1.       Roll Call. Executive Committee members Sarah Alger, Charley Cook, Bruce Eissner, Louise van Voorhis Gleason, Fred Hagedorn, Stephen Jeffries, Linda Kessler, Dave Rosekrans, John Ross, Mike Schoettle, Pat Seidenspinner, Larry White were present. Also present were Interim Executive Director William Placke and, at the invitation of the president, Budget Chair Donna Hobbs and board member Roger Brown.

2.       Approval of Minutes.

  • Motion: A motion to approve the June 21, 2001, minutes of the Executive Committee was seconded and approved.

3.       ISAF Rules Submission. 
Motion:  a motion to approve the rules submission to ISAF listed in Attachment A was approved, seconded and passed, with the vote being taken by e-mail previous to the July 30, 2001, meeting.

4.       President’s Remarks. Dave Rosekrans and Bruce Eissner noted that they have been receiving very positive comments regarding Offshore and Americap. Regarding the Herreshoff Award, Sarah Alger was asked to review the process for nominating individuals.

5.       Budget Update. Donna Hobbs and Bill Placke reported that an updated budget report is nearly complete. Bill Placke said that his goal is to have a realistic, rigorous budget in place in time for the FY2002 budget planning. He noted that on a percentage of gross revenue, the percentage of net revenue is currently positive.

6.       Treasurer’s Report. Both Income and Expenses are slightly below budget. 

7.       Interim Executive Director’s Report. Bill Placke noted some recent positive developments: multi-year memberships are coming in and being set aside for future years, the credit line has been reduced to zero, and the cash balance for June is positive.  He also reported that some exciting possibilities are developing in Offshore. He reported that he is working with the staff to put in place a cash-flow statement that accurately reflects receipts and payables and reports the cash balance and explains variances from budget. He also noted that US SAILING’s current accounting system is highly antiquated, making the reconciling of month-to-month actuals with the budget difficult and highly time-consuming.

7.a.    Membership Report. Bill Placke reported that renewals are eroding. Adult memberships are both below plan and below last year, and programs need to be developed and put in place to attempt to offset this.

7.b.    Work Plan. He reported that a work plan has been drafted, and he is proud of the staff’s efforts on this document. He feels the plan is aggressive but achievable. Dave Rosekrans applauded the efforts of Bill and the staff on the creation of the Work Plan. Bill Placke asked for the support of the Executive Committee and other volunteers in enabling the staff to focus on implementing the work plan by deferring new projects and ideas for the short term.
                                                                                              

8.       Bylaws Changes.  For Ted Everingham, Fred Hagedorn reported on proposed changes to the bylaws to bring them up-to-date with current language and with the sailor-athlete and USOC bylaw requirements. The recommended bylaw changes will be mailed to the board and committee chairmen for their review 30 days prior to the AGM in October.

·         Motion:  a motion was seconded and approved to authorize the bylaws committee to change yacht to boat and yachting to racing throughout the bylaws.

·         Motion: a motion was seconded and approved to proceed with the proposed bylaw changes with the understanding that a specific sailor-athlete definition will not be in the bylaws.

9.       Olympic Committee.  Fred Hagedorn reported that the US had a very successful regatta with the Ynglings.  In August, he and Jonathan Harley will be in Athens observing the Saronikos Gulf regatta and exploring transportation and housing issues for the next Olympics. Bob Merrick has volunteered to help resurrect Sailing Medalist, which will become an electronic newsletter for athletes campaigning for world events. Two RFPs, one seeking an individual to do fundraising for the Olympic Sailing Committee and another for a fundraising consultant to do a feasibility study of fundraising potential for US SAILING overall, will be completed and released shortly. The Olympic fundraising effort will be funded solely out of Olympic Committee funds. The ExCom approved moving forward. As members of the fundraising task force, Fred Hagedorn and John Ross expressed their appreciation of the ExCom’s support.

10.   Sailor-Athlete Advisory Board.

10.a.    Approval to Create an On-line Voting Process. Louise Gleason said that the Sailor-Athlete Advisory Board would like to purchase and implement software to enable on-line voting. Fred Hagedorn noted that $12,000 was previously moved out of the Olympic budget to support the S-AAB and the regional Junior Olympic Program this year.  He requested that this voting system be developed so that it can be implemented by other committees as well with little additional expense.  It is expected that such a system will help streamline staff efforts.

