USFA Election 2008 Debate Question #2: Qualification Concerns about Candidates

[seak]

Well I believe the issue ARC was pointing to was specifically birth years i.e. if a predator chose a minor based on the USFA list. There are also I believe NCAA issues. That being said I think reasonable issues need to be put on the table, and then worked around. There's no reason this shouldn't happen.

Katyfencing, while OSO was on the nominating committee, he's not running for office. He's not your opponent, and his views at this point really aren't what we're debating. It's a smokescreen. Pulling a stunt like that does not speak well of your candidacy (at least to me).

Also did you even put up your name originally for office? Because if not you can't really be annoyed at the nominating comt. for not choosing you

[Capt. Slo-mo]

Or, for that matter, the USFA website already has links to the FIE, which has the birthdate data available for every fencer 13 and up.

Equating this kind of info to the Catholic priest issue is mild bit of hyperbole, though.

[T]

(gorgie101) your husband, ARC,

that explains a lot! thanks jjeffreries!

[tchwojko]

Or, for that matter, the USFA website already has links to the FIE, which has the birthdate data available for every fencer 13 and up.

It is an example of a detail that needs to be thought out, though, among a myriad of others.

[gorgie101]

that explains a lot! thanks jjeffreries!

I find it amusing that it took jjefferies to point it out.

[epeeforlife]

I find it amusing that it took jjefferies to point it out.

Actually many have known for a long time. Just see this post.

[oso97]

I am glad you responded, David. You personally were very involved in the selection process of the current slate.

What is the platform? What will they do? What are their ideas for USFA development?

What the USFA members are voting on is what will best serve their interests in developing fencing and offering fencing opportunities.

We are on opposite sides of the fence for offering USFA opportunities for fencing. We have been many, many, times over the past 6 years. I want more fencing opportunities and for the USFA to take advantage of the media access. I have specific plans for this, and many times in the section you have ruled specifically against more fencing and more USFA tournaments. I have been in sectional meeting where you disregarded the upcoming youth opportunities and developing avenues for them (Austin, TX). I think all voting USFA members deserve the ideas and platforms to be in the open.

August,

It would take a person with a very tenuous hold on reality would describe me as being against fencing. Specifically with youth, I've attended as a referee (that is, actually contributing to the running of the events, giving up my free time to do so) 10 of the last 12 RYC's and SYCs in the region. Whereas the next time you attend an RYC outside of Houston, it will be the first time. And the ones you do attend, you don't contribute to the running of. When you told me that your students weren't being given opportunities to referee after taking the test, I made sure that they were hired, observed and used at the events in Houston that I was hired to be the head referee at. I attended every single SSCC event for the past umpteen years, in addition to all the other gigs I worked at, locally, regionally and nationally. Yea, calling me against opportunities for fencing is just crazy.

And I don't think you want to start bringing up decisions that were made and things that were said at sectional meetings from years back. Because, there were things said back then that reflect extremely poorly on the judgment and ability to work with people of a certain person on your slate.

As far as the rest, well, seak covered it quite nicely in this post

[KatyFencing]

Dear Seak,

I am not upset the nominating committee did not originally select me. I did not purpose to run until after Tracy asked me and I investigated the policies of who was running, or really the lack of policies that I am aware of. What my purpose for running is to have certain platforms advanced that I and other national coaches have spoken to me about. I was out of fencing from 1993 - 2001, and during that time I became involved in Little League, basketball leagues, soccer leagues, etc. It is disappointing that during that time fencing has lost ground to those sports and even had sports such as Xtreme games surpass it. What can be done to prevent that in the future? Make certain that policies are developed and programs implemented that will grow the sport of fencing for all fencers.

I ran because we need to know what policies will be implemented by our elected USFA reps, and if they don't benefit all fencing including recreational then different policies need to be implemented. Olympic fencing directly impacts approximately 100 fencers nationally, although many more get to participate in the process each Olympic quad.

What is implemented in New Jersey and Mass. needs to be encouraged on a national level. Take the best ideas from all areas of the country and distribute them in terms of competitions and clubs. Specifically look at each sport that we compete with and steal their best ideas and programs. Fencers traditionally do this on strip. Now we need to do this off the strip.

[KD5MDK]

Wouldn't it stand to reason that the candidates from New Jersey and Massachusetts are more familiar with what's going on there and how to spread it nationally?

[Phincer]

Wouldn't it stand to reason that the candidates from New Jersey and Massachusetts are more familiar with what's going on there and how to spread it nationally?

Fencing in public schools?

[epeemike81]

Fencing in public schools?

That's part of it, but I frankly assumed that Mr. Skopik was referring to our success at streamlining tournament process as well.

-m

[ivlobane]

I find it amusing that it took jjefferies to point it out.

Maybe it would help to have links or other identifiers in one's profile or signature. Or do you fear the internets?

