New Business and Finishing up the Day

The delegates and leaders at Governing Council 2015 were determined to push on through and finish everything today and not have to come back Sunday morning to finish. While it seemed like that was a pipedream at various points this afternoon, we persevered.

There were four items that were proposed for new business.

The first, which came from the earlier bylaw discussion of Exhibit E, was to take the two sections from eliminated from Exhibit E (the procedures for the election of nominating committee members) was easily approved by the delegates.

If anyone had lost interest in the discussions at the meeting, new business item #2 caught their attention. A delegate from the Broadmoor Skating Club proposed to eliminate the use of IJS judging for Juvenile and Intermediate levels and take them back to the 6.0 system. It would be for qualifying competitions and was proposed to take effect in July. (yes, this July) The rationale was IJS at the developmental stages was pushing young people away from the sport. There wasn't much discussion on this because you could tell by the mood of the audience, no one was in favor of it. I'm not even sure the person who proposed it, voted for it. Not adopted.

Item #3 came from Susan Keogh, requesting that the Rule Committee, in conjunction with U.S. Figure Skating legal counsel take a look at the Election Procedures that are in the Bylaws and come back with a recommendation as to which ones should be moved to rules. Approved.

Item #4, from Joe Armstrong, requested that final budget for the year just ending be posted to the Members Only website within four months of the end of the fiscal year and to show budget to actual numbers with variances. A motion was made by the treasurer to limit the time that the report is posted to the website to 30 days, but the delegates were not in favor it. The 30-day amendment was not approved, but the new business item was approved.

We had hit the 6 p.m. deadline, but still had a few more things to do. Like pass the budget, elect the officers and announce the nominating committee for the coming year. President Auxier asked for an additional 30 minutes and we managed to finish it all up by 6:30.

It was a pretty successful Governing Council. The dues increase was never isolated, so that was good news. With the exception of the discussion around #310 - the new rule that would allow an event referee to decide if an athlete can continue after suffering an injury like a suspected concussion. One comment against the rule change was that skaters know their bodies best and can make the determination as to whether they can continue skating, was astounding to anyone who understands how concussions impact decision making. And to spend 45 minutes discussing something that seemed to have support from many 4 or 5 percent of the delegates was outrageous.

Governing Council 2016 will be held in Columbus, Ohio - nice central location. We had it there a few years ago and it was a really fun place. The meeting will be the last weekend in April.

Afternoon Part 2

After sugar-loading on Doubletree cookies, we got back to business.

Before we went back to the isolated items, the Administrative/Legal group gave their reports and since they didn't have their one RFA isolated, it was a short time.

Back to the Technical Group items.
#317 (which adds bonuses for risk taking in the second half of a program)was isolated to rescind with the rational that it was harmful to the skaters and it gave the coaches too much control. It seemed like only one person was wanting to rescind the item. Voted down and the items stays as approved by the board.

#330 - Robin Greenleaf isolated the item to amend the language to make it friendly to multi-college synchro teams as long as the name reflects the collegiate nature of the team. Amendment approved.

#501 - Was about changes to the Juvenile Pairs Free Skate that was voted down by the  board. Troy Goldstein came back with a changes to the proposal and asked to have it reinstated. It was one of those conversations that I just wanted to leave up to the Pairs Committee since they understand the nuances far better than the rest of us.
The amendment was adopted, so the Juvenile Pairs FS program was altered to eliminate the the death spiral and allow only single throw jumps.

Then they talked about the fact that by changing the Juvenile Pairs FS, the committee would have to change the Pre-Juvenile Pairs FS so the elements are not more difficult that the Juvenile Pairs FS.  Surprising since the Pairs Committee actually tried to eliminate Pre-Juv Pairs.

The delegates were either restless or fading.

I sense that we may have to come back tomorrow to finish this meeting as we haven't even gotten to new business. The problem is a lot of people are flying home in the morning.

And when we finally got to voting on the Pre-Juvenile Pairs it was just to remove the death spiral. Adopted.

But then we went back to isolated item #501 because Mr. James, our legal counsel, felt that the governing body didn't fully understand what they were voting on.

