2007 Eastern Region Winter Meeting

Council Meeting Minutes – 8:00 a.m., Saturday 1/20/07

1. Call to Order – meeting called to order @ 8:28 am

2. Announcement of Quorum

3. Introduction of Council present

John Davis – PA
Gary Noll – PA
Roger Hammel – VA
Jon Thacher – VA
Jean Giove – MD
Doug Robbins – EVP
Pat Byrne – CT
Hutch Haines – CT
Alan Frederick – NY
Dean Rudy – NY
Dave Allen – MA
Rod Barney – VA
Paul Santangelo – VA
Sam Ingram – WV
John Corkery - NJ

4. Agenda review

5. Announcements

6. EVP Report

• Officials downgrade lists – EVP asked all council and federation presidents to review list of officials downgrades for 2007, and be sure they are not a result of failing to include their name(s) on the officials work record at tournaments. If so, contact Traci Baylon at USA Water Ski headquarters to resolve. This can usually be done by verbal verification from the chief officials of the tournaments. EVP also encouraged coordinating officials clinics so that ratings are not downgraded or lost because of failure to attend a maintenance clinic.
• RWS Fund Disbursement Committee – Doug has not gone forward with the disbursement. Doug asked the council for their ideas. Jon Thacher said Doug should use his best judgment. Move forward & ask the council for the vote. Marie Baker separated the funds & put in a 10 mo. CD to mature this fall.

7. 2006 Summer Meeting Minutes*

• Review & discussion – minutes were distributed via e-mail & Doug heard nothing back so he assumed everything was ok.
• Entry fee poll has been discussed w/Twin Lakes. Majority of poll responses indicated a preference for an on-site lower budget banquet at Regionals with a reduced entry fee for skiers in 2007.
• Regional participation taskforce to follow later in the meeting
• Motion by Pat Byrne to approve the 2006 meeting minutes. Second by Jean Giove. Motion carried.

8. Treasurer’s Report* – Submitted by Marie Baker
Balance in checking $ 6462.42. Savings balance $ 20,764.53
Jr. Development $ 6246.23 with 2 clinics not reported as of yet for $500.00 total.
Doug discussed the breakdown as noted. New expense items - Regional entry 20% discount match to regionals host (2006 Lake Holly). Regional Championship banner purchased by Lake Holly to be used @ each Regionals. Trophy Mart expense were the awards presented to volunteers.

9. 2007 Budget*

• Review & discussion – guidebook costs went up this year. Darlene has identified some pages that might not need to be there. Discussed in her report. 57 tournaments ads in this years book at this point with a few later possibly. The expense amt. is approx. $5375.65. Officials & Clinics would be approx. $950.00. Directors & Committee expense approx. $ 4400.00. EVP allotment for $1300.00 for winter meeting. Regional Jr. Entry Subsidy ($15/per jr.) based on 70 skiers approx. $1,050.00. Jon Paulovich said Twin Lakes would match the $15/per Jr. Dean Rudy mentioned that the “experiment” really seemed to work to get jrs. to participate. Hutch said the bulk of the jrs were from VA. The thought is they will travel to NY. Entry fee for Jr.’s is $50.00 at Twin Lakes for 1 event. Jon Paulovich thinks that they will have more Jr.’s than in previous years. Jean made a motion to increase jr. dev. Budget to $600.00 second by Pat Byrne. $2424.35 would now be the new projected loss.
• Motion by John Davis to accept the 2007 budget as amended. Second by Pat Byrne. Motion carried.

10. 2007 Tournament Schedule – Bill Fosbenner reported 56 tournaments on proposed schedule. All sanction fees need to be submitted to Bill & he will forward to AWSA for their fees. All but 1 tournament hasn’t been sanctioned. Deadline was last week to submit for guidebook. Judi has to have all her paperwork no later than 2/12 to hdqtrs. & needs approx. 2 weeks to finalize. Dave Allen mentioned 2 tournaments scheduled in MA – June & July will move them up each week to avoid conflicts in the nearby states. Only 22 payments have been received to date. Regional sanction fees need to be paid by deadline for inclusion in 2007 Guidebook.

• Motion by Pat Byrne to approve tournament schedule as amended. Second by Hutch Haines. Motion carried.

