-mo]

You got me, Cap. I never considered the milk expiration date question; her timely auto registration renewal; or the Halloween costume controversy; all uniquely germane issues which impugn my credibility. FYI, I did get a good look at how masterfully Nancy dealt with Rene during the 2004 NYC WC; and I guess I should never have presumed to use the "tu" form when I spoke to him. He prefers the more obsequious "vous" form. Thanks for keeping me on my toes.

Yet you chose to broadly impugn every single action she has taken as President, or in her life, and then proclaimed it to be the Gospel According to Heretic. (which has an ironic twist, ecclesiastically speaking)

Be as flippant as you like, but you smeared her with a blatant falsehood, and then stood behind it. That pretty much tells us what filter we need to apply to your posts about the USFA President.

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

There used to be this thing before Fencing.Net even existed, called newsgroups. They were around before the WWW. There was one newsgroup, called rec.sport.fencing, on which several of the current Fencing.Net members were very active before. Among them were PeterG, EDEW, and Mr. Jefferies.

I don´t know if I should feel old, or flattered.

Seriously, though: to name me before Eric, and not name Peach at all, must have been an oversight on your part.


Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[hpfencing]

You see it every time a corporation is put in play, up for sale, etc. Too many people take their eyes off the real ball and the and organizational effectiveness begins to suffer.

There will be a real cost if we let the distractions of this divisive recall effort result in any further delay in the USFA responding in a timely manner to the USOC's May 2, 2005 letter strongly suggesting we (and all the other NGB's) restructure our corporate governance.

In fact, it has been made clear that our future funding from the USOC will be directly tied to how well and how fast we restructure our corporate governance in line with their new guidance.

(and by the way, IMHO, it will be a fine day when we do. The new USOC guidance offers us a way to clarify roles, transcend this self-destructive blame game and move into the modern era of accountable management and shared responsibility. This bashing of hard working volunteers by equally hard working but overly zealous volunteers is not pretty and needs to stop.)

I asked several hundred posts ago if anyone knows if the USFA BOD is moving on this critical issue? Does anyone know?

Hopefully they will address it at JO's meeting this year

[eze]

You are very correct. The recall faction has completely missed the boat on this issue, and completely underestimated how damaging their efforts are to the organization.

There will be a real cost if we let the distractions of this divisive recall effort result in any further delay in the USFA responding in a timely manner to the USOC's May 2, 2005 letter strongly suggesting we (and all the other NGB's) restructure our corporate governance.

In fact, it has been made clear that our future funding from the USOC will be directly tied to how well and how fast we restructure our corporate governance in line with their new guidance.

[edew]

Hi!





I don´t know if I should feel old, or flattered.

Seriously, though: to name me before Eric, and not name Peach at all, must have been an oversight on your part.


Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

I don't know if Peach was part of rec.sport.fencing, at least not at the onset (ca 1991).

[Sciurus-Rex]

Hasn't Peach said she was fencing when swords were still being made from bronze?

[veeco]

Sorry if I offended anyone, my list wasn't even remotely meant to be exhaustive. I just picked out some names that I remembered at the time when I started lurking on rec.sport.fencing (circa. 1995, IIRC).

And Peter, you are not that old. Some of us (younger) folks enjoyed usenet when it was around, and I still do from time to time... I don't really post on it much though...

[Peach]

Hasn't Peach said she was fencing when swords were still being made from bronze?

Hey! I may be ancient, but I started fencing fairly recently (oh--12 years ago)--I just happened to be rather thoroughly comfortable online before I even started this sport so I found r.s.f. right away.

[yeoldearmourer]

No that was me when they were made of bronze. And even the old pineapple tip

[KD5MDK]

No that was me when they were made of bronze. And even the old pineapple tip

Did you really go 15-13 against Achilles?

[yeoldearmourer]

Did you really go 15-13 against Achilles?

No it was 15 - 14

[Sciurus-Rex]

Final point: toe touch!

[Duellist USA]

Wouldn't it have been a heel touch then as he fleched past him.....


Rick

[fencingaddict]

The Nike CEO William Perez did a hard but courageous thing, he resigned for the good of the company after a short 13 months. Ms. Anderson could still do the same if she had the best interests of the USFA at heart. Also she has a new job that she by her own words, does not want to endanger (see Craig's article-interview w/her on fencing.net-and I agree that she shouldn't endanger her livelihood).

Nike CEO Resigns after 13 months - here's some quotes and links to some of the articles.


