Meeting Minutes
USATF Board of Directors
Virginia Beach Convention Center
December 5, 2010
ATTENDANCE
Attendance: Stephanie Hightower, Jack Wickens, Dr. Evie Dennis, Elizabeth
Phillips, Ken Taylor, Willie Banks, Jeff Darman, Philip Dunn, Bob Hersh, Deena
Kastor, Kim Haines, Steve Holman, Max Siegel, Aretha Thurmond, Kim Haines, Larry
James (non-voting Counsel), Darlene Hickman (non-voting Secretary)
USATF Staff: Mike McNees, Benita Fitzgerald Mosley, Norm Wain, Gina Miller,
Jill Geer, Sandy Snow, Shayna Sangster
Guests: Christina Corl, Sandy Pashkin, Anne Timmons, Tim Baker, Mary Rosado,
Holdham Brooks, Bob Weiner, Becky Oakes, Marilyn Mitchell, Edward Koch, Warren
Ring, Maryanne Daniel, Ron Daniel, Sonja Robinson, James Flanik, Lionel Leach,
Vince Peters
Quorum was present. Stephanie Hightower opened the meeting at 10:06am (EST).
IAAF CANDIDATE PRESENTATIONS
Nominees from each committee gave a short presentation to the Board on why
they should be selected for the IAAF committee position. Hersh asked
everyone to submit a CV no later than Dec. 31st. The information will be
distributed to the Board in January and selections made at the February Board
meeting.
The following individuals presented:
Cross Country Committee
Glenn Latimer
Bill Roe
Masters Committee
Rex Harvey
Don Lein
Race Walk Committee
Bob Bowman
Gary Westerfield
Technical Committee
John Blackburn
Ed Gorman
David Katz
Women’s Committee
Sandra Farmer Patrick
Anne Timmons
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
MOTION (Taylor): Approve the November 17, 2010 minutes.
All in favor. Motion Passed.
CHAIRMAN/PRESIDENT’S REPORT
Ed Koch presented a report from the Organizational Services Committee and
requested action on the National Scholastic Sports Foundation (NSSF)
application. This application came before the Board last year and was tabled.
The committee decided to resurrect an old membership category that would be a
better fit for NSSF. In the interest of all membership parties and to
allow enough time for the changes to go through the Law & Legislation Committee
(L&L), the Organizational Services Committee recommends tabling the membership
application for an additional year. In 2011 the committee will come to the Board
with a final decision.
Koch also voiced concerns over the condensed schedule in regards to the 2012
elections. The Organizational Services Committee suggests that the Board
support the creation of a central committee voting system for 2012, which will
require a breakout room be devoted to elections for the three full days of the
Annual Meeting. This will require committees and councils to use this room
for their primary elections. The committee will propose legislation to the
L&L Committee next year to enact such a process.
Tim Baker gave a report from the Law & Legislation Committee. There is
one substantive amendment which consisted of a re-creation of the affiliated
organizational membership. The other changes were grammatical.
MOTION (Dennis): Adopt the report of the L&L committee, dated
December 5, 2010.
All in favor. Motion Passed.
TREASURER REPORT
The Budget Committee met on Friday to make the recommended cuts for the 2011
budget. Taylor distributed a memo with the recommended budget changes and
asked for approval from the Board.
Some of the major changes included the Project 30 funding being administered
directly by Nike to the selected athletes. The original budget assumed
that these funds would flow through USATF to the athletes. Another major
change included funding for athletes that fall below Tiers 1-3 supported in the
USOC Performance Pool Funding. Providing this funding resulted in reduced
funding to other programs.
MOTION (Taylor): Adopt the 2011 budget.
All in favor. Motion Passed.
ACTIVE ISSUES/UPDATES
The Business Development Committee spent the Annual meeting looking at
current sponsorships and future opportunities. The committee looked at ways to
strengthen how USATF pitches to sponsors and how to diversify sponsorship
sources. They discussed the TV and production strategy and reviewed the
newly updated USATF website. It was noted that the website update is only
in phase 1. Hightower requested an update and timeline for phase 2 at the
next Board meeting.
Siegel updated the group on the new partnership with Rod Davis of Davis Sports
and Entertainment. Davis is a sponsorship pursuit expert who has a history of
working with National Governing Bodies. He will work with USATF to understand
the company’s assets and what they are worth.
Banks gave a status report on the Metropolitan Association. USATF has set
out a plan for improvement of the Association. The Metropolitan’s
accreditation as a USATF association will be conditional on their ability to
meet each of the deadlines included in the plan for improvement. James
noted that USATF needs to formulate an exit strategy and legal consequences.
Wain was tasked to follow-up on this issue.
CEO REPORT
The staff is currently working to ensure there are enough Visa Championship
Series meets to satisfy the agreement with Visa. An agreement has been
made with Global Athletics to add Adidas and Reebok Boston as part of the Visa
Championship Series. The staff is still working to secure a fourth outdoor
meet.
McNees met with Teddy McCook and Amadao Francis to discuss the Pan AM Junior
meet. The meet will be held in Mirmar, Florida in July. In all,
McNees feels good about how everything is coming together.
OLD/NEW BUSINESS
Youth Report
Lionel Leach reported on the advancements of the Youth Committee throughout
2010. They have made several advancements to the Junior Olympics and Youth
Outdoor Championships, which resulted in additional revenue for the LOC and an
increase in the cost of the bid package. They added webcasts for both
events, increased the amount of athletes and clubs and added on an indoor
championships.
Leach also brought a few concerns to the Board regarding the Youth Athlete of
the Year award. He asked for recommendations on how to recognize some
deserving athletes for their athletic contributions in 2010. Leach also
discussed an issue with a coach violating eligibility rules for the Youth
Outdoor Championships in 2009. The Youth Committee would like to suspend
the coach from membership to USATF for two years. McNees will review the
information and come to the Board with a formal recommendation.
Disabled Athletes
The Disabled athletes committee would like to apply the Challenge Grants
monies that went unused from last year to encourage associations to include
disabled athletes in their competitions for 2011. They will submit a
proposal to be reviewed by the Board for inception. There have been
informal conversations with the USOC to take a larger role with the Paralympic
movement. Wickens discussed formalizing these conversations to see if we
have the resources to take on Paralympic responsibilities.
Nominating and Governance
The Nominating and Governance Committee met earlier this week to ratify Steve
Miller, Deena Kastor, Dr. Evie Dennis, Willie Banks and Kim Haines to a new four
year slate. They were ratified and approved for the next four years.
MOTION: (Darman): Motion to accept the slate.
All in favor. Motion Passed.
MOTION (Hightower): Move into executive session to discuss the current
litigation.
All in favor. Motion Passed.
The meeting moved into executive session at 2:30pm (EST).
SUMMARY OF MOTIONS
MOTION (Taylor): Approve the November 17, 2010 minutes.
All in favor. Motion Passed.
MOTION (Dennis): Adopt the report of the L&L committee, dated December 5, 2010.
All in favor. Motion Passed.
MOTION (Taylor): Adopt the 2011 budget.
All in favor. Motion Passed.
MOTION: (Darman): Motion to accept the slate.
All in favor. Motion Passed.
MOTION (Hightower): Move into executive session to discuss the current
litigation.
All in favor. Motion Passed.