AWSA – MIDWEST REGION
2006 WINTER MEETING
O’Hare Travelodge – Des Plaines, IL
JANUARY 14, 2006
Saturday, 8:00 a.m.
Call to Order: EVP Don Bucher called the meeting to order at 8:07 a.m.
Introductions: Dean Chappell - IL (Rules Co), Greg Chapman - OH, Jim Beck - IN, Dennis Downes - KS, Pat Cook – IA, Kate Knafla – MN, Jeff Surdej – Skiers Rating Co. Chair/ Competition Task Force Chair & Collegiate Co, Dave Clark – Director/Seeding Co/Technical Co, Tom Danford – Director/Rules Co Chair/Competition Task Force & Treasurer, Jim Babcock – WI/Safety Co & Regional Guide, Jeff Smith Director/COB AWSA/Risk Management Chair/Outgoing Chair of Judges & Scorers Co, Judicial Chair & IAC Co, Janet Piercy – HND & Secretary for AWSA BOD/Alternate for Cory Piercy - NE & Secretary, Don Bucher – EVP/ VP AWSA BOD & NSL Chair & Nominating Chair, Jim Beebe – Drivers Co, Brian Reed IA skier, Janice Prociw – Awards Co. HND’s Dick & Willy Nock arrived at 8:45. Missing Councilpersons were Bill Bishop – MI & Julie Shull – MO. Barb Lindy (Jr Development) and George Lindy (Towboat) sent their regrets because of family commitments.
Appointment of Parliamentarian: Jeff Smith was appointed parliamentarian.
Review / Approval of Agenda: Dean Chappell moved to approve agenda, seconded by Tom Danford, motion passed.
Approval – Summer 2005 Board Meeting Minutes: With no additions or corrections, Tom Danford moved to approve minutes, Jeff Smith seconded, motion passed.
Treasures Report: Tom Danford went through the proposed budget. We ended the year with $26,617.06. This is approximately a $2000 gain and better than Tom expected. Because of loss of funding for athletes we may want to consider some contributions there. Don asked that the item Regional Guide Fee be changed to Sanction Fees. Report attached. Budget set aside for approval later. Jim Babcock mentioned we do get a break in HQ costs when he does the typesetting.
State Council Reports:
Illinois – Dean Chappell said Sheedy’s site is no longer going to be used for tournaments. Sally Montevon has taken over their Jr Development program. There are a couple Learn To Ski Clinics planned.
Ohio - Greg Chapman reported they are up one or two tournaments from last year. Their website is being handled by college age guys.
Indiana - Jim Beck said at their fall Awards banquet the Purdue Ski Team was recognized for the job they did at hosting a great Collegiate Nationals. The Disabled Nationals is coming to Hawthorn Lake in Danville, IN for 2007. There will be a Safety Clinic April 23rd at Avon, IN. Their NSL programs ran approximately 120 skiers. Indiana membership is currently at 344. Catch all the action at Indianawaterski.org. Don Bucher commented on the induction of the Erickson brothers (skiers from the 50’s) into the Indiana Hall of Fame, John, Charles and Harry had a fun evening filled with emotion especially for the 26 members of their family.
On the subject of Disabled skiing, John Kniesely would like each state to consider getting any disabled skier they know to start participating. Contact John if you have any questions on helping your Disabled skier(s). He wants a good representation from the Midwest when they host the Disabled Nationals.
Kansas - Dennis Downes said Kelly Dlugosh will coordinate a Judges/Scorers Clinic at the collegiate event in Emporia to get them involved in helping at tournaments. Jim Beebe will be giving a Drivers Clinic May 20th along with slalom tournament to get used to the new Perfect Pass. Wichita will be hosting a South Central barefoot tournament. There has been good attendance last year at tournaments and their Junior Teams are growing. It’s an exciting time for Kansas.
Iowa - Pat Cook reported a good year with 7 tournaments one of them a Jump clinic/tournament with Scot Ellis Their promo boat situation is looking better with at least one more promo boat (Prociw’s Mastercraft) and possibly a third one if Waterhawks get their promo boat. Collegiate skiers are getting more involved in the 3-event scene. Mary Jo Pinkerton will organize the Junior Development clinic June 10th, there are 6 tournaments planned for 2006.
Minnesota –Kate Knafla said Trophy Lakes III will be ready for tournaments this year. Grant Hustad is on a mission to get more skiers rated as officials; five EP skiers have applied for their Assistant rating and one skier for her Senior rating. Minnesota will be trying to implement NSL events this year. Attendance was down for their State tournament probably due to holding after Regionals. Legislation is again trying to get a 300’ No-Wake-Zone from shore. Clinics planned; Safety, March 11, Drivers (check with George Lindy).
