Eastern Alpine Competition Committee Spring Meeting Killington Ski Club Building, Killington, VT Sunday, April 26, 2015 9:00 am Minutes Committee Members Present (Voting): Connie Webster, Chairman; Dan Marshall, Vice-Chairman; Kirk Dwyer, past EACC Chairman; Fred Turton, Children’s Committee Chairman; Steve Utter, Development Committee Chairman; Chuck Hughes, Alpine Officials Committee Chairman; Laurel Lashar, ME; Andrew Gannon, NH; Dan Chayes, PA; Sean “Stumpy” McGee, SARA; Rob Dowd, NJ; Laura Sullivan, Tri-State; Julie Woodworth, VT; Mike Browne, NY; Tao Smith, At-Large; Doug Williams, At-Large; Chip Knight, Athlete. Committee Members Present (Non-Voting): Peter Dodge, College; Nadine Price, Masters; Dan Marshall, High School; Bev Oliver, Historian; Committee Members Absent: Absent: Mike Davenport, EASEF. Staff Present: USSAE: Eric Harlow, Eastern Alpine Program Director USSAE: Patti Nichols, Eastern Alpine Program Manager USSA: Michelle Demschar, USSA Domestic Program Manager Guests: Andrew Willehan, ME; Peter Cornish, VT; Stever Bartlett, VT; Tim Maguire, NH; Jim Komarmo, VT; Gerd Riess, NH; Alex Krebs, VARA; Lori McClallen, VT; Mariel Meringolo, VT; Jerry McNealus, VT; Doug Hall, VT; Kathy

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Okoniewski; NY; Paul VanSlyke, NY; John Jacobs, NY; Jeff Jenkins, NY; Jill Firstbrook, NH; . USSA: M. Demschar, USSA I. Welcome and Call to Order, 9:14 am – by Connie Webster, EACC Chairman • Committee Membership: Dan Marshall o Several positions are open: Athlete Reps; two At-Large; EACC Chair and Vice-Chair EACC o Elections and voting procedures will be addressed at the end of the meeting. II. Approval of the Agenda •

Motion: To approve the agenda. Sullivan/D. Marshall/Unanimous

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III. Minutes of the Previous Meeting •

Motion: To approve the minutes of the last EACC meeting 10.19.14 S. Utter/D. Marshall/Unanimous

IV. Reports A. EACC Chairman - Connie Webster Connie expressed thanks to all for being present at our meetings this spring and thanks to Chuck and Killington Ski Club for use of the facility. Announcement: Chuck Hughes has resigned as Chairman of the Eastern Alpine Officials Committee. Doug Hall was elected as Chairman and will participate at the Fall meeting of the EACC as Eastern Alpine Officials representative. B. Eastern Alpine Director – Eric Harlow. (Written report) Eric expressed thanks to all staff in the East, the committees and the members in the Eastern Region. Servicing the needs of the members is the driving force of staff.

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Looking ahead: • Regional/Division programming and communication are still challenges and are critical components what needs to get done in the region. • The FIS Entry System was put in place to bolster field sizes for organizers as well as allow entry for those athletes who might not get in otherwise. The system was a success for the most part and will be continued with improvements as needed. • 2015-2016 will mark the return to International Children’s FIS events for U16s – to be voted on at the Congress. o Proposal is that U16s be allowed to return to International Children’s racing through a regional or national project. o Could include Whistler Cup o Purpose is to expose athletes to international competition earlier and establish a benchmark to see how USSA athletes measure up against the rest of the world. What the East needs to do to get better . . . • Calendar improvement. FIS events need to connect/prepare the athlete for a level above and a level below. • Create more challenging course setting on appropriate venues. • Provide more clinics within the region from the Carolinas to Maine. Provide coaches education from the grass roots up. Ways to advance coaches’ education. A thought might be for clubs to send less experienced coaches to shadow an experienced coach at a FIS event or training event. • Need to reinvestigate the possibility of a southern tier championship without taking away quota spots from the Eastern Region Championships. C. Eastern Alpine Program Manager - Patti Nichols (Written report) There were several challenges for the Eastern office this year. • A whole new staff with Alpine Canada, (Quebec and Ontario. 3

