2011 SC Annual Division Meeting Minutes 9 April 2011 Corey opens the meeting, mentions Rob Mahling resigned and he is acting chairman. Lee Henshaw also resigned due to not renewing his membership. Patrick Lausi (EC) was not present. Voting members in attendance: 15 Susan Hazel Mike Kelly Jane Littmannn H. Philip Crotwell Caleb McBride D. Birt Jason Stover Vince DiCarlo Josh Killinger Daniel Gilbert William Rowland (Had 5 proxy votes) Daniel Thompson Rick Thompson Justin Mann Corey Sanders Susan Hazel took minutes in 2010 and the hard drive it was on was lost. She has a hard copy and will publish it when she finds it. Last season (2009-2010) the Chair (Karen Glazar) and Secretary (Gabe Green) resigned. Susan stepped in to fill the secretary role. In addition, two EC members either resigned or did not renew their USFA membership: Joe Thomas, and Dr. Richard Capps. A head tax was proposed and deferred. Jane recalls a discussion of maintaining and tracking division equipment. Josh Killinger recalls discussing a tournament sanctioning meeting at the start of the season. Susan has an inventory of equipment from last year. There was no inventory done since. Rob Mahling, Chair Elect for 2010-2011, never took office officially due to not renewing his membership. His club is also closed. Rick Thompson was appointed equipment keeper for the year due to his central location. Susan Hazel says Mike Strickland informed Rob Mahling of the responsibility to track the division gear. This was not passed on to Corey Sanders. Corey was under the impression that equipment rented out would be requested in writing to the chair. Rick offers to address the handling of the equipment and states that there is a shim missing and also a cord for the lame tester. When equipment fails, a record of it is kept. Mike Strickland would usually fix the gear himself. There was never an official division armorer. William Rowland mentions a box has no sound and has been in need of repair for at least 6 months. Mike has a broken reel from 2004, Susan Hazel does not know what is wrong with it. William Rowland requests we implement a procedure for equipment repairs. Susan made an inventory today. Mike Kelly says a box does not work. Daniel Thompson and Daniel Gilbert were at the armory table when the box
failed. Rick Thompson says as the equipment has been loaned out to various people he has been using a sheet for checkout and checking of gear. Prior to this morning, the boxes that were not working were labeled with the issue. 3 boxes were labeled. Before the tournament, everything was assumed tested, repaired, and working. Rick Thompson wants to handle details of which equipment is not working later. Vince DiCarlo recalls discussion of 501(C) (3). Susan Hazel motions to accept the minutes. Jane Littmann motions to accept the lack of minutes. Susan seconds. Mike Kelly used to distribute the minutes and accept them digitally within a week of the division meeting. Rick Thompson says there is no reason we couldn t have an electronic vote to accept the minutes. Mike Kelly wants the minutes posted as soon as possible, which Josh Killinger will do. Chair s report: none VC Report: Corey Sanders Rob Mahling left Corey hanging, he did as best he could in the circumstances. Rob officially resigned in September. Lee Henshaw officially resigned in October. However, they were not USFA members at the time. If you do accept a nomination for an EC position please make sure that you are willing and able to serve for the next year. William Rowland requests a cutoff date for renewal. Susan Hazel says the national office requires a report (due Sept 30?) stating the officer membership status. Mike requests August 1 st. Rick requests this is to be discussed in New Business. JO Qualifiers were held at Foothills in December. The results were not on hand. The results are on AskFRED. There was talk last August of organizing a referee clinic for the fall. There was miscommunication here and it did not happen. Corey was not aware of the inventory policy. The use of the division listserv for advertisement is questionable. The sanctioning policy with relation to neighboring clubs was questioned, and a scheduling meeting was discussed but never happened due to Rob s sudden departure. A request was sent to the coaches for their requests. The policy was first-come-first-served, taking national tournaments into account. Neighboring division calendars were not considered. GA had an event every weekend, so there were no non-conflicting dates. It was proposed to suggest divisional be held in Ft Mill or Charleston, but that fell through due to no location. It was held in Columbia instead. Corey moved that he is done, Rick seconds. Josh Killinger begins the Secretary s Report. 177 members as of 4/8/11, down from 212 last year. GA and NC both lost members as well. 8 Member clubs in division, and 4 non-member clubs. One club, Hilton Head Fencers Club, closed for financial reasons. Some discussion ensued over these numbers and the listings on the SC Division website of USFA member clubs this season. New hosting server for website. Code cleaned up and made more maintainable. Listserv is in development, including access control for sending. Plan to make Entire EC moderators. Only moderators could send messages. Rick asks if this new listserv would replace the former USC listserv, and be open to all of SC Division. Would be moderated by EC as a suggestion. William Rowland asks when the listserv project started. Josh confirms the project started in fall 2010, and should be complete by end of April 2011.
