Minutes 2014 USATF Annual Meeting Anaheim, CA Women's and Men s Joint Long Distance Running General Session #3

Transcription

1 Minutes 2014 USATF Annual Meeting Anaheim, CA Women's and Men s Joint Long Distance Running General Session #3 December 4 h, 2014, 9:30-11:20am Pacific The WLDR and MLDR Committees reconvened for a joint meeting at 9:33am. The minutes were taken by WLDR Secretary, Ms. Camille Herron. I. Cross Country: An attendee from the San Diego-Imperial Association spoke on behalf of Mr. Paul Greer, who spoke yesterday at the Women s LDR General Session #2 about the survey they did on Cross Country Best Practices. Ms. Kim Keenan-Kirkpatrick (WLDR Chair) added in about the need for us to collaborate and help other Associations put together more Championship/Grand Prix events, not just for cross country but also for road racing. Associations need to have so many Championships (~20) for accreditation. Cross country is a great way to add to the Championships, increase membership numbers, and expose more people to the sport. II. Athlete Open Discussion: Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick and Mr. Ed Torres (MLDR Chair) decided to have a joint meeting to get the athletes together for open discussion. Ed mentioned about the increased LDR budgets and getting ideas on how to best use this funding. Ms. Katie McGregor (MN) first spoke about how she thought Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick s idea of using added funding towards health insurance was a great thought. She mentioned how she got health insurance funding from USATF, but it was only for a year and became more of a stress (~possibility of getting hurt and unable to perform to keep the health insurance). If there was a way to buy into a program that s cheaper and more affordable, that would be ideal. Also, we could consider using the funding towards the ADP program to help with travel and hotels, support groups (esp. travel support, medical support), and education for post-collegiate athletes (~who to contact, how to get support). Mr. Torres mentioned one important way of educating the athletes is getting more to the National meeting. Mr. Will Leer (So Cal) also spoke about the need to get subsidized health insurance for qualified athletes. He feels that LDR needs to determine their own criteria/system for Tier funding. He talked about how there s an emphasis towards funding groups, while athletes like himself who prefer training alone are left out from getting support. He mentioned providing individual grants to be used towards training camps and altitude training (~housing). Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick talked the difficulty bridging the gap between support for immediate post-collegiates and those who are 2-6 years beyond college (and don t fit in the Tier system). She brought up the RunPro Camp ( ) as a great way to educate immediate post-collegiates. She also mentioned connecting with coaches at the USTFCCCA Convention (which happens the week after the USATF meeting, ). Ms. McGregor also mentioned local Associations connecting with area college coaches, figuring out who wants to continue running postcollegiately, and connect them to the right people/resources/clubs. 1

2 An athlete in attendance mentioned the difficulty of being accepted into the groups or even being passed over by slower athletes for acceptance into races, despite having National-level success. Most of the support is geared towards the groups, but it s difficult to get support if you re an individual training alone. Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick mentioned getting in touch with Mr. Jack Wickens (USATF Foundation) about individual grants through the USATF Foundation ( ). Mr. Torres mentioned that he and his brother Jorge initially had the same difficulties and had to start their own group with Brad Hudson- even then, it was difficult to get funding (~before there were all these grants and funding sources). Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick mentioned that the Associations need to identify the home kids and support them, such as with travel grants. As an example, Emma Bates may stay to train in Idaho after college. We need to make sure we reach out to someone like her to keep her running/supported. Kim also re-emphasized trying to revamp the ADP program. Mr. Mark Winitz (Pacific/Secretary MLDR) mentioned a lack of education and communication and the need to work more closely with the Associations (~matching funding between ADP program and local Associations). He said that Associations could help develop support for local athletes by having a Grand Prix with prize money. Mr. Mick Holt (Pacific NW) mentioned a difference in size of the Associations some have more funding/more numbers than other Associations. WLDR Secretary/athlete, Ms. Camille Herron, talked about her own evolution as an athlete- first joining a local/sponsored club (Team Indiana Elite) with lots of resources/support, getting funding to attend National Championships, wanting to run well to show appreciation for the support, and improving her times. This eventually led to individual sponsorships. She encourages other athletes follow a similar path the higher you go, the larger the circle around you becomes. She also brought up the point about encouraging races in your area to direct prize money towards supporting Americans and achieving Olympic Trials standards. Ms. McGregor mentioned a key component to athlete s receiving support from an association is stipulating that athletes give back, whether locally or attending the National meeting and giving them ~administrative roles. Mr. Holt added on that we need more athlete representation at both the Association and National levels. He talked about how his Association (Pacific NW) will cover their registration and give a stipend to help defer costs to the National meeting. He said they have difficulty getting athletes involved on the local board and getting them to help out. Most athletes don t know they are needed for representation. Mr. Torres mentioned bringing athletes to the National meeting and giving them things to do (~which meetings to attend, write a report). An Addendum will be included at the end of the minutes with the AAC Roles and Responsibilities for attending athletes. Mr. Richard Anderson (Ozark) mentioned they provide $650 of funding support for athletes to attend the National meeting and require a written report. Ms. Verity Breen (Pacific) mentioned that the athletes who attend the National meeting could utilize social media to spread the word to other athletes on what s happening and encourage other athletes to attend. It was mentioned that Associations could use a newsletter (whether mailed or ed) to spread the word about getting more athletes active with USATF. 2

