Apr. 16, 2004 Executive Committee Minutes

The meeting was called to order at 4:28 PM by Chairman Andrey Geva at the Starbucks at 5000 Westheimer Road, Houston. Other Officers present were Vice Chairman August Skopik, Secretary Matt Delevoryas, and Treasurer John Trojanowski.

Matt Delevoryas moved to accept the minutes as previously distributed by posting on the Web site of the Division. The motion passed by general consent.

Discussion began concerning the rotation system recommended by The Committee [Secretary's note: The phrase "The Committee" herein is meant to refer to the committee with no known official name which was constituted by agreement at the November 16^th meeting of the membership of the Division, composed of a representative of each club, to recommend a policy for awarding certain key tournaments including Divisionals to host clubs] in its February report. Matt Delevoryas noted that the report was not well-written in terms of either content or style to be used verbatim in a resolution of the Executive Committee, so he distributed a working document he had prepared showing his recommendations for which paragraphs of the report to use verbatim, which to rewrite in some fashion, and which to omit as irrelevant to an actual resolution of the Executive Committee. The immediately following discussion did not concern the report of The Committee, but rather general issues of quality control of host clubs' efforts, and pros and cons of arranging for key workers at each tournament to be drawn from a small group of experts, a group which might or might not be designed in a way which would foster additional experts entering their ranks with the passage of time. By common understanding, the topics of the discussion were meant to be applicable only to "big three" tournaments, i.e., the two divisional qualifier tournaments, the Division's SSCC tournament, and any analogous tournaments (e.g., occasionally Sectionals, any RYC or super RYC within the control of the Division), exactly the specific tournaments addressed by the report of The Committee.

After discussion, it became apparent that it might be necessary to have in hand a randomly determined order of the 17 USFA clubs currently in the Division. To this end, Matt produced a list of the 17 USFA clubs in the Division and handed it to another Officer to put the letters "A" through "Q" next to the club names in any order, without disclosing what he had marked or intervening in what followed. He also produced 17 quarters and handed them to another Officer to mark the letters "A" through "Q" on the quarters independently from the placing of the letters next to club names on the list. As the quarters were labeled, they were tossed into a deep bowl. As soon as the 17^th quarter was labeled and placed in the bowl, the bowl was covered, violently agitated, and then offered to the remaining Officer to draw the quarters out of the bowl without being able to see the inside of the bowl. As each quarter was drawn, the letter on the quarter was used to find the corresponding club on the list and mark the order of the draw. Then, both the assignments of letters to clubs, and the order in which the letters were drawn, were set aside. It was understood that a random ordering of the 17 clubs was in hand, but no Officer knew what the order was, and the order could not have any bearing on the debate or vote on the motion made immediately following the drawing.

Taking text from one of the options of the working document he had prepared, Matt Delevoryas moved the following, with the proviso that the 17 blanks in section 2 of the motion be filled by the random selection just done (but not yet examined) by the assembly:

The following shall be the policy of the Gulf Coast Division ("Division") concerning the assignment of tournaments which the Division is required to hold or for which the Division must specify the local organizing committee which will organize the tournament. This shall include qualifying tournaments which the Division is required to hold, Sectional qualifying tournaments when delegated to the Division by the Section, Gulf Coast Division-hosted SSCC tournaments, and any Regional Youth Circuit or Super Regional Youth Circuit Tournament that the Division may be asked to host (individually "Tournament" and collectively the "Tournaments").

1. In order to be eligible to host a Tournament, each club shall be a member in good standing of the U.S.F.A.

2. The initial order of the clubs (the "List"), determined by a random drawing, shall be ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, and ____.

3. The Executive Committee or its designee(s) will administer the offering of tournaments to clubs. The administrator(s) shall offer the first club drawn its choice to host one of the Tournaments for that year. After the first club chooses a Tournament to host, the administrator(s) shall offer the second club drawn its choice of the remaining Tournaments to host, and so on until all of the Tournaments have been allocated to a club host. Each club shall have twenty-four (24) hours to make its selection of the Tournament it will or will not host. A club that does not make a selection within such 24-hour period will have its name moved to the bottom of the List.

4. Those clubs which are offered and opt to host a Tournament will have their names moved to the bottom of the List in the order in which they were drawn. For example, if there are nine clubs in the Division and Clubs 1 through 3 opt to host a Tournament, those club names will be moved to the bottom of the List such that club number 1 will be seventh on the List, club number 2 will be eighth on the List and club number 3 will be ninth on the List.