Wisconsin - Jim Babcock said the Larsen Twins were inducted into the Wisconsin Hall of Fame in March. It was a very emotional ceremony. Wisconsin filmed a water ski half-hour TV spot called “Discover Wisconsin” a PBS program. It will air in middle of February, 2 more times in ’06 and 3 more times in ’07. Malibu is still interested in Michael’s Wisconsin site for their Open tournament. Ski events held in 2005; 7 NSL/NBL/NWL Fun - 6 Class C – 1 Cash Prize – 2 Five Star – 1 Junior Development Clinic, 53 Learn-To-Ski Clinics (took advantage of HQ’s 5-for $100) and 1 Judges/Scorers Clinic.
Jim is concerned with the Aqua Plex project because the developers are scaling back and very little digging. Now there will only be two lakes not the three original planned lakes. And the hotel/convention center is being reevaluated. This is the site for the International University Water ski Championships. At their Think Tank this coming March Kerry Tolzman will be inducted into their Hall of Fame.
Michigan - Jeff Smith speaking for Michigan said things going on as usual with 15 tournaments scheduled.
Nebraska – Janet Piercy reported water skiing was finally accepted into their State Games (Cornhusker State Games). Hopefully this will pull in some recreational skiers. The Junior Development weekend had 30 young skiers. She thanked everyone for praying and giving Cory support while deployed in Iraq. He will return to the states January 22nd. Tami McLaughlin will have a Safety clinic in the spring and our state will help Iowa with the Drivers Clinic in June. The two NSL events held in 2005 were very successful more are planned for this year.
National Directors Reports: Dave Clark said his comments will be covered in Seeding & Technical report. Tom Danford brought the name change prospect to our attention. Discussion followed on parent organization changing its name to USA Water Sports. We had a straw vote with 6 yes, 5 vote no. Jeff Smith commented the WSIA is in favor of the name change. Jeff Smith said a lot of good things are happening in water skiing, listening to State reports. We have some economic issues that we have to face - loss of IOC funding. And we are still struggling a bit to convert the insurance program for towboats, to get people on board with the new insurance program. This is an extremely important program. Every time someone buys the USA Towboat Insurance we get a piece of the action. This is a major budget item for the past several years. We need to encourage people to use them. Many have found savings and they are good to work with. Don Bucher shared the presentation from the marketing department given at the Executive Committee meeting. It is a nice binder with Grassroots information clubs could hand out at Boat Shows to promote water skiing. They are talking about allowing novice jumping available in F tournaments; eliminate I & N classification. Don recognized the Midwest as doing well in the category of NSL and 5 Star tournaments.
Committee Reports
E & F – Don Bucher (presented in Director Reports)
Judges & Scorers – Jeff Smith said the Sr Clinic will be at Olympic Training Center, Colorado springs the last week of February. Please join us! All star cast of presenters. Eric Horton, presenter on Perfect Pass is a not-to-miss segment. Jeff reminded us we can download a tutorial of PP from their website. Judges as well as drivers own the responsibility to learn the new system. Jeff also mentioned there is a tutorial on tricks, broken down by individual tricks, a great learning tool. Send Jeff an email and he can burn a few more CD’s. Don mentioned the Florida State Association will be hosting a Judges/Scorers & Drivers Clinic, along with a 2-round tournament at Lake Grew the weekend following the Sr Clinic.
Rules – Tom Danford went through each proposed item of his report. Proposal #1 Classifications Chart at Nationals requested by the BOD. There was a lot of discussion on this. The concern is how to handle certain situations that arise i.e. ties that was a problem at last years Nationals. (When to apply AWSA and when to apply IWSF rules). Proposal items 2 through 10 were discussed and Council was in favor. On Proposal #8 (zero based scoring) a motion was made and seconded to go on record Council would like to have this retro-active. Motion passed.
Skiers Rating – Jeff Surdej: Proposal #1 Rule 3.03 to foster open competition in overall they are proposing One Open performance and two EP performances ratings or by having a NOPS score of 2750 and a minimum of an EP rating in each event. (Rules Committee not yet approved)
Proposal #2 3.06 to foster competition in overall, Overall skier ratings are: Expert, Master and what we have now EP. (Bold – approved by Rules Co.)
Ratings chart for ski year 2007 which also incorporates zero based scoring and new overall ratings for Expert and Masters.
A motion was made for entry qualification to our 2006 Regionals we would include this new Overall Rating. For divisions currently requiring a Masters (Mens 1-4) a Masters Overall NOPS rating and all others Expert Overall NOPS would qualify them for entry. Tom Danford seconded. Motion passed unanimously.
