United States Practical Shooting Association

Board of Directors Meeting

Las Vegas, Nevada / February  9-10,  2002

 

 

Comments in blue added by Area 7 Director Rob Boudrie. These comments were added on March 2, 2002. This heading will be updated if I make any changes to additions to my comments other than the correction of typographics errors.

Note: Numbering of the minutes follows the numbered motions in the distributed agenda. The minutes are in the actual order the meeting progressed.

 

 

Saturday, February 9, 2002.

Meeting called to order by President Michael Voigt at 08:20

         

          In attendance:         John Amidon, USPSA Vice President

                                      Dave Thomas, Executive Manager

                                      Bruce Gary, Area 1 Director

                                      Jake Kempton, Area 2 Director

                                      Arnie Christianson, Area 3 Director

                                      Kenneth Hicks, Area 4 Director

                                      Neil Keller, Area 5 Director

                                      Charles Bond, Area 6 Director

                                      Rob Boudrie, Area 7 Director

                                      George Jones, Area 8 Director

 

          Absent:                  None

                            

          Also present            Tom Chambers, Deputy Section Coordinator, Columbia Cascade Section

 

 

1)        BOD welcomed Section Coordinator Tom Chambers to observe the meeting, excluding executive sessions.

 

2)        President Voigt invited Michael Bane to make a marketing presentation, later in the meeting to the Board, subject to the approval of the board.

 

 

3)        Appointment of Corporate Secretary

 

 

4)        Approval of July 28, 2001 meeting minutes

 

 

5)        Approval of other 2001 meeting minutes

 

 

6)        Approval of actions taken by the board on behalf of USPSA in 2001

 

 

7)        Approval of 4th-Quarter Financial Report (unaudited)

 

 

15)      Point Series Championship Committee report

 

 

 

16)      Bylaw Review Committee report

 

 

 

 

 

Committee Performance

 

 

18)      National and Area Match Scheduling

 

18a)    National and Area Match Calendar

 

 

18b)    National Championship Date Announcement

 

 

 

[Break] 10:00 – 10:10

 

 

8)        Goals and Strategic Planning

 

Area-1 Director Bruce Gary made a presentation to the board:

o        A recap of informal planning discussions over the past year.

o        A discussion of the existing USPSA mission statement and strategic initiatives.

o        Focus on four areas of specific opportunity (clubs, membership, branding and services).

o        Some draft marketing, recruiting and retention ideas for further discussion and action.

 

 

[Break] 11:15 – 11:22

 

 

9)        Marketing Presentation

 

Michael Bane was invited to present a Marketing presentation to the board.

o        Mr. Bane recapped his work with the NRA, the NSSF, USA Shooting, and other shooting sports organizations.

o        Mr. Bane discussed several successful advertising and media efforts.

o        Mr. Bane discussed his vision of USPSA's position in the “family” of shooting sports.

o        Mr. Bane feel USPSA needs to focus on three key areas:

o        Responding to the needs of clubs and members.

o        Rebuilding effective media relationships.

o        Marketing the Factory Gun Nationals.

 

The Board thanked Mr. Bane for his presentation, and invited him to continue the discussion informally over lunch.

 

 

[Lunch break]           12:55pm – 14:05pm

 

 

19)      IPSC World 3-Gun Championship

 

USPSA has been asked to host the first IPSC World 3-Gun Championship in 2003

 

 

20)      Distribution of 2001 Area-3 Nationals Slots

 

Nationals slots were not distributed to Area-3 through the Area championship policy because the 2001 Area-3 match had to be canceled.

 

 

21)      Split Area-8 Match Format

 

 

 

22)      9mm Major for Open Division

 

 

 

 

 

[break] 16:15 – 16:30

 

 

23)      Match scoring in multi-gun competitions

Discussion of a number of discrete issues regarding how multi-gun stages and competitions should be scored, in context of the many possible combinations of divisions.

 

23a)    Limited-10, Production and Revolver included in Limited Aggregate

 

 

23b)    Any Open Firearm causes inclusion in Open aggregate

 

 

23c)    [agenda item withdrawn]

 

23d)    Scoring of Multi-Gun Stages

 

 

13)      USPSA/Quincy/PASA Agreement

 

Discussion:  President Voigt gave background on past contracts, and proposed 5-year contract.  Several details were discussed and clarified.

