Board meeting minutes & Task Force thingy

Triathlon Forum
1

minutes are up. go to the front page of USAT’s website, or…

http://www.usatriathlon.org/Pages/Board_Minutes.htm

either this is up to date, or we might have had one more meeting since. if we’ve had another teleconference meeting, we’ll get these minutes up post-haste.

we also have an election task force publication on the site. this is extremely impactful. this is what we’ll be debating, that is, how much of the petition to keep, what to jettison, what to alter. best read it.

of course, as a result of the petition, you all will have a right to vote on these bylaw changes before any of them would come into effect.

2

bump. especially for…

“smtyrrell99–how about a posting of the meeting minutes.”
“tomziebart-- We passed the petition - we should not have to push anymore.”
“Robert–It’s been my experience that politicians are in favor of open government and term limits until they get elected.”
“triitnow–Basically the meetings are gatherings to discuss and plan for the next meeting. Nothing gets accomplished.”
“tom–We expect better from you and most of us were hoping for a change with the new elections. It is discouraging that we have not yet seen a change.”

3

Thanks, Dan.

I hope you guys are able to move quickly on the stenographer issue :wink:

4

Excellent start in my humble opinion.

The extension of Director’s service into '05 looks illegal on its face, but will anyone file a legal challenge? It is a good practical solution, however.

No mention of the current price tag of the legal bills and whether they would be the subject of negotiation and reduction with counsel. (I assume so since you are on that little committee. :)- )

Too bad about Steve Locke, but let’s hope you find a good candidate with strong membership skills.

I look forward to a transcripted version.

Which member of this board is strong representative for the members? :),

You’ve done what no one else on the Board would do. Isn’t it amazing what good leadership skills-and a huge following-can accomplish?

Your large fan base here owes you a huge debt of gratitude for doing this. You didn’t have to go and fill your life with the headaches attendant to service to our sport. But you did. Character still counts. :slight_smile:

-Robert

5

“The extension of Director’s service into '05 looks illegal on its face”

it is. however, according to the bylaws, nothing we’d do wouldn’t be illegal. if you held a fall election, you have to break a variety of bylaws (many or most of those in Artcle XXI, Section 3; also the requirement that an issue of tri times be devoted to the election). if you don’t hold a fall election, you break bylaws. the question is, which set of bylaws do you break? my argument is that you do what causes the least harm. it appears the board as a whole felt that way.

one thing, however. we didn’t extend the directors’ service. we’ll treat their seats as vacancies, and when these seats become vacant the board will appoint directors to serve for the subsequent six months.

also remember that the 2005 election is now underway, hence the task force’s comment about two elections ongoing simultaneously:

Sept 1 – Nominations open for upcoming year
Dec 1 – Nominations close.
Jan 15 – Ballots & special election issue of Triathlon Times mailed to eligible voters
Feb 1 – Ballot posted to federation website
Mar 1 – Final day for ballots to arrive at election central
Mar 15 – Results announced
Apr 1 – Deadline to protest election
Apr 30 – Deadline to hear and decide any protest
May 1 – Results certified
Jul 1 – New board takes office at noon

it ought to be noted that there would have been no need to break ANY bylaws had the petition been subjected to a vote in a timely fashion. however, none of our federation’s attorneys, staff, or board members wanted the petition to pass, which is shameful on its face.

one might do well to keep that in mind when considering the task force’s report. while i’d support some of its elements, i’ll be against many or most of them, as the task force was constructed of current and former board members who liked the way things were pre-petition. i rather like how the are now.

consider, for example, the minutes now published on the site. think these minutes would be on the site today without the petition? how many other elements important to USAT’s members would be ignored without the petition’s bylaws?

what you do need to be vigilant about is the board attempting to simply ignore the petition’s bylaw requirements. members need to stand cocked and ready to defend their rights as expressed in the current (post-petition) bylaws.

6

Most members do not realize what a mess this is. We definitely need the members to be “junk yard dogs” and be ready to voice our displeasure when and if the Board turns back to its old ways.

The attorney’s fees issue alone is an abomination.

Thanks for the clarification on the Directors vacancies.

Yes, about the minutes-great job. Your predecessors would not do it and why? Good communication in USAT might lead to better management and more involvement by the members. We can hope, right? :slight_smile:

Good luck. You need it.

-Robert

7

Dan - Thank you! The board’s on the right track and the appointment of Mike Greer was a very good decision. Keep up the good work! Thanks for keeping us informed. Z

8

Thank you for keeping on top of it. Along with another poster, given the excuse “we’ve always done it that way” (eliciting my - we expect better - comment) the rank and file members (us) need to stay on top of things as well to make sure that changes really take effect.

Unfortunately for Dan, it is easy for us to complain here and it is easy for us to complain about Dan here.

Thankfully, it is easy for us to complain here and possibly Dan can use that in the future to push issues along.

9

Well, well, well…the little USAT BOD empire has to finally act like a real board, with fiduciary duties and public accountability. I’ve got to say that my thinking has been that they were headed down the old IOC path. You know, no accountability, action by imperial fiat, perks galore etc. Good to see that some change has occurred, which is always a good thing.

Kahuna

10

Thanks Slowman. Sets me straight.

I think this is a good start. Although I was a bit surprised to only see two items on the Agenda for an entire month - the hiring of the transcriptionist and the Executive Director. I guess I would have expected to read updates on other activities like finance, marketing, events, duathlon, facilities, etc. etc. etc. I just imagined that the Board covered more ground at the monthly meeting.

I guess I’ll have to read the previous month’s minutes. Also maybe all that additional stuff is saved for the in-person meeting of Sept 13-15. Is that a quarterly meeting?

11

“I was a bit surprised to only see two items on the Agenda for an entire month”

on the agenda during the three conference calls, per the published minutes:

• in-person board meeting date and place
• executive director search committe set-up
• implications of the petition
• interim executive director
• USOC mandated election task force
• hiring of transcriptionist
• executive director search update
• change of in-face meeting date
• miscellaneous item
• miscellaneous item

total time in the aggregate of these three teleconference calls: between 6hr and 7hr.

we had another teleconference meeting as well, and our new board member from the East, Rob Kasper, has just finished compiling the minutes. in this meeting we changed the front/center rule for bicycle legality, we carried a resolution to hire an interim E.D., and the result of this is the hiring of mike greer as interim E.D. we also discussed the issue of what ought to be published, and what ought to be omitted from publication, from the meetings. the were a couple of items discussed that were not part of the published minutes (miscellaneous items). one might agree that there are certain issues that, upon publication, may imperil USAT financially or legally.

yes, the in-face meeting would usually be quarterly, though i supect we’ll have two in the fall, probably september and then maybe another in oct/nov. that will be the one dealing with finance and budget.