HPD (Michael Pederson) Resigns

[eac]

That's invariably true?

How did Mike Pederson go, in a single year, from the guy who helped architect that success in Beijing (with arguably less talent and non-arguably less consistency in athletes ... the MS group was mostly a NYC-Gelman group) to somebody who knows less than a successful private coach?

darius

Er, I should have said 'less than or equal to,' rather than less than. The point being, the best you can do is to add your stamp of approval to something that already is working, and sometimes you won't even do that well.

[mdstasinos]

Mark, I trust you….but the membership should not. You have to admit that this entire situation stinks. The only thing left to do is to try to clean it up. Nat is the obvious choice for WF national coach….I hope she is one of the nominees. Mike can be her assistant along with Iris. We have to stop rewarding poor performance by giving people the job they want. That is not good business. Even if Mike was doing a good job for 7 months….the fact that he resigned has hurt the program more….com'on 7 months? What can ya do in 7 months?

I regret to tell you that Nat is not a candidate. she was approached to serve and consider applying for a couple key positions with in the organization. Her commitment now is to Her club and coaches in support and development of their program. I agree she would have been a strong candidate and has served as the National Coach for Women's Foil in the past.
As far as rewarding "poor performance by giving people the job they want," again, there is a process where those who wish to apply can apply. Nobody is restricted from sending a resume and application letter for the positions advertised within our organization. The same process of review, interview, discussion amongst the panel members and independent vote were used. Every candidate was considered and discussed.
The fact the Mike resigns from the position of HPD, I believe, signifies it is time to re-examine the position and possible redesign the requirements, examine other federations and other NGB's to see how they run their High Performance Program and maybe redesign ours. Going through 6 HPD's in 5 years maybe more than a wake up call to do this, and maybe this is Mike's way of allowing that process to proceed.

Mark Stasinos
Vice-President
US Fencing Association

[Gav]

For me and 3 other people on three different computers it shows Viagra adverts. I think there is a problem.

Whoa there buddy.

You didn't tell me this was back. I don't look at any other page except the forum proper... so I've not seen this. Where are you talking about?

Best person to deal with this is KK.

[downunder]

Whoa there buddy.

You didn't tell me this was back. I don't look at any other page except the forum proper... so I've not seen this. Where are you talking about?

Best person to deal with this is KK.

Main page. First noticed it today:

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/1927/fencingforum.jpg

[MdA]

…..
….there is a process where those who wish to apply can apply. Nobody is restricted…... Every candidate was considered and discussed

I am not accusing Mike or the panel of any impropriety. I am making a point that some candidates should not be considered because of a conflict of interest.

Your selection process is flawed…..you're not defusing the obvious “conflict of interest”. See below:

The presence of a conflict of interest is independent from the execution of impropriety. Therefore, a conflict of interest can be discovered and voluntarily defused before any corruption occurs.

More generally, conflicts of interest can be defined as any situation in which an individual or corporation (either private or governmental) is in a position to exploit a professional or official capacity in some way for their personal or corporate benefit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_of_interest

I am also saying that Mike should remove himself from consideration because of an obvious conflict of interest…..otherwise he will be subject to these accusations

[epeemike81]

I am also saying that Mike should remove himself from consideration because of an obvious conflict of interest…..otherwise he will be subject to these accusations

Or remove himself from the position that creates the conflict of interest... which he has done by resigning as HPD.

-m

[fdad]

Or remove himself from the position that creates the conflict of interest... which he has done by resigning as HPD.

-m

In most situations, some time would need to elapse between his resignation and when it would be appropriate for him to apply for a conflicted position.

[epeemike81]

In most situations, some time would need to elapse between his resignation and when it would be appropriate for him to apply for a conflicted position.

Which is relevant in most situations because while he wouldn't be involved in the decision making process he knows and is (to varying degrees) friendly with those who would be making the decision, which gives him an unfair advantage over candidates who aren't known to the panel.

Given how small the fencing community is I feel confident that I'm right in saying that ALL of the applicants know and are (to varying degrees) friendly with those who would be making the decision.

-m

[MdA]

Or remove himself from the position that creates the conflict of interest... which he has done by resigning as HPD.
-m

It's not that simple. As HPD he has already made decisions which affect the position for which he is now applying...like leaving it open so he could resign and apply.

The thing he should have done...and Aichele should have required before his departure... is to fill the position with another person.

You can't have your cake...and eat it too

[mtarascio]

Mike Pederson - US Fencing August 14, 2009

US Fencing is now accepting applications for the position of Women's Foil National Team Coach. This position is directly responsible for designing, managing and leading the Women's Foil program at the Senior, Junior and Cadet levels. This position reports directly to the Director of High Performance.

Please send all resumes and inquiries to Mike Pederson, Director of High Performance.

The above was on the USFA Webpage.

