National Youth Athletics Minutes
Executive Board Meeting
Indianapolis, IN
November 29, 2006
In attendance were Linda Phelps, Lionel Leach, Dorothy Dawson, Larry
Seifert, Mary Elizabeth Aude, Norine Richardson, Sam Germany, Bob Flint, Lance
Turley, Inez Finch, Liz Turner Suscha, McKenze Murphy, John Wissler (in the
temporary absence of Harold "Lefty" Martin) Bob Kreutz (to discuss the
schedule), and Nancy Seifert. Several guests were in attendance.
Linda welcomed everyone.
Nancy asked for additions, if any, to the agenda, which would be handled
under new business.
- Restructuring by Lionel Leach
- JO Schedule by Linda and Bob Kreutz
- Status of the Mark Springer award by John Wissler
Nancy asked for approval of the previous YEC meeting. A motion was
made and seconded to approve. Unanimously approved.
Linda elaborated on the topics at the Youth Annual Meeting
The logo has been voted as a business decision by Nike. Do we need to comment
on it at our first meeting session?
The Annual Meeting pre-packaged booklet was sent out by Linda to the full
youth committee. The delegates need to be updated. The booklets will be
distributed to the General Youth Committee as well.
She has asked Bob Flint, Lance and Dorothy to handle registration of our
delegates. We will ask all of our youth delegates to sign in every day. We will
have guests and visitors sign in also.
Agenda orientation was mentioned, which Linda will handle.
Linda introduced McKenze Murphy and asked Liz Turner-Suscha to make a
report.
Liz reported that the Annual meeting falls on the grass roots department, so
they are kept really busy at this time of the year. We are geared up for the
Cross Country Junior Olympic championship meet in Spokane and everything is in
order.
We are working on the Championships for spring. The Youth Experience program
is going full swing. She will be on maternity leave the first week of January
and return in late February or early March
Lionel asked about the web link for CC to youth. They are discussing it.
John asked about the structure of the National Office Staff as far as Youth
is concerned. Liz is Director of Grass roots Andy the over all Director. The
Youth Program Coordinator is McKenze.
Inez asked why Master's etc. is considered Grass Roots. We need
clarification.
Liz said that she is strictly Grass Roots for Youth with the only exception
of the Annual Meeting.
Nancy commented that a Master's program can't be considered grass roots
because they are dealing with seniors. Dorothy feels Liz and McKenze should be
just youth. Liz said that Andy has given them free reign as far as Youth is
concerned.
Inez feels we may need to change our by-laws because USATF is using the term
grass roots to apply to more than "youth." We need to better define
our youth programs.
Dorothy asked about having Bill and Craig come into our meeting. Linda has
extended the invitation.
Lance feels we do not have enough attention at National office as far
as Youth is concerned. As an example in the Fast Forward magazine full coverage
for the Hershey meet and nothing on our JO or Youth meet. Liz agrees and feels
that she needs to do a better job in the Marketing Department.
John W. feels that Liz needs to be redefined as Youth Coordinator, not Grass
Roots.
She feels that the Youth Experience program is going to help to get all of
these points across.
Dorothy commented that the Youth Task Force has been very pleased with
what the Youth Experience Project has done. She further explained what
check-free has done regarding the Youth experience project. Their surveys have
been very in depth.
Linda further explained the involvement of Check-free in regards to the Youth
Experience Project. Through Foundation member, Pete Kight, Check-Free
Corporation, sponsored a gentleman out of his company and asked that we
participate. The whole concept is to determine what does Youth Committee as a
whole want and need. Brian Fields will be doing a presentation at our Youth
committee meetings.
Right now we just have raw data. They will compile recommendations, such as
marketing and promotion. The results will be given to the Youth Committee and
presented to USATF Foundation and USATF. The objective is to creating proposals
and grants to fulfill the needs.
Linda introduced the task force. Dorothy is the head, of the task force.
Inez, Mary E. Sam, Nancy, and Linda complete the group.