Rowland asks what will become of USC listserv. Rick explains history of USC listserv and its initial purpose to be for USC students. It has been adopted by SC Division unofficially. Discussion of USC being listed as a member club when they are not. Rick Thompson motions to accept the Secretary s Report, Susan Hazel Seconds. Treasurer s Report: Vince DiCarlo Last year we made over $1000. The division held 2 tournaments, JO Qualifiers and Division Qualifiers. It was a routine year. Last year s bank issues have been solved. Dues rebates are ahead of where we were last year. A check for a $20 equipment rental came in after the report was made. Rick Thompson: last year we had many problems receiving rebates from the USFA. We are still behind, but we are ahead of where we were last year. It always shows up but it is always late. We have $9200 in the checking account. He is concerned with theft of the money, and wants to move the bulk of the cash into a savings account. He wants the money to be fairly liquid. During the season, someone was injured at a national event. For JO Qualifiers and Division Qualifiers, is the division covered for accidents? Spectators are not required to sign a waiver. Jane Littmann: The national office requires certain safety standards be followed per USFA rules for an event to be sanctioned. We may be covered under the USFA if an event is run adhering to these rules. Mike Kelly: I don t know if there is a document that spells out these things. Jane: Hopefully the USFA can give us the answers. Someone asks: Do divisions need to mark off non-spectator areas? Rick: In legal terms, this is Due Diligence. Officials are required to keep an eye out for the safety of those present. Rick has requested documents stating what liabilities the hosting entities have. Division events may need to be hosted by a USFA club to be covered under the USFA policy. Jane: You do want to consider what would happen if there were to be an emergency on site and have a plan of action. William Rowland: The USFCA has documents covering risk management. Rick Thompson motions to accept, Corey Sanders seconds. Jane Littmann requests (point of information) clarification as to whether this report includes the revenues and expenses (e.g., referees, awards, etc.) from Divisionals this weekend. We charged less for registration this year (a registration fee was omitted), but had more fencers.. One competitor remarked that the low cost was a key factor in his decision to enter. Some additional discussion ensued about the trade-offs between lower fees attracting more fencers vs. higher fees to generate greater revenue. The referees are being reimbursed well for their time, but have not been paid yet. Compliments are given for the referees. Susan lent a lot of help to hire the referees. The Treasurer s Report was accepted. Old Business: Susan: There is a tournament sanctioning policy to having a meeting between coaches at the start of the year. This would be helpful for the SC Division Secretary and other clubs. We need to work together to sanction tournaments and submit results in a timely manner. William would like clubs to be encouraged to post results to AskFRED ASAP by reminding them both when they are seeking schedule approval as well as when they are submitting their results to the Division for validation. Rick: The secretary is strongly encouraged to post instructions for submitting results. Results should be posted on the Division Site. Josh: There is an outdated guide for post-tournament results on the website. We should update it.
