FIE directives for 2010-2011 Season (which the USFA could not wait for)

[gladius]

Yes, Sunil is a Member of the FIE EC; Yes, he was there; and Yes he contributed to the meeting. He also told us it was not going to be official until it was published, which is normal business procedure.

Mark Stasinos
Vice-President
US FEncing Association

Mark, pardon my insistence, but in the Gregorian calendar which is the internationally accepted civil calendar, February 6, the date of the FIE EC meeting where the 2010-2011 season was unanimously approved according to Usmanov's letter cited in the OP, precedes by seven days February 14, the date of the USFA Board meeting when the USFA new 2010-2011 season was voted and approved.

Even giving ample time to Sunil to recover from the exhaustion of jet lag induced fatigue, he could/should have placed a call to you from Lausanne immediately after the conclusion of the meeting and give you and everybody else on the EC of the USFA the heads up of what was coming down the pipe. He voted for it for crying out loud and the vote apparently was unanimous!

And if you had received such call, I suppose you would have realized that to cast our season in stone now was ... let say not advisable. But at least from your words, and I believe you, on February 14, and for several days after, neither you and likely your cohorts on the BoD knew absolutely nothing about this rather important decision at the FIE EC.

My question is how is this possible?

[Mr.MightyMouse]

Mark, pardon my insistence, but in the Gregorian calendar which is the internationally accepted civil calendar, February 6
My question is how is this possible?

Dear Gladius, the answer to your question lies within it - Russia stopped using the Julian calendar in 1918, so perhaps Mr. Usmanov is just a touch behind times?

[downunder]

Back on topic, interesting that all senior FIE events will now have referees appointed by the FIE, not brought by federations. This will keep com-arbitrage very busy.

[PretAllez]

Montreal junior event ... in DECEMBER .... in Montreal ... a week before Christmas.... pack your long underwear and good luck with that
(but I'm not complaining: hey, it wasn't cut)

Montreal senior MF WC event on weekend of June 17, closely followed by
Montreal senior WF GP event on June 24 weekend = ST JEAN BAPTIST DAY!!! = TOTAL PARTY, certainly as big as July 4 in the States. Lots of independentiste noise, parades, the whole shebang.
(Could be a good thing, or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it... I'm sure the refs will LOVE it)

[edew]

[...]
My question is how is this possible?

The USFA, making the impossible possible since 2008.

[hello?]

My question is how is this possible?

Oh, I am sure there are reasons.

[mdstasinos]

Mark, pardon my insistence, but in the Gregorian calendar which is the internationally accepted civil calendar, February 6, the date of the FIE EC meeting where the 2010-2011 season was unanimously approved according to Usmanov's letter cited in the OP, precedes by seven days February 14, the date of the USFA Board meeting when the USFA new 2010-2011 season was voted and approved.

Even giving ample time to Sunil to recover from the exhaustion of jet lag induced fatigue, he could/should have placed a call to you from Lausanne immediately after the conclusion of the meeting and give you and everybody else on the EC of the USFA the heads up of what was coming down the pipe. He voted for it for crying out loud and the vote apparently was unanimous!

And if you had received such call, I suppose you would have realized that to cast our season in stone now was ... let say not advisable. But at least from your words, and I believe you, on February 14, and for several days after, neither you and likely your cohorts on the BoD knew absolutely nothing about this rather important decision at the FIE EC.

My question is how is this possible?

Just to clarify the point. Yes, Sunil is part of the FIE EC that approved this schedule the first week of February, and yes we could not refer to the schedule until it was published and to make this clear this is a draft of the schedule that still needs to be voted on by the FIE Congress in April before it come official. Therefore still till April it is not official and after the vote in April, if the FIE does as it has in the past, we will get the official schedule the first week of May. (Changes can still be made with the FIE schedule till April and if you don't think so then check out the senior calender with Men's Epee in February being in Kuwait City, that World Cup was just canceled and their federation decertified. Did they come back into compliance already?)

Mark Stasinos
Vice-President
US Fencing Association

[Inquartata]

Tsk. Clearly it would have been very "cesspool" to act on information which, however correct and useful, did not bear the stamp of "official approval"*. And remember that in any case it didn't really matter, since the National Coaches Had Spoken.

*I am sure that Sunil first had to email Christine to ask permission to tell anyone what happened, and then wait for a reply from Boardroom Level...

