Combined Report of Action Now Available

The Combined Report of Action, which details all the rule changes from the past season, is now available on the USFS web site. Right now you can find it as the top news item on the home page. You can also get to it directly here

Saturday Morning

This mornings’ meetings started out by playing Davis & Whites OD from the Olympics. What a wonderful way to inspire the room to get our work done today.

The 2011 Film Project

David Raith (Executive Director of USFS) is coordinating a project to produce a feature length film telling the story of figure skating in the US and commemorating the 50^th anniversary of the loss of the 1961 World team.

The film is going to bring together Peggy Flemming, Dorothy Hamill, Scott Hamilton, Brian Boitano and Michelle Kwan to discuss how they have been helped by the Memorial Fund. The production group of Lookalike Productions unveiled a trailer for the film and the release date of February 17, 2011.

The technical committee members each gave a quick report on their work over the year. They each recognized the new national appointments in their area. Our own Lisa Erle was received her National Referee appointment and Michael Ricigliano received his National Dance judge appointment.Business of the meeting began with debate on rule 307 which concerns non-US citizens ability to compete in USFS competitions. There can be many scenarios in which skaters would be affected. This basically pertained to skaters whose parents have moved internationally for economic reasons (ie. job relocation) and would like to compete in USFS qualifying events. They would not, however, be able to compete internationally representing the US.

Next order of business moved to rule 344. This change would allow an intermediate skater to perform ONE triple jump in the short program. (Remember that they are already allowed to do TWO triples in the long). There was good discussion on both sides of the issue. The delegation seemed pretty split on the issue. The council took a count of votes on the issue and it was resolved that the a triple jump WOULD be allowed in the intermediate short program.

Spotlight on Mike Ricigliano

Many of you know Mike Ricigliano as a fellow skater and judge and proud member of the St Moritz Club. We are so happy that, through his hard work and tireless volunteering at test sessions and competitions, USFS approved his promotion to a National Dance Judge appointment. We all congratulate him and his achievments.

Saturday Morning

The technical committee members each gave a quick report on their work over the year. They each recognized the new national appointments in their area. Our own Lisa Erle was received her National Referee appointment and Michael Ricigliano received his National Dance judge appointment.

Business of the meeting began with debate on rule 307 which concerns non-US citizens ability to compete in USFS competitions. There can be many scenarios in which skaters would be affected. This basically pertained to skaters whose parents have moved internationally for economic reasons (ie. job relocation) and would like to compete in USFS qualifying events. They would not, however, be able to compete internationally representing the US.

Next order of business moved to rule 344. This change would allow an intermediate skater to perform ONE triple jump in the short program. (Remember that they are already allowed to do TWO triples in the long). There was good discussion on both sides of the issue. The delegation seemed pretty split on the issue. The council took a count of votes on the issue and it was resolved that the a triple jump WOULD be allowed in the intermediate short program.

Thursday Meetings

I attended a serious of meetings and seminars at Governing Council this past Thursday.  Below is a short summary from each meeting:

ISU Proposals
First up was a presentation on the upcoming IJS changes to be made by the ISU at their June meeting.  Gale Tanger began the meeting giving an overview of the ISU and the ISU competition structure which is composed of the Grand Prix events, World Championships, Olympics Games and other Championship events around the world.

Next, Gale went into the various changes that are most likely to be adopted this year:
  
Age Requirements
First off was the change to age rules that would make the cutoff 18 years old for all Junior level competitors for Junior Grand Prix events and Jr Worlds.  Currently, pairs and dance men are allowed to compete Jr. through the age of 21.  This would have a significant impact on USFS, taking out 80% of all current Junior pair teams and 72% of all current dance team eligible to compete at the Jr. level.

Judges
Next, we discussed the number of judges on each ISU event.  Previously the number was lowered from 12 to 9 with the benefit being a reduced financial cost to the host of each competition.  However, as Gale pointed out 13 judges were still being brought to ISU events, and then a random draw was done before each event to choose the 9 that would be on each panel.  Thus, the United States had proposed going back to using 12 judges on each event.

Singles Technical Changes
Finally, Gale did a fabulous job presenting all of the most likely changes that will be occurring in singles skating.
A complete list of ISU proposals for the June conference can be found HERE.


Running a Successful Competition
Next up was a group a speakers each relaying information about a successful competition that they have been a part of hosting.  I am proud to say that many of their ideas are already in use for our annual competition, or are already being planned for this years Skate St Moritz.

Remember to save the date:
2010 Skate St Moritz
September 10-12, 2010
at the Oakland Ice Center in Oakland, CA


Fundraising
Finally I attended the fundraising meeting that Susan was asked to present at.
First up was a presentation on myskatingmall.com, a unique opportunity that perhaps SMISC will have to take advantage of in the future.
Next, we were presented with an idea for a skate-a-thon fundraising event.  Perhaps our Jr Board will plan a fun opportunity such as that in the future.
Susan spoke about some of her most recent fundraising endeavors for USFS and with the SMISC.
Finally we were given a guidebook and general information about fundraising put together by USFS.

Thursday afternoon

On Friday afternoon, I had the honor of being part of a panel on fundraising. I worked with Ryan Janke, Susi Werli, and Elizabeth Harty, a charitable organization officianido when it comes to what you can and cannot do regarding the IRS.

The first to present was Ryan who told us about Myskatingmall.com. This is a program of fundraising for clubs. I plan on presenting this to the SMISC membership sometime in the near future.

Next up was Susi Werli. She talked about hosting a skate-a-thon. It sounded like a lot of fun and a great way to raise funds in an afternoon. That is something we could explore with the Jr. Board.

I was up next and talked about Destination Vancouver and the events that were hosted by the Jr. Board in the last year.

Elizabeth Harty ended the session with a Q&A regarding what restrictions apply to a non-profit pursuant to IRS rules.

It was a great session and I am honored that USFS asked me to participate.

Friday Afternoon session

This afternoon went by really fast! We started the session with Mark Ladwig and Amanda Evora thanking everyone for their support. There was a video clip of the 2010 Olympians and comments by Mark and Amanda.

We were then surprised (well not really surprised--I saw him in the lobby) by a special guest speaker--Frank Carroll. He spoke for a few minutes. I thought it was pretty good.

We then started the actual meeting. It went not as usual--rather quickly--which is so unusual. We isolated the items on the agenda that we want to discuss and went through the exhibits. The session went very quickly and we adjourned early. All the exhibits that came up before the council were approved with very little controversy.

Tonight is the AAC dinner which several of us are planning on attending. It is usually a very fun evening and we're promised that we will play "skating bingo". This is Justin Dillon's last year as chair of the AAC so it sounds like he will go out with his usual flair. Good for Justin. We are taking a quick break to regroup, then it's off to get "gussied up" for dinner. Mark Ladwig and Amanda Evora are reportedly going to sit with the SMISC contingent so it should be fun.

There will be pictures.

Off to the AAC Dinner!!!!
Suziesk8s