AGENDA AWSA – MIDWEST REGION 2010 SUMMER MEETING

July 29, Waters Edge 1pm

1. Call to order-Jeff Surdej called the meeting to order @ 1ish

2.  Introductions -

Cory Piercy – Secretary

Darr Leutz-regional safety director, ill councilperson

Janice pro – awards, appointed judge 

Dennis – KS council, chief judge

Delaina – Chief Scorer, recorder

Don Bucher – Grassroots

Dean Chappell – Direct, Worlds comm.

Troy Zoellner – Drivers committee

Jim Beck - Indiana

Dave Clark -

Tom Danford – hungry!

Abby Lorenz – Midwest Team Jr Team

Janet Piercy – honorary national, nominee comm.

Buddy Piercy

Steve Prociw

Jeff Surdej-EVP

This will be a short meeting –

3. Appointment of Parliamentarian: Don Bucher

4. Agenda Approval: 1st - (  ),  2nd – Dean

5. Approval of the 2010 Winter Minutes - Darr motion, 2nd Dennis, approved

6.  EVP Report: Everything smooth, nothing much going on. Ready for regional and nationals. Will be a long 7 days, looking for help. Everything is good, no complaints.

7. Treasurer’s Report: $35,590.14 is balance $8835 dispersed $8133 in. Passed a policy to have 1.5 times the yearly budget to be compliant – Jr development not compliant due to fundraising timeline.

8. Secretary’s Report: Nothing new to report. Any changes need to go to Cory or Jeff.  Cory is looking for replacement.

9. State Council Reports:

            A.  IL: Darr – 13 tournaments for the year, a lot of pulls in state tournament.

Illinois gave $300 to Midwest Jr development. Darr is on the pro vs. amateur committee, more about that later. Darr vowed to help run a smooth national's.

 

            B.  IN: Jim Beck – Jr development canceled due to site damage, plus they lost other events. State tournament was held in Evansville, many new skiers (Grassroots and kids) Tournaments being well attended, Angola – 54 slalom skiers. Business is as usual. Disabled Nationals will be in Aug. Pan Am in Aug. Don – 5 national competitions in Midwest. Disabled Nationals is at Hawthorn Lake and hoping to get sponsorships or donations (financial help).

            C.  IA: Janice for Pat Cook – 5 tournaments in 8 wks. 4 left for fall. Mary Jo held a skier’s clinic for all ages. A driver’s clinic is planned this fall; lots of officials are looking for a regular rating. There is only 1 promo tournament boat in IA.

            D.  KS: Dennis – Tournaments in fall. Grassroots program is weak, no champion to promote. State was weak maybe due to specialist skiers. Jr dev going well, 21 skiers attended a week long camp, with equal numbers in staff. Erin Kueser was our main coach this year, looking for a coach for next year. Officials – not many coming in, looks to be skipping a generation. Kansas is planning a multi discipline official’s tournament this winter. Barefoot Nationals were held last week. They were blessed with “Kansas glass” but in spite of it had a jump that would have broken the record had he skied away, 96 feet! There is also a pending trick record.

            E.  MI: Doug Rooker – not present

            F.  MN/ND: Cris for Hannah – 15 tournaments and several clinics – MWSA uses a public lake for tournaments. MWSA put a monument up at Trophy Lakes and every since haven’t been able to use the lake. Using private lakes. Had a clinic that was 2.5 days, 3 sites and 28 skiers, and the weather was great. $99 charged included food, skiing and a t-shirt. There is a new program for MN skiers, Ski Nights. Nine sites ran from 4:30-8:30, open to non-tournament skiers. New skiers fired up now. 8 came to Chris’ house and are now coming to tournaments. To ski, guest memberships or year memberships, sanctioned events. Charging nothing other than AWSA membership. Asked to donate for gas but nothing else. 2011 Regional's is in Minnesota! Work already under way, and it is the first one since 70’s. Family friendly site, tennis, soccer, baseball, etc . . . looking to make event fun, not just skiing!! Camping will be available onsite with hookups. Looking for as many people on site as possible. Promo boats – MWSA is paying promos $100 day to bring their boats, raised entry fees $10 per skier to cover. Keeping track of hours, may change to per hour for inequity of boat use. Struggling with official's clinics, wondering about using something online for upgrades. There was frustration at early cutoff for entries this year and would like to make OLR/search more user friendly.