• A new entry procedure – although this helped the system still needs refinement. • AdMin Sports system. Input is needed for tweaking the system and it will be reviewed and updated over the summer. Increased cost to the racer is 5%,-a huge amount of money over the course of the season and needs to be addressed. Refunds remain a challenge. • The races, particularly the women’s races, at the end of the season were weak. • The Eastern website is still being worked on. USSA is going to be making changes to the website at the national level and there may be minor changes to the regional website as well. The Eastern Region office is a resource that states and clubs may use to get information regarding issues they may have. Thanks to all the State Chairs and coaches who helped to make management of the tasks of the Eastern Alpine Program Manager easier. D. Eastern Alpine Development Coach – Eric read Martin Guyer’s report It was a productive season. The level of skiing is progressing in the right direction. There was a number of multi-year of birth (SR-2001 YOB) RTG projects this past season with support from academies and clubs. There were excellent outcomes for all participating. These projects provided the athletes with more pace, mentoring and strong visuals, challenges of higher intensity, and helped accelerate skill development and race performance, which helped many of our athletes become better prepared for the next levels of competition. The mix of older and younger athletes worked extremely well. There was increasing challenge in course sets and terrain.

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As a region, 14 out of a potential of 58 eligible athletes qualified for the C Team, D Team, NTG criteria or project invitee status. This satisfied the 20% target goal for the season. Refer to Martin’s printed report for more detailed information. E. Eastern Youth & Development Director – Eric reviewed Tom Ashworth’s report. It was a great winter with the youth projects. There were ten regional development projects for our regional development athletes. These were focused on a smaller number of athletes across multiple years of birth. They were modeled after the National SL project that was held last June. This created better pace as well as higher challenges and increased volume. The goal for next year’s projects is to have the best athletes in the region at these projects. Selection methods have yet to be defined, but U14s will mostly be selections from Eastern Championships results, as well as current year results for discretionary selections. Selection for U16s will be results from U16 Nationals, U 16 Eastern Championships, USSA Development selections as well as current year performance. Refer to Tom’s printed report for more detailed information. V.

Congratulations to Chip Knight! He has accepted the position of National Development Director for USSA. His responsibilities entail overseeing development of U14s through the D Team.

VI. Operating Procedures Review: Dan Marshall Dan reviewed the changes that were made to the document over the course of the winter. The document was sent out to the EACC several times asking for comments and feedback. None were received. Dan reviewed the document page by page with the recommended changes. Note: Proxy voting – there is no information from USSA regarding proxy voting at this time. 5

The Operating Procedures is a living document and as such, wording changes may need to be made if changes occur at the Congress. Note: The EACC is a committee of the Eastern Ski Association. The Eastern Ski Association is a separate body that is older than USSA. However, in the first paragraph of its Constitution the statement is made that ESA constitutes the Eastern Division of the USSA and no provision of its Constitution or Bylaws or those of its operating affiliates shall be incompatible with those of the USSA, which shall be definitive in case of conflict. Motion: To suspend Robert’s Rules of Order and vote on the document as amended with the suggested changes. K. Dwyer/M. Browne/Unanimous Discussion ensued about the fact that there would no longer be a Quotas Committee as in the past. Concern was expressed that states will no longer have any say in quotas. The history of how quotas were dealt with in prior years was shared. The point was made that states still have a say by referring their concerns to the Development Committee or the Children’s Committee as well as any proposals brought forth by those committees to the EACC. There was also discussion and clarification of proxy voting (changing from allowing one person to have multiple proxies to only 1 proxy vote per person). VII. Committees and Working Group Reports A. Children’s Racing Committee – Fred Turton The quality of events was very good this year. The goal looking forward is to find sites for projects and championships which will provide challenges in terms of terrain and course setting next year. Discussion of level of challenge on Skills Day at the U14 Championships - maybe looking toward Phase 4 and Phase 5 exercises instead of Phase 3.

