Midwest Region 2011 Summer Meeting

July 28, 2011

1. Call to Order

2. Introductions

Delaina Downes

Abbey Lorenz

Mike O’Connor

Darr Leutz

Troy Zoellner

Tom Danford

Janice Prociw

Terry Turner

Kurt Mechler

Tami McLaughlin

Kevin Klingbiel

Dean Chappell

Dennis Downes

Jeff Surdej

Bud & Janet Piercy

Steve Gallop

Roy Surdej

Steve Prociw

Kris Funk

Jeff Smith

3. Parliamentarian – Darr Leutz

4. Agenda

5. Minutes – approved

6. EVP Report – Jeff’s last meeting. Not much to report. Sanctioning down about 20 - 30 tournaments for 2011-ski year. 2013 Regionals bids due this winter. Minnesota has 2012 Regional's.

Steve Gallop – Event classes; Do we follow the National’s Classifications?

Slalom - class L to match the national’s classifications.  
Tricks - B3, G3, M1, M2, M7, W1, W2 (Steve Nelson tricks at the sr. worlds in M7)
Jump - B3, G3, MI, M2, W1, W2

Trick is the main event affected due to the loss of 1^st pass if skier falls in practice.

Will post decision at Registration, Starting Dock,

7. Treasurer’s Report – Tom Danford – Received $5300 dispersed $9600

8. Secretary – Delaina Downes – nothing to report, will send out current minutes

9. State

A. Illinois – Darr stepping down, Roy stepping up. Had 12 tournaments – 1 new site having a weekend record. Lake Richard in Dow, IL. Having Nationals again. Had a safety clinic in February. Good year other than flooding, weather and heat!

B. Indiana – Jim – (Tom reporting) – tournament numbers down a bit. Jim will be stepping down as president. Sam Schmitt is the possible replacement.

C. Iowa – Kevin – tournaments a bit short as well. Summer Shake Down tournament was good again this year. Back up to 2 tournament boats. A few more tournaments this fall.

D. Kansas – Dennis – same number tournaments. Numbers down at those tournaments. State tournament – 42 skiers. How can we get those numbers back up? Multi round possibility. Can council look at asking about some way to get a temporary membership back? Random/new skiers are not willing to pay the full membership for 1 tournament. Can we also streamline OLR so that when tournaments are set up and OLR chosen, the money is collected at that time? Also if OLR didn’t require a PayPal account for clubs. Grassroots really down. Jr camp went well, some of the girls went out. Mechler boys came and were well received. Officials, Delaina method; keep their forms till they get them filled out and then send them out! Help educate so that they know how to keep moving up. Jr US Open, great event, Erika Lang new World Record. Disappointed in lack of spectators. Struggled to get officials for event so if anyone if interested please let Gene Davis know.

E. Michigan – Terry – Doing well. Did a drivers clinic in the spring. Holding a Safety and Judges clinic in winter. Tournaments – same amount as last year although attendance is down. Good state tournament, ability series – based on ability, not age (other than boat speed) give out medals and pins and then culminates at the end of the year. All on the website, which they have a new person running. Night jump at Malibu – 3,000 people attended. Held at a county park in Michigan. ( ) Event – 33-35,000 people attended.

F. Minnesota – Chris – Thanks for coming to 2011 Regional's. Kate Knafla new MN councilperson.10 tournaments – numbers down. Bad weather the culprit. 71 participants at State. Jr Development 3 days 3 sites – coaches at each site. Still going strong and numbers are going back up. Shakopee has something twice a week for 4 hours to ski, Maddy Baldwin heading up. Chris doing ski nights (4:30-8:30, weekends) open up to people who are not tournament skiers. Has 6 sites, sanctioned as a fun event, donate money for gas if they want. People are traveling from site to site now. Chris would like to see 1 a week in the future. Good event to get new people involved. Advertise in local ski shops and boat dealers. Doing during the week, the sites decide the day and time. Usually 6-10 people are the max you can handle. Still charging for the promo boat …

G. Missouri – 5 tournaments this year. State tournament had the usual turn out – 2 round. They had a fund raiser raised $4900. College skiers get their entry fee for half price to encourage them to come to tournaments. Questioning Out of State skiers, had a couple of Kansas skiers. Watermill is a new site that held a learn - to - ski for kids. Had 63-65 kids attend, provided lunch and everyone had two sets, good day! Hartville had a Drivers and Safety clinic. Federation bought cameras so they can do video tricks. Jr Development had a clinic early spring, 8 attended and 7 are here at Regional's.