11. Guidebook Report* – Submitted by Judi Stevens

Judi has relocated to FL but continued to be our editor. The deadline she posted is 1/31/07. Ski Club listing will be submitted by AWSA from 2006 year end. Ski Club Site Map – Darlene has the most up to date map. She will submit to Judi. Tournament schedule will be submitted to be proofed by Doug & Bill. NY & MD still to submit records & many other state champs. Directors need to submit updated bios, & pictures.

12. Official selection for 2007 Eastern Regionals*

• Add Jean Giove - MD to appointed judge list. Need to vote on appointed judges – we need 9. Dave Allen said instead of a vote he would withdrawal his name & add to ASD.
• Motion by Pat Byrne to approve the officials who volunteered to work 2007 Regionals. Second by Alan Frederick. Motion carried.

13. Official selection for 2007 Nationals

Doug has tried to find more officials to appoint. John Harris, Dave Robbins, Ed Nichols & Steve Lohr to judge. Ann Lohr-scorer will both join the appointed. 2 more judges & 1 scorer are needed. Doug will present this & will continue to search for more. Roger said any additional officials should contact Doug directly with no vote needed.
Roger Hammel made motion to approve. Pat Byrne Seconded. Motion carried.

Break 9:50 am
Resume 10:04 am

14. USAWS Report – Lisa St. John, Competition Director
USAWS will be implementing a new web site in 2007. It will be more user friendly and complete. A new monthly newsletter will be posted on the site as well. The Water Skier Magazine will be cut from 9 to 7 issues a year in 2007. For the 2008 & 2009 Nationals there are still no formal bids. Lastly any water ways issues should contact Lisa for help & guidance.

• Roger Hammel stated that he would like to get a system that would show who really worked & who was on the officials list for tournaments. Lisa said the next mission at USAWS headquarters will be to link WSTIMS with the officials known who really worked. Can SWIFT have a revision page to update the officials who really worked. Until a permanent system is implemented SWIFT can be used for this purpose. Can the edit code that is given to the tournament director be also give to the scorer. Lisa will look into that.

15. 2007 Eastern Regionals – Twin Lakes Water Ski Club

Jon Paulovich reported they will have a June tournament to make sure all technical specifications are met and everything is up to date. Twin Lakes will hold a C tournament week before Regionals to encourage participation for site familiarization. Paid practice starts Monday morning – week of Regionals. Jump practice won’t happen unless safety officials are available. Jon will talk to his club to get more safety officials. Wednesday night will be the officials’ meeting. Thursday night Jr. Party in possible conjunction with the ER Regional meeting. Friday night the banquet will be held on site possible barbeque. Bring your own alcohol if needed. Soda will be supplied. Doug will work directly w/Jon in regards to the membership meeting. Chief judge will address the officials needing to stay if Sunday skiing is needed. Jon also submitted the preliminary 2007 Regionals schedule which is possibly subject to change. The new host hotel is 5 minutes away and very nice.

16. 2008 Regionals & beyond

John Davis thanked Twin Lakes for taking on the 2007 Regionals. For 2008 there are no bids. John will be in touch w/each club who in the past has had regionals. George Vosburgh mentioned he would like to put in a bid for the 2009 Regionals. Concern was expressed that there has been no record tournaments there yet. John hopes that by the summer meeting we will have a commitment for the 2008 Regionals.

17. Other Old Business

• Regional Qualification / Participation Task Force report & recommendations* - S. Lohr
  To be tabled until afternoon
• NOPS proposal – Roger Hammel
  To be tabled until afternoon
• Webmaster Report* - Submitted by Darlene McCormick
  To be tabled until afternoon
• Lex Carroll Memorial Scholarship: Judy Aiken indicated that the Lex Carroll Memorial Scholarship has not been applied for in a few years. Currently there is enough money in the fund to sustain the $1500 / year scholarship for 2 more years. It was originally for skiers from the New England states. Judy Aiken asked EVP to publicize the scholarship’s availability, and discuss with council the status of the fund, the possibility of opening it up to the region, and how to sustain it. EVP asked for ideas. The acct is in escrow & is handled by AWSEF. Jon asked if we can move it from NE skiers to the whole Eastern Region. Dave Allen indicated that MA had no objection to making it available region wide. Pat Byrne and Hutch Haines from CT had no problems with it either. EVP reported that he put out a request in 2005 & 2006, but no one applied for the scholarship. EVP appointed volunteers Dave Allen, Pat Byrne, and Jon Thacher to a committee to recommend the future of this scholarship fund.

