AWSA – MIDWEST REGION

2005 SUMMER MEETING

Wilmington, IL

July 20, 2005

 

Thursday, 1:00 PM

 

  1.  
  2. Call to Order: EVP Don Bucher called the meeting to order at 1:10.
  3. Introductions: Jim Babcock, Dennis Downes, Kate Knafla, Jim Beck, Dean Chappell, Greg Chapman, John Shull for Julie Shull, Bill Bishop, Janice Prociw for Pat Cook, Janet Piercy for Cory Piercy.  Committee Chairs Jim Beebe, George Lindy and Jeff Surdej. Directors coming in later were Tom Danford and Dave Clark.
  4. Appointment of Parliamentarian: Dean Chappell was appointed Parliamentarian.
  5. Review / Approval of Agenda: Jeff Surdej asked that we allow him to do all of his reports when he comes in later.  Add Announcers to end of agenda.  Motion made by Jim Babcock seconded by Kate Knafla motion passed.
  6. Approval – Winter 2005 Council Meeting Minutes: Dean Chappell moved to approve winter minutes seconded by Jim Beck and passed.
  7. Treasurers Report: Tom Danford was pleased with our financial position to date, we are meeting budget. He had overlooked our commitment to give National Junior Development Committee the $100 for their National party. Our main expenses for the year are Regional Guide, Jr Development and three contributions to AWSEF $1000 to General Fund, $1000 to Lake Fund and $600 for Brick Memorial (Jean Downes and Linda Roer). Our General Fund balance as of July 19th is $21,695.87.
  8. State Council Reports:

Wisconsin: Jim Babcock is concerned with the loss of two ski sites. Thanks to Chip Davenport and Dave Weber they were fortunate to hold their state tournament. He is hoping they will not lose Jim Michaels site. Kerry Tolzman has lost his site. In the spring they had a successful Junior Clinic with 15 kids. Wisconsin has hosted seven NSL events.  They are hosting a show tournament this weekend with 26 teams entered for a long four day event.  Along with that they are hosting the National Ski Show Tournament and the National Kneeboard Tournament in August.

Minnesota: Kate Knafla reported their Jr Development was sanctioned this year and held on four different lakes with 36 kids attending. They will host their state tournament next weekend. They raised $1500 for Jr Development.

Kansas:  Dennis Downes pushed their Junior Development earlier and have a lot of Junior skiers here and hope to see several in the Nationals. Several of their NSL skiers have moved up into the Class C events. There are three tournaments left for the season with a collegiate and a new record tournament held at Dennis’s new site.  Dennis offered any Council member free entry to check out the new site this fall. 

Indiana: Jim Beck reported Indiana held several clinics this spring, one Safety, two Judges & Scorers and two Drivers clinics with 26 participants.  John Kniesly also put on a disabled clinic, they now have three overall skiers ready for Nationals. He donates a lot of his resources to Disabled with equipment and his time and energy.  Their Junior Development went well this year.  They tried emphasizing the trick event. Their State Tournament had 110 participants, of which 3 were Disabled skiers skiing 3-events!  And 26 were Novice.  He is seeing the NSL events pulling Novice skiers into their State tournament. They also had 15 National Wakeboard League skiers sanctioned as part of their State tournament. Don went on to explain how they take a NSL skier and rank them into the state tournament.  First they are a ‘Rookie NSL’ (Rookie Men – Rookie Women – Rookie Youth) until they can make a full pass, then they are bumped up into ‘Challenger’ which would be our Novice skier.  Then the next level of NSL skier is called ‘Champion’ that normally don’t ski in our 3-event but can make 22 off or better they get put into the Expert 34 or Expert 36.

Illinois: Dean Chappell with five tournaments completed he thought their numbers were up just slightly.  This October they will have a Judges & Scorers and Safety Clinic in the fall. 

Missouri: John Shull for Julie Shull said their state numbers are up.  They hosted two NSL Clinics and he’s pleased junior numbers are up.  Jack Daugherty had a tourney with a NSL clinic. There is a Class E tournament planned September 3rd.  They have something planned for 100 inner city kids to learn to ski out of St. Louis.  Jeff & Tina Lindsey are in charge of the Junior Development for Missouri. John mentioned he has four grandkids that are skiing now.

