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Election results

For President

Sam Auxier 762, 

Ron Phenning 209

Athlete Services Coordinator

Robert Rosenbluth 393

Doug Williams 567

Congrats Sam and Doug

Saturday am session--by Susan Bonn

First item this am was election of new President and Athlete Services Group Coordinator. Hopefully the results will be released soon. 

It's a busy day at GC-- just hope we get everything done on schedule--it's going to be a long day so stay tuned!!!

St Moritz Athlete Services Committee

Justin Dillon, Athlete Services Group Coordinator and Susan Bonn, Memorial Fund Chair gave their reports and Justin received a personal thank you from Pat St. Peter and Justin also revceived a Standing O from the Athlete Services Group. 

Congratulations to Our New National Judge!

Huge Congratulations to Laurie Lind for her National Dance Appointment!

Governing Council Opening session - by Dirk Vanderlaan

We were welcomed to the meeting and the key-note speaker was Ashley Wagner.  After some procedural items, our own Lisa Earle was tasked to be the chairperson of the minutes committee.

Reports from committee members, treasurer report and foundation reports were received, and new clubs were approved to become full members.

A number of bylaw changes were voted on:

• USFS does not discrimate based on sexual orientation in addition to race, color, age, gender, religion or national origin
• Moved parent committee from Athelete services to Membership services
• Vacancies in the Board of Directors will be filled by majority vote by the directors
• The Presidents term was increased from one year to two years, with no more than two consecutive terms.
• All delegates, board members and committee members etc must be at least 18 years old
• Honorary membership in USFS for Gold medal winners at the Olympics or World Championship and exempt from paying membership dues was sent back to committee to clarify a number of issues raised

Business was suspended for the rest of the day as the hour was getting late, and there was a "meet the candidate" forum that was due to start.  Business to resume tomorrow morning.  Altogether, the above took about 3 hours.

Friday am Pacific Coast Sectional Meeting - Dirk Vanderlaan

For skating purposes, the country is divided into 3 sections; east, midwest and pacific coast,  and members were disturbed that our section is under-represented by USFS  committee members.  While we have some of the larger clubs, we only have 12% representation.  They expressed concern that we are becoming irrelevant.  The midwest seems to be over represented on a geographic basis.

To remedy this situation, the leaders suggested more people get involved into committees so that people build up a track-record and get known so when they get nominated, they are known.  We need mentoring programs to help our members and member clubs which will help our section overall.

Communications were stressed - interclub communication, section communications, club communication.

USFS presented a draft of their strategic plan.  Based on surveys received from 240 clubs, atheletes, USFS input and sports marketing experts,  they are coming up with a plan to increase revenue, Athelete development, diversifying revenue sources and enhancing international relations

USFS also announced a partnership with US Hockey to run the basic skills program to teach skating to kids.  Figure skating will teach using the basic skills program, and Hockey will help fund.

Finally, the proposal to require a parent to be a member of a club for under 18 year olds was announced as pulled and sent back to committee.

ps...

I wanted to share that of the clubs across the US,  our club, St Moritz is the 5th largest club in the country with approx 570 members, and having our own Katie, Jean, Susan and Justin filling some of those USFS committee chair persons slots mentioned above!