5. Any club may opt to "co-host" a tournament with another club or clubs. The term "co-host" or "co-hosting" means an arrangement whereby two or more clubs share in the revenue, in any proportion, from any Tournament and such terms shall not include any arrangement whereby a club merely offers assistance to a host club. If a club opts to co-host a tournament with one or more clubs, the co-hosting clubs must advise the Executive Committee of such arrangement as soon as possible. Any club or clubs that co-host a tournament shall have their club's names moved to the bottom of the List but ahead of the host club's name. As an example, if club number 1 is the host and club number 5 decides to co-host, club number 5 shall move to the bottom of the list but ahead of club number 1. For a club which co-hosts with more than one host club, and/or becomes a co-host while already a host, its name will be moved to the position closest to the end of the list of all the positions where its individual roles would cause it to be moved.

6. Each year, the Executive Committee shall use the List to offer the clubs at the top of such list the opportunity to host a Tournament. There will be no more drawings of club names after the first drawing.

7. New clubs that join the Division after the first drawing shall have their club names added to the bottom of the List.

8. If, for any reason, any club allows its membership in the U.S.F.A. to lapse, it shall have thirty (30) days in which to renew its membership. If it fails to renew its membership within such 30-day period, the club shall be removed from the List. Any club so removed from the List for failure to renew its membership within 30 days, shall be entitled to be added to the list as a new club pursuant to item 7 above upon providing the Executive Committee with evidence that it has renewed its membership.

9. As several clubs within the Division are affiliated with schools, colleges and universities, the Division will work with those clubs to ensure their opportunity to host Tournaments is not adversely affected due to scheduling conflicts. Specifically, these clubs shall advise the Division of their academic schedules and the Division shall take reasonable steps to schedule Tournaments such that the Tournaments do not interfere with the clubs' academic calendars. In the event a Tournament can not be scheduled as above, the affected school-affiliated club may opt to not host a Tournament that year and such club shall not have its name moved to the bottom of the list. In this event, the next club on the list shall be offered the opportunity to host the Tournament in place of the school-affiliated club.

This policy will be reexamined after an appropriate time. The Executive Committee encourages the Division Board to review the procedure during the first quarter of 2005 and the first quarter of 2007 to ensure the procedure is equitable and viable, and, if not, to request or order the alteration of the policy in time for allocating the Tournaments for the fencing year immediately following the re-examination. If the Division Board does not conduct either of these reviews, the Executive Committee will instead convene a broadly-based committee of Division members whose report will be made known to the members of the Division.

Extended debate followed, including much discussion of the possibility of requiring each affected tournament to have an organizing committee partially populated at the discretion of the host club and partially populated by appointment by a Division body or official. Eventually, debate ceased, and the motion passed unanimously.

At that time, the assembly examined the results of the random selection. The order was transcribed to the Secretary's notes and the original paper kept separate, out of the possession of the Secretary, to allow any later alteration in either record of the draw to be detected. The order of the draw was: 1) Alliance Fencing Academy. 2) Trade of Blades. 3) Rice Fencing Club. 4) Salle Mauro. 5) Texas A&M University Fencing Club. 6) Galveston Fencing Club. 7) University of St. Thomas. 8) United Fencing Club (formerly the Clear Lake High School Fencing Club. 9) Knights of Trapani Fencing Academy. 10) Clear Lake Fencing Club. 11) Westchester Fencing Club). 12) South Houston High School Fencing Team. 13) Brazosport College Fencing Club. 14) Katy Blades. 15) Fencing Club at the University of Houston. 16) Spindletop Cavaliers. 17) Bayou City Fencing Academy.

There was then some discussion, resulting in no action, of the possibility that the recently created Division Board could or should impose requirements on the tournaments affected by the resolution to assure sufficient quality.

The assembly then discussed the Division's scoring equipment, the necessity of it being at that weekend's DeGall tournament in Dallas, and pragmatic issues getting it there. There was even discussion of paying for a Dallas hotel room for the Trojanowskis if they could provide the transportation to Dallas (which it then became apparent they couldn't).

August Skopik moved to adjourn. The motion passed without objection. The meeting adjourned at 5:29 PM.