 

 

10)      Membership dues

 

          Annual membership dues have not increased since 1991, while costs have increased significantly during that time.  Considerable discussion followed. 

These dues increases were included in the budget prepared by Dave Thomas, and he asked the BOD to approve them. They are also delayed in implementation to give all current members an opportunity to renew at the old rates. Although various people made and seconded individual motions, they were not the ones to initiate the figures.

The dues increase was necessary to balance the budget. If you wish to complain to me about the dues increase, please provide suggestions on what we should have done instead:

  • Decrease expenses? How - please tell us what program you would want cut out - it's easy (and useless) to simply offer vague suggestions like "reduce overhead."
  • Increase revenue some other way? How? We are tyring to grow the membership, but it would be irresponsible to budget in an increase in membership we have not yet attained.
  • Spend our cash reserves to fund operational expenses? This is a suicidal plan, and one which I would oppose but feel free to suggest it anyway.

 

10a)    Membership dues changes

 

 

 

10b)    Establishment of new membership dues categories

 

 

10c)     Allocation of membership revenue

 

 

24)      Revolver discussion [Withdrawn pending IPSC General Assembly Rules Report]

 

25)      Future USPSA Team Selection criteria [Withdrawn pending committee report]

 

 

Meeting adjourned for the day at 17:40

 

============================================================

 

Meeting reconvened Sunday, February 10, 2002

 

 

          In attendance:         John Amidon, USPSA Vice President

                                      Bruce Gary, Area 1 Director

                                      Jake Kempton, Area 2 Director

                                      Arnie Christianson, Area 3 Director

                                      Kenneth Hicks, Area 4 Director

                                      Neil Keller, Area 5 Director

                                      Charles Bond, Area 6 Director

                                      Rob Boudrie, Area 7 Director

                                      George Jones, Area 8 Director

 

          Absent (excused):    Michael Voigt, President

Dave Thomas, Executive Manager

 

Meeting called to order by Vice President John Amidon at 08:00

 

 

 

 

 

11)      BOD Review of President and Vice President salaries

 

 

12)      BOD Review of Executive Manager salary

 

 

14)      Approval of 2002 Budget

 

Discussion of various budget line items. Minor adjustments made to individual line items, including World Shoot team support, inclusion of interest income, and Front Sight production costs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[break] 10:30 – 10:45

 

 

17)      Marketing Directions for 2002

 

Considerable discussion.  Various ideas regarding Michael Bane's proposal, financial capabilities, possible contract structures, etc.

 

 

 

NEW BUSINESS

 

N-1)    Championship Series

 

Area-6 Director Charles Bond distributed a proposal for a National Series Championship.  Proposal was reviewed and discussed.  Consensus was to submit the proposal to the existing Point Series Championship committee for further action.

 

 

 

N-2)    Review/Validation of World Shoot Team Members

 

 

 

 

N-3)    Allocation of Membership Dues Revenue

 

 

N-4)    Slot "Trading Post"

 

 

N-5)    Area Boundaries

 

Area-1 Director Bruce Gary presented a petition from the Sections and Clubs of Colorado, indicating a desire to move Colorado into Area-2.  Considerable discussion followed.

 

 

 

N-6)    Team Selection Policy

 

 

 

N-7)    Annual Membership Survey

 

 

N-8)    Club Initiatives

 

Area-1 Director Bruce Gary presented information about existing Section initiatives, in which Section Coordinators may receive certain benefits in recognition of specific actions or accomplishments.  In light of the Marketing discussion, Area-1 proposed expanding those programs to provide incentives to club representatives as well.

 

 

 

N-9)    NROI Interpretations

 

 

N-10)  Bylaws Amendments

 

 

N-11)  Classification and Top-20

 

Area-6 Director Charles Bond presented a proposal to revise the policy concerning the "Top 20" listings on the USPSA website.  Considerable discussion about the meaningfulness and validity of the "Top 20" listings.  Consensus was that any issues with the "Top 20" listings were related to broader issues surrounding the classification system in general.