Inez mentioned that the survey the Youth Task force sent out had a conflict
with National Office also sending out their survey. We need to have better
communication with National Office.
Bob Kreutz asked if the Youth Committee will be given a hard copy of results.
Linda said we will be getting a full report. Linda feels we have to take the
lead and make sure National Office needs to know what needs to be done.
Agenda for Youth Committee: Lionel asked about the Youth meet comments
being added.
We will have a microphone at the general meeting. Larry mentioned that 17% of
our Youth Chairs turn over each year and that for Athletes the turnover is 25%
every year. That is why we have issues with our program because of our large
turnover rate.
Kenny asked if we could ask the membership to look at the packet and go over
it so we can save some time Youth packets will be available at the registration
table.
Membership fees...Linda spoke to Ken Ferguson and he feels that Linda
needs to speak to the Board of Directors. Lionel feels that we need to address
the issue as to how it was presented or just say we opposed. John W. was
concerned about the voting procedure. John feels that it needs to be addressed
to the body. Lionel feels we all know what the committee wants done it is a
question of what we are going to do about it.
Linda was asked about the voting procedures that were done regarding the
increase. We feel that the procedures were totally out of line. Norine stated
that the comments made at the meeting were out of line.
John feels that we should be able to change the decision of the Board of
Directors. He suggested we need to band together. Lance would like an executive
session to plan our strategy. We need an uprising in Youth to handle this. Inez
mentioned that we never had a youth fee before, and they never even questioned
the Youth Committee about it.
Bob Flint said the Executive Committee according to the by-laws has the right
to change things of that nature without consulting any other committees.
Linda received an e-mail from Bob Hersh saying that the 2009 World Youth
Meet will be in Italy.
Work on the 2007 Czech Republic team is continuing. Linda worked with Jim
Elias regarding the Youth Budget in the budget committee. We have funding
approved for 2007. In 2005, the USOC starting to specify what it would fund and
the World Youth was not included in their budget. At the time, the world Youth
was put on the USATF provisional list to get funding when it became available.
Cliff will give an update at a session later this week. Lionel feels we can
do a better service if we know what is expected from the IAAF. Based on our
medals from the previous year. Starting this year, have dialogue between last
year's team manager and this year's team manager to work out problems, Lionel
would like to have them meet. Linda said if not in person, do so on a phone
conference.
Last time we received $70,000. Linda asked for $100,000 to be able to have
some cultural experiences. Through Bob Flint's suggestions, we were able to get
some extra monies to use for the Youth Experience in 2005. There are grant
opportunities that we can use to fund the cultural experience in 2007.
John feels we need to know who has control over the Youth Program.
Sandy Snow has the most control. Linda went to Sandy and asked her who was in
charge and she still doesn't know. Bob Flint feels it will be whoever is hired
to do the job. Mary Elizabeth Aude feels that there were too many conflicts at
the last World Youth Meet.
John W. feels that we have lost our status with the World Youth Program.
We need to get it back. Linda said when we lost Mark Springer it made a big
difference with the overall Youth Program. She and Liz are being scrutinized all
the time as far as the Youth budget and programs are concerned. Sam feels that
Linda should have come to the rest of us and Linda said that she did go to
others on the Board and discuss problems. Nancy verified that she has been doing
this.
Dorothy asked about her offer regarding housing of the World Youth.
Linda said that her offer is on the table and she will push for it based on
dates.
Bob Flint mentioned the budget procedure and said that if we don't have
new programs (such as the presentation of Zonal meets) they don't give any
increases. We don't have Mark Springer to work with the three part budget that
we used to have. We need to come up with something new for World Youth, cultural
experience, a clinic, etc. Bob said we all need to caucus for these monies.
Linda said she had a complete breakdown presented to the budget committee, she
did not just ask for a lump sum. John feels that we need to let National Office
that the Youth people are experienced enough to handle trips, budget etc.
Linda and the YEC have recommended pool managers from Youth. We should
hear later this week if any of these folks have been selected.
