AWSA President�s Report �
August, 2004
Membership
AWSA membership is down compared to last year (June end to
June end), junior membership is lower (2003 compared to 2002) and the total
number of officials has declined as well.�
Yet our goal has been to increase all these numbers.� With that aim, several programs have been put
into place in the last few years while old programs enhanced.� Obviously, more is needed, perhaps more new
programs; but, much more importantly, more teamwork and more effort by more people
(as opposed to tremendous effort by few) on the older ones.� Let�s review:
Programs
& Tools
Finding new
members & retaining current members
1.� NSL (1998):
Positive:� (1) This HQ-driven program is growing slowly
year to year.� (2) AWSA created a NSL
specific committee to work with HQ to standardize and improve the program and
its guidelines.� Negative:� (1) The HQ grassroots coordinator is again
changing through no fault of HQ.� No
matter how good the replacement is, time and continuity are affected
negatively.� With the NSL committee
having just been put into place a little more than a year ago, momentum is
hampered when its members will now be working with their third HQ coordinator. (2)
There are no reps on the committee from the Southern and Western region.� Solutions:� (1) The Western and Southern Region EVPs are to find interested members
to appoint to this committee. (2) All five EVPs are to be copied with all NSL
correspondence. �(3) The committee will
put together one or more specific goals for 2005 working with HQ and present
these to the BOD at the January Meeting.�
This is a key membership development effort, and there needs to be more
coordinated volunteer guidance and effort in terms of national oversight.
2.� Five Star
Sanctioning (2002):� Positive:� This is a program designed by HQ, not
requiring any additional sanctioning expense and incorporating many of the
ideas heard about ways to improve the tournament experience.� Negative:� The program is growing too slowly.� Solutions:� (1) The EVPs
have to take an even more active role in promoting this program and getting the
information out through their council members to tournament organizers.� (2) Tied in with this program is the effort
to encourage state championships organizers to incorporate novice divisions
into their events.� How many did?
3.� Competition
Task Force (2003):� Positive: (1) The chairman is young and enthusiastic.� He will not give up. �(2) The
NSL Committee became a reality because of this meeting.� Negative:� Progress has been extremely and
disappointingly slow (review Jeff Surdej�s report); and we are not sure why. The
group is looking into ways to create more competition at the level below the State
Championships in the regions where held and below the Regional level where
there are few or none.� The group felt
that there was plenty of exciting competition at the higher levels, less so
elsewhere.� In any proposed change this
dramatic, careful preparation is necessary and a strong buy-in, hence the
careful approach.� Solutions:� (1) Jeff and I
will try to ascertain why so few members of this group have responded to his
requests for online participation despite their initial enthusiasm. �(2) Jeff will shift the emphasis of his online
presentation to be more water ski specific, perhaps eliciting more feedback.� (3) We may need to remove, replace and/or add
members. �(4) In his report, Jeff has given
all of us the link to provide feedback.� Please
visit it and do so.
4.� Membership
Development Group (2003):� Positive:� Jim Jaquess, the Southern Region EVP,
agreed to work with his fellow EVPs to come up with some ideas.� Negative:� How much help is he getting from his
fellow Regional leaders?� Solutions:
(1) The EVPs must work
together more as a team with all providing input.� (2) They need to meet here for two or three
hours and/or at the Jan. BOD mtg. � DONE.
�(3) Jim will come back to the BOD with a specific program/suggestion/plan
or two at our January meeting discussing it with HQ first before the end of October.� It is better to start small and make a single
project work than to spread ourselves too thin.�
It is time for specifics.
5.� Membership
Initiatives Link (2003):� Positive:�
The link has been created.�
Negative: There is but a single program listed on it.� Solutions:�
The link was created at the request of the USA-WS BOD last year
as a clearing house for member development initiatives, a place where anyone
could go to see what is being tried and working in other parts of the country,
an exchange of ideas essentially (Don Bucher�s Tuesday night adult clinic
series, Jack & Lelani Travers� Wednesday evening tournaments, etc.).� (1)� Dave Clark was appointed
cochair of the USA-WS Membership Co. in April to oversee the development of this
link.� It is an easy, inexpensive
and centralized way to share ideas.�
Let�s use it.
