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#Post#: 485--------------------------------------------------
2014 In Review
By: Ladytkd Date: January 1, 2015, 11:44 am
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Taekwondo in 2014 - a year of promises, surprises,
disappointments and karma. Where to begin?
2014 demonstrated that the motivated could accomplish their
goals. Stephen Lambdin managed a spot at the Grand Prix Final,
not a surprise to those who know him, but not the person most
expected. Along with his coach and a strategy, Stephen managed
to make his way to being the only competitor from the USA to
compete in this prestigious event.
No surprise at all that the strong Poomsae Team increased their
medal count all with personal perserverance and personal
financing. We all hope for a Poomsae Team supported and funded
by the USAT in the future. Poomsae seems to continue to grow
where other areas remain stagnant.
Once again the coaches and members stepped forward and raised
funds to assist the World Cup team look like a team. While the
$1000 raised seems such a paltry amount, keep in mind that this
was done in 24 hours with minimal notice. Members stepped up to
encourage the team who had pulled together in the matter of a
couple weeks, all self-funded. Those involved even went
shopping to get the best buy and provide the team with the
message that there are people out there who support them and
care.
Little known support and I can't name the names, but last year
also saw the Cadet team stuck with plane ticket costs of
$2000-$3000. While USAT may claim no one paid over $2200, this
is not true, there were tickets which were more. At the 11th
hour the parents were presented with bills for the tickets which
needed to be paid in a matter of a couple days. When some cadets
fell short of the required amounts, coaches and parents I know
stepped in and paid the difference for them quietly and
privately so that not one cadet was forced to bow out of the
trip. Kudos to those individuals.
My message here is that individuals do matter and individuals
who stepped up this last year made a major impact. Imagine if
more individuals follow this example in 2015 instead of waiting
for someone else to do it.
Karma worked her magic in 2014, another hopeful sign. He who
shall not be named here played his game with the judicial system
and lost. Hopefully this was a message learned.
Before going on to less successful ventures of 2014, I would
like to preface this section with the statement that other than
a handful of self-serving individuals out for themselves and
their own personal agendas, the vast majority of USAT members,
staff and volunteers worked tirelessly for the athletes with the
best of all intentions. With only a couple exceptions, no one
deliberately set out to sabotage the forward motion of the
organization. We went into 2014 with a new BOD with several new
independents who have the best of intentions and in many cases
some great ideas.
I hate to even get into the "but" part of the piece. So many
people consider pointing out the pitfalls and missteps as not
supporting the organization and I obviously do not believe that
to be true. I think if you care enough to want to improve the
program, you are a better supporter than one who sits back and
cheer leads actions which take the organization backwards.
Organizations with no discussion or dissent or difference of
opinions don't grow or improve. Pretending the issues don't
exist only allows them to fester until the members who quietly
disappear reduce the ranks. How many times have you received
poor service at a store or restaurant and not returned, but you
also never told the manager why. They have no idea you, the
individual, no longer cross their threshold but their year end
sales figures tell a different story.
USAT membership numbers are down. Every BOD meeting, the
message - numbers are down. Now I can't see how they even know
the numbers are down because of Hangastar and staff issues in
pulling reports. Reports issued this year claimed states like
Illinois had only 25 members, when their state championship had
hundreds of athletes, not to mention coaches, referees and
parent members. Inaccurate reports. USAT has utilized Hangastar
for close to 10 years and they can't get an accurate report?
Why are the numbers down? The BOD came out with a survey which
made a momentary splash and then disappeared again into good
idea, poor execution land. USAT now has a feedback page - again,
Askinas let the previous version die. Can anyone find or follow
it?
Which leads to another good idea, poor execution. USAT's website
should be the go-to for USAT information instead of various
other unofficial websites like this one and Facebook Groups for
coaches, referees, parents and athletes. However USAT has never
mastered social media. It just plain doesn't communicate. The
website was horrendously user unfriendly. No one could find
anything. So they updated it. Worked on it and now not only is
it more user unfriendly, they deleted years of history - all bod
meeting minutes more than a year old. Most of you think, so
what? However, those minutes are used by some to trace the
history etc... You can't wipe the history. You shouldn't wipe
history. Learn from it. Not that it matters as it is now even
harder to find anything on it. Ask club owners how they feel
about it, it doesn't benefit the club owners; frankly it was
easier when each state had an alphabetical list with address.
