Saturday at Governing Council - by Lisa Erle

Today, we started with the election and several others have covered that so no need to go over it again. Then we were back at the business of discussing proposed bylaws changes.  Exhibit G, which was about standardizing the process for selecting and electing Nominating Committee members, was referred to the Rules Committee. Exhibit H, that dealt with the process of election for extra terms for officers, was not approved.

We then had reports of each of the Committee Groups. Athletes Services had no rule change proposals, so it was just brief statements by committee chairs (including Susan Bonn, Memorial Fund Committee) and Justin Dillon was thanked and received a standing 'o' for serving as Athlete Services Group Coordinator for the last 3 years.  Memberships Services (including Katie Specht, Collegiate, and Jean Fahmie, Special Skaters) was next. They were introduced but no statements from the chairs. Just a brief report and the announcement that the request to amend a rule to require a parent to be a member with a junior membership was sent back to committee.

The Technical Group was next.  There were some statements then the announcement that all the proposed changes to the moves in the field were being referred back to committee. There was also an approved date change for the elimination of the supplemental moves tests from 7/1/14 to 7/1/15.  Legal Services group gave their reports and statements and their two requests for action were approved without additional discussion. There were a few minor new business items and one amendment to the budget (money to have an outside council review the bylaws) and we were done with the business side of GC.

The meeting was wrapped up with comments from incoming president Sam Auxier and a slide/video presentation of outgoing president Pat St. Peter's service, including video messages from several of the skaters from Team USA.  Pat was presented with gifts and a standing ovation, along with a lifetime honorary membership.  We were finished early so the break sponsored by St. Moritz turned into a nice end of meeting reception.

I am not leaving Washington until Tuesday as I will be spending some time with family first. But, it has been a pleasure to share my Governing Council experiences with everyone and if there are any questions, please feel free to e-mail me.

Lisa