[KidLazy]

Just to clarify the point. Yes, Sunil is part of the FIE EC that approved this schedule the first week of February, and yes we could not refer to the schedule until it was published and to make this clear this is a draft of the schedule that still needs to be voted on by the FIE Congress in April before it come official. Therefore still till April it is not official and after the vote in April, if the FIE does as it has in the past, we will get the official schedule the first week of May. (Changes can still be made with the FIE schedule till April and if you don't think so then check out the senior calender with Men's Epee in February being in Kuwait City, that World Cup was just canceled and their federation decertified. Did they come back into compliance already?)

Mark Stasinos
Vice-President
US Fencing Association

:/ My question still stands. :/

Ah, so it is known. What is USFA's contingency plan if it does become offical?

We carry min. two bodycords and weapons to the strip because something might go wrong and a back-up would be needed. Just because it is currently unoffical and might continue to change, doesn't mean we should ignore it. At least we now know the direction that FIE is taking, thus we should have a back-up plan/schedule ready in hand that addressing any conflict with the proposed FIE schedule. Please tell me that we have a back-up plan/schedule... because that would be the responsible thing to do. :/

[mdstasinos]

:/ My question still stands. :/
We carry min. two bodycords and weapons to the strip because something might go wrong and a back-up would be needed. Just because it is currently unoffical and might continue to change, doesn't mean we should ignore it. At least we now know the direction that FIE is taking, thus we should have a back-up plan/schedule ready in hand that addressing any conflict with the proposed FIE schedule. Please tell me that we have a back-up plan/schedule... because that would be the responsible thing to do. :/

Have you looked at the FIE proposed schedule? Right now with their current proposal and what we have done in the change of the schedule, there are less conflicts with NAC's than we have ever had in the past 20 years. The only weekend that comes in to conflict with our schedule is February with the Senior Schedule with Men's foil and sabre being the same weekend as JO's. Other than that there are no conflicts. In addition it is also up to the National Coaches to designate which events they wish to use for the Juniors and Seniors for the season. They will not travel to all the events. So, if this is the proposal by the FIE, and the only conflict the entire season are 2 Senior events during the JO's, why would we need to be a back up plan?

Mark Stasinos
Vice-President
US Fencing Association

[bbower]

What about the Junior world cups in all 6W during JOs in 2011?

[Mihail]

b) Senior calendar

- a maximum of 3 competitions per federation

What does this mean?

[mdstasinos]

What about the Junior world cups in all 6W during JOs in 2011?

They do not fall on the same weekend as the JO's. The JWC are the 5-6 and the 19-20, JO's and the presidents weekend are the weekend of 12-13 of February.

Mark Stasinos
Vice-President
US Fencing Association

[bbower]

President's day is February 21, 2011

[hello?]

President's day is February 21, 2011

Can you clarify what calendar you are going by? Gregorian or 'other'?

[hello?]

a) Junior and senior calendar

There are now only 8 competitions in total (instead of 14) in each
junior and senior weapon of the calendars. This entails the
cancellation of 40% of the competitions, and for some federations, the
cancellation of their only competition.

Have you looked at the FIE proposed schedule? Right now with their current proposal and what we have done in the change of the schedule, there are less conflicts with NAC's than we have ever had in the past 20 years.

I don't know ANYTHING about the international calendar or how it works (so excuse me in advance if everybody knows the answer to this already): is the fact that we have less conflicts due to the brilliance of the new schedule (which would most definitely be nice to hear) or the fact that there are significantly less FIE tournaments?

[passata_sotto]

Can you clarify what calendar you are going by? Gregorian or 'other'?

http://www.when-is.com/presidents-day-2011.asp

President's day by any calendar is the 21st of Feb in 2011.

[hello?]

http://www.when-is.com/presidents-day-2011.asp

President's day by any calendar is the 21st of Feb in 2011.

Apparently not:

What about the Junior world cups in all 6W during JOs in 2011?

They do not fall on the same weekend as the JO's. The JWC are the 5-6 and the 19-20, JO's and the presidents weekend are the weekend of 12-13 of February.

[edew]

Whether President's Day is on the 21st of Feb, 2011 or not does not prevent the USFA from running the JOs the weekend before. It'll screw a bunch of fencers, parents and referees because there's no free day off from regular school or work, but it can be done.

[fdad]

Whether President's Day is on the 21st of Feb, 2011 or not does not prevent the USFA from running the JOs the weekend before. It'll screw a bunch of fencers, parents and referees because there's no free day off from regular school or work, but it can be done.

It's too late to fix, by order of the USFA, President's Day 2011 will be held a week early.