CEO Blog: Denise Parker's Recap of Recent Board of Directors Meeting
On June 4th in Colorado Springs, the USA Archery Board of Directors met for one of their two annual in-person meetings. Below you'll find a recap of what was discussed.
First and foremost, the Board members reviewed the current state of USA Archery, which included the review of the organization's annual audit - and I'm pleased to report that Waugh and Goodwin presented a clean result for the audit.
World Championship Selection Procedures
Procedures for the World Archery Championships, World Archery Youth Championships and World Archery Para Championships were all passed by the Board and can now be reviewed online by clicking here. The staff of USA Archery has made efforts to make some revisions to the procedures that we feel will provide more consistency throughout team trials processes. We feel this consistency will help athletes to train and prepare more effectively for these events. Also, there will be more points available within the Trials processes than in the past years for the World Archery Championships, since event-specific national ranking points earned will also be included in the selection procedures.
For example: if Archer X competes at the USAT Qualifier Series Event that is hosting the World Archery Championships Team Trials, and places first in the event, the National Ranking System points that Archer X earns for that event will also be added to the archer's points in the Team Trials event.
Personal Coach Policy
A new personal coach policy for both national and international teams was approved by the Board and will go into effect beginning with the 2012 National Target Championship and Easton JOAD Nationals for national events, and will go into effect July 1, 2012 for all international teams. All athletes will be able to request to have a personal coach on the field for all USA Archery national events, provided that the coaches pay a credentialing fee, and that the athletes request a credential for their coach. Final determination for issuing a credential for international events remains with the team Head Coach and in national events with tournament organizers and officials. To see the complete personal coach policy click here.
Participation and Travel Guidelines for International Teams
The Board reviewed and approved a set of guidelines for participation in, and travel for, international teams that outlines the organization's expectations related to international teams and travel. We feel strongly that these guidelines will help to establish clear parameters regarding these trips. In addition to general conduct, the document sets forth general guidelines for team members, staff and parents related to when athletes can and cannot travel alone on international teams, and guidelines regarding how staff oversight will differ depending on whether the event is a youth team vs. a senior team.
Events Sanction Policy
Also related to international event participation, our Board of Directors reviewed a draft International Events Sanction Policy related to individuals wanting to attend international competition who fall outside of the official delegation sent by USA Archery. The policy outlines the requirements that must be met prior to USA Archery reviewing a request for a sanction, and general guidelines related to the travel and participation of those athletes. Final determination for issuing a sanction will rest with USA Archery after considering each request.
The Board has minor changes that need to be made to the Participation and Travel Guidelines as well as the International Events Sanction Policy. Upon the approval of final documents by the Board, we'll post both of these documents under the Teams section of the USA Archery website.
National Records
Currently, there are 2800 records being maintained by USA Archery - a very significant number in terms of accurate cataloging and database maintenance. In trying to streamline this process and maintain the most accurate database with current and relevant rounds, the Board reviewed and approved a proposal that will reduce the number of National Records to approximately 500.
The passed policy outlines that only official World Archery (WA) rounds will classify as a record applicant - for example, rounds of 36 arrows for individual outdoor distances are the only applicable record submissions - "Double" rounds of 72 arrows at 30 meters, or 120 arrows indoors, will no longer be accepted [with the exception of the official World Archery Round for Compound at 50m being 72 arrows]. Only records shot at Star FITA events will be considered for record submission. If a record is broken at an international WA sanctioned event by a USA Archery member who is also a U.S. Citizen, the record will be eligible for acceptance as a U.S. National Record.
All records applied for will be considered U.S. National Records; there will no longer be a difference between Star FITA and National, so the term "U.S. Record" will stand for all. This is consistent with the current high performance plans being put into action. Records for Junior Olympic Archery Development (JOAD) rounds and events will still remain a separate record based on differing qualifications.
Any record shot will be compared in an "upward" or "downward" fashion, meaning if you are a Cadet and shoot a record higher than a Junior or Senior, the record will be applied upward into those categories as well. This will work in a downward fashion if an archer is still within the age class of a lower division, but shooting into a higher division (example: a 17 year old archer shooting as Senior would also set a Junior record). This can only be applied as long as the complete event shooting formats alternate division).
Archers will have until July 1 break current records that can no longer be broken under this policy. We understand that records are not up to date and that this is an issue; USA Archery staff will be working through July to bring the database up to date so that new submissions can be processed in a timely fashion. We've instituted this new policy to allow staff to keep the records up to date more efficiently and provide timely records updates in the future. As soon as final information on the new records database is available, we will issue a news item at usarchery.org.
National Team Selection Guidelines
The Para U.S. Archery Team selection guidelines were approved by the Board, however, the Senior, Junior and Cadet guidelines were not. After reviewing the results of the poll performed earlier this year, which indicated almost equal support for all three of the proposals, the BOD decided to open the debate up further. The BOD took the highest vote getter, Proposal #1, which had 37 votes and determined to have a run off voting with the membership against the next highest vote getter, Proposal #2, which had 29 votes (Proposal #3 had 27 votes). The Board felt that the vote spread between all three was not convincing enough to determine the real feeling of the membership.
Therefore, USA Archery will be preparing a new vote between only Proposal #1 and Proposal #2. Voting will kick off after the U.S. National Target Championships and Easton JOAD Nationals, where the issue is planned to be discussed/debated during the annual meeting in Hamilton, OH. More information related to the two proposals, including specific examples, will be presented at that time, and I encourage all of you who are present to please plan to attend the annual meeting and provide your feedback on these issues. The Board will then take the feedback of the membership into consideration when making the final determination.
Wrap-Up
The Board wrapped up the meeting by reviewing current planning for the 2013 national event schedule, which we are looking forward to releasing within the next 30 days, in an effort to assist our members in making next year's travel and vacation plans as far in advance as possible. The Board of Directors also appointed newly elected Board member Charles "Skip" Trafford - who now occupies the Grassroots Director/Non JOAD seat - to the USAA Audit Committee.
< Back to All News
