UWH Committee attendance at annual USOA meeting 2016
Nic
Dear UWH community,
We, the USOA Underwater Hockey Committee, wanted to send you an update about the USOA annual meetings, which took place on March 31st, 2016 in Secaucus, NJ. We also want to apologize for the poor and abrupt communication leading up to the meeting. We asked for proxies just 2 days prior, which was stressful, and an especially unwelcome distraction for the USA delegation at the World Championships in South Africa.
What caused us to rush this communication? Since the newly elected Committee members took office in September the committee has been analyzing options for improving UWH which includes self-governance. We read and debated hundreds of pages, including Congress’ Amateur Sports Acts and the bylaws from USOC, USOA and several other amateur sports NGB’s (National Governing Body). Throughout this lengthy process we had been consulting with representatives from various organizations to leverage their expertise in our efforts. 10 days before the USOA meeting we were told by a USOC legal counselor that our only option for improving UWH governance was by improving communication with USOA.
With the USOA meeting so close, we decided to act and erred by doing so abruptly and without explaining this background. What we attempted to communicate in our email was 1) our intent to propose four motions with the goal of strengthening UWH self-governance and improving USOA relations to the sports it oversees and 2) if our voice was completely ignored we planned, as an undesirable worst-case option, to nominate and vote for a new USOA President (USOA Presidents are elected every even year). This second part was an ugly surprise for some UWH leaders and organizers, especially those in the USA delegation in South Africa accompanied by the USOA President, who reasonably felt that they were owed a heads up. On that, we reiterate our apologies for the poor and abrupt communication. In response to the comments received, we decided to ask for a 60 day recess of the meeting in case of a complete disagreement, in order to allow both parties (UWH committee and USOA) to prepare. Thankfully, it did not come to the second option during the March meeting.
This year’s annual USOA meeting was attended by the USOA Executive Committee, the Directors of UW Rugby and Fin Swimming, the North East Regional Vice President and the Director of Artificial Reefs, as well as Rolexei Pinson (UWR Assistant Director) and Jose Echeverry (UWR National Team Coach), who represented the UWR players community. Max van Rechem, represented our chair, Nicole Mazouchova (the UWH Director) and Gustavo Pesce, represented the UWH Governance Sub-Committee. Gustavo and Max represented, by proxy, 200 UWH players, (about 63% of the UWH proxies represented at the meeting, and about 31% of the total USOA membership). We are very thankful for the support we got from the leaders and members of 13 clubs.
The meeting was, by any measure, a great success for our UWH community and for USOA. We had positive conversations about our proposed motions and other important matters, including the operation of our website and the rules that govern our tournaments. From these conversations UWH is now allowed to govern its internal matters independently. We also nominated and elected Wendy Okafuji as USOA Treasurer, ending a three year vacancy in this office.
Perhaps most importantly, we established UWH as assertive participants within USOA, by being actively involved and by representing the largest number of USOA members at the meeting.
Our other two proposals (introducing term limits for USOA EC and rotating the USOA annual meeting) were discussed. The USOA EC said that introducing term limits for their offices, while reasonable, was impractical until suitable candidates were found.
The last request we made was that the USOA EC respect the USOA bylaw requirement that the annual meetings be rotated among the US regions, and also to not have it coincide with major tournaments or with a working day. Since 2006 the meetings have been held in Secaucus, NJ on a Thursday. The USOA EC explained that no rotations have been made since 2006 as this day and location had previously ensured critical attendees could participate. We remain convinced that rotating the meetings will need to happen.
Our goal is to work on growing and improving hockey in the US. To do this we recognize that we need to improve our communication and relationship with USOA. A necessary step is to attend the annual USOA meetings in order to foster in-depth communication between UWH, the USOA president, and the Executive Committee. USOA governs all underwater sports in the US, and has an exclusive affiliation with CMAS; without USOA approval we cannot send Team USA to the World Championships. It is therefore imperative that our communication with USOA is frequent, clear and productive.
After this process, we, the Underwater Hockey committee, and many others in the UWH community at large, have a better understanding of how USOA works. In the future we will stress that positive communication and attendance of governance meetings are necessary to grow UWH in the US and will act accordingly.
Yours sincerely,
Nicole Mazouchova