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.