Mid-Winter Council Meeting
January 5, 2008 |
1.
Introductions
·
Barry Young, Owen Letcher, John Goodman, Scott
Vanderflute, Connie Morris, Mike Hayes, Merle Vasbinder, Tad Scharpf, Sam Lee,
TC Boice, Carol Boice and Laura Johnson.
2.
Assignment of parliamentarian: Mike Hayes
3.
Meeting Attendees
·
Motion by TC for following replacements for the
meeting; Merle Seconded: Area 1 Connie
for Jay; Area 4 John for Nick; Area 8 Carol for Ken; National Director Laura
for Gaile. Motion passed.
4.
Review & approval of previous minutes
·
TC motioned that we approve, Merle seconded. All in favor.
Motion carries.
5.
Treasurer’s Report: Tad Scharpf As
published.
·
Western Region Scholarship is available to western
region junior skiers. Discussion regarding budgeting of funds. Money is prefunded and then reimbursed once
distributed.
·
Online registration: Barry will
clarify with Brandon Wolfe how tournament entry fees go back to organizers –
who is responsible for ensuring payment of fees? Visa, PayPal?
·
Increase in sanction fees: Income is increasing each year, discussion
regarding intent of raising sanction fees. Is it really necessary? TC motioned that we roll fees back to prior
rates; Carol seconded. HQ may come out
with a budget with increased expenses to West; may be prudent to discuss at
summer meeting. Would not affect 2008
fees or be retroactive. John Goodman moved to table the motion; Carol seconded.
All in favor.
·
Carol seconded motion to approve Treasurer’s
report. Discussion that Tad has done a
great job with the treasurer’s duties. Thank you for your efforts. All in
favor.
6.
Regional Committee reports:
·
Executive Vice President: Barry Young EVP
Report
a.
Thank you to TC for his service to our region. We have a new Executive Director, Steve
Locke. His priorities for 2008 are
balancing the budget and membership growth. Lisa St John is no longer at HQ. Make announcing a priority at tournaments to
instill some enthusiasm for attendees. Regional split discussion appears to be
closed at this time.
b.
No one took advantage of the $25 sanction fee credit for media communication
of local events. Perhaps the word wasn’t
circulated well enough. Discuss with Phil to spread word and be more proactive and
specific about this credit option. Barry will do a rough draft of announcement
that includes a template for a press release. Should
be brought up at summer meeting as well.
·
Regional Records:
Connie Morris Records
a.
Janie Fausold’s record at
b.
Records in divisions other than what you skied in, i.e.
M4/MM. Nationals allows the crossover, the Western region does not. Should add to the record form. Must apply for
record only for division you skied in.
·
Regional Guide:
Barry Young
a.
Wheels are in motion for the 2008 guide. Leora Matranga has retired and we’d like to
thank her for all of her hard work and success.
Laura Johnson has agreed to take on the organization of the 2008 guide.
b.
Jeff Gaastra is going to retire after this year; his
business is very busy at this time of year. TC’s daughter-in-law, Gina Odegard,
sells advertising professionally and has volunteered to take on this task. Jeff has indicated that he has verbal
commitments that he’s trying to collect on but actual receipts are down so far
this year.
c.
Note that all tournaments must be in Dataweb by
January 15th, 2008. If your
tournament is not in the system by that date, it will not be included in the
guide.
·
Regional Awards:
Gaile Heieck – nothing to report
·
Webmasters:
Phil Yastrow / Laura Johnson Technical/Web Report –
Technical also given with Web report.
a.
Discussion regarding advertising on web page aside
from Regional Guide advertising as an additional source of income. At this time we do not allow gratis
advertising, notably for real estate.
b.
Carol wanted to ensure that the technical committee
would look at making the national record form easier to complete.
c.
Zero Off: proposal at BOD meeting to allow skiers to
choose which system they want to ski behind. Discuss in Rules/Boat Driver reports.
d.
Discussion regarding measurement of handle and rope,
before and after skier performance. John
Goodman raised issue of measuring handle that’s long but in conjunction with
rope it’s in tolerance. A long handle is an unfair advantage to other
competitors.
·
Regional Junior Development: Lisa Wilson Junior Development Report; Junior checkbook.
a.
Junior Development checkbook is being passed on to
Western Region Treasurer to manage.
b.
Barry is going to establish a Western Region Junior
Development committee comprised of area representatives to decide on Best of
the West and Junior team guidelines. Barry has contacted several people and
appointments will be forthcoming.
c.