Lunch break 11:56 am.
Resume 1:25 pm for the membership meeting

18. New Business

• EVP reported the pending AWSA BOD issue surrounding Trophy Lakes. The background is that they held a record tournament and a class C tournament simultaneously on both of their lakes in October. A record was established in M3 slalom by Clay Niell. IN accordance with the normal record review process, the record application was submitted to the TC committee who recommend approval or non-approval to AWSA President Grew. When the record was submitted the TC committee learned that the boat times for Clay Niell were in tolerance but on the slow side consistently. Upon review of the boat times, the TC committee also noticed that although the majority of times on the record lake were close to actual, times on the C lake were consistently slow. The TC committee then recommended that the record application be rejected, the tournament be downgraded form E/L/R to class F. The TC committee also reported that ‘pattern’ driving at the R lake took place. The BOD will vote on these issues and recommendations from the TC committee at the AWSA BOD meeting next weekend in Florida.
  There are 2 recommendations – 1st to downgrade from R to an F – by a show of hands all say no to the downgrade. 2nd is to reprimand all the officials – by a show of hands all say no to reprimand. Looking at just the C lake should the officials be reprimanded? The majority by show of hands indicated that they should not be unless the other 20% of tournaments around the country were as well. Steve Lohr said since they were together you can’t separate them. The directors will take membership’s direction to the meeting.

Break 3:19 pm.
Resume 3:31 pm

State Reports

• CT – Hutch Haines – 4 ski sites in CT. Avon the strongest, and most active with competition & events. CT will probably have 4 tournaments this year, and maybe a junior development clinic.
• DE – Rusty Coffin – not present. Ed Nichols reported DE will hold 4 tournaments this year. 2 at Silver Lake and 2 at Hunter Phillips lake.
• ME – Dave Robbins – not present – written report submitted. Sanford club went show ski. Kevin Jack (M1) upgraded to regular 3 event judge.
• MD – Jean Giove / Mike Sturdevant – MD held it's first record tournament in 2006. MD will hold 3 tournaments in '07. MD also has planned a Jr. Clinic before 1 tournament.
• MA – David Allen reported. ½ dozen clubs but only tournament site is Oakham. They are increasing their junior numbers. The biggest challenge they face is that new skiers have no place to ski. MA officials are trying to encourage both F & C meets by more clubs than just Oakham. Oakham’s F & C format has resulted in Approx. 2 – 5 new skiers in each year.
• NH – Bill Swaffield / Paul Meyers – no present
• NJ – John Corkery / John Paulovich – 5 tournaments scheduled in NJ in 2007, between South Jersey and Autore's. Twin Lakes will host 2007 Regionals.
• NY – Alan Frederick / Dean Rudy – NY state will host 10 tournaments this year. NY state's biggest challenge is that they are experiencing very minimal boat participation.
• PA – John Davis / Gary Noll - 4 clubs are hosting 6 tournaments in PA in 2007. This is the same as 2006. Jeff Rodgers did instructional slalom clinics at Dave's Pond and Big Rock in 2006. Danielle Bennett also did an instructional clinic at Dave's Pond in 2006. Unsure what instructional clinics are available in 2007.
• VT – Bruce Epstein / Darlene McCormick – not present. Darlene submitted a report. 1 tournament in 2007, Tom Costello, due to declining entries.
• VA – Rod Barney / Paul Santangelo / Wick Merchant – Wick reported there were 14 tournaments in ’06. Ken Mead this year will change their format. They will have another jr. dev. Clinic. Last year they had 39 with Chris Rossi coaching. Adult clinics will be hosted also. Paul has under construction a website to link the local clubs.
• WV – Sam Ingram – 1 ski club @ Deep Creek Lake that is pretty active and thriving. Terra Alta in WV hosted their 1st tournament in 2006 and will hold another in 2007.

