AGENDA AWSA – MIDWEST REGION 2008 WINTER MEETING

O’hare Airport, Chicago, IL - January, 12^th, 2008 Saturday, 8:00 a.m.

Call to Order The meeting was called to order by Jeff Surdej at 8:09 a.m.

Introductions Council Members (Committee Chair): Jeff Surdej, EVP (Skiers Rating, Web Master); Jeff Smith, Director (Judges, International); Dean Chappell, Director (Rules); Tom Danford, Director and Treasurer (Rules); Cory Piercy, Secretary and Nebraska rep; Don Bucher, USAWS Director (Executive, NSL); Darr Leutz, Illinois rep; Jim Beck, Indiana rep; Patrick Cook, Iowa rep; Dennis Downes, Kansas rep (Regional tournament); Doug Rooker, Michigan rep; Kate Knafla, Minnesota rep; Jeff Lindsey, Missouri rep; Greg Chapman, Ohio rep; Jim Babcock, Wisconsin rep (Safety, Regional Guide). Committee Chairs: Mark Kemp, Announcers; Bill Murbach, Bylaws; Dave Clark, Seeding; Jim Beebe, Drivers; Dick Nock, AWSEF. Guests: Brian Reed, Wilma Nock, Delaina Downes,

Appointment of Parliamentarian Don Bucher was appointed Parliamentarian by EVP Jeff Surdej

Review / Approval of Agenda Bill Murbach would like Bylaws moved up the agenda so it will fall before the E&F report. Tom Danford moved seconded by Pat Cook to accept the agenda as modified. Motion passed by universal consent.

Approval – Summer 2007 Board Meeting Minutes – Minutes were available after Regionals and posted to the MW Website. Tom moved, seconded by Pat Cook to approve the minutes. Motion passed by universal consent.

EVP report – Jeff Surdej – Disabled Water Ski is looking for a host for their Nationals, anyone interested please let me know. Sanctioning went well with only a couple coming in late. Record tournament numbers are actually up for 2008. Appointed officials did finally get reimbursed for their expenses at the 2007 Nationals since their accommodations were not even close to being adequate. 2008-2009 Nationals are at West Palm, dates are Aug 12-16 2008 and Aug 11-15 2009. Communication is going to continue to be key to our sports success that comes from all the way at the top with our new Director.

Treasures Report-Tom Danford – We were actually ahead of budget overall. Proposing $1,500 contingency amount set aside for possible needs at HQ. We will table the treasurers report until later in the meeting.

Secretary’s Report-Cory Piercy – nothing new to report. If you have changes to your address, phone number, email etc. please let me know so we can update our website and Regional Guide.

State Council Reports

Illinois-Darr Leutz – Tourneys are up by one with 11, there will be a new Record tournament at Lake of Dreams. We are very happy with the ranking system, it is really making the competition fun. We hosted the CAN-AM championships at LOD and they will host again this year. The University World Team Trials and Collegiate All-Stars will be held DuQuoin.

Indiana-Jim Beck – Membership was down slightly. We do have one new lake in Greensburg and a possible 3 lake site in Columbus. Columbus is working with the Parks and Rec department to get this done. Spring Fling is going to be June 1^st. This is probably our biggest event. 12 tourneys are scheduled for ’08.

Iowa-Pat Cook – We hosted 8 tourneys in ’07 and are planning 9 for ’08. We will again host the youth clinic in June at Dream Lake Estates. We also had 5 new skiers from the state and our collegiate participation was stronger than ever.

Kansas-Dennis Downes – Good attendance this last year and we had a very successful Midwest Regional Championships. Jr. Development is still huge; the qualification level was changed from Masters to Level 7 as there are no longer ratings but levels. The numbers went from 25 to 27. We are still looking for someone head up NSL. The 2008 MW Regional Championships will again be held in Wichita.

Michigan-Doug Rooker – We had 20 tournaments in MI in 2007 and an increased success of our Grass Roots Ability Series. 2008 will have 2 Pro tourneys and a Big Dawg stop. MI is also hosting 2008 Collegiate Ripfest. Karl DeLoof’s site in Allendale just completed it’s 3^rd of 6 lakes. Also Jerry Brouwer’s lake in Grand Rapids will be completed soon and plans to host his first tournament in September.

Minn/ND-Kate Knafla – We had 11 tournaments in 2007 and 30-40 skiers for Jr. Development. State tournament will incorporate a fun/novice division for boys, girls, men and women this year. We also held our annual at the end of the year and honored our rankings list champions. Also Larry and Kate Knafla were awarded the Toby Shotwell Award to honor their dedication to the sport.