[ivlobane]

What is implemented in New Jersey and Mass. needs to be encouraged on a national level. Take the best ideas from all areas of the country and distribute them in terms of competitions and clubs. Specifically look at each sport that we compete with and steal their best ideas and programs. Fencers traditionally do this on strip. Now we need to do this off the strip.

I'm curious as to what was implemented, could you elaborate/link please?

[epeemike81]

What is implemented in New Jersey and Mass. needs to be encouraged on a national level. Take the best ideas from all areas of the country and distribute them in terms of competitions and clubs. Specifically look at each sport that we compete with and steal their best ideas and programs. Fencers traditionally do this on strip. Now we need to do this off the strip.

Speaking as somebody who is heavily involved up here, I thank you for the compliment and I agree with the idea that we need to work on distribution of best practices.

That said, as somebody who has been heavily involved in pretty much everything we do well up here, I fully endorse and support the Nominated Candidates. I feel that they are the best option to help distribute the ideas found in the northeast due to their familiarity with them as well as their general open-minded attitude and willingness to take an idea no matter where it comes from if it is better than what is done now.

If you agree with the idea that we need to take the ideas from the northeast (and anywhere else doing something innovative and improved) and distribute it more widely, I encourage you to vote for the Nominated Slate.

They also have the added benefit of being familiar with how we run things up here, though that's clearly a minor advantage when what really needs to be done is creation of a way to distribute the knowledge on an ongoing basis.

-m

[epeemike81]

I'm curious as to what was implemented, could you elaborate/link please?

I can elaborate on what we do differently up here on any number of fronts, so I'll wait for Mr. Skopik to define what aspects he's talking about before weighing in on what the specific differences and innovations are.

Most of them have been discussed on this forum before, though.

-m

[ivlobane]

I can elaborate on what we do differently up here on any number of fronts, so I'll wait for Mr. Skopik to define what aspects he's talking about before weighing in on what the specific differences and innovations are.

Most of them have been discussed on this forum before, though.

-m

Lol, I will put myself at risk of getting *****ed out again for my poor forum reading skillz: can you give a few links please?

[seak]

ivlobane, I don't know exactly what Katyfencing is referring too, but I here that they run a mean tournament up there. When I first started working on Cherry Blossom organizing (a couple years ago) I stole some of the ideas that DJ et al had been so kind as to post here, specifically regarding specific professional BC (and hiring the same people every year), providing good food for the referees etc.

[oiuyt]

Part of our current situation is due to the death of a person similar to Greg (Irwin Bernstein). He ran the finances with an iron hand for many years. He provided a wonderful service but after he died, no one paid much attention to the needed processses anymore.

Irwin did a lot of great work for US Fencing. He spent countless hours (successfully) working to make things better for all of us.

However his method of doing so was deeply flawed. He had an intimate, long-term familiarity with the various budgetary components. He knew which line items were going to go over-budget and by roughly how much. Rather than push to bring the budgeted expenses in line with what he knew them to be, he instead intentionally underbudgeted certain income lines and intentionally overbudgeted other, lower-profile, expense lines.

This worked out, but it's not the right way to do things. And when he was no longer available this fragile structure broke.

We need to move to a system where we have realistic expectations for each area of the budget. There has to be accountability for those expectations and people must be required to stay within the set limits. We need to have a variance procedure that's actually followed to handle situations that have changed. And all of that should be part of a transparent process from start to finish.

Who's the best person to handle such a transition? In my opinion, Greg.

This simply isn't something where a bookkeeper is the right choice.

-B

[KatyFencing]

Seak and EpeeMike,

I am referring to your ability to run multiple USFA tournaments the same weekend in your section, and promote fencing tournaments. Earlier I addressed a question that Seak took an offense to, and I will explain my position.

David Sierra and Jerry Benson are supportive and want to implement the model of the SW Section Circuit on a national level. I support the SW Section Circuit except for one aspect. Any weekend that the SW Section Circuit takes place, there can be no USFA tournament to compete within the section. If you are in California, PA or MA I think that you can see some issues when I look at askred. This severely hampers any school our developmental tournament targeting.

I ran into my problems with the division when I scheduled a USFA Div III the day of the SW Circuit in Shreveport, a 4 - 5 hour drive one-way. Jerry and David were on the executive committee and moved to have the tournament not sanctioned.

If Jerry states his public position on this matter, then it may make things more clear. Unless he has changed positions it could mean the end of the Bay Cup and many successful fencing programs.

I promised to address Fencing on TV, and will make a separate post for this after our webinar on Sunday evening. These ideas are not all mine, but many come from the ex-commissioner of NFL Europe and the current president of the local MLS team.

[whtouche]

I promised to address Fencing on TV, and will make a separate post for this after our webinar on Sunday evening. These ideas are not all mine, but many come from the ex-commissioner of NFL Europe and the current president of the local MLS team.

I don't want to quibble, but are you sure that taking ideas from the ex-commissioner of nfl europe and a local soccer team is the best route to take for fencing?

Because soccer is wildly unpopular, and NFL europe no longer exists. These are examples we want our sport to follow?