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There was some discussion of selection methods to championship events. Selection method to Can-Ams is working very well. Selection methods to Eastern Championships are state driven and need to be further reviewed. There was discussion of equipment and course setting matrices and changes therein. An agenda item that was not addressed yesterday due to time constraints: What are we doing to assist/drive coaches’ education and/or advancing the needs of U12s and U10s? This will be addressed over the summer. The recommendation is to schedule a U12 U10 Summit for Coaches this fall to address this issue. Four action items/ motions were passed unanimously at the ERCRC meeting to be presented to the EACC: • That ski equipment rules for U14s be recommendations: minimum 177 m length and 21 m radius for both boys and girls. • Recommend that U14 course setting specifications be the same as the min/max for U16s (min 2 hairpins, 1 vertical combination and min/max 1 delay). • Recommend that combinations and delays not be required for U10 SL but that are required for U12 SL. • Recommend that an independent panel of up to three individuals be formed to review the selection process to the Eastern U14 Championships and present recommendations to the Children’s Racing Committee prior to the fall meeting. Motion: To ratify the Children’s Racing Committee motions as presented. F. Turton/Steve. Utter/Unanimous The actual motion was made at the end of the EDC report . . .

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Comment: Steve Utter – suggested adding Eric Harlow to the panel and that selection methods to the U16 events are reviewed by the panel as well. B. Alpine Officials – Chuck Hughes Chuck has stepped down as Chair of the Alpine Officials Committee after 9 years of service. Doug Hall has taken over as Chair. Elections: Chuck Morrissey was re-elected At-Large for a 2 year term; Chuck Hughes is stepping down as Chair; Doug Hall was elected to Chair; Jill Firstbrook was re-elected to Vice-Chair; Doug Hall resigned as Secretary; Mike Browne was elected as Secretary. Jill gave a report on the AO Education Committee. Ted Sutton gave a report on Homologations. A couple of items will be going forward to the USSA Congress concerning homologation and education. The Eastern AO of the Year award goes to Antonio Harkins (Bromley). The Burkett-Dodge Award goes to Marty Besant (New York). Refer to Doug Hall’s electronic report for more detailed information. C. High School Racing – Dan Marshall The 34th running of the Eastern High School Championships for 2015 was at Cannon Mt, NH on March 6, 7 & 8. There was great attendance – 224 athletes attending this year from 13 states covering Maine to North Carolina, plus Wisconsin. Conditions were outstanding all three days. The Vermont Girls and Boys were the champions this year. Next year the event will be back at Attitash, Bear Peak on the equivalent dates in March. The number of high school racers in the Eastern Region is staggering – approximately 10, 000 or more. Most participants in the Eastern High School Championships are full USSA members. For those who are not,

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a $25 membership was created for this year by working with Lester Keller, Luke Bodensteiner and Sheryl Barnes. D. College – Peter Dodge College racing at the NCAA and the national FIS level is very strong from a participation and quality standpoint. On a weekend when there was an EISA FIS race and a USCSA FIS race there were well over 300 athletes participating. The level of these races was extremely high with EISA points averaging in the low teens and in the McConnell Division of USCSA under 30 for the men, women in the forties. On weekends when FIS-Unis took place there were well over 500 athletes participating. There was no problem with numbers filling fields. In the East field sizes were averaging 180-160 men and women. Even in the West races were averages 100-160 athletes. Last year there were a lot of issues and concerns for the College Committee. Many of these are moving in the right direction or have been resolved. o One large issue has been how USSA/USST integrates with university teams. Tiger has been fantastic in moving this forward and Sasha has created a USST University Team which is still being put together. o Calendar challenges: Integrating the collegiate FIS-Uni-calendar with the development gals of the Eastern Region. There are collegiate concerns and regional concerns. Things are heading in the right direction here as well. o Changes in quotas at the Nor-Am level- the college quota was eliminated, a positive move which has simplified the system. o Pre-proposal for modifying the quotas to US Nationals is out but is still a work in progress. Elimination of the College Quota is being discussed, again a positive move which will simplify the system. 9

