Sailor Athlete Advisory Board Conference Call Minutes
May 16, 2001 - Approved by majority vote
1. In attendance were C. Dey, D. Brenner, D. Peck, G Ewenson, J. Appel, L. Gleason, B. Merrick, M. Gaillard, M. Reynolds, J. Lovell, L. Parks
2. Lee Parks was introduced to the group as our new staff liaison with US SAILING.
3. James, Dean and Louise gave a review of the last OSC meeting where concerns about disclosure of the OSC budget were discussed. Fred Hagedorn has been cooperative with the sailors and aims to be more forthcoming with information. Approximately 70% of an estimated 1.1 million dollar budget will be used for direct athlete support in the form of grants, shipping, coaching, psychology, and weather research. Amounts of individual grants and staff salaries will remain confidential. A more updated version of the spreadsheet that was distributed at the Miami OCR will be available soon.
4. Mark Reynolds is in charge of the SAAB web page. The page is up and running. A password-protected area will be used by this committee to draft and comment on documents such as the definition of athlete, voting procedures, and the committee's mission statement. SAAB committee members are asked to give Mark Reynolds permission to link your e-mail address to the page.
5. Review of the Committee Lists. Louise lead a brief discussion about the accuracy of athlete designations in the current list. Offshore, Sailors with Special Needs and the Nominating Committees were not in compliance as of March.
6. Bob Merrick has been organizing member ideas for the definition of athlete. The definition of athlete was discussed. Poor representation of offshore and 'big boat' sailing was listed as a problem with the current definition. This group will continue to revise the definition on the web page as well as consult with the offshore committee for a better definition of events that meet the appropriate criteria.
7. James Appel suggested a brief outline for a voting procedure including a self-registration of athletes via the internet, nomination procedures, annual elections and term limits. A document outlining this process will be under construction on the password-protected area of the web page. August 1 is the goal for designing the process so that an election can be held Mid September prior to the October US SAILING meeting.
8. Drug Testing in sailing was discussed. Mark Reynolds remarked on a tentative plan for a voluntary registration of sailors worldwide for drug testing. Bob Merrick discussed the importance of regatta host clubs in the sport of sailing, and the need to have drug testing mutually agreed upon by the host clubs, the USADA and the US Sailing Team. Better education and communication is necessary in this area.
9. Suggestions were made in regard to publicizing this committee with a press release including our mission statement and other documents. Geoff Ewenson will draft a mission statement that will be posted on the password-protected area of the web page for comment.
10. The next SAAB conference call will be held on June 13 at 9:00pm Eastern Time.
11. Meeting adjourned 10:27pm.