Mike has been privy to inside information. Inquiries and resumes were sent to him from other candidates. This in itself is a conflict of interest.

Due to this conflict of interest, I believe Mike should withdraw his name from consideration from this position.

[forethought]

Main page. First noticed it today:

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/1927/fencingforum.jpg

Something that will help the admin of the FencingForum board:

Open up a Command Prompt (Start -> Run -> 'cmd') and type 'nslookup fencingforum.com' (without the single quote) and it return. Make note of the IP address it gives at the bottom. I can view the forum just fine, and my nslookup query reports that DNS name resolves to 76.162.189.46 ; if this is not the IP your query gives you, you are probably the victim of DNS cache poisoning, or your HOSTS file has been altered (various malware can do this). If it IS the IP reported, there is more than likely a problem on the system the forum is running on.

[fdad]

Which is relevant in most situations because while he wouldn't be involved in the decision making process he knows and is (to varying degrees) friendly with those who would be making the decision, which gives him an unfair advantage over candidates who aren't known to the panel.

Given how small the fencing community is I feel confident that I'm right in saying that ALL of the applicants know and are (to varying degrees) friendly with those who would be making the decision.

-m

While all the players know eahc other - they all didn't recently work together on the committee evaluating candidates, potentially providing feedback on these other candidates, and learning how the committee members responded to certain answers to certain questions. The other candidates also did not help select the hiring committee members. Under the circumstances, if he does not get the job it will be a big surprise.

[eac]

We need a coach in each weapon/gender to be coaching during FIE Team events.
You can call him/her National coach or international coach or whatever.
But we need 6 of them to be familiar with our top fencers ability to perform
in a team event, to be familiar with opponents abilities, consistencies,
to predict the best match-ups etc.

We are up against Europeans who have coaches who live with their teams
for months during camps, we need at least to try to close this gap.

It requires travel to at least 5 WC + Zonals + World Championship per year.
Preferably more to gain more knowledge.

.

Yeah, I agree we need those. But having those same people decide calendars and camps and all that stuff doesn't make sense, especially if you're going to swear off arguing with them, because we already have other people who know what to do with that, and *those* should be the people voting about that.

[downunder]

Something that will help the admin of the FencingForum board:

Open up a Command Prompt (Start -> Run -> 'cmd') and type 'nslookup fencingforum.com' (without the single quote) and it return. Make note of the IP address it gives at the bottom. I can view the forum just fine, and my nslookup query reports that DNS name resolves to 76.162.189.46 ; if this is not the IP your query gives you, you are probably the victim of DNS cache poisoning, or your HOSTS file has been altered (various malware can do this). If it IS the IP reported, there is more than likely a problem on the system the forum is running on.

It is the ip address recorded. Seems like it's on their end.

[MyrddinsPrecint]

Mike Pederson is an amazing coach! He knowledge of the sport on every level is amazing. He is a fencing genius and we would be lucky to have him as the national WF coach. If he says he wants to focus on coaching I believe him.

I am glad you have a good relationship with him.

What you fail to understand is that the "national coach" position wasn't created so that all the fencers in contention show up at that person's club, get great lessons, get great feedback, and then get great strip coaching during national competitions.

The national coach is expected to take fencers that that coach may see every day and worry about their needs, and also take fencers that coach may not know at all, or even personally dislike, and worry about their needs. And actually be fair about it. And sure, there's some level of strip coaching involved, but there's a LOT of politics involved.

Part of the politics involved are that if it *looks* like there was impropriety in his hiring--- even if there in fact is no impropriety anywhere--- there will be a whole lot of sour grapes that will make it harder for him to do his job.

There are plenty of people who can coach well, but are bad or dislike the politics, and plenty of politically minded people who just don't have enough coaching background.

[keith]

While all the players know eahc other - they all didn't recently work together on the committee evaluating candidates, potentially providing feedback on these other candidates, and learning how the committee members responded to certain answers to certain questions. The other candidates also did not help select the hiring committee members.

It should be pointed out that he could have sequestered himself from those discussions. After all the job posting officially had to come from the HPD, that does not mean that he saw applications or discussed the suitability of those applicants with the hiring committee.

I don't know if that's what he did, just pointing out that there are accepted/acceptable ways of managing this sort of conflict of interest.

[notalent]

For me and 3 other people on three different computers it shows Viagra adverts. I think there is a problem.

Maybe its trying to tell you something

[piste off]

For me and 3 other people on three different computers it shows Viagra adverts.

In other words, a "pop-up" ad.

R-

[Dev]

For me and 3 other people on three different computers it shows Viagra adverts. I think there is a problem.

Perhaps implying that UK fencers would enjoy stiffer blades?

[edew]

Perhaps implying that UK fencers would enjoy stiffer blades?

Yay, now I can finally join in this thread.