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.