USFA President's Salary

[reawl]

As an aside to the recall thread, what happened to the president's position being a salaried? I understood in '04 the prez got a respectable sum for running an national organization with international ties. Now the position is volunteer and one could probably sum up the sentiments of the recallers as "we got what we pay for". Why aren't we paying for good leadership? What was the motivation behind this change?

[oiuyt]

Originally Posted by reawl

As an aside to the recall thread, what happened to the president's position being a salaried? I understood in '04 the prez got a respectable sum for running an national organization with international ties. Now the position is volunteer and one could probably sum up the sentiments of the recallers as "we got what we pay for". Why aren't we paying for good leadership? What was the motivation behind this change?

There was no change. Hence no motivation behind the change.

The USFA president has always been a volunteer position. The Executive Director position is a full-time salaried position (both in '04 and now), so that might be what you're thinking about.

-B

[fencergal33]

Hey Brad?

For us laymen, can you please explain the difference between the responsibilities of each position? Thanks!

[reawl]

Originally Posted by oiuyt

The USFA president has always been a volunteer position. The Executive Director position is a full-time salaried position (both in '04 and now), so that might be what you're thinking about.

Yes this would be the source of my confusion. Up until moments ago I assumed the two were interchangeable. I am curious, just as fencergal mentioned, as to what the difference in roles are.

[DHCJr]

Think of the differences between a CEO and President of a large company. Most times these are different people. The CEO makes the broad direction, while the President implements the direction on a day-to-day basis.

[oiuyt]

Originally Posted by USFA By-Laws

3.Section President. The principal duties of the President shall be to foster the formulation of policy, to develop financial and membership support, to conduct relations between the USFA and other authorities whose jurisdictions affect the functions and purposes of the USFA, and to execute the decisions and directives of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee. The President shall chair meetings of the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors and the Congress. The President shall have such authorities, powers and duties as are assigned to that office by these Bylaws or are necessary and normally appurtenant to the powers and duties herein specified.

The ED, on the other hand, is responsible for day-to-day operations, supervising National Office staff, and daily implementation of the policies decided by the (president-led) Board.

The President is elected to a 4-year term (have we had any repeat presidents in the past 20ish years?) synched up with Olympic quadrennials. The ED is a hired position (Michael Massik has been ED for the past 9 (or is it 10 now?) years).

-B

[mrbiggs]

Originally Posted by oiuyt

The ED, on the other hand, is responsible for day-to-day operations, supervising National Office staff, and daily implementation of the policies decided by the (president-led) Board.

The President is elected to a 4-year term (have we had any repeat presidents in the past 20ish years?) synched up with Olympic quadrennials. The ED is a hired position (Michael Massik has been ED for the past 9 (or is it 10 now?) years).

-B

so, aren't shortcomings in the national office the responsibility of the executive director?

I don't mean this to incite crazy flaming, I'm just wondering.

[oiuyt]

Originally Posted by mrbiggs

so, aren't shortcomings in the national office the responsibility of the executive director?

Much harder to recall (fire) an executive director with general support among the USFA leadership than to recall a president. The cause of shortcomings in the national office depend on the source of the shortcomings (and whether or not one believes that there ARE shortcomings, which is entirely debateable). If it's a matter of insufficient staffing, then that is likely not the fault of the ED if s/he (he in this case, so I'll continue with that pronoun) isn't given funding for additional personnel. If it's a matter of insufficiently utilizing the existing staff and resources, then yes, that could be attributed to the ED. The President gets pulled into responsibility as a catch-all person responsible for oversight of every and all organizational activities at any level.

Excerpted from the USOC review of the USFA (the USOC conducted a review of each NGB concurrent with their funding process last year, now that funding is based on a basket of factors including performance, governance, management, etc. and there isn't a guaranteed floor of funding):

Originally Posted by Report from the USOC Regarding U.S. FENCING ASSOCIATION

Management Strengths
• Knowledgeable, experienced national office staff; executive director tenure is 9 years.
• Strong, targeted High Performance Plan with input from key stakeholders.
• Excellent International Relations strategy/plan and ability to implement. Short-term plan has successfully placed an American on every FIE Commission (8); long-term strategy is to develop a campaign to win an American presidency.

Opportunities for Improvement
• Ensure that the Director of Athletic Programs has the authority to create change and ability to implement the High Performance Plan.
• Develop and/or expand/enhance U.S. Fencing Business Plan to sustain sport and organizational performance.
• Maximize select USOC shared services.