Committee Reports

• Executive – Doug Robbins – Gave a quick overview of the executive committee report. ’06 Regionals skier participation by state was analyzed across the country. The West possibly wants to have 2 Regionals. EC exploring possibly realigning the region. EC is considering a proposal to increase National entry fees. Fees have not increased since 2002. EC also discussed a proposal to allow radio helmet for communication between skier & coaches & parents in jumping. Jon Thacher mentioned the amount of skiers that didn’t ski in the Regionals that he saw in nationals.
• Judges & Scorers – Gary Noll – Sacramento, CA will host the sr. judge & scorers clinic. Trick videos are being upgraded along with others. Gary experienced problems utilizing the test and clinic materials on DVD form USAWS. His recommendations are to keep things simple & stick with video tapes. Downgraded list is out. Gary asked Council people to contact them directly to try & help them with problems. Contact Traci @ USAWS with concerns. Another recommendation was to get the "heads-up" from hdqtrs before the downgrades.
• Regional Guidebook – Judi Stevens* - not present – submitted written report
• Regional Web Site – Darlene McCormick* - not present – submitted report. Is there a benefit for the forum? Show of hands majority see benefit. Some say they don’t know how to use it. Other sites have a useful forum. Council & membership recommend we keep it & try to make it more useful. We need to draw people into the forum.
• Regional Records – Dan Baumgart – not present
• Rules – Lee Mershon / Ken Crofton - Gary Noll will replace Ken Crofton on Rules effective next week at the AWSA BOD winter meeting. Roger Hammel reviewed the overall points proposals the board will be deciding on at the AWSA BOD meeting. The non-linear approach is being discussed.
• By Laws – Steve Vincent taking over as East rep on committee for Gary Noll effective next week at the AWSA Winter Meeting. Gary reports no activity.
• NSL – Ron Ramsey – USAWS offers $100 credit for each event & no one is taking advantage of it. Contact hdqtrs. NSL gives 5 star tournaments with hopefully more people in attendance and you can use any format. Try to advertise more around your area also with the TV stations & newspapers. Award presentation during the event. Goodie bags, t-shirts, give a-ways. Motion to waive the $65 guidebook fee for the fun tournaments & credit the director by $50. The motion is tabled until the summer meeting.
• Skiers Rating – Dana Hinman – not present – Steve Lohr presented a report from the regional qualifications committee. The committee will look at it in another year.
• Technical – Dan Baumgart – not present
• Nominating – Jean Giove – nominate EVP & national director. A committee will look for candidates.
• Drivers – Bill Swaffield – not present – a report was submitted
• Towboat & Speed Control – Doug Robbins* - Committee has begun to address the lack of promo boats in many areas. The manufacturer’s said they knew nothing about the shortage areas. Due to the new on-line sanctioning, the towboat request forms are not available or being completed. Once the old form is located it will be implemented onto SWIFT for the manufacturers to be kept up to date. Zero off (GPS) speed control is still in the testing and approval process. As of the December towboat tests, it is approved in slalom & trick, but will test for jump in Spring 2007. 10 boats are approved for use in 2007.
• International Activities (IAC) – Ralph Hall / Jon Thacher – 5 tournaments in 2008. The East is lacking in IAC for officials. Anyone interested please see Jon or Ralph.
• Junior Development – Hutch Haines – 2 clinics posted in 2008. Funds are available for clinics – max. $250/per clinic. Twin Lakes & Jr. Dev. will credit $30 for the juniors. Funds are low on the national level for juniors. Contact Hutch with any questions or help.
• Coaches – Tom Hinman – not present
• Safety – Pat Byrne – there were only 109 injuries in ’06. 7 only in the east.
• Seeding – Jennifer Frederick-Kelly – all tournaments with exception of a hand full were scored with WSTIMS. If scoring with WSTIMS e-mail the .LZH file only. Jennifer will submit all scores to the national rankings list & to AWSAEAST web site.
• AWSEF Report – Steve Lohr – this group handles the museum, scholarships and the lake. It is felt that the lake & museum really promotes the sport. Reading Water Skiers donated the judges tower at Lake Grew at USAWS headquarters. Lewis Fields donated the 3 boat lifts for the boat house. Contributions are always welcomed.

New Business

• Tournament weighting poll responses* - 82 responded. 33% say no weighting, 56% say E/L/R should be counted twice over C & 11% felt they should be weighted but not twice as much.

Regional Recommendations for AWSA BOD Meeting

• Roger Hammel recommends fixing the boundary issue on the NRL.

Adjourn

• Motion to adjourn by Dave Allen seconded by Pat Byrne, motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 5:37 p.m.