            G.  MO – not present

            H.  NE: Cory Piercy – Nebraska held a disabled clinic – 75% new skiers. A tournament was held the 1st day and a clinic 2nd day. Will hold a clinic in August. State tournament numbers were down, 18 core solid skiers +18 officials. Nebraska is hurting on young kids, working on ways to get them more competitive.

            I.  OH: Kurt. Greg K. is still president, membership rising.  Ohio held 16 tournaments – 5 last fall and team trials in Vanworth. Judges/scorers/safety clinic will be held, a lot of officials coming up. Jr development - 3 beginning /intermediate clinics. Trouble w/OLR. Had quite a few kids that actually came to tournaments. Set up new Jr team in Ohio, Jr elite team, 11 to fit the criteria. Advanced clinic for them, Adam was coach. “Open lake nights” trouble w/OLR. Buckeye Buoy tour, huge success last one 62 slalom skiers, head to head or elimination. Guy who skied his 1st tournament won and young girl skiing mini course won, due to handicap system. Gold Fin Firkin is the trophy plus plaques. Collegiate skiers doing their 2nd “we suck” tournament Carrie McClure chose for pan am games, Mason is selected. Wake Nation is hosting Nationals for wake parks in September (2 lakes on 10 acres)

            J.  WI (Abby) – Wisconsin Dells, clinic by Dave Clark, WI Jr develop clinic 2 days before state and then all of them stayed for state. Ski WI held 4 tournaments. Lots of rain. Grassroots, scheduled 4 -2 canceled due to lack of attendance. WI hosting the next Malibu Open and Tyler Lorenz will be skiing in it, jump and slalom.

Jeff – ideas for official’s incentives

10. National Director’s Report: Dean, Jeff, Tom – new ED, Dean up for re-election, Jeff – next year                                                          

11. USAWS Director Report: Don – communication – good flow of information. Getting to us within a day or two. New Exec Dir – Bob Crawly will be onsite for the opportunity to meet him Thursday @ Nationals. Things seem to be working well and transition is good. Learning the sport – background is in ice-skating (figure & speed) all positive from exec committee. Affinity program is wanted to get off the ground. Grassroots. Read the e-blast for more information, good tool for getting the info. Dave Clark- when Bob was involved with speed skating, and when they were struggling financially, Bob got Shawnee Davis a sponsorship, bad interchange between him and Cobeer, and Bob instigated a “meeting” to repair the damage. USFSA also a connection w/Bob, he was exec director. Developed basic entry-level things, 130,000 members in USFSA when he left. Concept is to bring a base to our pyramid. Affinity, grassroots, then AWSA is the way the pyramid should look. Thanks Jeff Smith for heading up the search committee for Bob. (Bob spends more than half his time listening then when he opens his mouth it shows that he understood!)

12.  Committee Reports:

            A.   Executive Committee: See above

            B.  Judges & Scorers - Jeff not present. Look for ideas as stated before.

            C.  Rules – Dean & Dave. IWWF has developed a true Sr world competition and the first is in Italy. manner of qualify to worlds is ranking list, 12 more USA skiers based on independent scores. Sr ranking list is attracting skiers. Johnson is Chief Judge. Skiers in M3-5 are now interested in their scores on the IWWF ranking list, which means more class L tournaments. Class E is allowed up to 4/30. Jump speeds are different for  IWSF vs. AWSA.

            D.  Skiers Qualifications: Eric Cosney new chairman – nothing new now. Not many complaints any more about ranking list.

            E.   Tech: Peter - Nothing to report

            F.  Tow Boats & Speed Control: George – in the boat – need for slalom power factor, coming in thru the gates. Looking for ideas/feedback from the people on Nautique 5.7. Jeff Surdej says not cutting it for 35 MPH jumpers.  Dean mentioned that when jumping in slalom mode you are automatically losing horsepower.