o All in all, at the NCAA, EISA and FIS levels things are moving along in a very positive manner. o EISA calendar and the McConnell Division (2 weekends) will continue next year. There is interest in expanding to 3 weekends. See electronic report for more information E. Masters –Nadine Price, NE Masters representative NE Masters had a great season. There are about 500 New England Masters, age 18 through 90+. There were 24 scheduled events. All numbers, memberships and racer starts, are up a bit from last year. The Masters National New England Ski Racing Foundation received IRS 501c3 status, which maede its first 3 scholarship awards this season. There is a website for this Foundation. See electronic report for more information. F. Development Committee – Steve Utter. Written report will be sent to Connie Non – Action Items to be presented by Mike Morin to the USSA Congress. • U16 Nationals issues – look at the overall composition of the field at the U16 Nationals. The top end was fine; the bottom end was not so fine, looking a little bit out of their element. There were 30 at this event. It may have been too much for the bottom 10%. One solution: rather than a quota of 5, reduce the number of U14s from 5 to 3 second year U14s per gender per region. • U16 Eastern Championship Issues – In order to address the SL issue in this nation which has been identified by USSA and the national team, recommend a structure for the regional championship that includes 2 SGS, 1GS and 2 SL events.

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o The best of the SGs, the GS and the best of the SLs scored for advancement to the next level (3 results). o Use New World Cup scoring rather than place point scoring. o Calendar order of events as SL, GS and SG. (tentatively SL Thursday, SL Friday, M or W GS Saturday, the other GS on Sunday, SGs Monday and Tuesday) • The EDC supports the host of proposals that have been circulated which will be reviewed and voted on at the USSA National Development Committee and Alpine Sport Committee level. The proposals have been posted on the Eastern website. o Removal of the 120 point barrier to go to Canadian FIS races. o Removal of the barrier for racing in the southern hemisphere for first year FIS. o Removal of the barrier for limiting first year FIS racers to 25 starts. • Eastern FIS Calendar – the regional calendar discussion is being driven by Eric Harlow with some help from Men’s FIS coaches and Women’s FIS coaches in the region who are part of the EDC. This is a huge challenge. It is a good idea to pursue simplifying the calendar and reduce the number of events. However, this is complicated in the East due to the large number of athletes that are involved which require more events than in other regions. Action Items: • Philosophical statement allowing the Regional Director to have discretionary selections for Eastern Regional Championships. Motion: To move that additional spots for the Eastern U16 Championships may be available at the discretion of the Eastern Region Alpine Director. Steve Utter/L. Sullivan/11 yes;3 no

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Concern was expressed that it is too broad in scope and should be amended to state this for unusual circumstances. Debate ensued over what constitutes unusual circumstances. Will failure to ski to ability be a qualification for discretion? The request for a discretionary spot would go from the coach to the Eastern Alpine Director. It was suggested that the EDC chair (and additional consultants, e.g. from the states) help the Eastern Director with decisions in this regard. The more persons that are involved with this the more difficult it will become to avoid a stalemate. Also noted: discretionary selections are allowed at U18 Nationals-10 nationwide, Eastern Cups-10, Nor-Ams-20. There was consensus that the process will not be abused. If the system doesn’t work as it should, the procedural allowance for it can always be rescinded. • The EDC approved the budget which Eric put forth. This motion for the EACC will be addressed under New Business. • Voting: The EDC voted in Mike Day (GMVS) to replace Steve Utter as Chair of the EDC. Two athlete representatives were elected to the EDC: Jeff Robbins (U16 coach at OMS) and Sam Damon (U16/U14 coach at BMA). The EDC is currently 11 members including the two athlete representatives. Peter proposed that Steve Utter remain as chair until the new chairman is brought on board. A motion to ratify a new chairman will take place once the new chairman is on board. (Mike Day has subsequently declined). G. Motion: To ratify the Children’s Racing Committee motions as presented by Fred Turton earlier in the meeting. Selection methods to the U16 events are to be reviewed by the panel as well. F. Turton/Steve Utter/Unanimous H. Endowment Working Group – no report. VIII. Elections

