After extended preparatory discussions, the meeting was called to order at 10:24 PM by Chairman Louise Lepie at the Houston Athletic Fencing Center at 4997 West Bellfort, Houston. Other Officers present were Vice Chairman John Trojanowski and Secretary Matt Delevoryas. Treasurer Dennis Meyers was absent.

Matt Delevoryas moved to accept the minutes of the previous (Apr. 16) meeting as distributed in print before the meeting was convened. The motion passed.

Matt Delevoryas addressed the assembly, reminding it of the protocols involving "the rotation", the allocation of the "big three" tournaments to host clubs which was adopted at the previous meeting. He reported that when the meeting adjourned, it was extremely pressing to exercise the protocols of "the rotation", that the Executive Committee itself was in no position to be convening one or more additional meetings to administer the actual rotation, but the Executive Committee had failed to exercise its authority to delegate the administration of the rotation. He further reported that he himself did the administrative work for "the rotation". He presented in writing what had transpired from the creation of "the rotation" on April 16th and the end of August. John Trojanowski moved to ratify the actions of Matt Delevoryas and include his report of the actions of "the rotation" in the minutes. The motion passed. Following is that report of actions:

• The afternoon of April 16, shortly after the adjournment of the Executive Committee meeting which adopted the rotation system, Secretary Matt Delevoryas realized that the Executive Committee had failed to name a person or group to administer the rotation for 2004-2005, and would not be in a position to administer the rotation itself. He announced publicly his intent to act to administer the rotation.
• Alliance Fencing Academy was offered all three tournaments Friday, April 16th at 5:00 PM. They accepted the SSCC tournament Saturday, April 17th at 2:00 AM. They were moved to the bottom of the list Saturday, April 17th at 2:00 AM.
• Trade of Blades had announced in advance it would decline whatever it was offered. A formal offer existed Saturday, April 17th at 2:00 AM, and the answer was considered to have been an immediate response of "no tournament". They were moved to the bottom of the list Saturday, April 17th at 2:00 AM just after ALL was moved there.
• Rice Fencing Club was offered the JO qualifier and Divisionals Saturday, April 17th at 2:00 AM. They declined any tournament Saturday, April 17th at 10:30 PM. They were moved to the bottom of the list Saturday, April 17th at 10:30 PM
• Salle Mauro was offered the JO qualifier and Divisionals Saturday, April 17th at 10:30 PM. They were required to have responded by Sunday, April 18th at 10:30 PM, but for complicated reasons they were allowed to decline both tournaments later than then, specifically Monday, April 19th at 1:00 PM. They were moved to the bottom of the list Monday, April 19th at 12:45 PM.
• Texas A&M University Fencing Club was offered the JO qualifier and Divisionals Monday, April 19th at 12:45 PM. They accepted Divisionals Monday, April 19th at 5:00 PM. They were moved to the bottom of the list Monday, April 19th at 5:00 PM.
• Galveston Fencing Club was offered the JO qualifiers Monday, April 19th at 5:00 PM. They declined Monday, April 19th at 10:45 PM. They were moved to the bottom of the list Monday, April 19th at 10:45 PM.
• University of St. Thomas announced in advance they would decline whatever it was offered. A formal offer existed Monday, April 19th at 10:45 PM, and the answer was considered to have been an immediate response of "no". They were moved to the bottom of the list Monday, April 19th at 10:45 PM just after GFC was moved there.
• United Fencing Club was offered the JO qualifiers Monday, April 19th at 11:00 PM (after the first e-mail message to the club sent at 10:45 PM bounced). They made an unsuccessful attempt to decline formally, but did not make any successful official response before 24 hours elapsed, so was automatically considered to have declined. They were moved to the bottom of the list Tuesday, April 20th at 11:00 PM.
• Knights of Trapani Fencing Academy was offered the JO qualifiers Tuesday, April 20th at 11:00 PM. They declined Wednesday, April 21st at 1:45 AM. They were moved to the bottom of the list Wednesday, April 21st at 1:45 AM.
• Clear Lake Fencing Club was offered the JO qualifiers Wednesday, April 21st at 1:45 AM. They accepted the JO qualifiers Wednesday, April 21st at 2:15 AM. They were moved to the bottom of the list Wednesday, April 21st at 2:15 AM.
• Although not related to any action by an administrator of the rotation activity, four months later, on August 19th, Academy of Fencing became a USFA club in the Division, and automatically assumed the last position in the rotation order immediately after Clear Lake Fencing Club

John Trojanowski moved that Matt Delevoryas be reimbursed for expenses he incurred for one year of web hosting and one year registration of the domain name "gulfcoastfencing.org" on behalf of the Division, provided those expenses were less than $300. The motion passed. [Secretary's note: The hosting cost was $95.40 and the domain name cost was $9.99, total $105.39.]

By general consensus, the assembly approved the loan of the Division's two sets of Favero scoring equipment to Clear Lake Fencing Club for the Sep. 25th CLFC for Fall E and Under tournament, to Katy Blades for the Oct. 2-3 Atlanta NAC Warm-up tournament, and to the Texas A&M University Fencing Club for the Oct. 16^th SWIFA #1.