Michigan: Bill Bishop reported Bob Sligh was inducted into the Michigan Hall of Fame.  MWSA has a newly elected President, Don Francis.  Their tournaments seem to be better scheduled this year, fewer conflicts with one another have increased the size of tournaments.  Jeff Smith’s R tournament was full.  There were 80 skiers at State Bill noticed a few collegiate skiers participated.  They are doing some NSL events on west side of state.  They have had two Safety clinics. 

Ohio: Greg Chapman noted their numbers are up finally.  They had Rhoni Barton come up for their Junior Development camp, The 30 kids had a great time, and Rhoni was a big hit! State numbers are up too.  They offer a skier discount to collegiate skiers this has helped.

Iowa: Janice Prociw for Pat Cook there are 10 events planned in Iowa.  Waterloo had a Jump/Ski Fly Clinic – Tournament with Scot Ellis, unfortunately Pat Cook was seriously injured while jumping.  They are still running their State tournament with Iowa’s State Games.  That’s been working well.  Iowa only has one promo boat – Barry Madden’s Mastercraft.  We had one Junior Ski Clinic with 6 kids attending.  There is interest in hosting some NSL next year.  They have two good Collegiate teams but they are not participating in the 3-event tournaments.  Iowa will be hosting a Drivers clinic in 2006 at Dream Lake.  Janice is encouraged that a couple young skiers are getting involved with judging.  Don asked that we keep Pat Cook in our thoughts and prayers.

Nebraska: Janet for Cory Piercy – we hosted three clinics in the spring, Judges’ & Scorers’, Safety (Tami Mclaughlin helped Terry Dlugosh to receive her Instructors Rating) so Nebraska/Midwest has another Safety Instructor.  She would like to work as Chief Safety for Regionals some day.  And Dave Clark came in for a 7 hour Technical Clinic, we are fortunate to have people like Dave, Terry and Tami in our area!  Our Junior clinic was very successful we were going to stop at 25 kids but couldn’t say no - we ended up having 30 kids.  Six of these kids participated in our first NSL event – a Tuesday night 5:00 on… we had a blast with the kids.  We will host another NSL July 26th.  Janet thanked everyone for their support and prayers given Cory and his family – hopefully he will be giving this report next year! (Tom Danford came in – we went to Treasurers’ Report)

  1. National Directors Reports: Tom Danford noted three things 1) how to get competition back in our sport, Jeff Surdej’s Competition Task Force has been working hard to switch our emphasis of ratings to placements.  Committee suggests leaving criteria/requirements up to Regional Councils on what they want.  This could include splitting Regional territories into more sections 2) web based ranking ready to be implemented soon after Nationals.  3) having to deal with disciplinary actions that have happened within our sport.  A driver, David Beebe (it’s unfortunate his name is Beebe – because our Beebe is exactly opposite of the first Beebe) has accepted his sanctions that will be approved at BOD meeting (removal of his rating, not able to drive for two years - membership lost for one year). There is an ongoing investigation on the boat judge.  Disciplinary action on Dr. Michaels will be voted on at AWSA Board of Directors meeting August 1st.  Don Bucher – Dean Chappell asked Don if HQ was going to do something similar for skiers entering on-line for Nationals as we did for our Midwest Regionals.  He said that is the future plan and is in the works now.  As for the Competition Task Force, Jeff Surdej will go into that in more detail when he gives his report. 
  2. Committee Reports:

 