            G.  International activities: Jeff, Larry – not present

            H.  Jr Development: Abby – Wonderful team, most attended Bennett’s, they called for alternates and they all came. Allison Lindy won the CC award and Dane won the Jeff McCullough Award, Allison L, Mason M, Dane M. were named to National Team. The All Star Team will be chosen this weekend, looking for specialists and 3 event skiers. Bennett’s went very well, Darr & Dawn went as chaperones, Chelsie, Anna, Brad, went as alternates. Let Abby know if clinics will be rescheduled. She wants to keep everyone on the email list.  Looking forward to giving all the kids shirts that compete. Thanks for the challenge to donate. Thanks Jeff for keeping the website up and current. Sponsorship is down due to the economy. Lorenz donated $500 to the $1000 prize. Using the website to acknowledge donations. Letter goes to all skiers in Midwest, encouraging them all to come to Regional's & National’s. Thank you for your support. Future, Abby would like to transition to another director.

            I.  Coaches: Chris – in a boat – Jeff Surdej volunteer coach of the year. Mandatory background search is now required for getting level 1 instructor. There will be an online course on abuse & molestation, etc.

            J.  Safety: Jim – Don’t drink and drive!

            K.  Awards: Janice - expenses, last years awards. Looking for someone to take over...

            L.  Drivers: Troy – Frustrated over testing not being upgraded. All officials disciplines need to be upgraded, idea should be taken to the national committee.

            M.  Rankings: Dave Clark – not a lot going on. Post tournament reporting process, chief judge, scorer, director get feedback on the report as to missing items or an Atta boy. If nothing shows up they get a reminder on the Wednesday following the tournaments. As of today there are only 4 events in the Midwest missing anything, most recent tournaments.

            N.  Bill – no activity.

            O.  Janet – vote early and often.

            P.  Jerry – nothing – not present

            Q.  Cale – nothing – not present

            R.  Darr – Pro-am committee – how to break up the problem of elite, level 9 skiers skiing all over. Committee's purpose is to try and find a way to simulate the way of the barefoot or golf of differentiating amateur vs. pro. If they chose to do that they would have to ski in that division for 12 months and not be able to bounce around to benefit them. Overall. Your choice as a level 9 skier to ski as mm, level 9, big dawg and then stay in that division throughout. Bob Mayhew will present at national committee.  Skiers getting discouraged because of …. Janice comments. Abby – Tyler how will he be affected by skiing in Malibu open? What if he decides the pro way is not for him? Example – mm skiers for Regional's = 2. Skiers are skiing in the Big Dawg and skiing in MM in other tournaments but skiing in their division for Regional's. It creates an inequity for others. Should level 9 skiers be forced to ski in an elite division? Would like to create a masters women division.

13. Other Reports:

            A.  AWSEF: Dick – not preset, auction/raffle going on

            B.  Regional Tournament: Jeff Surdej – biggest thing this year, running efficiently and accurately. Est. end time is 9:30 & 8:30 on Friday. Tricks need to get ahead of the game. Splash eye. Judges meeting will be @ 6:30 down under the black tent then dinner @ house. Struggling w/senior officials, not enough. Running orders and schedule available at the meeting. Sunday: 4:30 and 2:30. Site looks good, extra trick docks will be a huge help. Last year there were 100 pulls on the Trick/jump Lake this year 130. 85% of tournament is running class L. We will be posting @ registration and docks and we need lots of communication. Proposed that the cut off for no late fee should change to 24 hours after the LCQ qualification @ state. Tom motioned, Darr 2nd it, motion passed.  Boat path for jump, slower speeds will turn before the island. No camping. Skier dinner Friday, regent club is where banquet is held.  Nationals – no camping.  No motorized skateboards/vehicles, bicycles ok.

            C.  Regional Guide: Jim

            D.  Regional Records: Jerry

            E.  Regionals Website: Jeff –

            F.  Grassroots: Don Bucher – promote grassroots nationals 9/18-19th, only requirement is to attend 1 GR event. Let your people know that they are qualified, up to a level 6. There are three divisions: mini course, intermediate (novice), expert. Registration on the website @ lake grew, 2.5 day event.

G.  NCWSA: Cris – Regional's at Decatur.

14. Old Business: None

15. New Business:

A.     Committee for testing. Masters women’s division. Bids for 2012 is due in winter. Watersedge has right of first refusal for 2011 nationals.

B.     Location for winter meeting – Jan 27 Florida or Jan 8th Chicago – vote is Florida wins!!

C.     Chief officials for 2011 TBD

16.  Executive Session

17.  Adjourn: Tom motioned to adjourn dean 2nd. Adjourned!

Records, if you set a record in open means then you