Report: USATF’s 2009 Annual Meeting

Plus Interview with USATF President Stephanie Hightower

by Mark Winitz

Indianapolis, Ind., December 2–6, 2009 – More than 1,000 officials, coaches, administrators, athletes, and supporters gathered for the 31st USA Track & Field Annual Meeting, perhaps its most important one for many years. Many of the delegates were wary and didn’t quite know what to expect, because of the need to meet USOC’s “restructure or else” demands. Thus the U.S. governing body of the sport, with its long and distinguished history, was forced to put its laurels—and constituent differences—aside and think seriously about its future.

And somehow, things worked out. The numerous factions united as the final details of USOC-mandated restructuring of the organization were unveiled and agreed upon. The delegates also cheered a new strategic plan that defines USATF’s mission, vision, and strategies. For the present, at least, all was harmony.

American Track & Field spoke with USATF’s Chairman/President Stephanie Hightower after the meeting.

ATF: Stephanie, in your remarks during the Annual Meeting you mentioned governance reform and the development of a strategic plan as two major accomplishments by USATF in 2009. Let’s start with the strategic plan, which you described as USATF’s biggest accomplishment.

Hightower: We needed to develop a strategic plan that would build upon our organizational restructuring efforts, and to put us on a journey to improve the sport. In July, the Board enlisted an outside consultant to guide us through the strategic planning process, and to help us create a tactical plan which would help us measure our progress in achieving specific strategic goals. The Board did this in conjunction with senior staff in the national office because one of the things that I want to do as USATF President and Board Chair is to begin to dispel the “us-them” mentality—and emphasize that we’re all in this sport together. We need to begin to establish a single culture rather than the culture of the past consisting of volunteers versus the national office. Before the new strategic plan was rolled out at the Annual Meeting, we presented a draft of the plan to USATF Association volunteers at an Associations Workshop and also to our Volunteer Council for their input. (See Sidebar 1 for the full strategic plan.)

ATF: Will we be seeing enhancements to the current plan, which seems a little thin in details at this point?

Hightower: We now have three Board committees that will be involved to help develop the strategies in more depth—the Competitions Committee, Operations Committee, and Business Development Committee. The national office will put the details into the strategies and present those to the USATF Board through these committees. The hope is that this will be done along with the USATF volunteer constituency groups: we consider them our subject matter experts. The national office, of course, has expertise in these areas, but the volunteers need to be intricately engaged.

ATF: You mentioned that the strategic plan builds on the organization’s restructuring efforts over the last several years. Can you elaborate on that?

Hightower: We realized that any strategic plan needs to align with our organizational bylaws and the bylaws have been amended significantly during our restructuring efforts. At the Annual Meeting further bylaws amendments were proposed (based on governance reforms worked on by the new Board, CEO Doug Logan, and USATF’s Law and Legislation Committee during the year—MW ). In some cases, these amendments re-assigned tasks formerly done by our sports committees to the Board and the national office. We had to talk through these re-assignments with the sports committees at the Annual Meeting.

ATF: What were some of the biggest challenges undertaken at the Annual Meeting that might be of interest to our readers, particularly the coaches who read American Track & Field?

Hightower: The biggest hurdle we had to deal with related to the new USATF Regulation 17 (old Regulation 3) which amends the way national team staffs are selected for the Olympic Games, World Outdoor Championships, and Pan American Games (see Sidebar 2 for details).

ATF: Let’s talk more about reforms in the governance and structure of USATF that were approved at the 2008 Annual Meeting and subsequently refined in 2009. Some folks perceive that the reforms give more decision-making power and authority to the CEO and to the Board, and remove it from the USATF committees. Your comments?

Hightower: Here’s how I characterize it. The restructuring that took place last year enabled the USATF 15-member Board to maintain the fiduciary responsibility that the membership entrusted to it. We’ve been very clear that the CEO works for the Board and that his performance will be based upon the strategic plan and the tactical strategies within the plan. Part of this entails having a very good engagement with the subject matter experts—who are the members within USATF’s committees. So, although I think there was some initial perception that the CEO has been given more authority, the bottom line is that we just want to make sure there are checks and balances. For example, you just can’t have folks spending committee dollars without making sure these dollars are spent on efforts and programs that are lined up with the strategic plan.

One thing we did this year: We now have four annual $50,000 grants that the USATF membership can apply for. For example, if the Youth (Committee) wants to start a program to recruit athletes out of high school and keep them in the sport through college, they can submit an application for a grant. The decisions about who gets these grants will be made by the Operations Committee and Competition Committee of the Board.

