Nov. 2, 2005 Executive Committee Minutes

The meeting was called to order at 8:01 PM by Chairman Louise Lepie at the Houston Athletic Fencing Center at 4997 West Bellfort, Houston. Other Officers present were Secretary Matt Delevoryas and Treasurer Rachel El-Saleh. Vice Chairman Jerry Dunaway was absent.

The draft minutes of the previous (October 5) meeting, as they had appeared on the Division Web site, were accepted by general consent.

The Treasurer reported that there had been no financial activity since the last detailed report had been given in a meeting of the Executive Committee. She noted that she will be pursuing executing the necessary paperwork with the Texas A&M University Fencing Club to enable the transfer of the Division's one-half of the profit from the 2005 Divisionals from TAMUFC to the Division.

The assembly discussed the upcoming (Dec. 3-4) divisional qualifier tournament for the Junior Olympic Championships. Based on the information available to the Officers, there were concerns about whether the local organizing committee either was aiming for a satisfactory target or was adequately far along in preparations. However, it was noted that there could be missing information showing the situation to have been better than was feared. The Officers were of a like mind that they, and resources available to them, were willing and able to help with the preparation and execution of the tournament. No motions were made. However, as the discussion ended, the Officers were expecting that more information would, or should, arrive from the local organizing committee, and the Officers expected to review the situation again within a week.

The assembly discussed the committee it had created at its August 31^st meeting to assemble a Division "operations manual" from existing USFA and divisional operations policies and any appropriate explanations and elaborations. The committee had met the previous Wednesday. There was some discussion of items deserving inclusion in the manual, and some items possibly deserving enacting as new divisional policy which would then deserve to be included. There were no motions made.

Matt Delevoryas, Chairman of the Equipment Committee, reported on the state of the equipment. He reported:

The two main strip scoring equipment sets are in good shape with two previously reported significant exceptions.

1) The floor cords still missing for the "red set" and still being substituted for by a better floor cord set owned by Texas A&M University Fencing Club. A previous meeting has authorized purchase of replacements for the Division cords. I have not yet exhausted the final resources in attempting to locate the lost cords, but it now seems beyond the point of diminishing returns. I anticipate replacing the cords promptly and returning the substitute cords to TAMUFC shortly so they can be used as they have planned. I had expected dealing with this during September, but unusual events intervened.

2) Exactly two of the 16 rubber feet of the Favero Millennium reels are missing from their mounting holes. I have no reason any more to believe that the original feet will be found. It is not known when the feet disappeared, except that one reel was observed to be in use at the J.O. qualifiers with two feet already missing. A previous meeting authorized my purchase of replacements for the rubber feet, as long as I did not find it disturbingly expensive. I had expected dealing with this during September, but unusual events intervened.

There is no change in the status of the Escrime Technologies SG21V1 box.

Since the October 5th Executive Committee meeting (the last at which a report was presented), the two main sets of equipment have been lent to the South Houston High School Fencing Team for the Katrina Relief Unrated Tournament, and to the University of Texas Fencing Club for the Longhorn Open (an SSCC tournament). They have been requested by Louise Lepie for use at the Houston November RYC, by the Texas A&M University Fencing Club for the Heavy Metal, by a representative on behalf of the LOC for the Oz Parsons (an SSCC tournament), and by the Brazosport Fencing Extravaganza for Gobbler's Revenge.

By general consent, the meeting adjourned at 9:11 PM.