Then the article on how to choose a club - which tells readers
that they should not join a USAT school. I was amazed that the
site does not promote the USAT brand itself. Nothing in various
pieces like the "how to find a school" says We ARE PART OF THE
OLYMPICS! Nothing says anything about why a USAT school is
superior to a school not affiliated with the organization. Who
was supervising and I think the answer was good intentioned
webmaster with no TKD experience and no history and a complete
lack of guidance. USAT rates an F in Social Media. That's hard
to do.
Communication and Transparency remain the cornerstones of
healthy NGB's and organization. USAT failed miserably at both
while repeatedly promising more of both. This lack created
suspicion of the organization, anger on part of participants and
confusion in general.
The year began with team trials. Along with their medals the
cadets and juniors found their win came with a bigger price than
the trip to the trials. WTF had added the Junior and Cadet
trips at the last minute and they were not included in the High
Performance Plan and USAT had not budgeted for these trips, nor
had they gained USOC funding for them, except for $40,000 that
may have been money for Youth Olympic Games. Wow - you won, be
prepared to pay $2000 if you are a cadet. Many of the parents
lamented that had they known prior to the trials this was the
case, they would have skipped trials. How do you tell a child
that in spite of all their work they can't go to the event
because you can't afford it? Parents were placed in impossible
positions. Communication, USAT had to know before they took a
dime of Team Trial entry money there were no funds for these
trips but they didn't tell the parents or coaches. Was it
because they really needed the team trial registration money?
How many of the parents who saw this are coming back this year?
Could this be part of the membership migration away from USAT?
After private fundraising began, USAT came up with the Aspire
Camps. Head Coach Patrice Remarck would travel the country and
host schools would take his travel out of the receipts and he
would share his expertise with all. All the funds were to go to
the Cadet and Junior team trips. Great! USAT told parents not
to worry, in his note on 3/5/14 CEO Bruce Harris promised
transparency and public accounting for all the Aspire Camp
money. So parents quit fundraising in many cases, they saw the
Juniors go free and were told Aspire was the end all - then came
time to buy plane tickets. Kaboom! To date, there isn't a public
accounting of the funds and their expense and the last trip was
in August. The BOD has stepped in with a committee to straighten
it out - but NOTHING from them either. Perhaps it is because
they can't figure it out either.
USAT assures members that none of the Aspire Camp money went to
send staff, but how do you know? Juniors were told they had to
pay 25% but ended up paying nothing. Cadets were told they had
to pay 75% and they paid a pretty penny. No accounting, so who
knows. Again, the promise of transparency, another promised
flushed down the USAT Transparency toilet.
USAT planned to use more Aspire Camps in 2014 to pay off the
$50,000 loss on the trips but few want to host a camp to pay off
old USAT debts. The Aspire Camp, a great program, will wither
and die as so many - great idea, extremely poor execution. I
expect to see it fade away in 2015.
USAT took application for High Performance Coaches aka Assistant
National Coaches. Promises were made that the list of the
coaches would be posted. Well, that has been 3/4ths of a year.
First the excuse was that two coaches had not signed the
coaching agreement, but I later learned that was not true at
least in the case of one of those coaches. Trips internationally
seemed to have an excess of coaching and in some cases the
choice of said coaches seems suspect to say the least. Coaches
who had just taken the Level certifications over those with
years of experience. Coach with questionable records on their
County Clerk of Court criminal records. Sorry but the words
"career criminal" turned me off. I understand youthful
indiscretions. I believe people can turn their lives around.
However, there are also a lot of coaches without the cloud.
Parents should have been given a choice and if they were ok,
then I am ok. But they were not. To date, this list is still
not posted and probably never will be.
2014 saw lots of back door politicking directly to the USOC.
Lots of "who has grand prix athletes and who doesn't?" Lots and
lots of back and forth and this culminated in a meeting of
privately selected coaches, most who had competitors in the
Grand Prix. The membership doesn't know the meeting took place
and no one outside the meeting which included representatives of
the USOC knows what transpired. All that is known is that those
attended were threatened with punitive measures and the
destruction of their future coaching careers. However, I did
hear that when it all comes out, everyone will be shocked.