The assembly addressed the matter of a tournament which had just occurred, but which appeared to fail to meet the technical requirements for "adequate notice" for classification letters to be earned. The tournament was the Katy Blades Rising Stars held Sep. 18-19. The tournament was a little unusual in that entry was allowed only to the first pre-registrants in each event up to a cap on the number of fencers in the event. Also, the tournament had yet to be listed in the published division calendar. Ordinarily, the USFA looks to see a tournament on the published calendar of the Division. But, it is described in writing that other notifications can suffice, e.g., notifying every club in the division (or the section if applicable). However, neither the LOC nor the Division did such for this tournament. It seemed that the tournament failed the technical requirement in the Operations Manual to be on the Division Calendar, and also failed the alternate technical requirement in the Operations Manual to have notification to all clubs in the division (or the section). However, the LOC did give notice of the tournament in askFRED, and the absence from the published division calendar was not unique to this tournament, but rather was still the case for practically all planned tournaments for the entire fencing year. Further, there was no evidence that the deliberately limited size in combination with lack of publicity was intended to, or was successful in, distorting the demographics of the participants. So, it was argued that the tournament was not blatantly counter to the spirit of the rules. Also, it was noted that the USFA National Office was aware of some of the details of the situation, and was content to consider the tournament sanctioned if the Officers were agreeable. Matt Delevoryas moved that the Sep. 18-19, 2004 Katy Blades Rising Stars tournament be considered sanctioned, notwithstanding technical irregularities which might be seen as failure to have adequate notice of the tournament. After some debate, the motion passed.

The Chairman announced that, pursuant to Article VII of the Bylaws, she was appointing John Trojanowski to be a new Chairman of the Bout Committee.

The assembly discussed several aspects of the appearance and contents of the Division Web site, and in particular its home page. It was understood that the Chairman was drafting a proposed major revision of the home page, and the details which were discussed at that time were found agreeable, but there was no motion forthcoming about the actual rewrite until fuller details of the proposed rewrite were available to inspect. By general consensus, the assembly resolved that the existing news items on the home page should all be moved immediately to the "past news" page, save that the most recent news item should be left unmoved if there were not already some newer news item in existence on the home page.

The assembly discussed a map of the Division, existing in electronic form only, which Matt Delevoryas had prepared and proposed be added to the "Gulf Coast Division General Information" page (currently http://www.gulfcoastfencing.org/general.htm). Sentiment was expressed that more labeled cities and town along the north and west boundaries would be of value, but it was noted that the map had been prepared from an existing base map which was in the public domain and which did not have any more labeled cities and towns in a map of that size. Matt expressed a personal dislike for the base map on which he had marked the Division, and a desire to mark the Division on any other map in the public domain which could be brought to his attention. Louise Lepie moved that the map, or any improvement to it from use of a preferable base map, be added to the "Gulf Coast Division General Information" page of the Division Web site. The motion passed.

The assembly discussed policy for inclusion of results of future tournaments on the Division's Web site. By general consensus, it was agreed that there was a motion on the floor that complete results of any future tournaments of the Division, results of Division members in future Southwest Section Circuit Cup tournaments, results of Division members in future national tournaments, results of Division members in future sectional qualifying tournaments, and the results of Division members in such other future tournaments which are deemed sufficiently nearby and/or sufficiently major by the Secretary, would be added to the Division Web site on such page or pages as are used for listing tournament results, provided that the page in question not be the home page of the Web site. The motion passed.

The assembly then discussed changes to the USFA rules of fencing effective starting with the 2004-2005 fencing year. It was noted that ignorance of the rules might still be commonplace, and that the USFA had still not prepared any information about the new rules on the USFA Web site. John Trojanowski moved that a small news item be added to the Web site home page about the rule changes, linking to a separate page with detailed information. The motion passed.

John Trojanowski moved that $200 of the 2004-2005 fencing year budget be set aside and reserved for use for maintenance of Division-owned fencing equipment, with the intention that in each future year a like amount would also be set aside. Discussion proceeded, and it seemed that there was not yet enough experience to know if $200/year were the perfect amount or not, but that there would be no way to know before more time had passed. The motion passed.

Louise Lepie moved that, whereas the Division would be well served by successful publicity and public relations for fencing and the fencing activities in the Division, and the Division wished qualified and willing personnel to serve on and/or chair the Publicity and Membership Committee, the Executive Committee would schedule for discussion at its next meeting the matter of personnel on the Publicity and Membership Committee. In discussion it was noted that there currently already existed a Chairman of the Publicity and Membership Committee, and that it was the prerogative of the Chairman of the Division to appoint he Chairman of that committee. It was also noted that the time between the current and the next meeting would allow for informal efforts to find people likely to be of value and bring them to the attention of the Chairman. The motion passed.

By general consensus, the assembly resolved that it intends to meet on each first Tuesday of each month of the 2004-2005 fencing year. In discussion, it was understood that this resolution did not constitute a call of any meeting, and that actual calls of the meetings would be issued, in particular calls of the October, November, and December meetings by the Chairman could be expected shortly.

Louise Lepie moved to adjourn. The motion passed without objection. The meeting adjourned at 11:45 PM.