June 5, 2006 Executive Committee Minutes

The meeting was called to order at 7:28 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 minutes of the previous (May 8) meeting were read (differing slightly from how they had appeared on the Division Web site). The minutes were accepted without objection as read.

The Treasurer reported that currently there was $3,445.81 in the bank. She reported that a W-9 form had been prepared and sent to Texas A&M, a prerequisite for the Division receiving its income from the 2005 Divisionals which was still in the possession of the Texas A&M University Fencing Club, but there was not yet any acknowledgment that the W-9 had been received.

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 items which have been fixed (4, 5), four previously reported significant exceptions (items 1-3, 6), one old and not urgent exception (item 7), one new and already addressed item still needing action by the Executive Committee (item 8), one new item needing action by the executive Committee (item 9), and one other new item (item 10).

1) The floor cords are 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. I had expected dealing with this during September, but unusual events intervened, and time since then has passed faster than expected.

2) Reel #1 of the "yellow set" has two spots on the cable where the outer insulation is worn through or simply broken. Both are near the connector. At this moment there is tip tape covering the flaws. I intend to evaluate the situation and decide between continuing to treat the symptom with tip tape, heat-shrink tubing, and/or flexible adhesives, and shortening the cable as necessary to eliminate the bad spots.

3) Reel #1 of the "yellow set" has a worn cable guide, so worn that the cable is eating into the metal screw retaining the cable guide. It appears that the major source of wear to the guide is use of the reel with the hole aimed at a diagonal to the length of the strip. The January meeting authorized my purchase, and reimbursement from the reserved equipment fund, of one replacement cable guide for this reel. I purchased a replacement cable guide during January for $4.50, but have not yet installed it. In fact, it is being lent to reel #1 of the "red set" which developed an even more pressing need for it (see discussion of this, and suggestion to authorize purchase of another cable guide). Reimbursement has yet to be requested.

4) Reel #2 of the "red set" had a worn cable guide, so worn that the spring connector not only jammed in the guide and ripped free from the connector, but got swallowed up inside the reel! The January meeting authorized my purchase, and reimbursement from the reserved equipment fund, of one replacement cable guide for this reel. I purchased a replacement cable guide during January for $4.50, and have installed it. Reimbursement has yet to be requested.

5) Reel #2 of the "red set" had one spot on the cable where the outer insulation was damaged, one of the individual wires was pulled part way out the gap, and part of its insulation had been stripped. This was almost one meter from the connector. I strongly suspect that this was caused by the pulled-free spring jammed in the cable guide, or else caused by damage on the cable guide. I intended to evaluate the situation and decide between treating the symptom with tip tape, heat-shrink tubing, and/or flexible adhesives, and shortening the cable as necessary to eliminate the bad spots. However, it appears that an armorer at a tournament to which the reel was lent shortened the cable past the damaged point, so the problem no longer exists.

6) One of the floor cords for the "yellow set" has a basket on one of the prongs which is nearly destroyed by use. (As an aside, it should be noted that the equipment, as purchased, did not include Favero floor cords, but some off brand. The connectors on them are poor quality, and there have been chronic problems getting good connections with those connectors. And, these off-brand cables are the evidence I have the Texas A&M University Fencing Club actually did lose the cables from the "red set", because at 2004 SWIFA #1 A&M had one such cord in their possession, could not explain how they procured it, but did not have a second like it.) The January meeting authorized my purchase, and reimbursement from the reserved equipment fund, of one good three-prong connector to replace this entire connector (and keeping the replaced connector for replacement parts for the other three of the same type) .

7) One of the latches for the plastic carrying case for the scoring box for the "yellow set" is snapped off. Some time ago, this broken latch got moved there, having originally been on a carrying case for reels (which are heavier and need intact latches more). It is also not clear whether the problem happened before or after the Division bought the equipment. (There is some circumstantial evidence that the equipment was used as rental equipment before the Division bought it.) I recommend taking no action at present, and the first action being researching whether replacement latches even exist.

8) Reel #1 of the "red set" developed a worn cable guide, so worn that the spring on the connector not only jammed in the guide and ripped free from the connector, but got swallowed up inside the reel. The January meeting authorized my purchase, and reimbursement from the reserved equipment fund, of one replacement cable guide for reel #1 of the "yellow set". I purchased a replacement cable guide during January for $4.50, but before installing it, I "borrowed" it for the more pressing need on this reel and installed it. I recommend that I be authorized to purchase and be reimbursed from the reserved equipment fund for one replacement cable guide to repay the "loan" of the new cable guide for the other reel.

9) Reel #2 of the "yellow set" has a worn cable guide, so worn that the cable is about to begin scraping against metal. It appears that the major source of wear to the guide is use of the reel with the hole aimed at a diagonal to the length of the strip. I recommend that I be authorized to purchase and be reimbursed from the reserved equipment fund for one replacement cable guide for this reel, if I cannot devise a suitable way to continue with the current cable guide.

10) Reel #2 of the "yellow set" has two spots on the cable where the outer insulation is worn through or simply broken. Both are about one meter from the connector. At this moment there is tip tape covering the more worrisome of the flaws. I intend to evaluate the situation and decide between continuing to treat the symptom with tip tape, heat-shrink tubing, and/or flexible adhesives, and shortening the cable as necessary to eliminate the bad spots.