Missouri-Jeff Lindsey – We had 5 tournaments in the state last year (4 class C, 1 collegiate). This year we are looking at one less C tournament. Mo State finished 8^th at Collegiate Nationals. Our State tournament will be held at a new site, Isaiah’s Run in Owensville owned by Rhoda and Joe Voss. We plan on having 2 Jr. Development clinics again for 2008.

Nebraska-Cory Piercy – Our state had 5 successful tournaments in 2007 and will be looking at a minimum of 4 tournaments in 2008. The big change this year will be that every one of our tournaments will include NSL. Our clinics will again be held at 2 lakes (Yutan and Syracuse).

Ohio-Greg Chapman – Jr. US Open will be held in West Chester June 20-22. It will be held at Voice of America Park. We have a new slate of officers and the excitement about competition water skiing in our state. Our state website is doing very well. The US Jr. Team Trials are also being held at Pleasant Shores and the Mastercraft Pro Waterski Tour will be held in the Akron, Ohio area.

Wisconsin-Jim Babcock – We had 8 traditional tournaments, 6 NSL, 4 Scholastic (younger than college) and 1 Jr. Development clinic for 2008. There were 5 Grass Roots and 2 5-Star tournaments included. Think Tank was very successful and we plan on having it at the same site for 2008, Feb 29 – Mar 2. We are also bringing our State Championships to the Wisconsin Badger Games. 27 teams are expected to compete for the WI State Water Ski Show tournament to be held in Mid July.

National Directors Reports-Dean Chappell – Nationals was planning to have the boats drawn by July 1^st to maybe set up for Regionals. The chiefs for Nationals are set. We attended an elite trick calling clinic with skiers and officials from Europe and the US and learned a lot. For speed control, if the system was passed with the boat, it can and will be used.

Jeff Smith – We are having a follow up clinic in Madrid on the elite trick calling. The general consensus is that we are inconsistent. There are major efforts to address finances. We are finding that we can’t fund as many things as we would like. We may be looking at the Regions to help with funding. Membership is another focus at HQ. Dave Clark is helping the thinking about membership. Darr Leutz also mentioned it would be good to get some of the skiers in fun tournaments more membership information.

Tom Danford – Our new Executive Director is very focused on improving our budget which was operating at a $250M deficit. Steve wants to “right the ship.” We now have a balanced budget but now we have to see if we can follow through.

USA Waterski Directors Report-Don Bucher – You know we had a very busy year. We had to pick a candidate twice. Many people have gotten to meet him and we feel good about the direction we are headed right now. Communication is very important and Steve echoes those sentiments. We are going to have one new officer, the USAWS treasurer is stepping down. Sarah Chappell allowed her name to be considered. If you have any questions on budget programs or personnel let me know. Lake Grew still has one berm to be removed. Events are planned for early April. Mark Crone has put a tremendous amount of work into our sport and we should be thankful.

Committee Reports:

E & F – Don Bucher – This committee will now be known as the Executive committee. We are very fortunate that the MW has 3 of the 8 members of the Executive committee are from the MW. Budgets are obviously getting tighter but crystal awards and polo shirts are still required for Nationals and AWSA is funding them right now. There could be a need from the Regions to help out from time to time. This is being looked at very carefully.

Judges & Scorers – Jeff Smith – The MW is hosting the Senior Clinic. This is going to be very good as there are going to be sponsors and reps on hand. Trick calling will be a focus, there will be some great information. We could use $750 to help fund our pro skier who is coming in to help out with trick calling. The was then presented as an amended motion for $500 and seconded by Dean Chappell. Motion carried.

Rules – Tom & Dean – There are several proposals going before the Board, of special note:

Proposal 1 would specify that Regionals and Nationals could end on a weekend.

Proposal 2 would allow skiers to get their best possible result with 1 good score, 1 bad score etc. You would have the option that if you had (for example) one good score, one bad score and your score would be better if you just took the 10% penalty instead of the bad score you could do that.

Proposal 6 Correction of scores on the Ranking List can be made with the approval of the Chief Scorer and Chief Judge provided the error change was initiated within seven days of posting on the Ranking List. Such a change will not affect the official tournament results or placements.

Proposal 7 had to deal with GPS and timing. The way the rules are written will need to catch up with our technology. For further explanation you can refer to the Rules Committee submission to the Board.

Proposal 9 deals with boat speeds and line length. The proposal recommends that if a skier elects to start at higher than maximum speed for their division, they may not return to his divisions maximum speed on subsequent passes.

Skiers Rating – Jeff Surdej –New proposal passed by the SRC for a skier having fewer than 3 tournament scores will have the penalty applied to the average of scores as follows:

1 score class C = 10%

1 score class E, L, R = 5%

2 scores class C = 5%

2 scores (1C, 1 E, L, or R) 2.5%

2 scores class E, L, or R 0%

3 scores any class 0%

One proposal that did not pass our committee was the lowering of level 6 to 70% of scores/skiers. This was voted down by a vote of 3-3-1

We also finished up the Open Ratings for 2009. This Committee will now be known as the Skier Qualification Committee.