The USOC, at least, doesn't seem to see our national office OR Executive Director as a problem. Both are listed as organizational strengths.

-B

[Capt. Slo-mo]

Originally Posted by Report from the USOC Regarding U.S. FENCING ASSOCIATION
Management Strengths
• Knowledgeable, experienced national office staff; executive director tenure is 9 years.
This would be the same N.O. staff recallers believe is in disarray, and needs to be professionalized?

• Strong, targeted High Performance Plan with input from key stakeholders.
And this is the HP international program we're told has slid deep into the abyss?

• Excellent International Relations strategy/plan and ability to implement.
Funny, I thought there WAS no strategic plan.

[KD5MDK]

What USOC shared services are they thinking of?

[heretic]

Originally Posted by oiuyt

Excerpted from the USOC review of the USFA (the USOC conducted a review of each NGB concurrent with their funding process last year-B

Brad - on what time period was the USOCs evaluation based?
I believe it was the previous quadrennial (2000-2004).

Pre-Nancy Anderson - back when we actually did have a strategic plan.

[reawl]

So my next question: Does the ED also represent the US at International events and board meetings? If so, then the severity of the president being absent or late seems to be greatly lessened.

[Sciurus-Rex]

Originally Posted by USFA By-Laws
3.Section President. The principal duties of the President shall be to foster the formulation of policy, to develop financial and membership support, to conduct relations between the USFA and other authorities whose jurisdictions affect the functions and purposes of the USFA, and to execute the decisions and directives of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee. The President shall chair meetings of the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors and the Congress. The President shall have such authorities, powers and duties as are assigned to that office by these Bylaws or are necessary and normally appurtenant to the powers and duties herein specified.

As stated by oiuyt: The ED, on the other hand, is responsible for day-to-day operations, supervising National Office staff, and daily implementation of the policies decided by the (president-led) Board.



If it helps for mental framing, you can see a similarity between this structure and the way a mayor and city council hires and works with a city manager.

(Of course anyone who lives in a metro area with multiple municipalities knows that even the basic concept has many different interpretations of responsibility, depending on the personality of the council/board and prez.)

[oiuyt]

Originally Posted by heretic

Brad - on what time period was the USOCs evaluation based?
I believe it was the previous quadrennial (2000-2004).

Pre-Nancy Anderson - back when we actually did have a strategic plan.

That seems likely. The "Knowledgeable, experienced national office staff; executive director tenure is 9 years." bit hasn't changed, however. My citation was as a part of this discussion of the national office staff, any perceived shortcomings, and to whom blame for said shortcomings (if, indeed, there are such) should be attached.

I wasn't intending to make a comment about the Strategic Plan (or the High Performance Plan, the Director of Athletics Programs, the Business Plan, or USOC shared services, for that matter). The other bullet items were included in the interest of having more complete context -- I quoted the entire "Management" section of the report.

-B

[DHCJr]

Originally Posted by reawl

So my next question: Does the ED also represent the US at International events and board meetings? If so, then the severity of the president being absent or late seems to be greatly lessened.

No, the President deals with the outside, like the CEO. This is one area that Ms. Anderson has done well. Many don't know, HOW we had the chance for a Gold Medal. Ms. Zuganis would never have been at the Olympics to win the Gold, without the work done by the President with the FIE and a certain country and Regional Federation.

There have been times, I have been late because of traffic. If you live in a major metropolitian area that can happen. I was late for work one day because of a traffic jam in Blythe, California, population less than 1,500. I didn't more for over 2 hours. All of us stuck, turned off our engines, until they were able to move the Semi and it's load.

[Craig]

Originally Posted by DHCJr

No, the President deals with the outside, like the CEO. This is one area that Ms. Anderson has done well. Many don't know, HOW we had the chance for a Gold Medal. Ms. Zuganis would never have been at the Olympics to win the Gold, without the work done by the President with the FIE and a certain country and Regional Federation.

I can't comment on how Nancy Anderson has done with regards to other federation leaders or the FIE leadership as I haven't talked to any of them. For timeline clarity, the Zagunis Olympic Bid was secured prior to the NYC World Cup while Stacy Johnson was President and Nancy Anderson was President Elect.

(And you can go back to the articles from Fencing.Net surrounding the Olympic berth at the time...)

Craig