USSA Northern Division
ACC Meeting Agenda
September 30, 2005

ACC chair report:  Jenn Stielow.  (Note:  Items in black are the agenda.  Items in blue are the discussion or actual meeting items.

Call to Order: 6:00 PM

Attendance: Bill Brown, Dan Brelsford, Craig Krueger, JC Knaub, Erik Hamilton, Alrick Hale, Jim Landers, Jeremy Henrichon, Fritz Woods, Jeff Pickering, Rick Jacobs, Lance Kidder, Jenn Stielow

Old Business:

• WR ACC Report:  Overview of Fall WR ACC phone call – J.C. Knaub and Jenn Stielow
• Reviewed WR Calendar
• Reviewed WR Intent process and protocols for submitting
• Intent to Competes – International, Out of Division/Region
• Discussed new Regional Directors Quota protocol.
• Reviewed financial aspects of WR – Dawn O. remains as Treasurer for the time being until a replacement can be found.
• Went over new van policy taking effect at the Regional and National levels – no more 15 passenger vans.  A great deal of discussion occurred over this topic, including mileage reimbursement, and possible side effects of reducing the carrying capacity of the vehicles causing an increase in expense – the discussion was tabled for the ND meeting the next day. 
• Selection process overview for 2005-06 – Intent to competes, selections, etc…
• Northern Division will adopt the WR Intent Process; the process is located here.  There will be no exceptions to this rule; all intents are due on the 1st of each month prior to the month in which the races occur. 
• It has been asked that the teams also submit their staffing plans for those races on the first as well to assist in budgeting and competition project planning.
• The WR Champs selections will still be conducted on a four event board – we still want to encourage 4 event skiers even though the races this year (2005-06) are only technical events (GS/SL).
• Selections processes for all other events will remain as published in the handbook.
• Administration Position
• Tabled for discussion at ND meeting October 1, 2005
• Finalization of 2005-2006 Calendar:
• Calendar issues centered around discussions on how to improve the calendar to include more college participation as we are still experiencing overlap where the colleges have races to attend when we have scheduled qualifiers. 
• This issue will need to be in the forefront during calendaring for the 2006-07 season.  The calendar for ND qualifiers was left as scheduled last June 2005.
• In order to take full advantage and improve the point profile of our juniors we need to integrate the colleges and both parties must work together as this is a very small division.
• To address this issue we added two races where the colleges can attend – Races added were Dec.10, 11 in Red Lodge and Dec. 31, Jan. 1 in Big Sky.
• Discussions were also held and a tentative camp scheduled to help bring the division together and introduce the athletes and coaches of ND to boost development and strengthen bonds between traveling coaches and traveling athletes of ND. 
• Sanction agreements were handed out to the coaches present who had races scheduled.
• A discussion was had surrounding coaches’ education – Jenn will contact Finn Gunderson to try and schedule a 100 Level clinic.  (Jenn did contact Finn and heard no response of Dec.10 & 11 because of staff shortages – have sent e-mails but still no response as to the availability of later dates)
• Development team:  Changes were made last meeting and need to be solidified prior to ND meeting on Saturday and then updates can be made to handbook and voted on.
• Development team will move towards a selection process similar to the selection process used for World Junior selections.  The process will be finalized and discussions will be held at a later date along with updating the web and ND handbook with these changes.
• The ACC feels that the bar needs to be raised and the development team should include 1986 YOB.  It was noted that this does include some of the collegiate athletes – an athlete must be in the division for the prior year and needs to participate in ND races to be eligible for the ND Development Team.  (Still to be confirmed – just discussion topic).

New Business:

• Travel policies/planning for 2005-06
• Need to plan more in advance:
• All athletes traveling or participating on the Northern Division quota will be required to complete the ND Code of Conduct Agreement and have Medical Releases on file at the ND offices by Nov. 15th in order to participate in ND Projects. 
• Staffing availabilities from teams
• Jenn has asked that teams submit this information or at the very least commit to a staff member on the 1st with the athlete intent to competes.
• Lodging preferences
• Affordable and has the basics covered for normal needs while attending a race.
• Travel and Expense forms need to be into Administrator immediately following event – deadline in order to eligible for reimbursement?
• The coaches need to have the electronic version submitted within a week’s close of the competition project as we need to clean up the accounting practices and this was identified as a deficient area.
• The costs of transportation will for the most part be moved to coaching expenses as it costs money to get the staff to the races and all participants in the project must share equally in the cost of transporting coaching staff.
• Creation of a general explanation of costs for parents – what is included in trip cost and WHY
• We know, but they don’t – needs better explaining/policies on what is covered and shared by division and by individual teams when traveling.

Motions were made to present at the Fall meeting Oct.1, 2005. 

1. We need to adopt a policy and payment plan for all past due amounts from previous seasons.  All payments must be submitted by Dec. 1, 2005.  A personalized letter will accompany the invoices.  (The deadline was pushed back to Jan. 1, 2006 due to some delays in information exchange between Knaub & Co. and Jenn).
2. Coaches will turn in expense reports within 7 days time frame.
3. ACC is looking to the Board of Directors for action and decisions towards finding a solution to the past debt issue and assistance in proving what is owed by athletes and parents.
4. Estimated project costs will be posted on the website at the time of selection announcement.  Registration/payment forms will be posted on the web after participants have confirmed their intent – this allows for more accurate accounting of events
5. After the completion of a race, the actual amounts spent in the various categories will be published on the web to help improve communication and alleviate confusion of actual costs incurred by the division for a competition project. 
6. Athletes must remain current with their account, if an account has a past due amount – that athlete will not be allowed to participate in the next upcoming ND project. 
7. Checking into the possibilities of having credit card processing available – still pending.