Technical – Peter Dahl – although not in attendance the 2008 Winter AWSA TC report was available. Items dealing with Rule 9.16 that the sponsoring club may allow jumping at a ratio less than .235. There were 30 Record applications for the 2007 season with 27 approved including 8 records in G2 jump that exceeded a record that has stood since 1996. The TC manual is now being posted to the AWSA website.

Tow Boats and Speed Control – George Lindy – The AWSA BOD report was also available for review. Points of emphasis deal with power and acceleration test parameters being revised. The Committee also approved that for all 2008 boats equipped with GPS speed control, “tournament mode” will be mandatory. Additionally, towboat manufacturers will receive towboat credit for use at a tournament regardless of the speed control system installed.

International Activities – Jeff Smith, Larry Downes – This committee has dealt with a lot of issues pertaining to selection of teams and criteria. Some of the other issues involve staffing the elite tournaments and the shortfalls they are seeing with some of the events.

Junior Development – Abby Lorenz – submitted report. The 2007-2008 Midwest Junior Elite Team Members were listed along with the 2007 MW Region All Star Team Members. In November 2007 the Midwest e-Newsletter was launched. The MW Junior Elite team will be practicing at Bennett’s Ski School June 15-20, 2008. Abbey would like all state Jr. Development Clinics to send her their information such as dates and ski sites so we can get it on our MW Website. There was also a request for the Council to approve the $1,000 donation as it did the year previous. Abby also wanted to extend her sincere appreciation for the hard work and dedication that Barb and George Lindy had displayed in their time as JD Committee Chairs.

Coaches – Chris Kosek – No report

Safety – Jim Babcock – The one issue that is being brought forth for discussion is the requirement for State Safety Directors to chief at least one tournament as an additional requirement to keep their rating. This could take some of the pressure off Regional and National Safety Directors being asked to Chief events that State Directors are able to do. The Committee passed the item with a 6 to 1 vote.

Awards – Janice Prociw – submitted the report showing expenses incurred for the 2007 ski year. There was good feedback from presenting the Mary Jo Powers and Tommy Dorwin Awards at the MW Regional Banquet. There will be an additional expense to help clean up the Mary Jo Powers trophy as the skier got broken in transport. She will let the Committee know what the estimate will be.

Drivers – Jim Beebe – Ralph Armstrong has requested consideration for Sr. Driver Emeritus which was unanimously recommended to the National Board for approval. Some changes being submitted to policy deal with clinic instructors given full credit toward clinic maintenance requirements, participation in a Drivers Clinic may also count as one of the required tournament driving requirements. Lastly, maintenance requirements would be evaluated on a biennial cycle instead of annually with the minimum required credits not changing.

Seeding – Dave Clark – There is a submission from the Committee to the Board to count scores in E, L, or R as 2 scores for rankings list. This was not approved by the council in a straw vote taken by EVP Jeff Surdej. Richard Williams will be doing the posting next year so this year will be a transition year for that. Right now WSTIMS is on life support as there is a special committee looking at a web based scoring system. They will need test groups for their program so Dave highly encourages sites to step up and work with the program.

Bylaws – Bill Murbach – There was a tremendous amount of discussion on the Bylaw changes as proposed in Draft 2.4 but the Council did get this and the MW Region Policy and Procedures approved. They will be sent to the Board for approval with our delegation at this year’s Winter Meeting and will then be available on our MW Website. On behalf of the Council, Jeff Surdej wanted to express a huge thank you to Bill Murbach for all his hard work in organizing this monumental task. Bill is stepping down from his post as Midwest representative and we are looking for someone to step in and take over. In the near term Jeff Surdej will maintain the Chair until we get a volunteer.

Nominating-Janet Piercy, Abby Schmitt, Greg Kuenning – there was no one available for a report in person but there was a heads up given about On-Line Registration. There have been some big upgrades and it should be available very soon.

Announcers - Mark Kemp – Nothing of special note but Mark was excited about his new Chairmanship of this Committee and encouraged all state representatives to send him names and contacts of announcers in their state so he can build a list for future use.

Tellers-Richard Williams, Cale Burdick, Sara Chappell – No report

Other Reports:

AWSEF – Dick Nock – Once again Dick thanked the Council for their continued support. While the lake was not yet quite finished April 18^th is still set for the annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Honorees are Kris LaPoint and Marsha Fitzgerald. Funds are still needed to cover the deficit, in excess of $200K, for the lake. Contributions should be made payable to the AWSEF Lake Fund and are very much appreciated.