6.� Fun Link
(2004):� Positive:� The link has
been created.� Negative: Scot Coley, the
other cochair of the Membership Co, suggested this �Fun� button, as he called
it, not as another link with information presented as elsewhere on our
excellent site (mostly in a formal, standardized style), but as something
different, exciting, visual, snazzy, jazzy,�
well� . . . fun.� Click on this link, and you should
immediately go �Woe�, then �Wow� as opposed to �More of the same!� Solution:� HQ needs to review the present Fun link and reformat it
to reflect the concept as proposed and applauded by the USA-WS BOD.
7.� Announcers
Committee (2004):� Positive:� One was formed this year with reps from
all five regions and the AAC.� Negative:� Chairman Hank Longo (review report) is
not getting support from his fellow members.�
Solutions: (1)
Hank will keep trying or the committee members will be replaced.� Hank is known to be persistent.
(2)� This committee was put into place because
the importance of announcing was mentioned at the competition task force
meeting,� was a key idea in Jim Jaquess�
first report back to the BOD last January (and in this meeting�s report); and
is integral to the Five Star sanctioning program.� Hanks� goals are to create (a) a list of announcers (the way we have
ones for other officials) to which tournament organizers can refer and (b) helpful
guidelines to improve the quality of announcing posted and/or available from HQ.� There will be no burdensome certification
program involving renewal requirements, etc.
Junior
Development Committee Work
Positive:� This is by no
means a new committee, but we have tried to encourage and increase its
activities in recent years. Its grant requests have been approved every
year.� �Last year, the EVPs were added to the
committee.� Negative:� Committee and EVP participation is
uneven; and it is difficult to generate interest for nationwide programs, old
and new, without strong participation by all involved, especially in this
endeavor.� Solutions:� (1) All five EVPs must take an interest and participate
in Email exchanges and other communication. There is a meeting tonight
at 7PM.� The EVPs should attend if they
can, making it a priority. All BOD members are welcome. (2)� If
committee members are not participating and communicating at the national level
(as opposed to activity within their regions), they are to be replaced.� I will work closely with the chair to
ascertain who is and who is not participating at that level and proceed
accordingly. The importance of this committee cannot be overemphasized.
Teamwork is essential. The chair will meet with each EVP separately as needed
here to ensure active and enthusiastic participation from all regions. �(3)�
Tracking of clinic numbers allows us to assess what is going on in each
area.� HQ�s recent ability to track
junior membership growth or lack thereof in each state on an annual basis has
been helpful. Starting
this year, HQ�s Derek Koch has been assigned the tasks of making sure that (a)
as many junior development clinics (among other types) as possible are
sanctioned and (b) getting the information, statistics and participant names
back for this database so that HQ and the committee chair can follow up with post-clinic
communication and track progress or lack thereof in each state.� The Regional reps and council persons need to
encourage clinic organizers to both sanction their clinics and return the
requested information in a timely fashion. (4) Chair Debbie wants to create a subcommittee
or group to work on programs to attract new members, as opposed to those for
existing members, the focus of much of her committee�s work, but how can she do
that if the entire committee is not actively participating to begin with?� (5)� There
is now a junior development link on the AWSA web page, but Debbie receives
little material.� Let�s help her
out.� Let�s make this page exciting,
original, etc.� You will hear more
along these lines in Debbie�s verbal report.
