Pacific NW "region" and USAT

Triathlon Forum
21

Hi there,
I’ll repeat what I said in my post to Dan: Ultimately, USAT is a non-profit organization and is funded in large part by us, right? Would you pay to belong to an organization that doesn’t listen to its members? I think the idea of “stripping power” from either the regions or the membership base is somewhat overblown.

There are some great people on the regional board, the national board and at USAT headquarters. I had a chance to meet all 10 regional presidents at the annual meeting in February and let me tell you, it’s a very dedicated and fired-up group of folks who want what’s best for you and me as athletes.

I’m excited to get the new board in place and start moving some of the issues that we all have concerns about forward.

Thanks,

Gina

22

It’s been said before in various thread, but I’ll throw it out again. What athletes/participants want is a safe, accurately measured/timed event with equitable rules enforcement. Most of us know that quality can vary between production companies, venues, year to year, etc. Putting on a multisport event is a huge challenge and I applaud those who are brave and/or crazy enough to try it, let alone be successful at it.

IMnsHO, if USAT wants to be successful and grow, it needs to establish itself as a quality brand that delivers a consistant product race to race, region to region, year after year. Otherwise, I don’t have any reason to look for the USAT logo when selecting events or join, for that matter.

I think triathlon has reached a level of critical mass to the point that the sport and it’s participants no longer need the USAT, the USAT need us. Perhaps I’m wrong, but if the USAT was to fall off the face of the Earth tomorrow, I doubt us age-groupers would suddenly have to take up bocci ball because there are no races.

I wish all of you the best in sorting out the current morass, however it currently does not seem to be impeding my enjoyment of the sport.

Regards,

Brett

23

“I am not comfortable at all with our current current western representative on the national board (Tim Becker).”

i know i’m preaching to the choir, but i’ll preach anyway. you have a significant number of NON-sanctioning races in the PNW. once upon a time AA Sports was USAT’s champion, and this RD brought many of the other RDs in the area into the USAT family because it stages perhaps 15 triathlons plus it acts as the timing contractor for the area’s other RDs.

i believe the race in question was in late summer of '02, and an incident involving tim becker while in an official USAT capacity caused AA Sports to lodge a complaint to USAT. USAT did nothing, or at least did nothing for quite a long time (all this according to people i know close to AA Sports, i haven’t heard anybody’s other side of this). this pissed off AA Sports, and it is my understanding this is why AA Sports does not sanction. (yes, there is also the $9 thing, but that’s not why they stopped sanctioning. that’s an issue you have to overcome before you can get them back). anyway, because this RD got the others to sanction, its lack of desire to sanction caused some of the other RDs to pull out as well.

now, here’s the irony. we californians put tim becker in his current position. we gave him to you, he’s radioactive, and you must now overcome him. the petition fixes that. it forever keeps those of us 1500 miles south of you from screwing up your lives.

“If the board becomes power-obsessed and wants to take “all of our rights away” as members why would I pay to renew my membership?”

valid point, and here’s my answer. you pay property taxes. if your county doesn’t do what you want, why would you continue to pay taxes to it? because if you don’t, it’ll take away your house.

you already bought USAT. you own it. it’s worth about $2 million right now (if you liquidated it and just sold the assets). why would you want to walk away from the house you built, with your own money and sweat?

pass the petition, and they can’t take your house away.

24

Hi Ken,

I invite you to run for the Pacific Northwest board for the next term which begins in 2005 (elections are in December). Each person on the Pac NW board spends anywhere from 1-10 hours per week working on USAT regional issues. We travel to races and meetings and make lots of calls (mostly long distance) - all on our own time and at our own cost. Our region is very light on funds so we can’t afford to reimburse the board for mileage and/or phone costs. We do it because we all have a passion for the sport, not for any personal gain.

Thanks,

Gina

25

Hmmm. I think you missed my point. Dan just made it again, more concretely, above. Sorry to have been unclear.

Ken

26

Dan: Wanted to make sure you knew I was not ducking the questions. Just busy.

I am increasingly swayed by the wisdom of the reorganization as this process has evolved. Having worked hard to get a board in place last year as president, and then with the new energy, I ahve been afraid of losing focus in the 8 region board structure. I would have preferred to create 10 board positions (states rights and all :-).

Tim has withdrawn from regional activities as of January and his board position is up in December.

I mixed my vote up – no slate. I hope you run for president of the board. I’ve changed positions a number of times and continue to. Given my experience over the last year I would be releuctant to state my votes in this forum for the record. I sincerly believe a number of the candidates and personalities in this election demonstrate a capacity to be mean, vindictive, and untrustworthy.

The region has been highly politicized by the personalities involved as obviously has the national board. The current election makes me fearful that the national level isn’t going to get much better for awhile. At the regional level we have a positive vital dynamic organization evolving with serious talent and principled commitment. My biggest fear is that the petition and continued upheaval will undermine our increasing successes.

27

Gotcha, thanks. Run anyways - we can use the help :slight_smile:

-gina

28

“My biggest fear is that the petition and continued upheaval will undermine our increasing successes.”

your job is simple.

explain why the petitions 8 new regions will hurt PNW athletes you serve, versus the three regions now in place.

explain why the preservation of the right of petition is worse for your PNW members than vesting board members with unlimited power of governance.

explain how the petition’s election structure (which the blue ribbon panel pretty much paralleled in its decision) is better than those set out in the current bylaws.

explain to those you serve why USAT’s historical veil of secrecy is better than the openness and transparency the petition mandates.

explain these things to those you serve, and then they’ll vote no on the petition and your job gets a lot easier going forward.