Mike Hayes – is there
a policy regarding the funds that are raised at the Regional Junior
Development? No official policy at this time. Money has been going back to Junior
Development since
d.
New committee should discuss banquet charges for parents, awards
presentation, type of meal, etc. How to handle people that want to attend awards
without eating.
·
Nominations:
Dave Vogt 2008 Ballot
a.
Randy Hocking is stepping down as USAWS Treasurer;
he’ll run again unless someone is hot for the job. Need to determine if Jim
Lang is going to run again as National director.
·
Financial Task Force: Mike Hayes
a.
Headquarters is struggling with an unbalanced budget
and eating into their reserve. It’s
recommended that we don’t make any changes at this time due to the uncertainty
at HQ. Mike motioned, Carol seconded
that we regard our existing CD’s as our reserve. All in favor, motion carries.
b.
Mike motioned, Carol seconded that we abolish the
Financial Task Force steering committees. All in favor. Motion carries.
·
Membership:
TC Boice / Larry Goodwin
a.
Skiing is making a comeback, wakeboarding is
waning. There are also a number of clubs
no longer affiliated with AWSA. Club
affiliation was largely due to insurance benefits. Benefits had decreased in
the past and are being worked on for improvement.
7.
Regional Tournaments:
·
Regional tournament site selection: Owen
Letcher Report
a.
We are hoping that the issue of the regional split
resolution will encourage more sites to submit bids for future regionals. The uncertainly of the split may have
discouraged prospective bidders.
b.
Owen has compiled a list of ski sites in the region.
Discussion to modify the list so it will be appropriate for publishing on the
web page.
·
2008
a.
Looking forward to hosting the 2008 Regionals. The site is largely the same. Two significant
improvements are the paving of the entry road and the parking lot and a
complete re-grade of the shores around the lake. They’ve added a new hole out
back, par 4. Hopefully it will be ready for use by summer. Looking forward to
making use of the golf course as well as the lake.
b.
One issue to consider is the qualification
requirements. Tad will need to work with
Cathy to verify skier qualifications and manually note those who appear to not
be qualified.
c.
Entry requirements:
Level 6 ranking for all divisions and all events including overall with
the exception of Level 7 for Mens 3, 4 and 5 slalom. Agreement that those skiers who have a valid
expert rating will be allowed to compete at the 2008 Regionals.
d.
Deadline:
Entries must be postmarked by July 14th. Eliminate
non-qualifier charge. Intent is to allow people to send in an entry without
knowing if they’re qualified. If they
are not qualified, you can just send back the check. Easier on the registrar and encourages
earlier submission of entries.
e.
TC motions to approve the announcement as amended;
John seconded. All in favor. Motion passes.
f.
Appointed Judges: Carol Boice, TC Boice, Mike Hayes,
Jack Hanna, Laura Johnson
g.
ACJ: Deb Parsons, Sam Lee, Todd Yokum, Linda
Hockenbery, Brad Hartwell
h.
Appointed Scorers:
Lucie Goodman (assistant chief), Judy Stanford, Gail Heinrich, Alternate:
Martha Selsor
i.
Appointed Drivers:
Bill Barrett, Wayne Canfield, Brad Conger, Bob Hardeman, Dee Johnson,
Brad Stevenson, Merle Vasbinder, Barry Young (assistant); Alternates John
Goodman, Randy Hocking
j.
Tad Scharpf motioned approval for officials, Carol
seconded. All in favor. Motion passes.
·
2009 Laku Landing: Phil Yastrow Laku
2009
·
2010 Bid:
8.
Local Tournament Sanction approvals
·
Collect lists, Safety forms, AWSA & Regional
sanction fees – Discussion as to fair time for council persons not present to
have reports and money to Barry. Agreed that should be sent by Monday, January
7th and due by Wednesday January 9th.
·
Area 1
·
Area 2
·
Area 3
·
Area 4
·
Area 5
·
Area 6
·
Area 7
·
Area 8
·
Area 9
9.
Other Sports Divisions, Etc.
·
American Wakeboard Association: Andrea Plough – no report
·
Collegiate:
Gaile Heieck – no report
·
AWSEF: no
representative - no report.
·
Water Skiers with Disabilities Association: no report
10.
