The day started with the Pacific Coast Sectional meeting where we come together with all the club delegates of our section to review issues, present awards and elect members for the Nominating Committee. Local judge Dave Hopson received his 25 year pin as a judge. Hal Marron, our Pacific Coast Vice President, had a nice moment where he got to award himself his 40 year pin as a Referee!
The best news, however, was seeing that our own club member, Laurie Lind, received her National Dance Judge appointment. Congratulations to Laurie - we are very proud of you!! Another of our local officials, Rick Perez, received his National Synchronized Skating Referee appointment.
After lunch, the Governing Council meeting was called to order (theme this year is Grass Roots to Gold). Introductions of the Board and past presidents was followed by a presentation and behind-the-scenes Olympic photo diary before our keynote speaker, Ashley Wagner, shared her experiences. She gave a good speech sprinkled with humor and emotion; it was a great way to start off our meetings.
Proposed changes to the bylaws were first up for the delegates to consider. Changes to Exhibits A, B, D, and F passed easily (if you would like to review any exhibits or rule change proposals, go to the U.S. Figure Skating website, sign into Members Only, click the General Info tab, then Governing Council. Open the Meeting Book and/or Interim Report of Action).
Exhibit C, which deals with a change to the President's term from 1 year maximum 4 consecutive to 2 years maximum 2 consecutive, passed with modifications. Exhibit E, which proposes to make Olympic & World Gold medal winners honorary members of USFS, had the most activity. It was proposed to strike the word "Gold" (so all medal winners would be made honorary members). After much discussion on whether this type of change would be allowed, several questions and clarifications, and a vote on if the change could move forward, another delegate got up to request the whole thing be referred back to committee. This motion passed (if only that delegate went to the microphone sooner, we could have saved a lot of time!)
The day ended with a meet the candidates forum where questions were answered by candidates for the contested positions for the Board of Directors, which are President and Athlete Group Coordinator.
Lisa
Friday, May 2, 2014
SafeSport Seminar
Yesterday I attended the SafeSport seminar. SafeSport is an initiative adopted by the US Olympic Committee (USOC) who now require will all National Governing Bodies (NGB)'s - like US Figure Skating - to commit to. Put simply, SafeSport is a program intended to ensure that athletes and club members are able to participate in their sports without the fear of being the victim or target of any inappropriate or illegal behavior. It also echoes attempts to ensure athletes' injuries - in particular concussions - are recognized and dealt with appropriately so that an athlete doesn't feel pressured to return to the ice too quickly.
The requirements and elements of SafeSport are few while the benefits are great. Each club must have a SafeSport Compliance Chair, and for this year it will be me. The Chair's responsibilities lie in ensuring the program is rolled out, information is made broadly available to all club members, communication with the USOC and USFS is maintained, and procedures are upheld.
The most important step is to ensure club members and their parents understand what behaviors SafeSport intends to guard against. To do so, a link to an informative 15-minute video will be posted on the club website. Once posted we are required to have 3 members view the video but I will encourage everyone to take the time to view it.
In the coming week's you will see lots more information and education on SafeSport. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have an interest in being an advocate of this important program in our club!
Jacki
The requirements and elements of SafeSport are few while the benefits are great. Each club must have a SafeSport Compliance Chair, and for this year it will be me. The Chair's responsibilities lie in ensuring the program is rolled out, information is made broadly available to all club members, communication with the USOC and USFS is maintained, and procedures are upheld.
The most important step is to ensure club members and their parents understand what behaviors SafeSport intends to guard against. To do so, a link to an informative 15-minute video will be posted on the club website. Once posted we are required to have 3 members view the video but I will encourage everyone to take the time to view it.
In the coming week's you will see lots more information and education on SafeSport. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have an interest in being an advocate of this important program in our club!
Jacki
First Meeting of the Governing Council
Governing Council 2014
Today is our first day of meetings of GC2014. If you have never been in a room full of close to 400 figure skating enthusiasts I will just tell you that we all can't seem to agree on what needs to be done. We have about 200 pages of bylaw and rule changes to go through. Each proposal was put forward by its respective committee that oversees that part of the sport and approved by the board of directors.
Delegates then go up to a microphone and "isolate" an item for debate. The rule item is then discussed with time limits (there is a streetlight type indicator that warns you when your time is almost up). An amendment may be added or it may come up for an easy up or down vote. That would be the easy out.....
Today the delegates have isolated quite a few items, so I think we are in for a bumpy ride. Items so far are including Adult skating age groupings, moves in the field changes for kids and adults, term length of the president of USFS and that it should run concurrent with Olympic years, and making each skater under the age of 18 have a parent also be a member.
More to come.....
Today is our first day of meetings of GC2014. If you have never been in a room full of close to 400 figure skating enthusiasts I will just tell you that we all can't seem to agree on what needs to be done. We have about 200 pages of bylaw and rule changes to go through. Each proposal was put forward by its respective committee that oversees that part of the sport and approved by the board of directors.
Delegates then go up to a microphone and "isolate" an item for debate. The rule item is then discussed with time limits (there is a streetlight type indicator that warns you when your time is almost up). An amendment may be added or it may come up for an easy up or down vote. That would be the easy out.....
Today the delegates have isolated quite a few items, so I think we are in for a bumpy ride. Items so far are including Adult skating age groupings, moves in the field changes for kids and adults, term length of the president of USFS and that it should run concurrent with Olympic years, and making each skater under the age of 18 have a parent also be a member.
More to come.....
First Session of Governing Council
Today's opening session had a nice surprise visit from Olympic Bronze Medalist, Ashley Wagner. She gave a delightful talk and entertained the congress with her story.
Ashley's presentation was followed by the financial report from Dr Paul George.
Following some housekeeping issues the table was turned over to Dorothy Demerest the parliamentarian running the meeting.
These things take awhile.
Updates!
Morning updates:
MIF changes sent back to committee
Parent membership sent back to committee
Sectional Meeting--Susan Bonn
Discussion of critical issues for Pacific Coast. There are only a few Pacific Coast individuals whom have been nominated to committee chairmanships.
Pat St Peter and David Raith presented info regarding the rebranding of the Basic Skills program.
Gretchen Bonnie, Lainie DeMore Pilar Bosley heather Neimer and Terri Levine presenting info on Strategic Plan. 
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