ATF: In fact, the USATF delegation approved a substantial budget increase for 2010. Where will this additional revenue come from? (Note: USATF projects revenues of $21 million in 2010, up from a $13-$16 million range in recent years. In 2008, CEO Doug Logan stated a goal of a $30 million budget by 2012 as part of the organization’s ambitious “Project 30” plan designed to land 30 medals at the 2012 Olympic Games—MW).

Hightower: Doug and his staff looked at how dollars have been spent in the past, and how we can do a better job of streamlining and spending our dollars so we can get more bang for the bucks. They’ve re-aligned some dollars, but all of USATF’s committees are being funded at the same level in 2010 as they were in 2009. Based upon merchandising, sponsorship dollars, and our arrangement with the new Nike contract, Doug is confident that the additional funds can be generated. (Note: In mid 2009, USATF signed an extension of its sponsorship and marketing contract with Nike. The deal, worth an estimated $10 million per year at least through 2013, includes a commitment by Nike to support a sizeable number of elite and emerging elite track athletes through a “Project 30 Fund.”)

ATF: Stephanie, in general how well do you think the USATF delegation received and communicated with the new, streamlined USATF Board of Directors at the Annual Meeting? After all, at USATF’s Annual Meeting in 2008, a package of sweeping bylaw changes—many mandated by the USOC—included reducing the size of the Board from 31 members to 15 members, who met as a Board for the first time in March, 2009.

Hightower: I instituted two coffee and tea sessions with the CEO and the Board at the Annual Meeting. USATF members could come, have a casual conversation, discuss ideas and suggestions, and address concerns. Both sessions were very well attended. Folks have asked that we retain these sessions every year.

Our Board is a great group of folks—some who come from inside the sport and some who came from outside. It’s a cohesive group and we’re all keeping focused. I won’t naively say that there aren’t hidden agendas, but, whatever those agendas are, people are keeping them in line with our strategic plan.

I am pleasantly encouraged that we’re starting to change the culture. I think we really have a great team of professionals and volunteers who are really committed to working together and moving our sport to the next level. I think people walked away from the Annual Meeting renewed, re-focused, with a fresh sort of thinking.

MARK WINITZ is a longtime writer for AMERICAN TRACK & FIELD. He sits on USATF’s national Men’s Long Distance Running Executive Committee and Law & Legislation Committee.

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USATF’s New Strategic Plan

USA Track & Field Mission Statement: USA Track & Field drives competitive excellence and popular engagement in our sport

Vision (What we will look like if we are successful):

• We fully support our athletes with resources and programs

• All our constituencies work together to support our sport’s success

• Our business model showcases our sport in innovative and lucrative ways

• The public and the media respect and are drawn to our sport

• Our athletes consistently outperform the competition

• We have the resources to achieve our mission

Strategies (How will we get there?):

• Build transparent and accountable organizational model that values all constituencies

1. Management models new paradigm of ethical, transparent, accountable behavior

2. Describe the new organizational model

3. Communicate with membership

4. Favorable recommendation

— Law & Legislation Committee
— Associations
— Volunteer Advisory Committee

5. Two-thirds Vote Membership in December

• Develop a Track & Field brand that resonates with consumers

1. Expand media presence by strategically targeting select platforms

2. Improve and expand our products

3. Determine, develop and disseminate our message to targeted customers

4. Establish sport in popular culture

• Develop an aggressive business model that creates and exploits monetizable assets

1. Inventory current assets

2. Develop list of non-traditional opportunities (media, sponsorship, lifestyle)

3. Retain skills or resources to find these things

4. Develop event presentation plan that maximizes commercial value

5. Start development of working model for organization/athlete relationship

• Develop a culture and systems that maximize competitive excellence and a superior professional experience

1. Include all relevant constituencies in developing a High Performance Plan

2. Create approaches for identifying and supporting future athletic talent

3. Establish preferred standards and systems for event operations

4. Clearly define and communicate athlete services as high mutual benefit

5. Institutionalize procedures and education to assume a drug-free sport

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USATF Revises Staff Selection Procedures for National Teams

USATF approved bylaws amendments changing the way coaches and managers are chosen for the Olympic Games, IAAF Outdoor World Championships, and Pan American Games -- changes based on recommendations by CEO Doug Logan’s Project 30 Task Force. The task force was asked to evaluate USATF’s High Performance Programs as they relate to how USATF selects, prepares, and manages international teams.

The Task Force’s 69-page report (February, 2009) cited a lack of transparency and accountability in the international team staff selection system that created “a culture of mistrust for coaches and athletes alike.” Among other findings, the task force asserted that U.S. 4x100m relay failures in Beijing were caused by “lack of communication between coaches and athletes, poor management of the relay pools, and questions over which coaches were responsible for relays.”

The new staff selection process, says USATF, “aims to change staff selection from a political process, fraught with potential horse-trading and cronyism, into a process designed to select staff on merit from a maximum number of qualified candidates.”