    1. E & F – Don Bucher:   The E&F Committee worked on sanctions and disciplinary matters.

Covered in National Directors’ Report

    1. Judges & Scorers – Jeff Smith not present.  Jack Lukes is a candidate for Sr Judge Emeritus, Don said he meets all the requirements.  Motion to approve Jack Lukes for Emeritus by Dean Chappell seconded by Jim Babcock, motion passed.
    2. Rules – Tom Danford said their committee had received requests to use older boats then approved for tournament. Because of liability issues and taking into consideration the companies that follow our requirements the committee turned down request.  There have been a few requests by other Regions to mix classes within a division i.e. E and L.  The committee discussed and felt this is not a good thing.  Rationale; judging is different and rules differ – just not a good thing to mix.
    3. Skiers Rating – Jeff Surdej has nothing for Board consideration. They had been working on ratings chart that connected level 15 of the LTSC with 2nd class.  They aborted discussions midway until they learn what direction the Board gives the Task Force. They have a preliminary ratings chart from this year that his committee will be presenting at January meeting.  Some divisions have a much higher National Record then their EP.  This does not fairly distribute NOPS points for scores above an EP, with the new 1,000 point overall system at regionals and nationals the situation is solved. (new rule 5.03)
    4. Technical- Dave Clark commented our Region is in a pretty healthy condition as far as officials following the new technical aspects.  As he has traveled in various Regions this is not the case throughout the nation.  With a series of events lately where through a combination of sloppiness or complicated rules some have not followed the rules (i.e. judges’ display for record events must be used in towboats) simply stated - we need to follow the rules. A perspective brought up at the Sr Clinic – being wrong is not an option.  There needs to be team work with a check and balance.  When we run world class events E/L/R we need to put out a world class effort.  Tom Danford asked about 2 areas in jump 1) ramp height 2) timing for jump. Dave explained the ramp height and several committees are looking into the jump speed issue.
    5. Drivers – Jim Beebe: If you know of any Regular/Senior driver in your area, please give email address to Jim. He reminded us the ‘blue cards’ go to Council person then to Jim Beebe if interested to be considered for Regional or National driving.
    6. Tow Boats – George Lindy said Towboat Test will be Sept 24-28th at HQ lake, they are advertising on website they need skiers.  He heard Jim will be combining both committees – he wants it known he would like to keep Bill Bishop and Wayne Canfield on committee. We discussed shortage of promo towboats, Nebraska has only one Malibu and Iowa has only one Mastercraft. George asked if we had any people in our areas that would want to run a promo boat. Would they consider a Moomba or American Skier?  We cannot use a boat older then 3 years old.
    7. Speed Control – Bill Bishop: Will Bush and the Speed Control Committee have spent countless hours working with Perfect Pass , now with this leading edge electronic throttle/drive by wire systems we have a new control to get used to.  The committee agreed there needs to be normalization so that DBW and mechanical systems have the same or as close to the same parameter as achievable.  Perfect Pass will continue to normalize so that all systems – mechanical and electronic throttles are the same.  We need to communicate to the towboat manufacturers for 2006 that they provide a locator pad for timer placement 12” in front of the pylon at the widest point.  For 2006 Perfect Pass visual display will have a new graphical display with more information per screen.  Not mentioned in his report, this could be the year Seed Control and Towboat Committee join or become one committee.  George would like to see Bill Bishop remain on committee in some fashion.  Bill’s thoughts on DBW; it is better because it is more sensitive and responsive.
    8. International Activities - Jeff Smith – not present – no report.
    9. Junior Development – Barb Lindy; written report attached. USA Water ski should have a line for email addresses on the Junior Clinic sanction form or an Athletes Performance Record form.  She feels a need to re-assess the Website for Junior’s. Barb would like to update Regional Guide on Junior Development pages. The 2004-05 Midwest Jr. Development Team: G2 Kirby Schmitt, Alison Lindy, Hannah Rozow, (Alt) Emily Van Treese G3 Kayla McClure, Amanda Griffith, Keri McClure, (Alt) Samantha Ruehl B2 Andrew Schmitt, Andrew Baker, Patrick Raitor (Alt) chase McCain B3 Nate Smith, Adam Reed, Zack Steffen (Alt) Andy Madden. The team had a great time at Bennett’s Ski School June 21-24.  Barb is trying to set up subcommittee members to be in place by this September. They will focus on gaining new juniors and providing clinics/resources to them.  They will work with NSL and Membership keeping track of juniors. The Nationals has a petition to add to the entry fee for Jr Development program. We discussed the petition, Council didn’t want it forced.  Ask for a donation but do not demand. Make it attractive, Jim Beebe, suggested a series of Jr tournaments with a portion of this going to National Jr 24 team. Have a sub-committee to work on this funding.   
    10. Coaches – Kelly Dlugosh – no report.
    11. Safety – Jim Babcock: National report needed amended…lots of clinics provided. Need volunteers for safety for these Regionals. He will have a signup list near Chief Judges’ trailer.
    12. Awards – Janice Prociw: She will pass out ballots at judges meeting.
    13. Seeding – Dave Clark: Tournament administration seems to be confusing on what they are supposed to do.  Chief Scorer must follow directions in packet.  Check website on tournament status.
    14. Bylaws – Bill Murbach – no report.
    15. Nominating:  Don Bucher (national) – Janet Piercy (regional): same slate on National scene, except Will Bush stepping down as Chairman of the Board, Jeff Smith will be a candidate.  Tom Danford’s term is up next year for MW Regional Director.  If you are interested in running for Director, please let Janet Piercy know.
    16. Announcers: No Report (Paul Volmers not in attendance)
    17. Task Force: Jeff Surdej’s committee started on proposal from last year. Some ideas are; There may be multiple Regionals, use State tournaments as an avenue to Regionals and the Nationals ranking list. We will establish a continuous ranking list, scorers uplift and download scores. Time frame would be a rolling 12 month.  They are looking for a way to rank skiers changing divisions; they will not ‘weigh’ winners at this time. Jeff asked if we would be in favor of a suggested slalom 0 based points i.e. - 1 at 25K.  Have rules scratch the minimum starting speed.  LOC’s try different tournament formats – there are many terrific ideas but we need to start trying them.  Our Council straw voted on this last year and said let’s go forward.  Jeff and his committee have done an outstanding job for a base, we have to choose what we want, give them some feed-back!  a. Are we in favor of going away from Ratings and replacing it with advancement by placements, or b. dropping ratings and replacing with advancement by rankings list or c. are we in favor of a mixture of that – explain any other concept.  Straw vote today was a mixture of placement and rankings list.
  1. Other Reports

