On July 19th, the College Archery Program sent a letter to the USAA Board clarifying their independent status relative to USA Archery and outlining their intention to form a separate 501(c)3 organization as voted on in May by the CAP Board. You can view this letter by clicking here. This letter was also sent to the general CAP member clubs. In keeping with my desire to have open communication to the membership, I would like to offer a statement relative to some of the issues outlined in the letter. In addition, Chairman Bill Corbin has also issued a statement and you can view this by clicking here.
From the initial seating of the new Board and my hiring as CEO, we have been reminded that CAP is an independent entity with its own strategic plan and that it operated independent of USA Archery. We have respected this position and to date, have not requested one change to the CAP program, its leadership, its direction or its initiatives. CAP has a director, a budget and a Board, and we have not interfered in the process.
Part of the job of a CEO is to understand USA Archery's relationships with all the related parties, FITA, USOC, ATA, NFAA, CAP etc. I have asked current CAP Director, Lorretta Sinclair, many questions and asked for documentation regarding the CAP Charter to better understand the relationship between CAP and USAA. Our current bylaws do not address this relationship, nor does it address the independence of CAP. In this light, we have questioned the role the CAP Board plays, as it is not clear in our bylaws or any operating documents that we have. But to be clear, we have never suggested restructuring the CAP Board or its governance as stated in the CAP letter. If it is working, and the membership is happy with the representation (which it appears to be) then we are happy with the current structure and have no intention of changing it.
CAP has requested to have their own checking account from which the program can draw funds directly to avoid the issues of reimbursements and check requests and to alleviate fear of funds being diverted to non-CAP activities. We have contacted our current outside audit firm, Osborne, Parsons & Rosacker, LLP to ask their opinion of setting up a separate account. Their answer was, in the 15 years of dealing with non-profits and other sports entities, they have never seen a separate account be setup with a non-employee administering funds. They were also concerned that if we did take this action, it is likely that the IRS would come back to us and claim that whomever is administering these funds is not an independent contractor, rather an employee of USA Archery and we would be liable for back employment taxes. We have, however, continued to work with the CAP Director to allow her to easily access funds, including issuing her a credit card to use for CAP expenses. We have never stood in the way of CAP accessing their funds and have no intention of doing this in the future. USA Archery would stand to lose too much if we did not allow funds that were directed to be allocated to the appropriate program. We have no intention but to administer the grants in a professional way and in the manner in which they were requested by the donor.
During a conference call with the USAA Board in June, CAP's desire to become an independent 501(c)3 organization, as outlined in their letter to the USAA Board, was addressed. The Board did not vote on the matter because they felt they did not have enough information regarding what CAP's plans were for the future or why CAP felt this was necessary. There were many concerns and they felt they needed to be addressed directly with the CAP Board. After this conference, on behalf of the Board, I requested a conference call with the CAP Board and representatives from the USAA Board to discuss their concerns and their plans. This request was denied and to date, we still have not received a confirmation that a conference call is an option. I have also requested from the CAP program an "official proposal" of any action that the CAP Board would like to have on the upcoming agenda for the next Board meeting, of which I was told there is no official proposal at this time.
In closing, we are open to discussion and a proposal of what CAP needs to be successful in the future. At this point, a proposal should be brought forth to the Board outlining how CAP would like to move forward and discussion should be broadened to both the USAA Board and CAP Board and input should be received by the general membership. It is my opinion that we are too small of a sport to have in-fighting and division. Both the Board and I stand ready to hear the concerns of the CAP Board and membership and look forward to open discussion regarding the issues and the plan on how the two groups can work more productively together in the future.
Regards,
Denise Parker
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