US
SAILING Annual General Meeting
Sailor Athlete Council Report and Minutes
October 22, 2004
SAC Members present:
Ned Jones, Susannah Carr, Betsy Altman, Cory Sertl,
Mark Reynolds, Hal Haenel, Dean Brenner, Lee Parks (staff).
Also present were incoming SAC members Kim Hapgood,
Sandy Grosvenor, Bob Billingham, Tom Leweck, and Hannah Swett (conference
call).
Approximately 20 others attended, including Janet
Baxter, US SAILING President; Dave Irish, ISAF delegation; Fred Hagedorn,
OSC Chair; Tom Hubbell, Chair of Structure Working Party.
Meeting was called to order at 10:30am pacific time,
Friday, October 22, 2004.
SAC Elections
After introductions, we briefly discussed the recent
SAC elections. Kim Hapgood, Hannah Swett, Sandy Grosvenor, Tom Leweck, Bob
Billingham, John Lovell and Dean Brenner were elected to four-year terms.
They will join Mark Reynolds, Hal Haenel, Cory Sertl, Bob Merrick and
Louise Gleason, all of whom have two years remaining on their terms.
Many thanks to Betsy Altman (Vice Chairman), Susannah
Carr (Secretary), Ned Jones, Roger Cleworth and Geoff Ewenson all of whom
have served their terms and are going off the Council.
The new Council will take over at the conclusion of
the 2004 AGM.
The new SAC still needs to elect an incoming Chair,
Vice Chair and Secretary,
USOC Athlete Representative
Hal Haenel gave us a report on the upcoming election
for US SAILING’s athlete representative to the USOC. The nomination and
election will be held on our website, in November, and all information is
posted there.
Proposed US SAILING Structure Change
Tom Hubbell joined us for a discussion of the
proposed changes to the structure of US SAILING. We discussed three issues
of interest to our group:
- The method for naming
additional sailor athletes to the Board of Directors. The proposal noted
that the Coaches Council would add sailor athletes, as needed, to the
Board. In our meeting, SAC conveyed to the Structure Task Force that
this is in conflict with the requirements of the Ted Stevens Act, and
that Sailor Athletes need to name Sailor Athletes to Board positions.
Tom agreed to make the change.
- We also encouraged the
Structure Task Force to take a look at how the new BOD would measure
quorums and votes to pass measures. With a significantly smaller BOD,
SAC recommended to Tom that the thresholds be high for both quorums and
votes to approve issues.
- SAC expressed its concern
over the role and influence of marine industry professionals on the new
organization. The goals of the industry will not always be aligned with
our organization, and we encouraged the Structure Task Force to
reconsider that notion.
In response to this discussion, the Structure Task
Force addresses SAC’s points #1 and #2 in a later draft of the proposal.
Olympic Equipment
We discussed Olympic equipment and how the US ISAF
delegation should vote at the November ISAF meeting. OSC Chair Fred
Hagedorn asked SAC to provide input to the OSC, which would then make the
official recommendation to the Board of Directors.
We spent the bulk of our time in the SAC meeting
discussing the women’s single handed event, and the two lead candidates
for that event – the Europe dinghy and the Laser Radial. After much
discussion, we voted in favor of recommending the Europe dinghy to the OSC
by a narrow margin of 3-2 with 2 abstentions.
Charles Ivey also made a short statement in favor of
windsurfing remaining an Olympic event.
The meeting concluded at 11:30am pacific time.
Respectfully submitted,
Dean Brenner
SAC Chairman