Really? Need I repeat, lack of transparency.
USAT held the Annual Congress, as required by CO law and USAT
bylaws, in November. Members were told they could submit
questions that would be answered in the meeting. I know of
questions that were not presented at that meeting and
consequently not answered - at least one on Aspire Camp funds.
The BOD promised to post these questions and answers on the USAT
website. Two month later - NOTHING. What a surprise. Added to
that insult, some of the answers given at the meeting were
inaccurate.
On the plus side, Marco Mack was named Secretary to the BOD.
Hope there was a legal vote as I don't see one in the minutes
that remain on the site. When minutes finally get posted they do
seem to include some useful information and we all know it is
thanks to Marco who is working tirelessly to set up policies and
procedures and best practices, but he is one person, with no
authority.
The BOD attempted to actually follow their own bylaws and post
notice of and minutes for their committee meetings. This waned,
I complained, it came back, sort of, but is totally
inconsistent. Not one committee has their policies and
procedures posted on the USAT website as required by the bylaws
Section 9. Following the rules is not easy.
The worst offender is the AAC - the guardian of the athletes.
Even though I have personally received promises from the current
and past Chair of the AAC - no policies and procedures, no
notice of meetings (although there are rumors that is because
there are no meetings), no minutes of meetings - but if there
were no meetings..... Although there are 3 USAT AAC BOD
members, only two regularly attend meetings. For awhile an
illegal substitution of said BOD member took place allowing an
AAC who is also an active coach to attend and vote on the BOD,
even though USOC does not allow for substitute bod members.
Same happened with the Selection Procedures. Don't get me
started.
Selection Procedures - once again we have retroactive
requirements, errors, amendments that need to be made and have
not been. Uhh - new Ombudsman. USAT had to add a 2015 pre team
trial for the team trials because the USAT posted the wrong
birthdate for requirements for Nationals. Again, don't get me
started.
Safe Sport did not implement on the USOC timeline and no one
proof read the document. It was implemented in a horrendous
fashion which saw names appear on the Suspension List with no
due process and disappear weeks later. Fortunately, thanks to
aid of she who does tons of research and John Ruger, former USOC
Ombudsman who stepped in and help provide legal counsel, the
illegal termination of one coach's membership was overturned.
As a result of administrative errors on this program, the USOC
will be levying a fee on USAT and other NGB's to pay for a
professional panel to oversee the red lights and suspensions and
all that. BtW the media is watching and waiting as they are
thrilled with all that transpired here and see opportunity.
In the midst of all the zeal to remove bad coaches, USAT learned
it had coaches who had not done background checks attending
states. The program had a flaw due to the late roll out. The
most egregious event was the USAT allowing a coach who had been
suspended by a vote of the USAT BOD to coach at the US Open and
two other state championships. In fact, in spite of over 40
pages of documentation and testimony, except for the vote of the
one illegally attending BOD substitute, the BOD would have
returned this coach to the ranks of the membership. Said coach
was later arrested and jailed in California over the same issue.
He was fired from a teaching position after a two week
investigation using the same 40 pages and removed from another
head coaching position with another TKD team group - USAT did
not warn this group of the investigation even though USAT
publicizes this team and recruits members for this team.
I understand that according to documents I have read a coach who
had a couple court proceeding against him and USAT knows all
about it has not been subjected to the process. Check out the
Code of Ethics if you can find it. However, according to the
papers I read USAT has kept him from officiating at National
events but didn't tell the states because they are really not
part of the USAT. I don't get the logic. States are members of
USAT; they pay membership fees. They are the USAT. Imagine the
lawsuit potential here.
Summary - good coaches kicked out without due process and bad
coaches allowed to coach. Great idea, miserable execution.
Frankly I am depressing myself here. It's pretty simple. Do the
job. Follow the rules. Follow the bylaws. Communicate and be
transparent. Simple!!!! Obviously not as this happens over and
over again.
Now we have a possible issue with the US Open. As nagged over
and over, proaction versus reaction. After announcing the US
Open would be in Las Vegas as it has since 2009, at the 11th
hour the location was changed to Florida on a different, earlier
date. Preliminary numbers seem to indicate that this may be a
smaller US Open than previous years. Add in the date chosen,
perhaps because they took when was available, conflicts with
Mexico's Nationals. Then to add insult to injury, the Team
Trials now conflict with the Canadian Open which also hurts our
athletes who have to choose between chasing points and Team
Trials. Hack off the neighbors to the north and south at the
same time!!