3 Mr. Jon Carlson (MN/Race Director for Grandma s Marathon) mentioned MN has what s called the Minnesota Elite Athlete Development Program to support MN post-collegiates ( ). MN gives up to $2000 for each developmental grant (support coming from Grandma s, Twin Cities, and MN Distance Running Association). They look at the needs of the athletes. They spread the word about the grants via social media, set a deadline of Nov. 30 th each year, and a decision is made in December. Other races and organizations could consider giving part of their revenue towards support such as this. Ms. McGregor brought up the point again about trying to bridge the gap on getting athletes, even currently competing athletes, to give back to the sport. Kim brought up the point about taking leadership roles, as Ms. McGregor did with the Chiba Ekiden Team and Ms. Amy Yoder- Begley getting into coaching and serving on the WLDR committee. Mr. Winitz mentioned athletes getting involved at the community level. With their Silicon Valley Turkey Trot 5K, he s found the athletes are happy to give back- this year they brought them to talk to the kids at a middle school and run with them. Another attendee mentioned the challenge of The Running Event ) happening the same week as the USATF Meeting this year. It makes it difficult for athletes to decide which event to attend and connecting with the right people. Mr. Holt mentioned getting athletes involved as Officials. This is a great way to give back to the sport. There is always a need for more Officials, esp. getting younger athletes involved. A middle distance athlete in attendance mentioned he feels like middle distance athletes seem to fit somewhere-in-the-middle and don t know who to go to for support. Ms. Keenan- Kirkpatrick mentioned that LDR is very much inclusive of all events from middle distance and up. There s also more support now being directed towards the middle distances (~Occidental meet, races having road miles). Lastly, Ms. Keenan-Kirkpatrick talked about how the NJ Association provides support towards the NJTC. They get the athletes to talk to kids and also get them involved in coaching kids. Some of these athletes may then decide they want to go on to be coaches. III. IAAF Update: Mr. Bob Hersh, our IAAF representative, gave a report. He talked about the success of the World Half Marathon Championship in Copenhagen. It was moved to the spring so it doesn t conflict with any fall marathons like it used to, and it was also linked to a mass half marathon (rather than a stand-alone event). This helped the atmosphere of the Championship tremendously, which included highly successful TV coverage. He feels that this is how the HM Championship needs to continue to be done. The next Championship will be in 2016 in Cardiff, Wales. He talked about how they (~20 representatives- sponsors, broadcasters, media, athletes, agents, host cities, technology people) had a strategic task force review meeting in September to discuss the collection of World Championships, ranging from youth to masters and all the various events. They re trying to figure out how to evolve the events for marketing and entertainment. 3

4 He said the TV demographics for watching the World Championship are highly underrepresented for the younger generation (~less TV watching? More into their phones, internet, social media). How do we get the younger generations interested in watching Track & Field? He believes technology is key. He believes LDR is already doing what needs to be done, such as engaging the athletes with fans, smartphone apps, and the ability to ~track runners in marathons. Mr. Hersh mentioned that Sergei Bubka and Sebastian Coe will be vying for the IAAF President spot in the upcoming election. IV. Collegiate Running Association: Mr. Steve Taylor (VA), who spoke during the WLDR Session 1, spoke again about the newly created Collegiate Running Association (CRA). The flier he handed out will be included in the Addendum. Co-founder, Mr. Jon Molz (VA), also spoke. The CRA was created to expand the competitive opportunities for collegiate student-athletes. In their first year, they had college student-athletes participate in the Ukrop 10K, of which 1200 are members of the CRA. They had $10,000 given away. Kellyn Johnson, who won the women s race, is attending school to become a fire fighter. Ashley Higginson (steepler) and Esther Erb (marathoner) also competed and are taking college courses. At the Mountain Championship at Loon Mountain in July, they had five athletes who went on to represent Team USA, including Stanford med school student Megan Deakins. The CRA contributed an extra $6,000 of support, on top of the funding provided by USATF for being a US Championship. They have free members, with ~250 colleges represented. This provides another avenue for student-athletes to win prize money to help cover running-related expenses (now allowable at the NCAA D1 level and at the D3 level during the summer). It s also a way to introduce athletes to road and mountain racing. V. Tracktown USA: While Mr. Vin Lananna couldn t be in attendance, Ms. Sasha Spencer-Atwood (Tracktown USA) gave a report on his behalf. She said Mr. Lananna is very passionate about creating competitive opportunities for athletes, esp. distance runners. She talked about how this past summer they experimented by moving the Eugene Marathon to the same weekend as the World Youth Championship in Eugene ( Run Track Town ). In 2015, the marathon is going back to May 8-10 th (events ranging from 5K-marathon). For the marathon, they re planning to have an elite field with prize money and assistance with hotels/meals. Ian Dobson is the elite coordinator (ian@gotracktownusa.com ). Ms. Nina Kuscsik made a motion to adjourn at 10:30am, and Mr. Holt seconded. Respectfully submitted, Camille Herron Camille Herron, WLDR Secretary Edited by: Mark Winitz, MLDR Secretary; Mickey Piscitelli, WLDR Vice-Chair 4

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