 

 

Oh goodie - more work for me. Seriously, please get me suggestions on how the current classification system can be improved.

 

N-12)  Advertising Policy

 

Area-7 Director Rob Boudrie presented a proposed match advertising policy for discussion. 

 

 

N-13)  Archive of NROI Rulings

Actually, this was on Bruce Gary's list of items to discuss. I made a motion since I feel we should have one place members can refer to on all matters of USSPA policy with respect to the rulebook.

 

Area-7 Director Rob Boudrie initiated a discussion about the establishment of an official archive of NROI rulings and rules interpretations.  No motion was made and no action taken; consensus was to add this to the agenda of the next Board meeting.

 

N-14)  Open Board Meetings

 

"Areas 6 and 7 announced they wished to present open meeting motions.  After a brief discussion,

areas 6 & 7 combined their motion into a single motion which was made by Area 7 and seconded

by area 6."

Since the motion was a result of merging the A6 and A7 pre-prepared motions, I have annotated each point to show where it came from.

 

·         Area-7 moves: It shall be the policy of USPSA effective July 1, 2002 that in-person meetings of the Board of Directors be open to any member of the organization who has been a member at least 3 consecutive years provided: The "3 consecutive years" provision was added by Charles Bond. I did not ask that this be removed when we merged motions, since I felt that leaving it in would increase the chance of this motion passing.

1.      The member who desires to attend the meeting notifies the executive manager of USPSA no later than 30 days prior to said meeting

2.      The member signs an affidavit that they will honor all rules of the Board of Directors regarding the publication and distribution of information discussed at the meeting. When you see words like "Affidavit" it should be obvious that it's coming from the lawyer on the board (Charles Bond is an attorney).

3.      There is adequate space available for the members to attend and observe the meeting without additional expense to USPSA. This was in both Chares Bond's motion and mine. This motion would be 'dead on arrival' if the board had to worry about renting a large room in the event a large number of people wanted to attend. It was never the intent to use this 'space limitation' as a way of denying member scrutiny of the meeting (and I would object vigorously if someone attempted to do so).

4.      This policy shall expire on July 1, 2003 unless renewed by a vote of the USPSA Board of Directors. I had suggested one year from the date the motion had passed, but other than that had the same concept as Charles. Once again, this was a provision included to maximize the chances of the motion passing.

5.      Nothing in this policy shall prohibit board members or officers from engaging in electronic or in-person conversations at times other than in-person USPSA Board meetings. This was my suggestion. Municipal "open meeting laws" frequently have strict restrictions on non-meeting communication between board members often including total bans on email conversations, bans on phone calls between board members and bans on having more than a certain number in a room at the same time outside a meeting, etc. Prohibiting such discussion between board members would significantly impair our the board's ability to keep up to date on issues affecting the business of the organization.

6.      This invitation for member attendance specifically excludes Executive Session. Given the definition of "executive session", this provision was probably redundant. I included it so the motion could be implemented exactly as worded.

 

 

Considerable discussion.  Various proposals to re-cast motion, substituting certain provisions were discussed.

 

N-14a) Section Coordinators invited to in-person Board meetings

·         Area-6 moves that the January 2001 motion to allow Section Coordinators to attend in-person Board meetings be continued for 2002, with the same provisions, and that it be extended to include Life and Benefactor members.

o        Area-7 seconded.

o        Motion carried.

Last year's motion allowing SCs to attend established a temporary policy. The renewed the policy, with an expansion for life members (not quite what I wanted, but a step in the right direction)

 

IPSC PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL REPORT

 

President Michael Voigt gave a report of the recent IPSC President’s Council meeting, status of preparations for the 2002 World Shoot and IPSC General Assembly, and proceedings of the IPSC Rules Committee.

 

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

 

·         Area-1 moved to waive the confidentiality restrictions on the topics of current world-shoot team members, area boundaries and NROI interpretations, to allow immediate disclosure and discussion with members.

BOD members are generally prohibited from discussing the meeting until the official minutes are published. This motion waived that policy for these specific items.

o        Area-8 seconded.

o        Motion carried.

 

·         Area-6 moved to adjourn at 13:10.

o        Area-3 seconded.

o        Motion carried.