At the same time as this discussion was happening, the headquarters staff started handing out the items for New Business. The second item was regarding eliminating IJS for Juvenile and Intermediate skaters at regionals, sectionals and Nationals. That got the room buzzing.

Posting this now since my battery is fading. Will do a separate blog post on New Business.

Back from lunch

The afternoon started with a video from the Adult Nationals. Adult skaters always have fun!

President Auxier shared highlights from the various board initiatives that are happening right now.

• Strategic Projects on Image & Branding
• Basic Skills Rebrand 
• Event Management System

Back to the isolations.

#307 - John Coughlin wanted to rescind and refer to committee the rule change that penalizes competitors who don't register by the September 1 by not allowing them to compete. The rule will be put into effect for the 2016 qualifying season, but will be re-evaluated by the committee with a recommendation to return in 2016. 

#308 - Terri Levine Skating Club of New York along with Hal Marron (Pacific Coast VP) presented an amended plan for the qualifying rounds that uses the same type of points system. 

This just isn't fair to the skaters and really not fair to the officials. You would have to have the same officials for all the events.  Lots of discussions and a line at the mic. 

Jason Wong wanted to strike the word "not" so the skaters would be seeded. That one word changed took about 15 minutes and removing "not" was voted down. 

Back to the original discussion and the natives are getting restless. Unfortunately, instead of voting on it, the idea was sent back to the competitions committee to talk about it again. Ugh!

#310 - Duties of the referee to determine whether an injured skater is allowed to continue. While it is a lot of pressure on the referee, it's important because sometimes the athletes and/or the coaches want them to continue. There have been situations where a skater gets injured during an event and they want to continue. But it is the role of the event referee to think of the health and welfare of the skaters. The discussion went on for quite sometime and far beyond my attention span. 

The discussion kept getting extended. 

and extended. 

and extended. 

and extended. 

And the majority was against the change and voted it down after a very painful conversation. 

Time for a cookie break. 

First Diet Coke of the Day

Our Lady of Perpetual Diet Coke

Back to the bylaws, but we had a new credentials report:
306 delegates
437 proxy votes
240 athlete votes
Total: 983

Exhibit F - duties of the secretary - adopted as presented.
Exhibit G - adding IRS language for restricted gifts to the Memorial Fund - adopted as presented.

Exhibit H - New grievance and disciplinary proceedings for Safe Sport to be taken over by U.S. Center for Safe Sport. This would only be for matters of sexual abuse and misconduct and other types of incidents would be handled by U.S. Figure Skating. Adopted as presented.

And now we're heading into the committee reports and the isolated RFAs. First up is Athlete Services Group and since they had no requests for action, it's just quick reports.

Second up is the Membership Development  Group lead by Mr. Ed Mann.  And nothing isolated. Not even the dues increase that seemed to be the hot topic at yesterday's Critical Issues. Still time I guess.

The Technical Group, lead by Lynn Goldman. She discussed the new conflict of interest disclosure policy for all technical panel and judges that was more encompassing than the prior policy. Looks at any type of monetary arrangements (including skate sharpening, music cutting, etc.)
The Technical Group had the majority of the isolations from this morning and a few more were added.
#307 - regarding byes.
#310 - Duties of the Event Referee and the Stops.
#317 - IJS principles of calculation

For those playing the home game, here are the items that are isolated: 302, 307, 308, 310, 317, 330 and 501.
#302 - The isolators don't like the fact that a special award was created for Adult Nationals and that the guidelines are not included in the proposal. Right now the criteria would be included in the announcement.  The motion to rescind the decision of the board failed, although there were lots of votes in favor of rescinding.

Time for lunch!!

Governing Council begins

We started the meeting with good news from David Raith about the most critical issue: The directory will now be available on the website in a PDF form as well as available for print-on-demand.

The meeting started with the credentials report:

300 delegates

427 proxy votes

235 athlete votes

Total: 962

The two VPs that are ending their terms this year, Hal Marron and Kathleen Kelly Cutone, thanked the membership and the awesome people at Headquarters. 

Minnesota has a small delegation here this year. Seems a bit strange.

First part of the meeting is business - approve minutes from the last year's Governing Council, approved the audit and heard from the head of the U.S. Figure Skating Foundation. 

