Athlete Advisory Council
What is the Athlete Advisory Council and What Do They Do?
BY MARY WEEKS AAC REPRESENTATIVE
Until I assumed the role of
Athletes’ Advisory Council (AAC) representative, I had never put too much thought into what the AAC was and why athlete rep- resentation within the AAC and each sport’s National Governing Body is so important. The idea for an athletes’ council was de- veloped just prior to the 1972 Munich Olympics, when a group of U.S. athletes began question- ing governance decisions, such as how the team fl ag bearer would be selected. The Execu- tive Director of the U.S. Olympic Committee at that time, F. Don Miller, provided the fi rst resourc- es for athletes to meet, and in 1973 the fi rst AAC was formed. By 1978, the role of the AAC became somewhat more formal- ized following the passage of the Amateur Sports Act by Congress. The AAC in its current form
resulted from the 1998 amend- ments to the Amateur Sports Act. Those amendments renamed the Amateur Sports Act the Ted Stevens Olympic and Ama- teur Sports Act (TSOASA) and strengthened the AAC’s role in USOC governance by including the AAC by name and defi ning its voting strength. Under the TSOASA, the pur-
pose of the AAC is to ensure communication between the USOC and amateur athletes and to ensure that athletes maintain at least twenty percent member- ship and voting power within the USOC and its committees and entities. The AAC consists of at least one athlete from each Olympic and Pan American
AAC Mission Statement: “To communicate the interests and protect the
rights of athletes, in cooperative support of the USOC achieving its mission.”
AAC Representative Contact Information: Mary Weeks (AAC) –
shootingaac@gmail.com Janet Raab (Rifl e) –
jraab@cox.net
Josh Richmond (Shotgun) –
jrrchmnd@yahoo.com Jason Turner (Pistol) –
shooter2004guy@yahoo.com
sport’s National Governing Body, eight athletes representing the Paralympic Sport Organizations or NGBs designated to govern a Paralympic sport, and six ath- letes elected by the AAC to serve at-large; including a chair and two vice chairs. Each athlete representative is elected by ath- letes within their NGB and serves for four years. The AAC’s mission statement
is “To communicate the inter- ests and protect the rights of athletes, in cooperative support of the USOC achieving its mis- sion.” To further this mission, the AAC meets three times a year and has developed a stra- tegic plan for this quad with four primary goals: (1) To improve the effectiveness and effi ciency of AAC operations to increase productivity, enhance members’ experience, and provide mean- ingful opportunities for active engagement; (2) To increase
14 USA Shooting News | March 2014
the quality and effectiveness of athlete support services/pro- grams; (3) To develop and imple- ment a strategy to strengthen relationships between AAC and key domestic and international stakeholders, such as the USOC, the NGB Council, and the Inter- national Olympic Committee; and (4) To design and deploy a strategy to be more inclusive and responsive to the role and needs of Paralympic athlete rep- resentatives within the USOC, in compliance with the “20% Rule” without negatively impacting Olympic/Pan American athlete representative roles. Among other things, the
AAC is actively working to im- prove athlete career programs and alumni support; re-tool the Elite Athlete Health Insurance program; conduct effi cient and effective elections for athlete representative positions within such organizations as the United
States Anti-Doping Agency; im- prove communication between athlete representatives; and maximize Paralympic represen- tation and communication within and among NGBs and Paralym- pic Sports Organizations. As a side note, the TSOASA
requires each sport’s NGB to maintain 20% athlete represen- tation on their boards of direc- tors and other governing boards. USA Shooting meets this re- quirement by having four athlete representatives serve as voting members of the USAS Board of Directors and by naming athletes as voting members of USAS task forces and subcommittees, such as nominating committees. If you are interested in learn-
ing more about the AAC and its activities, I encourage you to check out the AAC’s website at
http://www.teamusa.org/ For-Athletes/Athletes-Advisory- Council or follow them on Twitter at @USOCAAC. If you are inter- ested in serving as an athlete representative, please feel free to contact any of your current athlete representatives to learn more about what the job entails.
For more information, scan this QR code with a smartphone.
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