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.