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A. Nominations for Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and 2 At-Large positions. B. Chairman: Connie Webster, Vice-Chair-Dan Marshall, At Large: Tao Smith and Doug Williams-At-Large. C. There were no additional nominations from the floor. Motion: To move that the nominations be closed and accept the nominations as presented. D. Marshall/M. Browne/Unanimous. There was no discussion and the question was moved. D. Nominations for four Athlete Representatives (2 year terms): Sam Damon, Andrew McNealus, Chris Frank, Peter Girardi, Roger Brown, Pat Tingle. There were brief bios presented for each of the nominees. Pat Tingle was withdrawn as he was not contacted for his agreement. Voting ensued by paper ballot: It was suggested that the terms be staggered – will be addressed at some point. IX. State Associations A. VARA: Julie Woodworth – Thank you to Chuck Hughes for years of service to VARA, AOs, Eastern competitors, etc. Membership is up a somewhat, athlete results are incredibly good this year. Golf tournament is June 2nd. - printed report. B. Tri-State: Laura Sullivan – Membership numbers are holding- printed report. C. SARA: Sean McGee – Membership is up somewhat, but the numbers are very small. Thanks to Eric for spending time in SARA this past season. D. PA: Dan Chayes – It was a good season. Membership is up about 5%. Thanks to Eric for putting on a speed camp at Blue Mountain.

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Unfortunately, with no warning, the Camelback race program directed by Gus Picarello has been told it no longer fits with the mountain management plan. The program has been reinstated after a concerted effort by influential members as well as support from Eric Harlow and Brian Krill backing the intangibles that are produced by having a race program at the mountain. Written report. E. NH: Andrew Gannon - NHARA had a very good season. NHARA is run by a Coaches Council who met periodically to discuss issues and determine direction. Field size in the state race series, number of races, and validity of a 2-tiered system are issues that are currently being addressed. Participation numbers for held races were healthy averaging at 150 per race (87 men, 56 women) Of these numbers, 44% of the men and 42% of the ladies were U16s. NHARA has created a U16 Working Group under the NHARA ACC which oversees the state U16 program. NHARA coaches would like to see some revitalization of USSA programming with appropriate penalties into the regional calendar by creating a vibrant USSA series. – printed report. F. NY: Mike Browne has resigned as AO Chair in NY. Thank you to Mike for his many years of service to NYSSRA. NY is in transition. The Youth Coordinator, Kathy Okoniewski is the glue that is pulling NY togetherand is providing a huge impact on educating coaches and clubs. Education at the grass roots level will get rewards in athlete development over time Membership is down some with the U18 and older group, roughly 100 members. Factors may be due to the equipment changes, making high school racing more attractive, and a difficult travel schedule, putting more pressure on parents. Numbers are fairly stable overall as there was growth with the younger age groups. - Electronic report. G. NJ: Rob Dowd – Numbers are relatively stable, increasing at the younger age groups. Youth Ski League members will be tracked next year. These members are not required to join USSA. Hidden Valley has reopened (not to the public), sponsored by the YMCA (new lifts, new 14

base lodge, new lighting) designed to take inner city youth and introduce them to skiing. – printed report. H. ME: Laurel Lashar – It was a very cold winter, but only lost two races. Camden Snow Bowl has reopened with new lifts and snowmaking. They have a very small race program that they are going to try to expand and perhaps get a trail homologated for children’s racing. Numbers are pretty much the same except for the older age groups which have gone down. Maine has a hard time sustaining decent penalties in their races. Maine no longer hosts seeded races in March because most Maine athletes go to NH to race in March (better penalties). Roughly half of Maine’s seeded racers are U16s. - printed report. X. New Business A. Budget – Eric Harlow The budget is pretty much the same as what it has always been, except that more monies were allocated on the competition side this season.. The contribution to the EASEF Endowment was increased. The rainy day fund was increased. Direct athlete support was increased. U16 Nationals and Prep was increased. State Camp support was increased. This year only one state applied for funding. States are encouraged to apply for these funds ($1500 per state) for any state development project. Send requests to Dan Marshall. Motion: To approve the budget. Dowd/Unanimous

D. Chayes/R.

B. Results of voting for the 4 Athlete Representatives Peter Girardi, Roger Brown, Sam Damon and Chris Frank were elected. XI. Old Business

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• Representatives to the ASC – Chuck Hughes has this year plus two more years. He is willing to step down if asked to or someone more qualified emerges. Historically the EACC chair has always been one of the representatives. Tao Smith goes this year representing the EACC Chair, who declined the position for this year. Fall meeting tentative dates October 17 and 18 at KMS Ski Club. The meeting ended at 1:30 p.m. Submitted by, Bev Oliver Recorder

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