National Tournament Officials from the Western
Region
·
Appointed Judges: Barry Young, Mike Hayes
·
Assigned Judges: Carol Boice, Richelle Matli;
Alternate Jack Hanna
·
Scorers: Judy
Stanford, Martha Selsor; Alternate Barbara Canfield
·
Drivers: Wayne Canfield, Dee Johnson; Alternate: John
Goodman
·
TC Boice motions acceptance of officials, Carol
seconded. All in favor. Motion passes.
·
TC Boice motions that the Drivers committee as a whole put
together general written guidelines to show how they recruit and select drivers
for regionals and nationals. Carol
Seconded. Discussion as to intent and
distribution of information. All in
favor. Motion passes.
11.
National Committee Reports:
·
AWSA Executive:
TC Boice 08JanAWSAECRpt.doc
a.
Steve Locke’s first priority is the budget. Staff for the budget is too large and that’s
why it’s being cut back.
b.
Pay for officials at cash prize tournaments - $150
each. Discussion that you need to have
professionals judging professionals and accountability.
c.
Threshold for cash prize tournaments
was raised from $15,000 to $80,000.
d.
e.
Some sports divisions are not carrying their own weight;
each must carry its own weight.
f.
Peter Uberhoff is spearheading an Olympic TV channel
which will include water skiing.
·
·
Rules:
Richelle Matli and Dave Vogt Report
a.
Discussion regarding divisions and speeds. Owen motioned that we remove the upper end of
age division charts for M/W 1 and up to read “and older”. John Goodman seconded. 7 in favor, 2 opposed. Motion passes as recommendation to Board.
·
Judges & Scorers: Linda Hockenbery Report -
includes National Committee report
a.
A new windows based scoring system is in the
works. David Allen is working with a
select group of scorers across the country to design the program. One downfall of the program is that there is
more flexibility for the user in the program that WSTIMS didn’t have – i.e.
more opportunity for error/not following the rules. WSTIMS protocol followed along the current
rulebook and didn’t allow for changes outside of the rules. For instance jump reride situations, WSTIMS
most always gave you the proper scenario.
b.
Carol commented that the Western region has had a
good pool of senior scorers and thanks to Carol, Barbara and Laura working to
help develop up and coming scorers.
Carol would like to look into why we have a difference over other
regions.
c.
Concern over lack of weighting and the effect it
will have on developing Senior officials if tournament class no longer matters.
d.
We need incentives and more ways to encourage
officials. We still had to work at the
appointed judges for Regionals this year.
·
Boat Drivers:
Pat Rogers Report | GPS Speed Control Limits 2008
·
International Activities: Frank Harrison/Barry Young IAC 2008 Winter Board
Report
·
Technical:
Phil Yastrow National
TC Report
·
Safety: Larry
Goodwin Report
·
Towboat/Speed Control: Will Bush Report
·
National Seeding:
Laura Johnson Report
a.
Seeding is recommending that we double ELR scores. Laura motioned, Carol seconded. All in favor.
Motion carries.
·
Skiers Rating:
Jim Kinney Report
a.
Penalty system: One score: 10%C/5%ELR; Two scores
5%C/2.5%ELR; Three scores 0%
·
HQ/Competition:
·
National Ski League: Kay Goodfellow Report
a.
Working on combining grassroots and NSL programs to
avoid confusion.
·
By-laws: Jim
Lang – no report
·
Announcers:
Brad Hartwell – no report
a.
Tom Mecham will now be on the announcer’s committee
in place of Brad.
·
National Junior Development: Charlene Brown Report
a.
Charlene has requested that the council continues
the $125 contribution for awards. In 2009, they will request the amount to be
higher and more in line with actual costs.
b.
Charlene is now National Chair, non-voting; Randy
Hinkle is our new regional committee member.
·
National Nominating:
TC Boice – nothing to report
Transfers to Barry Young as new EVP
·
Awards: Randy
Hocking Report
12.
Old Business:
Action Item - None
13.
New Business
·
Carol Boice motioned that we move our winter council
meeting one week later in January. HQ
has also requested that we do this.
Also, if we continue to hold the meeting in
·
2008 Budget –
as published. Carol seconded. All in favor. Motion carries.
14.
Recommendations to National Board of Directors
·
Discussion regarding divisions and speeds. Owen motioned that we remove the upper end of
age division charts for M/W 1 and up to read “and older”. John Goodman seconded. 7 in favor, 2 opposed. Motion passes as
recommendation to Board.
15.
Laura motioned to adjourn at 5:11. John Goodman seconded. All in favor. Motion
carries.