So here it is time to renew my USAT card and all this stuff going on with them. I have been a card carrying member for many years and am well aware that the membership saves me the one day membership fee. What I need to know is, is there any other reason I should fork over the $30.00 given all thats going on with them? Just on principal alone I feel like not renewing. They do not have age group athletes best interests as a priority.
Thoughts?
I’ll probably renew this year, because I doubt this’ll be resolved before my renewal date… and I have three or more USAT races on my calendar this year, so why not save the $? However, if things aren’t resolved to my liking, I doubt I’ll renew again in 2006, and I may “retire” to adventure racing, too…
Voting with your feet, and leaving USAT, is always an option. But I’d want to have some say over which way our sport is headed, and not paying dues just hurts the RDs and others who work hard to put on a quality race, with rankings (which seems to be a particular fixation with a lot of the athletes in our sport) and whatnot.
I have to admit that there’s a certain cachet to having the USAT sticker and other paraphernalia, too. Not that it’d be worth more than 40 or 50 bucks a year, though. And even though I haven’t done more than 4 races since August of '99, for various health reasons (I’ve got high hopes for this year, though!), I still like to receive the mailings, gear deals and other group stuff that USAT’s been generally good at producing. Plus, I guess that being in the organization provides some small sense of community, much like participation in this forum and website does, also.
T.
“But I’d want to have some say over which way our sport is headed, and not paying dues just hurts the RDs and others who work hard to put on a quality race, with rankings (which seems to be a particular fixation with a lot of the athletes in our sport) and whatnot.”
This is a great point, but one that may be moot if the USOC gets the kind of control they want. If the Board is required to be made up of people who don’t reflect the AGer’s voice, then what kind of vote do you think we’ll have? It’ll be a choice between living with the dictator or leaving the association. Frankly, I like the control we have over the federation. I think it was a good thing that there was a huge shake-up over the past year. I don’t want to lose the control we members have over the direction of our federation and our sport.
Now… if the USAT decertifies itself, or gets decertified, I’ll probably stick around, as long as our AG representation on the Board is maintained. I don’t mind contributing to the elites and their Olympic dreams, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to let the USOC unilaterally dictate how things will be at the expense of my say in the organization. I’d rather not belong to that kind of organization.
I say renew, not only to save the money, but to help save USAT. As long as prop. 2 fails, the membership will still have control of USAT. The BOD won’t be able hand it over to the USOC. The membership needs to be involved, and vote down anything that gives power to the USOC or lets the BOD do the same. We also need to vote in new BOD members who are going to reflect the wants and needs of the AG (money paying) athlete.
I’m still waiting for my official card to come back. renewed in mid Jan, still have the ballot on my desk awaiting an experiation date so I can mail.