H. Ohio – good tournaments year. Other things are falling to the wayside, Jr Development, etc. Buckeye Buoy tour the focus. 70+ skiers at State. New faces because of the Buckeye Buoy. Emily Van Treese got a scholarship through AWSEF. 3 skiers in JR US Open, medals. Larry Downes is bringing the Disabled Worlds to Ohio, Voice of America Park. Expecting quite a few spectators.

I. Wisconsin – Abbey for Jim Babcock – traditional 3 event, same or a bit lower due to the weather. Collegiate skiers get a discount. State championships moved to a private site and changed to a two round tournament, which was a benefit. Got a big screen to show events, which were being videoed from the boat. At? Woodland Open, had to ski on old wooden skis. Jr Development held in June, numbers down (due to poor marketing possibly). Only 8 in attendance. Weekday between 9-4 clinic held Wisconsin Scholarship. Getting a lot of calls wondering if Abbey teaches ski lessons. The demand seems to be high for ski lessons; Abbey is trying to figure out how to support that. Officials, Lisa Lamb and Tyler took the fast track to Senior Judge. Malibu Open, Tyler now a pro skier at that event. Dells, clinics at the Convention. Jrs named to Elite team, 2 named and 1 skied at the JR US Open, Kelsey Lorenz. Kudos to Jenny Kaldor for her work in getting the word out on Regional's.

J. Nebraska – Tami – 3 tournament so far and 2 more later this summer. Jr Dev clinic with 15 skiers, looking to do another in Aug. Adaptive Skier clinic had 19 skiers attend. Safety clinic in June now Nebraska has 7 more recertified.

10. National Directors Reports – Tom - AWSA has some budget issues. Looking to have more online officials tools. Driving clinic material is completely updated.

11. USA Waterski Directors Report – Dave Clark absent due to mother’s death.

12. Committee Reports

A. Exec Comm. - Don – Concerned with numbers. A conference call to get a better look at numbers. Jeff - IWWF, big stir, can’t have more than half of your officials be fast tracked. In a record capability tournament must be made up of more than 50% of officials not be open rated elite skiers.

B. Judges and Scorers – Jeff Smith – development of online curriculum. Currently available for hardship cases. System is taking shape slowly but taking shape.

C. Rules – Approved 3 speed changes for jump. Will go into effect immediately after National's if approved. Most likely there will be a new trick course. To instigate a rules change: 3 event, AWSA rules, and then rules request. Ohio has a rules request; women 11 top speed from 28 to 26. Kurt will submit. Kurtis is asking about the rules on length of rope for the trick release and 30-second falling time. Must be resubmitted.

D. Skiers Qualification – nothing to report. Looking for a new chair. Percentages will stay the same.

E. Technical - Peter Dahl – Doing tech stuff now

F. Tow Boats – George Lindy – Doing boat stuff now

G. International Activities – Jeff Smith – Business as usual. Approaching funding challenges, but no fix currently available.

H. Jr Development – Abbey – 16 members of the Jr Elite team attended Bennett's in June. 13 attended and 2 alternate, Taylor Lindy and Clay Schmitt. Good weather and coaching. Lots of siblings and parents went. Team members only have to pay $125 plus travel to get there. Team members were given red team sweatshirts this year. Last year 2 awards given to top male and female NOPS winners; Jeff McCullough went to Allison Lindy, Correct Craft Award went to Briant Detty. National committee provides trophies for the most improved skiers. List in the report. The 24-member National Team has 2 Midwest members Zac Montavon and Mason Mechler. All Stars – chosen based on performance, 2-3 event skiers. Clinics – if your state offers clinics continue to let Abbey know $8,691 was raised last year at the raffle. Thanks to Dennis for the wonderful design this year. Fund raising continues to be a challenge. This year 2 skis were purchased for the live auction, Saturday night, raffle prize - $1000. Tickets are $1 each. Silent auction, RC car, camera and more. State donations, if your state has funding available send to Tom but let Abbey know. Midwest website will list donors and other information. Sponsors; instead of going to boat companies Abbey is going to private donators (Kent). Abbey is stepping down and 2 new volunteers are stepping up, Dawn and Darr Leutz. Midwest Jr Elite is the Facebook page. Be a friend. Application process, alternates will be sent to Bennett’s. Alternates will be chosen and named.