·         Motion:  A motion was seconded and approved to explore and propose an electronic balloting system for the election of members of the Sailor-Athlete Advisory Board 

10.b.    The Revised Definition of Athlete.  The S-AAB seeks to better define what is an athlete in sailing so that everyone can easily define their level. The new definition (see Attachment B) divides athletes into three levels: A, B, and C. Some of the key resulting changes are that paralympic athletes are included in the highest (A) level, and top offshore events will be level B. She noted that the USOC currently does not include paralympic athletes in their bylaws. A motion to approve the definition was seconded, and will be voted on via e-mail in order to give the ExCom an opportunity to review the definition.

Note: On August 7, 2001, the motion to accept the Sailor-Athlete Advisory Board’s definition, as described in Attachment B, was passed through an e-mail vote.

11.   Website proposal.  Mike Schoettle noted that there is an increasing need for a password system on the web site so that a greater degree of confidentiality is possible for members.

·         Motion: a motion was seconded and approved to explore,  implement a password system for the web site.

12.   ISAF-ORC Submissions. Bruce Eissner asked to defer this item to the next meeting.

13.  Unfinished Business

13.a.    NGB Web site Collaborative.  Mike Schoettle reported that after considerable analysis, there appears to be more downside than upside from joining the website collaborative at this point. He reported that he has talked with several of the organizers of the collaborative. They would welcome interest from US SAILING at a later date.

·         Motion:  seconded, approved to decline the opportunity at this time.

13.b.          ISAF Visit to the US. Charley Cook reported that to date the ExCom will have viable proposals from Boston, Newport, and San Diego to discuss during the next meeting.

14.   New Business

14.a.    Race Administration. Pat Seidenspinner noted that the Race Administration committees are working on a proposal to implement printing on demand, rather than stocking inventory, of US SAILING texts.  

14.b.    Committee list. 

·         Motion: a motion was seconded and approved to accept the revised Committee list sent July 27, 2001.

·         Motion:  a motion was seconded and approved to remove the MORC committee from the committee list.   

Before going into Executive Session, Dave Rosekrans asked Roger Brown for any comments.  He noted that the recent Regional Junior Olympics event in Georgia was the largest ever, with 350 boats and 400 contestants. The assistance of US SAILING staff Director Lee Parks was highly appreciated. 

15.   Executive Session. (Executive Committee members and Executive Director only)

Article 14 and RRS 69 Issues.   

 

Adjourn

Next Executive Committee meeting – August 20, 2001, at 8:00 pm (Eastern standard time)

Respectfully submitted,

 

  

Sarah J. Alger
Secretary
US SAILING

 

ATTACHMENT A

Reporting Committee  - Racing Rules                                      Submission XXX-01

 

RACING RULES OF SAILING

 

A proposal from the United States Sailing Association dated 30 July 2001

 

Current Position

18         ROUNDING AND PASSING MARKS AND OBSTRUCTIONS

18.2      Giving Room; Keeping Clear

(d)        When rule 18 applies between two boats and the right-of-way boat is changing course to round or pass a mark, rule 16 does not apply between her and the other boat.

Proposal 

18         ROUNDING AND PASSING MARKS AND OBSTRUCTIONS

18.2      Giving Room; Keeping Clear

(d)       When rule 18 applies between two boats and the right-of-way boat is changing course to round or pass a mark, rule 16 does not apply between her and the other boat. This rule does not apply before the starting signal.

Reasons

At least one pre-start scenario has been identified where it appears clearly undesirable for rule 16 to be made inapplicable. L and W close-hauled are approaching the committee boat that is at the right-hand end of the starting line and will pass just to windward of it. L, when far enough along to be able to bear off around the mark, does so, very sharply, so that she hits W. If this were to happen at a windward mark, for example, the result would be what we intended; W is supposed to be prepared for such a possibility and avoid it. Before a race has started, however, when a boat's intended course is often not predictable, the game is better with rule 16's protections in effect.

 

===============================================================

 

Reporting Committee – Racing Rules                                      Submission XXX-01

 

RACING RULES OF SAILING

A proposal from the United States Sailing Association dated 30 July 2001

Current Position

22        INTERFERING WITH ANOTHER BOAT

22.2     A boat shall not deliberately interfere with a boat making penalty turns to delay her.


Proposal

22        INTERFERING WITH ANOTHER BOAT

22.2        A boat shall not deliberately interfere with a boat making a penalty turn to delay her.


Reasons

1.  This rule is intended to apply when a boat is making either a single penalty turn (360o) after touching a mark (Rule 31.2) or two penalty turns (720o) after breaking a Part 2 rule (rule 44.1). As it is currently written, rule 22.2 could be interpreted to apply to a 720o turn, but not to a 360o turn.

