1. John Callahan resigned from the Chairperson position for the Nordic Sub Committee Rick Kapala will serve as the Nordic Chairperson for an intrum period until someone will volunteer for a 2 year term.
2. Pete Vordenberg made a US Ski Team presentation. (I will try to get a PDF of this to share)
- Performance Goals - World Championship Medal - achieved; World Cup Win - not achieved
- Accomplishments of the Team were outlined
- Athlete Evaluations - This is interesting, because they use a graph of the trend patterns of their athletes' FIS points to determine if a skier will continue to receive funding for the next season. Several changes were made to the US Ski Team: A Team - Kris Freeman, Torin Koos, Andy Newell, Kikkan Randall, Morgan Arritola, Liz Stephen; B Team - Noah Hoffman, Garrott Kuzzy, Tazlina Mannix, Morgan Smyth, Lindsay Willams
- 2010 Performance Goals - Olympic Medal (simple)
- Team Organization
- Critical Success Factors
- Strategies - Individualized Training; Regular Monitoring of Training
- Race Scheduling
3. Matt Whitcolmb - Devo Team Presentation (Like with Vordenberg's presentation, I will try to obtain a PDF to be posted here)
- Schedule
- National Elite Group Camp - This will be selected by performance at REG Camps (ballpark is 2 guys and 2 girls from each REG will be identified and invited)
- Education Update - 2009 Coaches Education Conference - September 25-27, 2009 Twin Cities, MN
- Summary of Accomplishments and Performance - Much the same system of FIS trending is being used with these athletes. This means that getting a FIS profile at a time when it will be advantagious to the athlete is VERY important. Any athlete who we feel will be on the World Jr. Team or Scando Cup Team should have a profile to ensure a better start spot, and begin the process of tracking the athelte's trend from year to year.
- Development Strategies
4. Membership - Membership was successful with their first year of online registration, and this is the encouraged method. You can do both FIS and USSA online. Coaches Registration is subject to a random background check - 1/3 of the Coaches have been randomly identified, and will be kicked to the site they use for background checks.
5. College Discussion vs. Pipeline - Again, there was nothing to vote on during this discussion, but it was made clear that no athlete in college programs will be supported by the US Ski Team. This is mostly due to the race schedule of NCAA athletes, and their inability to meet the goals set by the US Ski Team for their B Team athletes. Athletes who are identified at REG and NEG Camps as talented will be encouraged to take 1-2 years off after high school to train full time. This will, in the US Ski Team's estimation, better prepare a skier to be named to the team, or better prepare them to receive an NCAA scholarship. Your thoughts on this are important, and you are always welcome to be in touch with representitives of the US Ski Team.
6. National Championships/SuperTour - in this discussion there were a few points with regard to timing. If a timer would like to be a timer for a National Championship they need to have the capabilities to import the newest lists to their program, they need to be approved by USSA before being asked to time, and the proving ground for a timer will be NRL races. Items voted on were:
- In order to receive Prize Money at a SuperTour the athlete must attend the official award ceremony or speak with the race organizer if there is a conflict.
- Racers need to beon current USSA or FIS points lists to score points in any race, NOT just "active." This will ensure that an athlete who has the points to have an impact on the race penalty will have the points profile for the current season, and will make the race penalty reflect the quality of the field.
- 1 Proposed TEST event for 2010: Sprint qualifier only - this will be scored as a sprint race. A mini-distance 2k-4k will be scored as a distance race. The Sprint qualifier will happen at West Yellowstone, but the mini-distance/prologue 2k/4k will be tested AFTER Olympic Team selection is complete.
- USSA points will only be awarded in the qualification round to reflect FIS Sprint Scoring. Heats will be scored with SuperTour points only and will determine event results and cash prizes.
- Womens minimum regional NRL event penalty will be changed from 110 points to 85 pionts. SuperTour events have a minimum penalty of 15, so this will better reflect where penalties would have been. Both Summit NRL events were under 110 points, so it will continue to provide our athletes to better their USSA pionts profile.
- SuperTour prize money will be reduced slightly, and pay only 6 deep in the field. This was a heated topic, but in the interest of event organizers being able to meet the prize money requirement in a more challenging financial time it was passed. These need to be seen as MINIMUM prize money amounts, and a race can always pay more and deeper into the field.
All of these items were voted on and passed.
All of this took from 9am-5pm to get through, so there were many very good discussions. If you have ideas or concerns please pass them along to me, Justin Easter, and I will voice your concerns to this group. Brian Tate is here as a voice for RMN as well, but I was selected to sit on the Committee. With that, I would sincerely appreciate your thoughts to help shape my decisions. Anything that has a direct impact on RMN can have a lasting effect on all of you, so please pass on your suggestions.
More Tomorrow,
Justin