Technical – Dave Clark: Of the eight proposals four passed in Rules and was covered in that report. Passing: Adopt IWSF ramp rotation tolerances, adopt IWSF 9.5m dimension in addition to AWSA 9.25m, require measurement of skier-furnished slalom & jump handles for Class E and proposal to align AWSA “gate” rule with IWSF “gate” rule. The Board will be voting on revised Outstanding Technical Controller Award Application for National Tournaments.
Drivers – Jim Beebe: New things, Wayne Canfield stepping down, Jerry Bautsch new Committee Chair. They have revised Emeritus status allowing single event. Committee worked on fast tracking. New Policy manual has been upgraded. Fast-Tracking involves Level 3 Coaches and Open skiers. He thanked the drivers for sending tapes in they were clear and with sound. Perfect Pass is going to be an issue, until everyone has worked with the new system. He is looking for all drivers’ email addresses. If we have drivers in our area that haven’t heard from Jim that is why. He received 15 blue cards. Jeff Smith suggested our Drivers policy should comply with boat manufacturers suggested safety features.
Tow Boats – George Lindy: report attached.
Speed Control – Bill Bishop: Don Bucher gave a brief report, attached.
IAC – Jeff Smith – Tom Danford and Lisa Lamb were selected for Veteran Team. IAC struggles with loss of IOC funding, it has steadily gone down. Goose egg this year. We budget on a 2-year cycle, we are short $30,000. Jeff motioned to donate $1000 toward team funding. Seconded by Jim Beck. Note to put as challenge to other Regions. Motion passed.
Junior Development – Barb Lindy: Don forwarded her report. She put together a pamphlet, and wanted Tee shirts for each junior skier, possibly a party for them on Friday at our Regionals. (Add to budget, Council was in favor of $1000 for this.
Coaches – Kelly Dlugosh: no report
Safety – Jim Babcock said he did not get a report from HQ. There was a raise of .017 in accident rates. If we are involved in an injury and legal claim let HQ know immediately. He asked Janet to administer Tami McLaughlin’s Safety test.
Awards – Janice Prociw: Janice ordered 12 plaques and has a set for this year. Check the website (AWSA & USA Water Ski) for categories they are looking for (names) candidates for several awards. (remind us in the fall Janice)
Seeding – Dave Clark: Dave spoke on two issues, the on line ranking system. Objective is; when local skiing done get all weekend scores in then come Tuesday morning scores are updated. Local preparations will be able to get ranking scores, it will be modified to get names and rankings. If you want to seed it or group by ability, the work is done.
Another new WSTIMS feature is ability to grab and click former tournaments without having to remember the ‘set up’ names.
Bylaws – Bill Murbach: no report.
Nominating – Janet Piercy: Jeff Surdej has stepped forward to put his name for candidacy for EVP. Tom Danford will be unopposed for Director. Don Bucher will finish his USA Water Ski Board (one more year) and be alternate candidate for AWSA Board.
NSL – Don Bucher: Showed us some items that you can get for goodie-bag at NSL events.
Other Reports:
AWSEF – Dick Nock: Dick thanked the Midwest for our continued financial support. He said there are several things to build at Lake Grew to finish that project. Hall of Fame will be the third week in April. Scholarships were awarded to three of our Midwest skiers. He encouraged our skiers to put in applications.
They have loans that are coming due this year and figure about $65000 to $70000 for improvements to the lake, so donations are needed. Midwest has budgeted $2000 in donations for AWSEF and challenge the other regions to match our $1000 toward the Lake Fund.
Regional Guide- Jim Babcock: This year went better for getting checks and information in to Jim. Getting them in by December 31 makes for a couple long days for Jim. It was asked if next year, could we send both checks in together at HQ? (Jeff Surdej to work on getting this set up at HQ for next year.) There were a few missing things that Jim needed; Janet, get Doug Werner’s fax number, George Lindy on towboats that are available, Barb’s - Jr Development information and Jerry Hosner’s Regional Records. We have to have all corrections in by the 8th. There needs to be better communication between Collegiate and Don Bucher, Jeff Surdej will check into this.
There was discussion on the process of when a club looks at their tournament to edit it, Don Bucher will look at it again. But Jim Babcock will not so IF you make changes through website you NEED to let Jim Babcock know also.
Regional Records – Jerry Hosner: Up to date, so he told Don. One was given at our winter meeting that needs to be updated.
Regional Website – Jim Babcock says he still has no way of getting into website to make changes.
Regional Tournament – Jeff Surdej: Website is ready to go, we can register anytime for these years Regionals. Jeff encouraged us to go 100% (last year 80% signed up through website.) Jeff decided to move a few slalom events to even out the length of hours of skiing. They are set up for our Thursday meeting. Friday dinner as usual for skiers and workers.
