GOVERNANCE Vision statement: Continued from Page 33 *


membership; v. ensure that its Board of Directors has estab-


lished criteria and election procedures for, and maintains among its voting members, individu- als who are actively engaged in amateur athletic competition in curling or who have represented the United States in an international amateur athletic competition in curling within the pre- ceding ten (10) years, and ensures that the voting power held by those individuals is not less than twenty (20) percent of the voting power held in its Board of Directors or other governance body; vi. be governed by a Board of Directors whose


members are selected without regard to race, col- or, religion, national origin, or sex, with repre- sentation on the Board of both males and females when reasonably possible; vii. provide an equal opportunity to amateur


athletes, coaches, trainers, managers, admin- istrators, and officials to participate in curling competitions without discrimination on the ba- sis of race, color, religion, age, sex, or national origin; viii. not have an officer who is also an officer


of another amateur sports organization that is recognized by the USOC as a National Govern- ing Body; ix. provide procedures for the prompt and eq-


uitable resolution of grievances of its members; x. provide fair notice and an opportunity for


a hearing to any amateur athlete, coach, trainer, manager, administrator, or official before declar- ing such individual ineligible to participate; xi. agree to submit to binding arbitration in


any controversy involving: (1) its recognition as a national governing


body, or (2) the opportunity of any amateur athlete,


coach, trainer, manager, administrator, or offi- cial to participate in amateur athletic competi- tion in curling, upon demand of the USOC or any aggrieved amateur athlete, coach, trainer, manager, administrator, or official, conducted in accordance with the commercial rules of the American Arbitration Association or as modi- fied pursuant to the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act; xii. not have eligibility criteria relating to am-


ateur status or to participation in the Olympic Games that are more restrictive than those of the international sports federation for the sport of curling recognized by the International Olympic Committee; xiii. perform all other obligations and duties imposed by the Ted Stevens Olympic and Ama-


34 usacurl.org ))


teur Sports Act and by the USOC on a National Governing Body.


Conclusion We are currently operating with by-laws that


were designed for an era when curling was not an Olympic sport, and we could only afford one staff person. By necessity, operational duties were carried out by the volunteers who made up the Board of Directors. With growth across the country spurred in large part by the Olympics, and with our designation as the NGB for curl- ing, we have been able to expand our staff and do more in the way of member services and high performance training. We have advanced to the point where our governance structure is holding us back and needs to be changed to make us more effective. Te key changes are that the board will set policy and provide oversight of the CEO; and the CEO and staff will be in charge of carrying out the policies at an operational level. Te Mem- bers Assembly will provide an opportunity for more curlers to volunteer and be involved in the business of the USCA, under the direction of the staff. Te members of the Governance Task Force have given these changes a great deal of thought and discussion, and ask for your input and sup- port in taking our organization to a higher level of success through the changes outlined in this Statement. Respectfully, the Governance Task Force James Pleasants, Chair Andy Anderson, Kent Beadle, John Benton,


Dave Carlson, Maureen Clark, Gabrielle Cole- man, Jeff Hannon, Rich Lepping, Gordon Ma- clean, Leland Rich, Chris Sjue, Jennifer Stan- nard, Ann Swisshelm, Carl Tomas APPENDIX 1: COMPOSITION OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS


Te GTF recognizes that the new Board of Di-


rectors will have a different role than our current board. For a Board focusing on national policies and goals, the size (currently 28) is greater than optimal, and the percentage of nationally elected representatives is too small (currently only one board-elected director serves, one USWCA ap- pointed director, and all others are regionally appointed, except for athletes). One of the com- promises growing out of GTF discussions was that our Board of Directors should have some regionally elected members and some nationally elected members, and that it should be reduced in size. Tis concept was approved by the Board of Directors, and the GTF continued to work on it aſter the fall meeting. Te following position grew out of the GTF discussion, as amended at the Spring Board meeting. Under our current Board structure, we have representatives coming


from State Associations and from Regional As- sociations composed of multiple states. A State or Region may have one, two, or three directors depending on the number of registered curlers. We would like to reduce the number of direc-


tors. Our regions break down into three having 2,000 or more, and nine having 1,000 or less. Te GTF had recommended having some smaller re- gions vote for a single director by combined vote of the regions. However the board and members approved an amendment to the vision statement that would specify that all states or regions cur- rently having at least one director seat will re- tain that seat. We further propose to lower the maximum number of directors from any State or Region to two. Regions with 2,000 or more reg- istered curlers would have two directors. Tose having less than 2,000 registered curlers would have one director. We could also express this in percentage terms (e.g regions having 12.5% or more of the total registered curlers would receive an extra director). Tis would allow for growth and change without automatically increasing the size of the board. We would also create spots for four nationally elected directors, to be elected by the Board. Te USCA recognizes each state and region as


an independent organization with its own gov- ernance, responsibilities and authority for clubs within its region. Allocation of slots for play- downs is not part of the bylaws and would not be affected by any by-laws change. Under the present distribution of the curling


population, the regional part of our Board would then look like this: Wisconsin: 2 directors GNCC: 2 Minnesota: 2 North Dakota: 1 (includes South Dakota) Great Lakes: 1 MOPAC: 1 Washington: 1 Illinois: 1 Alaska: 1 At-Large, CO, NB: 1 Regional total: 13 Te remainder of the Board would be non-


regional, composed of: Athletes: 5 (voted in by the AAC) USWCA Rep: 1 Nationally elected: 4 (Voted for by the Board


of Directors) TOTAL number of directors: 23 Independent Directors


One of the acknowledged deficiencies in our


current structure is the limited use of indepen- dent directors: i.e. directors who bring to the


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40