Susi Wehrli and Brenda Glidewell are the time-keepers for any debating, and in the words of Sam Auxier, "whether you like it or not..."

First up: approving new U.S. Figure Skating Club - including The Edge FSC in Stillwater, Minnesota. This changed the credentials report:

306 delegates

430 proxy votes

235 athletes votes

Total: 971

Approved Olympic and World champions as honorary members

Isolation time: (items that a delegate disagrees with the decision of the board of directors)

308 - Competition Committee request not approved by the board that bases the advancement of skaters from qualifying rounds at qualifying competitions on their program score. (my opinion - bad idea)

330 - Synchronized Skating Committee - approved by the board - changing the requirements for collegiate level teams.

501 - Pairs Committee request not approved by the board that changes the juvenile pairs.

302 - Adult Skating Committee that adds a club team award at the U.S. Adult Championships. 

Bylaw discussion: (for details see http://govcouncil2015.blogspot.com/2015/05/whatcha-gonna-talk-about.html)

Exhibit A - Honorary Membership - approved. 

Exhibit B - Housekeeping item - approved.

Exhibit C - Athlete delegates numbers - approved

Exhibit D - Ex-officio members voting - approved

Exhibit E - Standing rules - there was a request to strike the three sections in the proposal E & F saying that these should not be in the bylaws but included in the rules. These three sections would either be referred back to the rules committee or as new business. After a full debate - sections E & F were removed and the Exhibit was approved as amended. 

Early morning caucus

Bright and early Saturday morning, when most of us are watching cartoons, it was time for our caucus meeting. Three meetings for the three sections, so I'm in the Midwest Caucus being lead by our VP, Lainie DeMore.

Started by recognizing our 25-year and 40-year officials, including Rochester's own Janet Mattson (40 year judge).  Then there was a small competition with the Eastern Section on who could cheer the loudest (they were in the meeting room next to ours and we could hear each other).

Then it was on to the nominating committee election between Gretchen Bonnie, Eden Chrostowski and Megan Gueli. Only Bonnie was in attendance at the meeting and

And then Pat St. Peter gave us a wonderful story about how the Harmony Ice Theater (90 skaters), drove five hours to Troy, Ohio, to surprise Kathy Slack, who has been monitoring the group and was supposed to travel with them to France for an international competition. And she got through it without any tears. Can't say the same for the rest of us.

It was scheduled as a one-hour meeting, but we finished in 30.

Critical Issues meeting

Now in addition to the green sheets, we have the yellow sheets that have all of the new National appointments.

Here are a few (Midwest specific):

National Accountant – Suzanne Schlecht (Madison, WI)

National Singles/Pairs judge: No Midwest officials

National Dance Judge – Danielle Rey

National Singles Technical Controller – Todd Bromley

National Singles Technical Specialist – Karen Anderson, Joshua Fischel, Stephanie Lab 

(I'm attaching photos of the two pages of the report below)

There were lots of resignations, but those were mostly due to people who were given appointments when IJS was new and they needed the bodies in various roles.

Proposal 202 – Dues Increase to start July 1, 2016. These are reasonable increases. USFS looked at other NGOs and we were comparable. 

Questions raised by delegates: But since our membership numbers are static, will this discourage membership?

Comment: As an NGO, US Figure Skating doesn’t really provide many benefits to the members. 

Question: Do our programs really get us medals?

Answer: Programs will help us retain skaters

Comment: If we agree to increasing the rates, can we get printed rule books and directories?

Comment: There’s too many people working at Headquarters. (My opinion: Not true)

Comment: It’s only $10. Skip a couple of trips to Starbucks.

We never got to another topic. <sigh>

Whatcha' gonna talk about??

Back in the day, delegates attending Governing Council (GC) would receive “The Book” via Express Mail. It would usually arrive about a month before GC, three-hole punched, colored sections and even include a cover that you could slip into your three-ring binder. The Book contains all the reports from leadership, committee chairs and headquarters staff. But the part that most of us would head for the notice of the meeting, the exhibits for bylaw changes and the various requests for action (RFA).

And then we would spend the next month debating them.