Lionel has mentioned his concern as to when the World Youth team leaves.
We should have control over that. The tickets should be purchased ASAP. Linda
will have Liz, McKenze and the World Youth managers work on this. Bob Kreutz
feels that the managers need to be youth oriented. Mary E. said she had no
problems except for the head people.
Lance feels there is a re-occurring theme that no one listens to us.
We need to take a topic and take a stand. This year is membership fees.
Alan Roth mentioned about the organizational meeting tomorrow. Issues
will be discussed by the candidates. He is extending an invitation to the
Candidates for Chair to come and speak. John asked Alan about how we can do
something about the problem. He feels that we need to get material together and
present it not just go in and say we don't like it. We need to do our homework
and get this done.
On the bids for 2008, we first asked for intent to bid and we had a large
number of replies. Linda came up with the idea to screen them before we did
an on site. We then screened them and we were able to eliminate some.
Nancy said that Bid packets need to go out sooner and that we need to
positively adhere to a deadline for bids.
Bob Kreutz said we should have a main list of what is required. Nancy and
Linda said that we do have this. We also must have the Youth Chair signature on
all bids before we accept them. Nancy said Linda had taken care of the bids and
that she made sure they went out on time.
Larry said major problem is the applicants do not read the bid requirements.
Zonal Meet Schedule:
- University of Nebraska Midwest Zone 2-25-07
- South Zone Inez has flyers 2-18-07 at LSU
- 2-18-07 West Zone in Arizona. Bob will have flyers also before Annual
Meeting over.
- Northeast Zone... Lance said changes made so Lionel will work this out
with the new Armory in February and let us know the date.
Larry had communications from Lawson regarding CC. It is all going
well. There will be more information at the Regional Coordinator meeting on
Friday.
Linda would like to have the Spring YEC meeting tie in with JO or
Youth final site review either in CA or IL. This will be discussed following the
annual meeting.
Norine spoke to Ken Ferguson regarding by-laws and quorums. He will be
glad to discuss with us. Is there anything tabled from last year that needs to
be addressed. Background check is another issue he will be dealing with. Alan
Roth said we have contracted with Choice Point and the Associations can use
them. Lionel is suggesting that they be asked to speak at our meetings. Linda
asked he put in under new business. Linda said various States have different
laws regarding the screening. Norine asked Alan about which company we should be
using; Alan said that it is our choice.
Rules update from Kenny & Glenn: Kenny will go over our Youth
Executive Committee proposals and he will present items to be pulled, accepted
etc. Linda feels we need a task force regarding operating procedures for youth
and other committees to be put in place. Kenny would like us to look at them
before the meeting. There will be a time restriction.
Glenn handed out the Calendar report and asked if we had any changes
to let him know. Before end of Thursday session.
NEW BUSINESS:
Lionel mentioned about restructuring that was tabled for next year.
Should we look at talking about restructuring this year? Linda has talked to Ken
Ferguson regarding this concept and he feels that it needs to be discussed this
year. Lionel would like to discuss this with Ken on Friday before the
restructuring committee meets on Saturday. Sam asked about a meeting tomorrow on
restructuring. Norine will go to the meeting.
The track meet schedule was discussed. Several proposals were made by
Bob Kreutz, Lefty Martin and Larry Seifert. Lefty will present his proposal for
running to the YEC. It will be the same structure for both the Youth Athletics
and Junior Olympic Meets.
Bidders would have fewer problems if they weren't required to have dual Pole
Vault Pits. Larry suggested starting the second day Decathletes at 8:00 a.m.
Bob Kreutz mentioned that the officials need to cooperate with the Youth
Committee, which would help with our scheduling. He also mentioned we may want
to consider adding a day seven or taking only the top in the Combined events and
2nd by standard only.
John Wissler will discuss the Mark Springer award during the regular
Youth Meeting.
Lionel asked for an executive session to be called. The session will be
relocated to another room.
The meeting ended at 12:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by,
Nancy Seifert
Youth National Secretary