USCA NEWS Recommended bylaws approved by majority vote By Dave Carlson, USCA President-Elect
through a new set of bylaws. Te members, being the state and regional as- sociations of the USCA, voted on and passed the bylaws by a wide margin of 86 percent to 14 percent. Following the members meeting the USCA Board of Directors elected a
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new slate of officers. Te officers elected were Dave Carlson (Portage, Wis.), president; Rich Lepping (Madison, Wis.), vice president; Sam Williams (Acton, Mass.), vice president; Sean Silver (Chicago), treasurer; and Gordon Maclean (Atlantic Mine, Mich.), secretary. Tese newly-elected officers will be members of the transition team acting under the name of the transition steering group. Te steering group will guide the USCA from the current governance to
the new governance structure. Tis will include a reduction in the size of the Board from its current 29 members to 23. Te sub-groups of the steer- ing group, to assist the interim chief executive officer (CEO), will review the existing operational committees as to their purpose and function going forward and define their roles and responsibilities in the context of the new bylaws. Tis is toward the end of being ready for the planned Members’ Assembly at which the initial steps to populate the operational committees will be taken. Also, in collaboration with the staff, a Members’ Assembly is being planned. Te reduction of the Board from its current 29 to 23 is accomplished by
the three larger regions having their number of directors reduced from three to two. Tere are also three regions which will have their number of directors reduced from two to one. Tere will also be one less athlete Ath- letes Advisory Council (AAC)-elected director. A complete description of allocation of member elected directors may be found in the new bylaws at Section 7.6. Te new bylaws are available on the USCA website. Te Members’ Assembly is tentatively scheduled for mid October this
year. Final site selection is pending. Te Members’ Assembly will conduct the business of the members. In addition, the intent is to offer seminars, educational opportunities and a chance to network with other USCA mem- bers. Furthermore, there will be reports provided to the members from the interim CEO, the staff and the Board. Te transition steering group consists of the newly elected officers as
identified above. In addition, Jim Pleasants (Seattle), past president, will be a member of the steering group. Tere will also be three athlete represen- tatives from the AAC and the interim CEO as members of the group. Te AAC representatives are Maureen Clark (Portage, Wis.), chairwoman of the AAC; Dean Gemmell (Short Hills, N.J.), vice chairman of the AAC; and Pete Fenson (Bemidji, Minn.), USCA representative to United States Olym- pic Committee’s AAC. At the Board of Directors Meeting in April 2014, the Board voted to appoint Rick Patzke as the interim CEO. One of the responsibilities of the steering group is to gather initial in-
formation for an intended CEO search. Tis information will include job description and qualifications, salary range, as well as addressing the issues of whether the search will include hiring an outside search firm and the timeline for the search. Te final decision on the CEO search details will be made by the new Board at its initial Board meeting. Another task of the steering group includes commencing the cataloging
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usacurl.org
he annual members meeting of the United States Curling Asso- ciation (USCA) was held on April 12, 2014. Te main purpose of the meeting was to install an improved governance of the USCA
of existing policies of the USCA and identifying those policies in need of possible revision in light of the new governance structure, as well as hav- ing preliminary discussions on areas in which policy needs to be developed under the new governmental structure. Te steering group will also review the reports and work of the sub-groups and reconcile conflicts as they may arise as between the sub-groups concerning specific operational commit- tee’s goals and tasks. In addition, the steering group will advise on the loca- tion and details of the Members’ Assembly. Te three sub-groups of the steering group will address the matters of
identifying and defining operational committees as needed. Tese sub- groups are divided along the operational group areas as set forth in the new by-laws. Tese areas are Organizational Development, Grassroots Champi- onships, and Member Development. Tese sub-groups will have co-chairs, one of which will be a staff member who will have responsibilities in the general area. Te other co-chairs will respectively be the newly-elected vice presidents of Operations and Marketing and Championships and former Past President Chris Sjue (Fargo, N.D.), with assistance from Maclean. A vigorous timeline has been set for the transition planning. Te states
and regions are requested to identify their member elected directors to the new Board by July 1. A mid-August date is set for the initial/organizational meeting of the new Board. Te standing committees will be elected at the next Board meeting. Teir work is to commence immediately with the ex- pectation that preliminary reports will be made to the new Board at its next meeting. Te next meeting of the Board is scheduled to coincide with the Members’ Assembly in mid-October. To populate the board-level standing committees, the current Nominat-
ing Committee of the USCA is charged with the responsibility of presenting a slate of candidates to the Board. Te Nominating Committee is obligated, pursuant to the new bylaws, to solicit from the members names and quali- fications of nominees for open positions. See, Section 9A.15(f). It is antici- pated that this will be done within a timeframe such that the Nominating Committee may vet potential nominees and provide a report/slate of nomi- nees to the new Board at least 30 days prior to the tentatively scheduled Board meeting in mid August. Te goal of the USCA, as encouraged by the USOC, is for the USCA to
become the No. 1 member-supported national curling organization in the world. Te new governance structure has set a solid foundation upon which to build for the success of achieving this number one status. Success will rely upon the talent, passion and purposeful focus of all constituencies as- sociated with USCA. n
Are you interested in serving on one of the USCA's com-
mittees or do you know a worthy candidate? Te USCA is currently accepting recommendations for three commit- tees (ethics, judicial and nominating/governance) to be populated with non-board members. To fill out a nomination form, visit the USA Curling
website and visit the "About USA Curling" section for governance information or contact the USCA office at 1-888-CURLERS.
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