Officials for Regionals, Dan VanDyke will be Chief Judge, his ACJ’s are Fred Krueger and Janice Prociw. Richard Williams is Chief Scorer. Mark Boender is Assignment Coordinator. Jeff Smith said they are not going with a Qualifications Judge this year. Appointed Judges are; Jim Peterson, Larry Smith, Don Bucher, Sam Schmitt and Janet Piercy. Regional Drivers; Greg Chapman, Jim Beebe, George Lindy, Dave Muehl, Dick Nock, Derk Brittain, Kelly Dlugosh, Paul Chapin, Scott Wright, Bill Murbach with Dean Chappell as Chief Driver and Bill Bishop Alternate. Jeff Smith moved we vote from list minus the strike out names. Tom Danford second, motion passed. (Ended up only voting for those interested in National Driving and accepted those drivers left on Regional list)
At this time we also chose our National Drivers and Judges and Scorers. Jim Beebe and Greg Chapman are our Appointed Drivers. Dave Clark and Janice Prociw Appointed Judges, Assigned are Janet Piercy, Fred Krueger and Jim Peterson. Appointed Scorers are Kate Knafla and Richard Williams.
Collegiate – Jeff Surdej: report attached. Collegiate Committee would like to have all G3-B3 skiers’ names for recruiting purposes. Jeff asked if we would consider ‘Collegiate Skier’ discounts at our tournaments.
Purdue hosted the Collegiate Nationals at Paducah, KY that was a huge success thanks to Hannah Hustad, Cris Kodiak and Kurtis Threkheld who ran the tournament.
2006 is looking bright with 32 active teams and over 800 competitors skiing in the 2005 season. The Midwest is becoming a contender at the Nationals in Division I and II with super showings from PU, MAD, ISU and Division II UOI and KU.
Their annual (9th) Winter Conference is January 21st in Iowa City. Scot Ellis, Brandi Hunt and Freddy Krueger are planning to show. Team Midwest will also be host of Nationals, Team Trials, All-stars* and Worlds* all within an 11 month period. (*Put tournaments in Guide)
Competition Task Force – Jeff Surdej: Jeff presented an interesting slide show for his report. He took us through three years of work his committee did.
We discussed the Ranking List Champions issue, what do we do when skiers change age divisions? There is a possibility of a skier being Champion in two divisions. After more discussion it was felt, if a skier is good enough, then they should be crowned as such. The Midwest Council felt the Ranking List Champion should fall on the calendar year, January thru December as opposed to Nationals to Nationals. We will propose this from the floor.
We looked at the ability based colored chart that will be part of the Rankings List. We could even have a Masters or Expert Rankings List Champion if we wanted one. What is nice about this new program is it addresses all spectrums of levels of skiing. Dean Chappell asked to consider not using a ‘0’ score in the averaging – so as to not hurt the average. Jeff Smith mentioned that similar low scores, such as missed first passes in slalom, early falls in tricks, and multiple falls in jump can result in wrapping the raking list as well. Dean mentioned that perhaps consider embedding a logical test into the ranking list so that a skier can only improve their score when an insufficient number of scores exist requiring the substandard score to be included. Then if the test results in the score being excluded, apply the discount for lack of scores instead of counting the substandard score. This should be forwarded to seeding and Mark Crone for further consideration.
Jeff showed us the comparison of using the old system (ratings) to the new (rankings list) from 2005 Nationals data. In summary more skiers would have been allowed to participate at Nationals using the rankings list.
Jeff Smith moved we work toward implementation of this system for our Regional qualification effective for ‘07 Regionals. Tom Danford seconded. Motion passed unanimously. Comparison will be done in August to see where skiers would have been using old versus new.
We want to go on record in our minutes we are 100% in favor of the Task Force Report. Jeff Smith made this a motion Jim Beebe seconded and passed unanimously.
Committee Appointments – Tow Boat: Janet Piercy moved for George Lindy to continue. Seconded by Tom Danford motion approved.
Other Old Business
Tom Danford gave us the finished budget, he added one bill for expenses $210 for the 12 plaques that he just paid for, added $1000 to go toward Jr. Development to assist on Tee Shirt for Midwest skiers and $1000 to help IAC Team Funding. This leaves our general fund around $1500 and a $2000 deficit in Junior Funds now. Past history of Junior Funding shows with the kids working, Tom estimates Junior Funds will be + $4000 and our general fund + $22000 by the end of the year.
Jeff Smith moved to approve, second by Jim Babcock. Budget passes.
New Business - None
Summer Meeting – 2006 – on site on Thursday 1:00
Executive Session (not needed)
Adjournment: Dean Chappell moved to adjourn, Jeff Smith seconded. We adjourned at 1:27
Respectfully submitted,
Janet L Piercy, for Cory L Piercy, Secretary