Technology
�Technology is
inevitable in almost every domain.� There
are growing pains as each particular development is introduced, improved,
refined and upgraded, a virtually never ending process.� Then there is the question of user
acceptance, adaptation and education.� In
most cases, the development is positive, in some less so.� Sometimes the development is appropriate for
a particular group, sometimes not. Sports, including tournament water skiing,
are no exception to these truisms.� We as
a board have to decide which particular technologies to accept or not and at
what level of tournament.� And, for those
we approve, we need to communicate out to the membership their advantages and
educate the officials on their use far better than we are now doing.
L & R:�
These tournaments are governed by the ten-member IWSF tournament
council (TC), one of whose members is Jeffry Armstrong.� At some meetings, an AWSA elite athlete is
also present.� For the last few years, our
Rules Co has sent in, before the annual TC mtg., membership-requested,
committee-approved proposals, including some on new technology, as has been the
case with the request to eliminate or reduce the need for video trick timing
the past two years. Prior to that time, AWSA proposals were always received
after the IWSF TC had met, hence our lack of success, not that we have had much
on this one issue anyway. �We should keep making our opinions
known even if we first meet with rejection.� Council composition and the opinions of its
members change. Our Rules committee meets tomorrow night in view of sending in
matters for IWSF consideration. Speak to Tom Danford if you have concerns.
E & below:�
AWSA and its Rules Co control these tournaments.� These are the tournaments that fuel our
growth, where newcomers are apt to be present, both as skiers
and officials.� It is
imperative that we balance the use of technology and general tournament
requirements with the need to project our sport as user friendly and welcoming
to both new skiers and new officials at this level. After all, 400 of our 500
events are not L or R. It is up to us as a board to determine how we want these
tournaments to be run.� We have a system
to ensure that we maintain this control:�
The EVPs are chosen by the regional membership.� They in turn select national committee
representatives.� These are the same
representatives who present recommendations to us, the members of the board,
first regionally with regional membership input, then nationally.� Finally, we, as a BOD elected by our
membership, accept, change or reject these committee recommendations. �We have only ourselves to blame as it were.
In that
light, I ask the chairs of the Rules, Technical, Judges & Scorers, Drivers
and Safety Directors committees to pay very close attention to this balancing
act, keeping in mind in their deliberations the need to balance progress with
comfort in the sense of allowing our volunteers and athletes, especially the
beginning ones, to feel at ease with how a tournament plays out. We sometimes
forget the big picture when immersed in the detail.� Remember the KISS principle. Another
part of this equation is the absolute necessity, in the magazine, on all web sites,
in our meetings, etc., to communicate to our membership any changes and why we
as a board have decided to accept these changes.� (1) Every EVP needs a question and answer section re rules, ratings,
etc. on his web page, similar to the one on the AWSA Speed Control link. (2) We
need a single link off of the main AWSA web page entitled simply:� �What�s New�, where anything new is covered
with links to the appropriate page, on rules, ratings, etc. I realize
that this information is already posted in a variety of locations, but let�s
centralize it as we have with the Athletes� Corner. �(3) The final piece of this puzzle is that of
education which is probably where we need the most work.� Let�s hold more clinics and introduce our lower level and newer
officials to the new technologies.�
(4)� Also, Jeff Smith, why not open up our
National Seniors Judges & Scorers� Clinic to regular officials, planning
for a maximum of 60 attendees if the venue allows and presenting the clinic as
�The Official AWSA National Clinic�?�
Summary
We hear talk, constant talk.�
AWSA needs to do this; AWSA needs to change that, etc. However, we have
programs and tools, good programs and tools, more than those listed above.� We may need to upgrade, modify and/or refine
them, even abandon some, but what is really required is more contribution from
more individuals to achieve our goals, spreading the workload to avoid burnout.
We, the volunteers, need as a group to give these programs a chance by
investing more effort into them, as simple as that.� One of the conclusions coming out of last
year�s AWSA annual membership meeting was that, in the final analysis, it comes
down to each one of us and what we are willing and able to do.� We need to involve more of these �each ones of us�.� Ideas are only as good as their
implementation.