I also have heard many complaints from referees over both
Nationals and US Open appointments. Give referees notice so they
can get cheaper plane tickets. Simple. I hear for the US Open a
new retroactive requirement appeared, one not required by the
WTF, more on that later.
Bottom line, this is depressing. It's also unnecessary. One
can't really blame the BOD much, except where they are violating
the bylaws on committees and posting of minutes and promises not
kept. They are trying, at least those members who attend the
meetings and there are at least 3 constituent members who should
say they don't have time and just bow out. Waste of a space. I
have seen good ideas from the independents. I have seen ideas
that have been out there and ... as they have no sense of the
history - let's waste more time with stupid stuff. They are even
investigating the idea of getting a mascot. Maybe no one told
them about the eagle Volleyball gave USAT. They are
investigating a new logo, even though there is no money to
implement the change on all USAT documents and the BOD to said
to sit on it. Seems no one reads the recent minutes either.
There is a wealth of talent in the USAT, many dedicated people
who know, who understand and who are willing to work and because
they stand on the wrong political side of someone or because
someone else is in political favor sit on the sidelines
practically begging to help. Of course, since the independents
control all, they don't know these people and they have to be
chair of all the committees.
Staff needs to be more responsive. In spite of all the changes I
hear daily about calls and messages not being returned.
Get someone who knows what they are doing and knows the USAT and
TKD on the website. Geez - this could be the greatest asset they
have. The more information people have, the fewer phone calls
and emails to be answered - or not answered as the case may be.
Communicate, Be Transparent and Proactive. Follow the Rules and
Bylaws. Use the Talented People you have. Make 2015 the year the
USAT grows.
#Post#: 488--------------------------------------------------
Re: 2014 In Review
By: Bagehot Date: January 1, 2015, 5:59 pm
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[quote]There is a wealth of talent in the USAT, many dedicated
people who know, who understand and who are willing to work and
because they stand on the wrong political side of someone or
because someone else is in political favor sit on the sidelines
practically begging to help. Of course, since the independents
control all, they don't know these people and they have to be
chair of all the committees.[/quote]
The USAT governance model is unique. It is not recognized by any
governance entity that monitors or sets standards for board
composition. The USAT model is designed to insulate board
actions and committee activity from any contamination by the
people that actually do the sport and know something about it.
The closest example of it? The old AAC that so mismanaged the
sports it governed that the Amateur Sports Act was passed to
destroy precisely the kind of composition that is now reflected
by the USAT board structure and to ensure that "the sports" were
run by the people that did them and not by people looking for
resume' bling.
#Post#: 489--------------------------------------------------
Re: 2014 In Review
By: Bagehot Date: January 1, 2015, 6:10 pm
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[quote]USAT membership numbers are down. Every BOD meeting, the
message - numbers are down. Now I can't see how they even know
the numbers are down because of Hangastar and staff issues in
pulling reports.[/quote]
As with the Askinas/Mankemeyer junta, people "vote," one way or
another.
There was considerable enthusiasm with the outcome of the
Section 10 complaints, because it vindicated the complaints of
the people who actually do this sport and ultimately pay the
bills, that the "independents" who arrived to "set things
straight," in connivance with a few key "insiders" had in fact
practically demolished the NGB, financially and competitively.
Yet, as a note of "thanks," the USOC doubled down on their
experiment, and imposed total control by "independents," under a
definition unrecognized by any other entity on this planet,
because the former partial control had not done enough damage in
the eyes of the USOC.
I think most of the membership is disappointed in the outcome.
It has little to recommend it. People get tired of an
organization that is constantly drilled into the ground by
incompetent boards, dominated by incompetent board members. And
I don't mean that the individual board members, independents,
are "incompetent," in their respective careers and even in their
business expertise. I am saying that the board structure is an
incompetent structure.
#Post#: 490--------------------------------------------------
Re: 2014 In Review
By: Knucklehead Date: January 4, 2015, 11:50 am
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Always good to review. I should probably do that. But even
then, like the USAT, I'll probably keep doing the things I've
always done, the same way I've always done them, for the same
reasons I do them. Do I even know all the reasons? Do I even
want to?