Regional Tournament – Dennis Downes – Dennis thanked everyone for their support last year. Numbers were down slightly but this was expected. We are working on improvements for 2008 and the HQ Hotel will be closer this year. We are asking that you please support the Best Western on 53^rd as this helps lower our cost when it comes to the banquet. We are working on structuring the event order and will have that ready to go for the Regional Guide. Online registration will again be available through the AWSA website. As far as event classes, unless you request a change, it will be run Class E. Qualification will be Level 6 except for M3/M4 slalom Level 7. Jeff Surdej will be Chief Judge and Kate Knafla will be our Chief Scorer. We are also going to have 6 names for ACJ with two for each day. They will be Tom Danford, Don Bucher, Janet Piercy, Steve Gallop, Larry Smith, and Jeff Lindsey. Our Appointed Judges will be Richard Williams, Bud Piercy, Larry Downes, Dan Van Dyk, and Fred Krueger. Janice Prociw will be the Assistant Chief Scorer, Scott Mize is scheduled as our Safety, and we have Darren Janzig as our TC at this time.

Regional Guide – Jim Babcock – 91 announcements which is up 1 from last year. I still need Collegiate Regionals from the PITS, also Awards list is needed. Need a list of promo people in your state so we can also list that in our guide. We really need to cut down on the “Fluff” included in the tournament announcements. The Council favored giving Jim the ability to edit down the information. I also need the Regional Records and Regional Champions list.

Regional Records – Jerry Hosner – nothing of note to report

Regional Website –Jeff Surdej – Jeff reminded everyone to send him anything they think might be useful on the website.

NSL / NWL Leagues – Don Bucher – Looking for someone for more input so Don can remain the National Chair. We are considering changing the name (NSL) but we are looking for ideas. We are also considering guest memberships for discounted rates on Grass roots events. We are also looking for ways to advance the NSL skiers up the ranks. Lastly we are looking for a better (easier) way to sanction these types of events to get more involvement.

NCWSA-Cris Kodiak – submitted his report showing over 40 teams formed (38 active in 2007). Winter Conference XI will be held Feb 9 in Ann Arbor, Michigan with Scot Ellis and other pros expected to attend. The US University Team Trials and the All Stars will be held in DuQuoin, Ill this year. This is the 3^rd time the MW has hosted the Collegiate All-Stars. We are looking at new ways to introduce skiers to collegiate skiing even at the B3/G3 age and show skiing athletes. You can find plenty of information on our website at www.mcwsa.com . The council was split on what to do with the situation involving a Univ. of Michigan skier.

Other Old Business

Dave Clark talked more about the new scoring system. It will be very important, especially if you are a scorer, to get involved with the test groups. They need to get good feedback.

The new budget was presented for final vote. Before the vote, though, there was extensive discussion involving the repayment for at least some expenses for our MW representatives that have to travel and represent our Region. One of the biggest issues involving this situation comes from our requirement to have a budget showing the ability to have at least 1.5x coverage of expenses. It was moved by Jeff seconded by Tom Danford to rescind that requirement and that we should show at least a balanced budget. This was approved by the Council. It will be addressed in the final copy of our Bylaws and P&P before going to the Board. After this discussion and lowering the contingent amount to $500 to help cover pro skier Rhoni Barton’s travel expenses with this year’s Senior Judges Clinic it was moved by Darr Leutz and seconded by Jeff Smith to accept the budget as amended:

New Business:

There were three bids presented for the 2009 MW Regional tournament. The three sites were from the Duquoin Water Ski Club, Duquoin, Ill; Trophy Lake Estates III, Center City, MN; and Waters Edge Ski Club, Wilmington, Ill.

Executive Session (if necessary)

Voting on the 2009 Regionals was very close. It was refreshing to get three solid bids. Once the ballots were tabulated it was the vote of the council to award the 2009 Midwest Regional Championships to Waters Edge Ski Club.

Next point of business was the appointment of our 2008 National’s officials both appointed and assigned.

Appointed scorers for Nationals were Janice Prociw and Richard Williams

Appointed judges will be Don Bucher and Janet Piercy

Assigned judges will be Bud Piercy, Fred Krueger, and Jim Petersen

Regional Drivers for 2008 MW Regional Championships will be Jim Beebe- Chief, Mike Bruni- Asst. Chief, Derk Brittain, Greg Chapman, Larry Knafla, Chris Kosek, George Lindy, Jim Peterson, Troy Zoellner, and Dick Nock.

National Drivers will be Jim Beebe and George Lindy.

It was moved by Tom Danford and seconded by Jeff Lindsey to accept these appointments as voted on by the executive session. Motion passed.

Adjourn

With there being no other business it was moved by Dean Chappell and seconded by Darr Leutz to adjourn. Motion carried.

See you all on the lake.

Respectfully submitted,

Cory Piercy, Midwest Regional Council Secretary