Governing Council was usually a three-day event for most of the delegates, but for the leadership and committee chairs, it could be a five days. The Board would meet during on Thursday, while most delegates were attending seminars and training on various topics. The Board would vote on the RFAs during that meeting and the US Figure Skating staff would have to get the report of their actions printed and copied for distribution on Friday morning. These were known as the “Green Sheets,” for no other reason than they were printed on green paper. The actual name of the document is the “Interim Report of Action.”

Thankfully, in the last couple of years, The Book is now distributed electronically. Delegates can print out the sections they want or just download the PDF to their computers; saving the organization money and eliminating all the work of the mailing.

Additionally, the Board no longer waits until they arrive at GC to vote on the RFAs; they have a virtual meeting in early April and the Interim Report would be posted online for the delegates.

These decisions have saved the organization time, money and, I gotta guess, headaches. Now if people have an issue with or a question about one of the decisions, they can discuss it prior to the meeting instead of during the GC meeting.

The GC of today is so different from the first ones I attended. While the fireworks aren’t as vibrant, the meetings are far more productive and we get things done.

And then there’s Dorothy, our idol, um, parliamentarian.  She has changed the way we conduct our meetings while teaching us the finer points of Robert’s Rules of Order (375^th edition or something). The year that Dorothy started running the meeting was the first year that I remember actually finishing the agenda and getting to New Business.

Welcome to Colorado Springs

Right now, I'm sitting at the hotel, hoping for a reliable wifi connection and getting ready for the Critical Issues meeting happening at 3:30 (MT). This meeting really give us idea of what some of the hot topics will be.

I've learned that I should never assume that there won't be some points of contention. There's just no guessing what item will cause passions to flare.

The weather is overcast, so I won't be skipping any meetings to climb a mountain. At least not today.

The Book

Back in the day, delegates attending Governing Council (GC) would receive “The Book” via Express Mail. It would usually arrive about a month before GC, three-hole punched, colored sections and even include a cover that you could slip into your three-ring binder. The Book contains all the reports from leadership, committee chairs and headquarters staff. But the part that most of us would head for the notice of the meeting, the exhibits for bylaw changes and the various requests for action (RFA).

And then we would spend the next month debating them.

Governing Council was usually a three-day event for most of the delegates, but for the leadership and committee chairs, it could be a five days. The Board would meet during on Thursday, while most delegates were attending seminars and training on various topics. The Board would vote on the RFAs during that meeting and the US Figure Skating staff would have to get the report of their actions printed and copied for distribution on Friday morning. These were known as the “Green Sheets,” for no other reason than they were printed on green paper. The actual name of the document is the “Interim Report of Action.”

Thankfully, in the last couple of years, The Book is now distributed electronically. Delegates can print out the sections they want or just download the PDF to their computers; saving the organization money and eliminating all the work of the mailing.

Additionally, the Board no longer waits until they arrive at GC to vote on the RFAs; they have a virtual meeting in early April and the Interim Report would be posted online for the delegates.

These decisions have saved the organization time, money and, I gotta guess, headaches. Now if people have an issue with or a question about one of the decisions, they can discuss it prior to the meeting instead of during the GC meeting.

The GC of today is so different from the first ones I attended. While the fireworks aren’t as vibrant, the meetings are far more productive and we get things done.

And then there’s Dorothy, our idol, um, parliamentarian.  She has changed the way we conduct our meetings while teaching us the finer points of Robert’s Rules of Order (375^th edition or something). The year that Dorothy started running the meeting was the first year that I remember actually finishing the agenda and getting to New Business.

Governing Council 2015 - Colorado Springs

It's that time again. And since it is an odd-numbered year, Governing Council is being held in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It's very cool that we now have a presenting sponsor for Governing Council.

The GCs in the Springs are a shorter version of the meeting. There won't be any seminars or special meetings, so I may have far fewer posts than last year.

If you're interested in playing the home version of Governing Council and want to follow along, you'll need to download the 2015 Meeting Book and Interim Report #1 (which you can print on green paper if you're feeling nostalgic). You'll need to sign into the Members Only section of usfigureskating.org.

I'll be attending GC this year as a delegate for the Rochester Figure Skating Club, but will be carrying the proxy votes for my former home club, the Burnsville-Minnesota Valley FSC, and my hometown club, the Albert Lea FSC.