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

The remote control units for the scoring boxes use 9 volt batteries. The January meeting authorized my purchase, and reimbursement from the reserved equipment fund, of replacement 9 volt batteries when needed, including having one replacement battery available with each remote control.

Some expenditures have been approved, and have occurred, but reimbursement has not yet occurred.

1) Two rubber feet of a Favero Millennium reel were missing from their mounting holes, on reel #1 of the "yellow set". A previous meeting authorized my purchase, and reimbursement from the reserved equipment fund, of replacements for the rubber feet. I purchased two replacement feet during January for $3.60, and installed them. Reimbursement has yet to be requested.

Since the May 8th Executive Committee meeting (the last at which a report was presented), the two main sets of equipment have not been lent. They are subject to call, but have not yet been requested, for whatever tournament turns out to be the first SSCC tournament of 2006-2007 (probably the South Texas Division tournament, yet to be named, which will be held by the Austin Fencers Club).

Louise Lepie moved that the Chairman of the Equipment Committee be authorized to purchase and be reimbursed from the reserved equipment fund one replacement cable guide for reel #1 of the yellow set and one replacement cable guide for reel #2 of the yellow set. [Secretary's note: note that reel #1 of the yellow set was at the time "borrowing" the new cable guide approved for reel #1 of the red set.] The motion passed by general consent.

Matt Delevoryas presented a report on the status of "the rotation" (the allocation of the "big three" tournaments to host clubs which was adopted at the April 16^th, 2004 meeting). He noted that at the March 8^th meeting, the Executive Committee had resolved that the then-administrator of the rotation take certain actions within one week, and, if such did not occur, then the Secretary of the Division would become the designated administrator of the rotation through July 31, 2006. He reported that the required action did not occur, and that, as Secretary, he commenced administration of the rotation. Under his administration, the actual "rotating" of the rotation occurred to select hosts for the 2006-2007 "big three" tournaments. In the order prescribed by the rules of the rotation, offers were made to only three clubs before completing the "rotating", with Alliance Fencing Academy accepting the SSCC tournament, Salle Mauro accepting Divisionals, and the University of St. Thomas accepting the JO qualifiers. There were no events expected relating to the rotation until the end of September when some club might not yet have renewed its USFA membership (by which time the appointment of the Secretary as administrator would have expired), or some unknown future time when a new club joins the USFA.

Matt Delevoryas moved to amend the checklist adopted at the March 8^th meeting of mandatory requirements for Gulf Coast Texas Division tournaments to include an additional item reflecting a requirement imposed by the May 8^th meeting, specifically to add at the end a new item: "5) All competitors are to be expected to complete a waiver and medical consent form provided by the Division on its Web site, to be retained by the organizers for one year. The organizers shall make appropriate arrangements for this to occur." The motion passed unanimously.

Matt Delevoryas brought up for review recent actions, or rather, inactions, of the Equipment Committee in response to a request to borrow equipment, and questioned whether the Equipment Committee had acted properly. A request to borrow equipment was addressed to the Chairman of the Committee three days before the equipment was desired, but the Chairman was hundreds of miles away at the time. The requester had actually been informed in advance that such would be the case. The Chairman was not able to respond until 24 hours before the equipment was desired, and responded that it was logistically almost impossible to make the loan. Matt questioned whether this was appropriate, or whether the Committee should make arrangements to be able to handle short-notice requests in the absence of the Chairman. The assembly took no formal action, but did not find the Committee at fault, and endorsed the idea of limits, possibly limits to be publicized, to the extent to which the Committee should be expected to be responsive to requests.

The assembly noted that it was in an ongoing process of selecting a Division logo, and that it had left off at the May 8^th meeting with a specific draft design being referred to the Webmaster to attempt to make certain improvements to it. However, the assembly reached a consensus that the most pressing change the Webmaster believed had been referred to him was, in fact, not even desired at all, and was not even remembered by the assembly, hence the offered changes by the Webmaster were unwanted. Returning to the draft design which had been selected by the May 8th meeting, the assembly focused on certain other desired improvements, and once again informally referred it to the Webmaster. There was consideration of delegating authority to adopt a logo to some group other than the entire Executive Committee, but the idea failed, there instead being a commitment of the members of the Executive Committee to stay in touch during the process of adjusting the logo design, with the intent that a design which could actually receive final approval would be prepared before the next meeting of the Executive Committee.

Matt Delevoryas noted that registration of the domain name "gulfcoastfencing.org" would expire the evening of June 30, 2006. He presented some information about costs associated with different renewal periods, and incentive or lack of incentive to change between registrars. Ultimately, by general consent, the assembly resolved to authorize the Webmaster to spend $8.95 to renew "gulfcoastfencing.org" for one year with the same registrar, to be reimbursed by the Division.

Matt Delevoryas noted that the Web hosting for the Division had been paid through August 1st. The particular hosting company in use was WestHost. He noted that despite some recent technical problems which impacted the Division, there's no particular incentive to change to any other hosting company. He presented some information about costs, and hazards, associated with different renewal periods. Ultimately, by general consent, the assembly resolved to authorize the Webmaster to spend $95.40 to renew Web hosting with WestHost, for one year, to be reimbursed by the Division.

The assembly adjourned by general consent at 8:40 PM.