Board Meeting - February 14, 2010

[Jason]

Because an imaginary group can only create imaginary reports?

[fdad]

Because they are wonderful people doing the best job they possibly can?

What job is that?

[keith]

What job is that?

The job they are performing to the best of their ability.

To even think about thinking otherwise will result in you having to wade hip deep through the cesspools finest sarcasm .

[MdA]

You're reading it wrong. There's no certification included, just as anyone who currently joins as a "coach competitive" or "coach associate" member is not certified.

I suspect a degree of sarcasm in the original post. Might it not make more sense to bestow the title 'professional' to folks with some other qualification beyond the absence of felony convictions?

Pirates

....and the Youth Development Committee is not imaginary....it's dead.

[keith]

....and the Youth Development Committee is not imaginary....it's dead.

Nah it's just sleeping.

[fdad]

Pirates

....and the Youth Development Committee is not imaginary....it's dead.

How can it be dead if the BoD delegates oversight responsibility to it and approves the appointment of its members?

[Jason]

Zombie committee!!

[keith]

Zombie committee!!

Is there a shotgun provision in the new bylaws?

[heretic]

How can it be dead if the BoD delegates oversight responsibility to it and approves the appointment of its members?

Andrea Lagan was the committee (with a little help from Ro). Get Cap't to give her a call and ask.

[Capt. Slo-mo]

Feel free to call her yourself.

I'm sure she has something colorful to say to you.

[oso97]

Andrea Lagan was the committee (with a little help from Ro). Get Cap't to give her a call and ask.

Point of correction - Andrea hasn't been a member of the YDC for a substantial amount of time. Go back and look at the Committee lists published.

[fdad]

Point of correction - Andrea hasn't been a member of the YDC for a substantial amount of time. Go back and look at the Committee lists published.

The question is not "who is on the committee?", the question is who has been making the decisions that the committee had been "empowered" to make? AFAIK, the committee has not functioned as a committee for at least two years; no meetings, no reports, no actual participation by the BoD approved members. Yet the BoD continues to refer to this committee as if it were real and even approves the appointment of new members from time to time.

[heretic]

....which brings us back to "doe." Policies and decisions were set by Andrea and Ro. When Nancy came in, the committee went bye-bye; unless you count a few names listed on a website who were never vetted for the position, let alone consulted on anything. Business as usual.

[hello?]

So, anybody know what happened last night at the board meeting?

[ysbadadden]

So, anybody know what happened last night at the board meeting?

Exactly. Can someone just fill us in -- at least on the results of the most controversial proposals?

[AllezCat]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XazOmi4yIbU

[dberke]

So, anybody know what happened last night at the board meeting?

The meeting ran from (roughly) 9:30pm to 2am. Here's a quick summary:

2nd hearing motions:
#1 (new membership classes): Withdrawn
#2 (100% promition at vet nationals): Tabled and referred to the tournament and veteran committees so that they could try to reach a mutually-agreeable plan.
#3 (Ops manual language on club affiliation): Amended and passed. I asked if the change in language would affect NCAA fencers and was told that it would not.
#4 (clubs sanctioning of events): Tabled (until September) and referred to several committees for feedback.
#5 (limits on ED spending/contracting): Amended and then passed.
#6 (exclusion process): Tabled and referred to the tournament committee

#4 is the one most people are interested in - the club sanctioning one. It was decided that a number of committees needed to provide feedback on this (essentially, do more research into what effects it would have), so it was referred to those committees for input.

New bylaws:
Prior to the meeting, the bylaws group held open meetings for feedback (which I was unable to attend.) As a result of the feedback, they removed the sunsetting of divisions and sections from the new bylaws, opting to leave the division/section structure alone and let the new Board deal with that later.

There still was quite a bit of discussion about the bylaws, and a lot of questions were raised. However, in the end, the new bylaws (without the div/section stuff) were voted to be presented to the membership in July. The vote was something like 16 for and 5 against.

First hearing motions:
#1 (Committe list): Moved to urgent and passed
#2 (reports from committee researching rating systems): Moved to urgent and passed
#3 (Team composition requirements): Referred to TC
#4 (Make Vet-70 events permanent): Moved to urgent and passed
#5 (rewrite qualifier rules to be clearer and give examples in the ops manual): Moved to urgent and passed
#6 (New NAC schedule): Moved to urgent and passed
#7 (National team oversight committee): Withdrawn
#8 (National office feedback mechanism): Seconded, will be 2nd hearing in July
#9 (Youth trickledown qualifiers): Moved to urgent, amended to be effective August 1st 2010, and passed
#10 (late addition to the agenda regarding removing restrictions on team events): Referred to TC

#6 is the one most people care about: the new NAC schedule. This is the one where the December NAC is gone, Div I and vet are moved to October, and the cadet event formerly in October now moves to January. (The Div III that was in October is gone.) Team events will be held at each NAC and JOs.

Dan

[CvilleFencer]

Thanks so much for the post Dan!

[dsapery]

The question is not "who is on the committee?", the question is who has been making the decisions that the committee had been "empowered" to make? AFAIK, the committee has not functioned as a committee for at least two years; no meetings, no reports, no actual participation by the BoD approved members. Yet the BoD continues to refer to this committee as if it were real and even approves the appointment of new members from time to time.

....which brings us back to "doe." Policies and decisions were set by Andrea and Ro. When Nancy came in, the committee went bye-bye; unless you count a few names listed on a website who were never vetted for the position, let alone consulted on anything. Business as usual.

Speaking from experience, that wouldn't be the first committee that went bye-bye under Nancy (at least the committee remained as a group of people with no authority, with un-vetted people actually making decisions).

In any case, I recently helped run an SYC and we had a question about point awards. The national office referred me to the Youth Committee. I contacted the chair who told me that she had just been unceremoniously dethroned by the VP. I attempted to contact the new chair, who didn't get back to me for almost 2 weeks, by which time the SYC had already come and gone.

[2012]

The committee has been subsumed by the various factions in US Fencing and is now under the leadership of Vice President Jane Carter. Kate Hanna is now the chair I believe. Kate was supposed to meet with Jane at JO's but I do not think that meeting was held. So, would forward your questions to Jane Carter if you wish to know what is going on.