"It became obvious to me that the long-term interests of the company would be best served by my resignation." William Perez, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/...n1228448.shtml

"I know it's painful and somewhat disruptive, but I think the company is better off for it," Knight said. (Phil Knight founder of Nike) http://www.usatoday.com/money/compan...-23-nike_x.htm

Added Knight, "Succession at any company is challenging, and unfortunately the expectations that Bill and I and others had when he joined the company a year ago didn't play out as we had hoped. I want to personally thank Bill for his dedication and commitment over the past year." http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/...23/daily1.html

[schlager7]

I don't know if Peach was part of rec.sport.fencing, at least not at the onset (ca 1991).

Specifically, as to dates...

On September 23, 1992, Suman Palit, a fairly new member of the University of Houston Fencing Club, posted an announcement, titled, "RFD: rec.fencing" on four already existing newsgroups (news.announce.newsgroups; news.groups; rec.martial-arts; and rec.org.sca).

The announcement read, "TO ALL FENCERS, SWORDSMEN, AND LOVERS OF SWORDFIGHTING... Hi, This is the first RFD for a new newsgroup which we propose to call rec.fencing. WHY: Fencing is an ancient and time-honored method of self-defense, and one of the earliest martial arts, western or oriental. There is an incredible variety of various swordfighting styles all over the world. Much of fencing discussion takes place in rec.martial-arts and rec.org.sca, and is otherwise scattered all over. I propose the creation of a newsgroup dedicated to the discussion of fencing with the following tentative charter:

Discussion of:

History of Fencing and Duelling;
History of Oriental fencing styles, Kendo, etc.;
USFA Fencing;
SCA Fencing;
Announcement of Tournaments, etc.;
Comparative discussions about different kinds of fencing."


On September 29th, Palit posted a second RFD, "in order to find some kind of consensus regarding the creation of a fencing newsgroup." It seemed a division of opinion had occurred among those responding to Palit’s proposal. Some liked his title of rec.fencing, but others preferred rec.sport.fencing, which fit into an already established rec.sport "hierarchy" of newsgroups. Palit hit the nail on the head regarding this division, "The problem, I think, lies in the way people look at fencing... some see it as a sport, some as a martial-art, some purely out of historical curiosity. It was my original intention to be able to include every aspect of fencing in the proposed newsgroup, hoping that there would be enough traffic to justify the creation of other related newsgroups. Now that may or may not be feasible, but hey, I’m trying my best not to be divisive... "

[oiuyt]

The Nike CEO William Perez did a hard but courageous thing, he resigned for the good of the company after a short 13 months. Ms. Anderson could still do the same if she had the best interests of the USFA at heart. Also she has a new job that she by her own words, does not want to endanger (see Craig's article-interview w/her on fencing.net-and I agree that she shouldn't endanger her livelihood).

Are you REALLY pointing to the Nike situation as an example of a Good Thing?!?!!!!!

Phil Knight set up a situation for an orderly succession, hand-picking Perez to follow him as CEO, then spent the next year interferring with Perez's actions, getting involved in day-to-day operations, before deciding to take his ball and go home, pressuring Perez into resigning so that Knight could pick someone else. At a cost to the company of millions of dollars in cash and all kinds of opportunity-cost and missed progress.

I don't see how anyone can look at what has happened at Nike over the past year (or just over) and decide that ANY of it is a shining example of what should be (with the exception that Nike collected record profits in their most recently concluded quarter under the ousted Perez).

Perez walks away with an additional 2 years pay ($2.8 million, in addition to what he's already received) and some bonus money (not fully determined how much), and escapes an intolerable situation created by Knight. Nike gets to not have the Knight/Perez tug-of-war continue, as Knight gets to be back in charge through a long-time lieutenant. Knight, having caused a massive problem, pretty much gets what he wants, regardless of what is best for the overall company. I don't see this as a good thing.

I'm sure there are good examples out there of people stepping down to remove controversy and with the best interests of their organization at heart. I'm not convinced Nike is one of them.

-B

[fencingaddict]

originally posted by Oiuyt

I'm sure there are good examples out there of people stepping down to remove controversy and with the best interests of their organization at heart. I'm not convinced Nike is one of them.

I don't say that the Nike situation was a good thing, but that Mr. Perez, faced with the situation (regardless of how it was created) was able to recognize and then acted upon what was in the best interest in Nike. It takes personal courage and integrity to do what he did, and frankly, I respect him for his decision.

"It became obvious to me that the long-term interests of the company would be best served by my resignation." William Perez,

[veeco]

Perez was bullied into quiting, not a good example.