A.     AWSEF – Dick Nock - no report.

B.     Regional Tournament – Jeff Meyer - no report.

C.     Regional Guide – Jim Babcock said please do not use all caps when filling out Guide information. Poll taken do we want to go online for the guide or still provide Guide? Overwhelmingly still receive Guide in mail - won.  WARNING - GET YOUR GUIDE INFO in WITH CHECK by December 31st or $25 penalty!

D.     Regional Records – Jerry Hosner – no report.

E.      Regional Website – Jim Babcock would like to be able to get into site he needs the password. Tom Danford suggested we advertise on our site we need a Regional webmaster.  Don Bucher said with Council permission the Directors will take this as a mini project and try to secure a webmaster.  (Facility – Content)

F.      NSL / NWL Leagues – Don Bucher, Chair of committee and Richard Williams MW rep on Committee, they will be meeting Friday of Nationals.  Don suggested hosting a Learn to Ski program, USAWS fee for participants is only $5. Send in the registration form (signed waiver sheet) and you need a Level One Instructor if you have the Learn to Ski Clinic.  Council straw voted on 10 feet being the standard for the green mini course buoys.

11    Committee Appointments – 2006

12    Other Old Business:

A.

13.  New Business:

A.  Regional Tournament Bids – 2006 – Roy & Jeff Surdej have no changes at this time, may separate entry fees for 1/2/3 event participants. Motion to accept Waters Edge bid by Dean Chappell seconded by Tom Danford, motion passed.

            B.

            C. Winter Meeting – 2006 – Dave Clark will check calendar and make arrangements.

            D. Tom Danford speaking for all of us, said pass along to Cory we miss him!

14.  Executive Session: (if Necessary)

15.  Adjourn:   Motion to adjourn by Tom Danford, Dean Chappell, seconded. We adjourned at 5:00 PM sharp.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Acting Secretary, Janet Piercy for Cory Piercy

Midwest Council