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#Post#: 261--------------------------------------------------
Nationals Recap
By: Ladytkd Date: July 8, 2014, 10:39 am
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Nationals is over for another year. Attendance was good, better
than anticipated. Poomsae seems to have zoomed through with
relatively few problems. Probably most people had a good time
and went home with good memories, souvenirs and maybe a medal or
two or three.
Along the way sadly, we discovered that someone would actually
cheat at Board Breaking. Don't think I need to say more. This is
TKD and while I know this happens, it never fails to amaze me.
Thanks go to many hard working staff and volunteers who made the
best of what they had to work with and did what they could to
make this a great experience for all. Referees are dragging home
exhausted after the last three nights of sparring. There were a
number of things which went wrong, most of them the result of
poor pre-planning but there are a couple of things everyone
needs to keep in mind:
1. Other than Penny and Bruce, pretty much no one from the USAT
staff was working for USAT last year in Chicago. The staff had
close to a 100% turnover. So the only paid staff who had the
institutional knowledge of the last five or so years, Penny has
several and Bruce has one as current CEO. Jeanna as a former
staffer had a little more, but things have changed in the time
she was gone. All new staff and a system that has never been
fixed.
2. The only real institutional knowledge sat with the tournament
committee and the referees who could only work with what they
had. They did an amazing job of doing it. I have even heard the
praises of the holding area staff for their attempts to lighten
the atmosphere in the holding area where kids sat for many many
hours waiting on matches that were too late for true safety.
People stepped up and a good number of members have no idea of
the various issues at the event.
What did everyone learn at this event? That no one ever learns
from the mistakes of the past. Once again, as is a common
refrain in USAT - COMMUNICATION WAS LACKING. Brackets were
posted late and in some cases had to be redone.Conspiracy
theories abound as to why this one or that one was added to the
brackets and where. I agree it looks suspicious. I think in at
least one case it was a horrible fix but I also believe that it
comes down to Hangastar has a long history of dropping athletes
from the brackets when those athletes were already registered. I
know this, coaches know this, USAT knows this and no one is
fixing the problem. I have heard years of whining about the
problems with Hangastar but there has been no fix and no
replacement. What did they expect?
When they changed those brackets, they should have contacted the
coaches and athletes involved instead of leaving them to hear
their names being called as 1 minute to appear or be
disqualified. This is wrong on so many levels.
Was it deliberate - no, it was incompetent and sloppy and
business as usual. No Communication.
The State Presidents were given a date and time for a meeting.
Great. Communication? No, because even though the USAT knew for
weeks there was a meeting scheduled, no one bothered to find a
room to have it. No one posted where State Presidents should
meet. The representatives of the 13 states that did finally make
it had to go to Facebook for information - and not even on the
USAT Facebook page.
Before the event, Referee Chair Anne Chase shared a wealth of
information, but if you weren't on the right Facebook Forum, you
probably didn't get it. It wasn't posted on the USAT site and I
know her well enough to know there had to be an attempt to get
it there.
Lots of complaints about novice referees. Well, an old argument.
Last year, referees were turned away because too many applied.
This year someone rounded up who they could. Do the athletes
deserve the best referees? Yes. Where were they? A lot were
there and some were not for a lot of reasons. Possible the late
announcement of appointments causing plane fares to be out of
range, the lack of communication and the fears over whether or
not they would get meals or just be worked to death. Something
has to change here.
I could rail on about lack of communication, wrong information
and all that but what is the point? I have been singing this
song for years and nothing changes. USAT is now looking at a May
Team Trials for 16 year olds because no one reads what they sign
and post. They posted the wrong date - must be 17 by 12/31/15
but they put 12/31/14 causing all these athletes to be excluded
from the adult divisions at nationals because Staff told them
they couldn't compete there because the information was wrong.
It was corrected, less than a week before Nationals. Is it fair
the 16 year olds get a Team Trials and not have to take the same
steps as older athletes. No, it's not. However, it's also not
their fault that USAT staff did not do their jobs and
disseminate the correct information.
In closing, what can I say? Fix the known problems, get some
continuity in staff and start some effective communication.
There were no tweets, no facebook posts, blast emails went out
on a day most were already in route. Staff was inconsistent.
This kid after 90 minutes waiting in line for weighin was turned
away, another was put through and allowed to use his
confirmation. Communicate. Even if something is going wrong,
like the brackets, let them know so they know what to expect.