Specifically, the new process (stated in new USATF Regulation 17) takes final authority for the selection of Big Three meet national team staffs (coaches and managers) away from USATF’s Men’s and Women’s International Staff Subcommittees of the High Performance Division. Now, a group of ten individuals composed of USATF national office managers, division and committee chairs, and athletes will make recommendations for these staff positions from pools of candidates. USATF’s Board of Directors will have final approval authority. Here’s how the new process will work:

1. The Men’s and Women’s International Staff Subcommittees will establish procedures and criteria for individuals to apply and qualify for national team service. The criteria will be based on expertise, and designed to include a broad and diverse pool of qualified candidates.

2. These subcommittees will maintain pools of qualified candidates, including, when possible, at least five times as many candidates as available positions. Any USATF member in good standing may apply to be included in the pools. The Board, USATF national office management, and the Athletes Advisory and Coaches Advisory Committees can also recommend individuals to be included in the pools.

3. A group of ten individuals or their designees will select proposed lists of coaches, managers, and alternates for the Olympics, Worlds and Pan-Ams from the pools and forward them to the USATF CEO for background checks, and to the Board for approval. This group of ten individuals is composed of the Chief of Sports Performance (Benita Fitgerald Mosley); the Director of Coaching (Terry Crawford); the Chairs of the Men’s and Women’s Track and Field, Race Walking, and Coaches Advisory Committees; the Long Distance Running Division Chair; the Athletes Advisory Committee Chair; and two Active Athletes named by the Athletes Advisory Chair and approved by the Athletes Advisory Executive committee. The three athletes will include a male International Athlete and a female International Athlete.

“The selection process is now somewhat de-politicized, but not totally,” said David Greifinger, a longtime member of USATF’s Law and Legislation Committee who drafted the new bylaws’ language from the Board’s input. “It’s now more analogous to a hiring process than an election, and I think that’s desirable.”

A second bylaws amendment eliminated (1) a former USATF regulation that limited individuals to serving only once as a head Olympic coach or manager, and (2) a requirement that these individuals must have prior coaching or managerial experience at specified big international meets. These changes, according to USATF’s Board task force assigned law and legislation matters, stems from a philosophy that the head Olympic coach and managerial positions exist to maximize athletes’ performances, and not as a “mere reward to be spread around.” Prior experience is eliminated from the regulation because the International Staff Subcommittee should set qualifications for coach and manager pools.

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Additional USATF Meeting Highlights

Ethics and Diversity: USATF Ethics and Diversity on Leadership Development operating committees were officially codified. These committees were established by USATF’s previous Board, but were not in the governance manual as mandatory committees.

CEO Authority: An amendment to USATF’s bylaws now gives the CEO power to take actions, under the Board’s direction, “reasonably necessary” to protect USATF from liability to third parties or to protect USATF’s and the sport’s integrity. The CEO may act in these matters, without first consulting the Board, only under extraordinary, time-sensitive instances.

New regulations also empower the CEO to review a list of personnel who are managing and officiating a USATF national championship event (including referees, jurors of appeals, and National Technical Officials)—and to accept the list or reject individuals for good cause. USATF sports committee chairs and organizations conducting the championship event will compile and present these lists.

Rules of Competition: The Rules Committee considered 86 amendments, many of which were submitted to conform with IAAF rules changes. The most noteworthy was the adoption of a “no false start” rule, following the IAAF’s lead and NCAA current practices. The rule, which took effect on January 1, 2010, disqualifies athletes the first time they false start in a race. In Masters track and field, and in Youth track and field’s younger age groups, one false start is still allowed by individuals before disqualification will occur.

Olympic Trials: The competitive schedule for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene was discussed, and is still in development. The events will, most likely, be held over two weekends with the U.S. Junior Outdoors Track and Field Championships filling the weekdays in between. For the 2012 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, potential hosts (New York, Boston, and Houston to date) made presentations to a small task force at the meetings. In early March, USATF and the USOC announced that Houston will host the 2012 U.S. Olympic Marathon Team Trials--for both men and women--on January 14, 2012.

Athletes Advisory/Elite Athletes: Athlete delegates reviewed presentations about various USATF support programs for emerging elite and elite athletes, including:
• Project 30, a cooperative venture with Nike primarily designed to help recent post-collegians with world-class credentials “bridge the gap” into post-collegiate athletic careers
• USATF/St. Vincent Sports Performance Elite Athlete Medical Support Program—a partnership with USATF that provides additional medical assistance to qualified, injured elite athletes
• Athletes for Hope Program that matches athletes interested in doing charitable work with charity organizations in their geographic area
• Athlete Career Mentoring Program—a USATF Foundation program to help elite athletes in making career transitions from professional athletics to post-competitive life.