2.  Consistency. Rule 20 was changed for 2001 so that it now reads ‘a penalty turn’ where it formerly read ‘penalty turns’. If we do not make the same change in rule 22.2, careful readers may wonder why the difference is there and whether it is important.

 

===============================================================

 

Reporting Committee – Racing Rules                                     Submission XXX-01

 

RACING RULES OF SAILING

A proposal from the United States Sailing Association dated 30 July 2001

Current Position

70        RIGHT OF APPEAL AND REQUESTS FOR INTERPRETATION

70.1      Provided that the right of appeal has not been denied under rule 70.4, a protest committee's interpretation of a rule or its procedures, but not the facts in its decision, may be appealed to the national authority of the venue by

(a)        a boat or competitor that is a party to a hearing, or

            (b)        a race committee that is a party to a hearing, provided the protest committee is a jury.

Proposal

70        RIGHT OF APPEAL AND REQUESTS FOR INTERPRETATION

70.1    Provided that the right of appeal has not been denied under rule 70.4, a protest committee's interpretation of a rule or its procedures, but not the facts in its decision, may be appealed to the national authority of the venue by

(a)        a boat or competitor that is a party to a hearing, or

            (b)        a race committee that is a party to a hearing.

Reasons

When a race committee is a party to a hearing, current rule 70.1(b) permits it to appeal a decision of an independent jury, but not the decision of a protest committee that was appointed by the race committee (see rule 89). When appeals are permitted, it seems unfair and illogical to permit them in some circumstances and deny them in others, based merely on the manner in which the protest committee was appointed. The proposed wording will allow a race committee to appeal under the same circumstances as any other party.

Also, the proposed wording simplifies and shortens rule 70.1 by removing a rather obscure exception.

========================================================================

File last updated: June 29.

 

 

ATTACHMENT B

Definition of Athlete

Note: The purpose of designating Sailor-Athlete representatives is to increase the most active American sailors’ participation in the governing body of the sport and to meet the requirements of the United States Olympic Committee as outlined in the USOC bylaws, in conformance with the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act.

(A) At the time of election or appointment an individual must meet the following criteria to be considered an athlete representative or “Sailor-Athlete”: The individual must be a member of US SAILING.

A Level Athlete

(i) Represented the United States at the World Championships of an Olympic, Pan American or Paralympic class within the previous ten years and finished in the top half.

(ii) Represented the United States at an Olympic, Pan American or Paralympic Games in the last ten years.

B Level Athlete

(i) Represented the United States at an ISAF sanctioned World Championship within the previous ten years and finished in the top half.

(ii) Placed in the top one third of a National or North American Sailing Championship recognized by ISAF or US SAILING within the last ten years.

(iii) Represented the United States within the last ten years by sailing and placing in the top half of an elite international event such as the Louis Vuitton Cup, Kenwood Cup, Volvo Ocean Race, Admirals Cup, Newport to Bermuda Race, Transpac Race or competed in the America's Cup.

C Level Athlete

(i) Participated in any of the events named above within the last ten years. (Olympics, Pan-Am Games, Paralympic Games, ISAF sanctioned world championship in any class, National or North American Championship, Americas Cup, Louis Vuitton Cup, Kenwood Cup, Volvo Ocean Race, Admirals Cup, Newport to Bermuda Race, Transpac Race)

(B) Age restricted events shall not be used to qualify an individual as a Sailor-Athlete.

 

Eligibility for Board and Committee Membership as Athletes

1. The membership of the athlete advisory board shall be composed of 50% or more A level athletes. The remainder shall be comprised of B level athletes.

2. Likewise the athlete representatives to the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of US SAILING shall be composed of 50% or more A level athletes. The remainder shall be comprised of B level athletes for each committee or board. The same shall apply for all designated committees.

3. It is recommended that the athlete representatives to all other committees be composed of 50% athlete representation from either A and/or B Level and the remainder from C Level.

4. Disputes regarding Sailor-Athlete status for an individual in terms of this definition will be decided by a vote of the S-AAB.