Daniel Thompson: He wants a detailed record for equipment, what has been rented out to whom and for what purpose/event. William: Wants a digital copy, instead of a hard-copy that can be misplaced. Rick: We need to come up with an official policy. Daniel: Seconded Vote was unanimous. William: We have current open slots on the EC. Rick nominates Justin Mann to fill an EC slot. The EC vote was unanimous. Daniel motions the remaining officers finish their terms under their current positions. Rick says the bylaws state the vice chair can step into the shoes of the chair as acting chair. Corey is willing to continue to be acting chair for the remainder of his term. Corey is willing to begin to organize sanctioning meeting for next year s season. Jane says the GA division has their meeting at the first week of the season. Rick proposed to Corey that he put together a sanctioning committee. William: We have not yet proposed a date as a cutoff for officers membership renewal. Corey: Future officers can renew in July. Rick: Motions that there should be a deadline of August 1 st for officers to renew. Jane: They are already required to do this under the bylaws. Corey: On August 1 st, the secretary checks membership of the officers. If someone is not renewed, their spot should be filled. Susan: It was a concern last year when Gabe Green did not renew because we could not get reimbursements from the USFA. Corey: We need to enforce what is written in the bylaws. Corey agreed. Corey moves to close old items. Rick seconds. New Business: Corey: We have a gross lack of active referees in the division. The division should give incentives for referees. Washington division gives new referees a bonus to referee their first tournament in-division after they are rated. William: Proposes that the division subsidize training of referees. Josh: The division that administrates in Seattle WA reimburses referees if they pass the class. They also receive a bonus for the first event they ref. Rick: Proposes that the EC look into this and establish a policy. Daniel: Set up a committee to replace/repair equipment. He volunteers to head the committee. Susan seconds. Rick motions that the EC create an armory committee to investigate upgrading and repairing and acquiring new equipment for the division. Corey Seconds. Daniel volunteers to head the committee. Corey will set the committee up. Jane: most of the equipment used to be high quality and should still be functioning; it was acquired when Columbia Fencers Club ran Sectionals in 2000 and included a fundraiser for the Division. She wants a policy for the committee to follow. Rick: The committee will make proposals to the EC, not implement the policy. Gilbert: There are decent armorers in the division who can be tapped as a resource. Susan: Mike maintained much of the gear for the division. The armorer does not have to be on the EC. A signoff policy by division head should be implemented. Jane: Have a requirement for 2 people to sign off.
The vote is unanimous. Rick proposes that there be a website committee. Josh seconds. There is discussion, and it was determined that there should not be a committee but a backup webmaster. William: Should requests for updates to the website go straight to the secretary or go through the chair? Rick: It depends on the nature of the request. Susan motions to move on, Corey seconds. William: Set up somewhere that the EC have a virtual space to collaborate, such as a forum or Facebook page. Josh mentioned that emails sometimes went to people s spam folders. Rick volunteers to collaborate with Josh on this. Daniel Gilbert: Should we subsidize small clubs with new tournaments? This should be discussed by the EC. William: A contract should be drafted for EC members. Jane: moves the discussion be closed. Crotwell seconds. Voting: Chair Nominations: Jane nominates Justin Mann, Mike Kelly seconds. Justin accepts. Mike Kelly nominates William Rowland. Rick Seconds. Vince nominates Susan Hazel. Daniel Thompson seconds. Justin wins the runoff election against Susan Hazel. Vice Chair: Mike Kelly nominates William Rowland, Jane Seconds. Justin nominates Susan, Daniel Thompson Seconds. Susan wins Secretary: Susan Hazel nominates Josh Killinger. Treasurer: Corey Sanders nominates Vince DiCarlo. EC: Corey Sanders, Mike Kelly, Jane Littmann, Dave Birt, Rick Thompson, Daniel Thompson, William Rowland, Josh Lindower (who accepted in advance) The winners of the vote are Corey Sanders, Mike Kelly, Jane Littmann, Rick Thompson, William Rowland. Dave Birt, Daniel Thompson had a runoff election. Dave Birt wins. The meeting is adjourned.