Welcome to Northern USSA Ski Teams


Minutes of the USSA Northern Division and ACC meeting, held at the Hidden Moose Lodge, Whitefish, January 13, 2006 (Approved) Attending: Jenn Stielow, Craig Krueger, Betty Anne Shores, Wayne Cook, Fritz Wood, Alrick Hale, Jeff Pickering, Lance Kidder, Jessie Crawford, Mario Alvarez, Jason Nelson, Dick Collins, Chad Pavlick, Jeff Zavala, Ken Bailey, Dave Kelly Meeting called to order 7:00 PM A. Old Business Jenn Stielow, reporting on the Western Region Alpine Competition Committee meeting overview held in Park City on January 7th, 2006: The Western Region will schedule its events in the future so they do not overlap with each other on the calendar. A rotation schedule for the J3 JO’s has been proposed so every division gains an opportunity to host the event. There was a discussion about bringing the Regions Cup to the J3 level – this will be known as the Divisions Cup and will be calculated and awarded at the J3 Junior Olympics. The athletes that place 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd in the J2 Nationals will become Western Region Automatics during the following season. Effective immediately, results from this season will count towards next year’s Western Region Automatics listing. J3 Topolino Shoot Out: The Northern Division is seeking input from the coaches regarding our selection process and training strategy for this event. Jeff Pickering points out that many skiers on the US ski team were competitors at the Topolino shootout. Most academy programs that are targeting this event have their top J3 athletes on snow in various Colorado camps in November. Currently, ND selects skiers for this event based on the results from the previous season's J3 Junior Olympics. Western Region is emphasizing that the J3-J4 Junior Olympics need to rotate around all of the various Divisions. 2006-07 Calendaring: The J2's 2^nd Technical Elite series will be scheduled in February in order to avoid the same conflicts with the college race calendar. 5 more J2 slots have been added to Snow King FIS. FIS Technical races next season may be split by gender, with split venues, and the calendar is expected to change greatly this coming spring. Western Region quota redistribution: The Regional ranking method will be used. Lester Keller will recalculate these at the end of this season. We will always have at least 4 men and 4 women at the Elite level. Selection Issues Kyle Warren scoring J3 Issues – camps/nomination of J3 Chair/NDS B. Northern Division New Business ND Administrator position overview. Good items/time estimates. Items that need improvements. Open comment period. Unanimous praise for Jenn and her family's efforts in saving the Northern Division program from near bankruptcy. We are progressing and rebuilding our financial base. We are geographically split, but the most unified Divisional team in the West. Unlike other divisions, our coaches help every athlete without regard to team affiliation. We need a job description for the administrator to inform the parents of the necessity of having a cohesive and consistent form of administrative leadership. Craig expects feedback from the coaches detailing what they need to have included in the job description. Prior to distribution, this letter will be submitted to the board of directors and the coaches for review. A motion is made to draft a letter from the President outlining the Northern Division mission statement. This will include the position description for the administrator. Jeff Pickering 2nds. Motion passes. Wayne Cook: Parents need to be reached with information during the middle of the season. Website information sheets should be at the table where race results are distributed. Youth and student licenses. Our dues are much lower than other divisions. Due to our widely scattered team distribution, our expenses are higher. The Northern Divisional dues need to be added back on to the USSA registration form. A motion was made to increase Divisional fees for the Alpine youth competitors license. Amount to be set at the spring meeting. Jenn Stielow 2nds. Motion passes. Financial Overview: We need to increase our funding base, and cannot ask for any more from our athlete-families. The best alternative is corporate sponsorship. Sponsor for the Division as a whole, benefiting athletes at all levels. Where we stand currently, presentation of balance sheets. Balances with USSA. Jenn distributed the payment plan that has been set up with USSA. We need to pay off the loan from USSA for past two years of administrator salaries. The money will come from head taxes. Fundraising ideas Out-of-division race finances. Races cannot be finalized until the administrator receives all receipts from the traveling coaches. Development Team discussion tabled, but proposal is presented for consideration: This plan to be discussed by phone conference, or at the Spring Meeting. We would use the World Junior Selection process – 4 girls, 4 boys, 1 zk girl, 1 zk boy. Add to this the Podium finishers for the J3’s to make a team of 12 athletes. Selections will be made at the end of 2005-06 season at OHG races and awards banquet? Development team members will remain members until the end of the following season and team is named based off that current seasons results (Will go to next meeting's agenda). The medals test will be returning sometime in April – all ND Development Team members should be required to participate in a fall testing session. (Will go to next meeting's agenda). Other New Business: Discussion follows concerning Treasurer's position Changes to Fall 06 minutes: Carole K and Caryn J's time cards are on file with USSA in Park City. Tim Ibey is treasurer, but is not able to participate in the Division meetings for now. We need to open the Treasurer position for nominations. Jenn is currently the bookkeeper, administrator, and has had to be the treasurer also. ND Bylaws with Carol Greer? Accept Fall meeting minutes with minor corrections. Jeff Pickering makes a motion to accept the Fall Minutes, Jenn Stielow 2nds. Motion passes. Informally accept the 10/27/05 and 12/20/05 phone conference notes as written. Coaches' education: No national $ available. Education and sports science monies will be available depending upon successes at the 2006 Olympics. Coaches need to tell Jenn how many need training, and their availability in the spring. Craig: Coaches reminded to submit to him their ideas of what the Admin job description should be. C. Northern Division ACC Meeting ACC procedures: Voting for vacancy on the ACC Nominees for the vacancy: Jerry Wolf, Chad Pavlick, Aaron Ruddick, Eric Hamilton Voting Members Absent: Rick Jacobs, Jeremy Henrichon. Jason Nelson is voting in place of Jeremy Henrichon. Written ballots used, Chad Pavlick elected. Jeff Pickering: Need (4) male forerunners for the NorAMs. Have 2 from Big Mountain, 1 from Big Sky. 5-8 runs available in one day. Need a coach to manage these athletes. Housing available at a reduced rate. There is a potential of 30 runs in a 7-day period. Jeff needs input and discussion as to which athlete would be a good selection for this. Show up on Monday, Feb. 6, at the latest. Starting with women's SG. Jenn needs coaches for Snow King. Jeff Pickering: Distance issues have made our calendar unreasonable this season. Open discussion of team distribution within the Northern Division follows. How could we help the Casper team with the long distance consequences? Mario: We are willing to travel because this is the Division that we are competitive with. Fritz Wood: If Casper is satisfied with the ND having a race there with the same frequency that it has been in the recent past, then the rest of the Division can live with the distance consequences also. Casper qualifier events need to be scheduled very carefully. Lance Kidder: Our J3 qualifiers need to be more centrally located, and need to pull in a wider age range of athletes. Discussion of mixed ages at races, moving starts, etc. Re: FIS-U race at Big Sky during this Big Mountain qualifier: There are athletes at the Big Sky race that are not on the green sheets. Western Region and Northern Division rules state that all athletes must go through Lester via the intent-to-compete format. These athletes backed out of the Big Mountain qualifier to train speed, then went in to the FIS-U race due to collegiate no-shows, at the discretion of the host team. The MSU race has a long tradition on this calendar date as an NCAA race. This was changed to a FIS-U race and placed on the ND calendar after our qualifiers were scheduled. We must never have a local FIS race overlap with our qualifiers. Implications: In this case, we are not supporting our own Division races or developing racers. Our younger racers do not get to compete with these absent older racers. This is not conducive to our customary team-building atmosphere. This is primarily a calendaring issue. Fritz Wood: If there are extra slots, we need to give the athletes the chance to pursue these low points. Agreed. Meeting adjourned at 10:00 PM