29

“Run anyways” No thanks, I can barely make the time to do the “running” that I really want to do! Of course, I’m grateful for the time and effort (and money) donated by people such as yourself, this is what makes the races possible. In this regard, I’m like Brett, what I really care about are plentiful, safe, fun races with uniform (and uniformly enforced) rules. To the extent that USAT provides these things, it is a good thing, but really from my perspective, it’s a necessary thing. To participate in many of the events in my area, USAT fees are required. Since I’m paying the money, this election is an opportunity to do what I can (given my time constraints) to see that it’s not wasted. Clearly the recent members of the national board have had difficulty working and playing well with others, so I see the petition as nothing more than a tool to force them to behave somewhat more civilly, which in turn will hopefully direct USAT’s energies back towards providing the things I’m really interested in, mentioned above.

Is the board going to implode if the petition doesn’t pass? Probably not, but on the whole I think passage of the petition will contribute to a more healthy working environment that that which currently seems to exist. The worst outcome would be that USAT dies because the people nominally in charge can’t get along, forcing people like you to start over again… you’ve got enough to do, right? Good luck with your season- I’m off to run myself, the kind that doesn’t need a platform!

Ken

30

Uncle…Uncle…:slight_smile: just don’t merge PNW with those other states like Nevada and Utah.(Colorado especially :slight_smile: .And conduct a thorough professional CEO search. We want this region to become the example of regional excellence, USAT to ensure the best/safest races an age group athlete can do.

31

“just don’t merge PNW with those other states like Nevada and Utah.”

wait. i don’t get it. i thought those states, plus colorado and california, and arizona, and new mexico, were part of your regional organization. voting regions and regional federations must be one and the same, right? :slight_smile:

32

While I believe you are joking to make a point…most people don’t ‘get’ the relationship. Just saying that Currently the USAT regions are seperate entities from voting regions/representation. I guess this needs to be clear. In the reorg… the current 10 regions remain as regional federations right? Even though there are 8 voting regions. Or do you believe there will be a merge of the regions into 8?

33

“the current 10 regions remain as regional federations right? Even though there are 8 voting regions.”

yes. exactly. there is no more of a fear of the 8 voting regions also becoming the 8 regional federation regions than is the case now with the three voting regions.

that said, it is unmistakable that the new voting regions will look more like regional federation regions than is the case now. why is that? because the regional federation regions make sense, and so the voting regions should too.

this begs the question, why not just merge them into the same entities? interesting question, but theoretical only. there is NOTHING in the petition that could allow that to happen.

however, let us say that you federations all really wanted that to happen. fine, give up a few states, accept a few states, so that your regions were closer to each other in membership size, as opposed to now, where one region might be 4 times bigger than another. then we could have ANOTHER PETITION (which we likely will never have if this one is voted down) and THAT petition would change voting regions to make them come into conformity with regional federations.

having said that, this is ENTIRELY up to you guys, because each of your federations are free-standing corporations and the national office couldn’t and wouldn’t mess with them, and the bylaws as the petition lays them out has no provision for doing that. it’s up to you guys. otherwise, things stay as they are. voting regions and regional federations are entirely separate animals.

finally, the new voting regions will make it easier for you guys to (let us say) bring up a potential candidate, make him known locally, and then run him for the national board. certain regions, like the mid-atlantic and northeast, already have this similarity between the regional federation and the territory of the board member who’ll represent it. in so doing, the petition’s plan increases the regional federation’s clout.

it paves the way for a lot more clout if the regional federations also want to have their entities be those from which board members come from. but again, that’s entirely up to you guys. currently, with the petition, you have the possibility of moving toward more clout if that’s what you want to do. in the same way, however, that an amendment is only added to the constitution of 75% of the states ratify it, i would guess bringing regional federations and voting regions into conformity would be something that would be adopted only if a minimum of 7 or 8 of the existing 10 federations agreed to do so.

but here’s the flip side. even if you all unanimously agreed to do so, it still couldn’t be done until 60% of the membership agrees. according to the petition, no bylaw gets changed unless the entire membership passes said bylaw change by a 60/40 vote (it ought to be a lot harder to change a bylaw than it now is).

i’m only speaking theoretically. the petition allows for the possibility of a roadmap toward conformity, but it’s only theoretical, frankly lew and i could care less, and it would never be done unless the regional feds felt they wanted to go in that direction.

34

While not privy to a lot of the inside politics in the NW, simply speaking, the non USAT sanctioning of the majority of races in the region is receiving a lot of grumbling from the atheltes. They now realize that from a national recognition stanpoint, they are just totally lost in the shuffel without it. As for Tim Becker, the consensus among the athletes is that the events he directs are pretty loosey goosey and borderline unsafe. FWIW.

35

We (the board) are committed to making the USAT PNW sanctioned events meet minimum standards and become the races of choice for all athletes. Its a work in progress. I haven’t done a non-sanctioned race in awhile (in the US) so I can’t comment on the quality of the other races. The Baker’s race was exceptional on all levels. I am committed to making sure my race will exceed beyond expectations I am sure of it. However its more than sanctioning. Race directors need support to know how to put together the best races. Resources such as the Dan Empfield series need to become a resource for USAT race directors. And everyone needs to commit to a level of quality that isn’t about making a buck and is about the race itself. Funny thing is… when I want to see how it’s done properly at a community/age group level – I go to Canada and race events such as the Peach Classic (Penticton) or Squamish Tri (south of Whistler). And if I want to see meaningful coaches certification I look to Canada (British club sports system). And when I want to find a really Hot Canadian woman to marry…oh… wrong forum. (still waiting for INS to approve). Bottom line is… lets make the regions function extremely well and get the national board pay attention to our lessons. We (the regions) are the future and hold the success of USAT in our hands.