They may be angry about brackets not being posted but not as
angry as they were not knowing when or if they would be posted.
Communication, it's not that hard. Communicate and communicate
to all. Continuity and Communication.
#Post#: 262--------------------------------------------------
Re: Nationals Recap
By: Ladytkd Date: July 8, 2014, 10:41 am
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and Brentwood was back!!!!
#Post#: 263--------------------------------------------------
Re: Nationals Recap
By: TaekwondoDad Date: July 8, 2014, 3:37 pm
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Ronda, all in all it was a good tournament. I have to disagree
with you on continuity of staff. NOTHING will get better under
the current CEO because he just does not seem to care about what
is going on around him.
I think we can all agree that not posting the brackets was a
major mistake that had a direct effect on the athletes. Fridays
report times were for match numbers. Without brackets and match
numbers posted, all athletes had to be ready to report at 8:30.
This causes there to be more people in the holding area than
need be (although still better than Saturday morning). It
causes athletes to wait around longer than need be. It is
ridiculous to rouse your athletes to be ready to go at 8:30 when
they won't see a match before 2 or 3.
The CEO was aware of the issue with not posting the brackets.
The CEO was aware that the membership was unhappy. The Board was
aware of the issue with not posting the brackets. The Board was
aware that the membership was unhappy. I know for a fact that
several Board members made the CEO and the rest of the staff
aware that they were not happy with the situation.
So, what did the CEO do to correct the problem, knowing of its
existence, knowing the membership was unhappy, knowing the Board
was unhappy? The CEO did nothing. He either sat at the head
table starring into space or wandered the competition venue
aimlessly. Considering the amount of hard work provided by so
many volunteers, it would have been only proper to see at least
a token amount of effort from the highest paid individual.
It has been proven time and time again that the CEO doesn't care
about the membership and has no interest in actually earning his
pay by taking an active management role in the organization.
With the CEO's failure so public, in front of both the
membership and the Board, the question now becomes does the
Board care enough to do something about it?
#Post#: 264--------------------------------------------------
Re: Nationals Recap
By: Ladytkd Date: July 8, 2014, 3:46 pm
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[quote author=TaekwondoDad link=topic=57.msg263#msg263
date=1404851820]
Ronda, all in all it was a good tournament. I have to disagree
with you on continuity of staff. NOTHING will get better under
the current CEO because he just does not seem to care about what
is going on around him.
I think we can all agree that not posting the brackets was a
major mistake that had a direct effect on the athletes. Fridays
report times were for match numbers. Without brackets and match
numbers posted, all athletes had to be ready to report at 8:30.
This causes there to be more people in the holding area than
need be (although still better than Saturday morning). It
causes athletes to wait around longer than need be. It is
ridiculous to rouse your athletes to be ready to go at 8:30 when
they won't see a match before 2 or 3.
The CEO was aware of the issue with not posting the brackets.
The CEO was aware that the membership was unhappy. The Board was
aware of the issue with not posting the brackets. The Board was
aware that the membership was unhappy. I know for a fact that
several Board members made the CEO and the rest of the staff
aware that they were not happy with the situation.
So, what did the CEO do to correct the problem, knowing of its
existence, knowing the membership was unhappy, knowing the Board
was unhappy? The CEO did nothing. He either sat at the head
table starring into space or wandered the competition venue
aimlessly. Considering the amount of hard work provided by so
many volunteers, it would have been only proper to see at least
a token amount of effort from the highest paid individual.
It has been proven time and time again that the CEO doesn't care
about the membership and has no interest in actually earning his
pay by taking an active management role in the organization.
With the CEO's failure so public, in front of both the
membership and the Board, the question now becomes does the
Board care enough to do something about it?
[/quote]
Keep in mind the bylaws state that all decisions have to be with
a majority of the Independents. If the Independents don't know,
it doesn't matter how many constituency BOD members know.
I was actually referring to the staff - as in membership and
events in particular, as well as the vacant webmaster. New guy
McNally starts 7/14/14 btw.
#Post#: 265--------------------------------------------------
Re: Nationals Recap
By: Gorilla Date: July 8, 2014, 7:55 pm
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Hope springs eternal. Maybe it will be better next year. Back
to training and preparing for AAU Team Trials.
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