What's changed since the people spoke and Bruce Harris was
elected? What's better? Anything worse?
It's interesting to compare Ronda's review with Mr. Harris'.
It's also interesting that Bruce stated flat out that USAT
exists only for sport taekwondo and the Olympics. First
paragraph. Of course, he does throw poomsae a bone, later. All
the 'mission' stuff is directed at the sport. And he extolls
all the benefits and character development derived from the
'martial art', while at the same time doing absolutely nothing
to preserve or promote it, beyond the sport. It seems he
doesn't put his money where his mouth is, but his mouth always
goes to where the money is. It seems that the development of
TKD as a form of self-defense, as a martial art and all that
implies, will have to go on without support of the NGB, but
perhaps that is proper for a discipline with a history (the part
that wasn't made up, anyway) of corruption. The best thing that
could happen for 'traditional' TKD would be for sport TKD to be
removed from the Olympics, sadly. Perhaps it's time to reap
what's been sown. Happy 2015!
#Post#: 491--------------------------------------------------
Re: 2014 In Review
By: Bagehot Date: January 4, 2015, 12:54 pm
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Hard to do a "year end review" from the info on the website. All
the "committee" minutes have disappeared. All the financial
information has been "86'd." Previous years board minutes are
gone.
The "new Board" tasked itself with setting up both a
"governance" committee and a "strategic planning" committee.
That was, in my opinion, a mistake because it confuses "policy"
and "supervision" made by the Board, with "management," where
such responsibilities are usually placed with the CEO.
If "governance" fails, or the "strategic plan" fails because of
poor design, who is responsible? Fire the CEO? Self fire?
Accountability and responsibility taken by the Board onto itself
makes assessing problems and rewarding success nearly impossible
since the Board is supposed to be the entity that reviews and
monitors implementation of governance and the strategic planning
process; and Boards are notoriously unable to monitor their own
performances.
USAT, now with a Board that is, essentially, a self-perpetuating
Board with no accountability to the Taekwondo community, is
structuring itself for yet another governance disaster.
The fact that transparency has all but disappeared is not a good
welcome into 2015, but is consistent with this kind of Board
performance.
#Post#: 492--------------------------------------------------
Re: 2014 In Review
By: Ladytkd Date: January 4, 2015, 1:27 pm
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[quote author=Bagehot link=topic=128.msg491#msg491
date=1420397697]
Hard to do a "year end review" from the info on the website. All
the "committee" minutes have disappeared. All the financial
information has been "86'd." Previous years board minutes are
gone.
The "new Board" tasked itself with setting up both a
"governance" committee and a "strategic planning" committee.
That was, in my opinion, a mistake because it confuses "policy"
and "supervision" made by the Board, with "management," where
such responsibilities are usually placed with the CEO.
If "governance" fails, or the "strategic plan" fails because of
poor design, who is responsible? Fire the CEO? Self fire?
Accountability and responsibility taken by the Board onto itself
makes assessing problems and rewarding success nearly impossible
since the Board is supposed to be the entity that reviews and
monitors implementation of governance and the strategic planning
process; and Boards are notoriously unable to monitor their own
performances.
USAT, now with a Board that is, essentially, a self-perpetuating
Board with no accountability to the Taekwondo community, is
structuring itself for yet another governance disaster.
The fact that transparency has all but disappeared is not a good
welcome into 2015, but is consistent with this kind of Board
performance.
[/quote]
I will add that I did find, with great difficulty, the
financials. They are there but no where you would ever look for
them. I also found a way to pull the old minutes and things -
not on the website but via search engines.
USAT has started the year with another communication issue.
What a surprise. Learned nothing from 2014. At the Annual
Congress it announced that athletes would have to use USAT
branded gear at USAT sanctioned events. This was 2 months ago.
A couple days ago, the Official Vendor of USAT Branded gear
stood up and announced - gotta get it here, generally upsetting
coaches, parents and athletes who were calling it a lie.
It came up 2 months ago. I posted it two months ago. Granted
USAT had 2 months to post the policy and didn't but why didn't
coaches and parents ask USAT about it? Oh yeah, a couple did
and got no answer.
Communication and Transparency issues will bring them down
again. Look at the old Section 10 - both words appear
frequently.
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