I. Coaches – nothing

J. Safety – Darr – make sure you let the Chief know you are going to be at Regional's and Nationals and willing to work. Safety Coordinator and above can work these two tournaments.

K. Awards – Janice – Expenses for all awards, $260.74. Mary Jo Powers award Delaina Downes, Tommy Dorwin – Anthony Adolfino. Stepping down.

L. Drivers – Troy – new material approved. In the manual it states that every Senior Driver should submit end course video annually. Troy is not getting these videos and questions whether it should be done. Only gets videos for people wanting to drive Regional’s and National’s. Gets automatically from E and L tournaments. Genesis of the rule was to get people to take a look at their own driving and better the selection process of drivers for events. Recommended that State Councilman send their best drivers to the high level tournaments. Not just because they are seniors, but also because they are good drivers. Looking for a good ranking system for drivers. Possibly have a committee of 3 to discuss and make recommendations. Still planning to update blue card. Possible review from the boat judge would be a way to get input on capabilities. Got input last year from people, box at Jr Development. Driver Emeritus; there is a problem with Buddy Piercy not being granted Emeritus. Need to get fixed. He has been driving 40+ years but there is not enough documentation and/or data to support. Process for drivers to be chosen for Regional’s and National’s, how do we get drivers if not enough.

M. Seeding – Dave not available

N. Bylaws – Jeff for Bill – problem following bylaws Article IV/5 – all 5 positions are held or to be held are Illinois people at the moment. Proposed that Dave Clark be considered representing Wisconsin. Jeff Smith moves to remove Article IV Section 5 Second Tom Danford 10 yes/ 1 abstain. Motion passes.

P & P 2.1.7- event class issue; in 2007 when we let our skiers choose w/out online registration it went perfect. Next year w/OLR, didn’t work as well because skiers don’t understand how to choose what type of skiers they are. Jim Meis is going to work on the OLR so it is plain to skiers and Jeff would like to make it the skier’s choice and do mixed class Regional’s. This year we will do as much as we can as it has already been printed that Regional's is the same class structure as National’s.

Darr Leutz motion; the class for 2012 will be class E but skiers will have the choice of class L. Kevin second – motion unanimous

O. Nominating – Janet – vote by 2pm Saturday. Tom is looking for write-ins.

P. Announcers – Jerry – not present

Q. Tellers – Cale – not present

13.

A. AWSEF

B. Regional Tournament - Judges meeting 6:30, Friday dinner, Banquet

C. National Tournament – Jeff – Ready, JR Development will be Friday night, let everyone know that is a change. Membership meeting is Friday night at 8:30.

D. Regional Guide – Jim – should we go paperless? South Central went paperless and is going back. Staying paper.

E. Records – Jerry – not present but on it.

F. Regional Website – Jeff – hasn’t been able to keep up this year. Suggests that new EVP finds someone to keep it up. Possibly pay someone to do.

G. Grassroots – Don – counting on everyone at class C tournaments to promote. Headquarters (Brandi) has made an effort to redo the literature on learn to ski. Please use if you are doing the "learn to ski".

Discussion on guest membership …

H. NCWSA – Cris – Collegiate World’s in Chile, Pan Am Judge or Senior Scorer or Senior Driver if you would be interested let Jeff know

14. Old business – none

15. New Business – Kurt liked the fact that the Jr US Open was moved to July. Seemed to level the playing field for the skiers and we had more Midwest Skiers competing.

Winter meeting –Jim motions the meeting january14^th in Indianapolis, Tom second, January

Adjourn motion Dean second by Tom

Adjourned