US Rowing Governance Proposal

[boston_1x]

NRF might consider taking inventory of the member organization affiliations of its donors, and all national team alums, & develop a large, working, actionable database and voting block.

If the bylaws proposal is supposed to improve the balance & quality of decision-making between the dual mandates of a member association and a USOC/NGB... & NRF is pushing for the change... go turn out the voters and give your proposal a fair shot at approval... otherwise no complaining if the other side shows up.

[bendtheoar]

NRF might consider taking inventory of the member organization affiliations of its donors, and all national team alums, & develop a large, working, actionable database and voting block.

If the bylaws proposal is supposed to improve the balance & quality of decision-making between the dual mandates of a member association and a USOC/NGB... & NRF is pushing for the change... go turn out the voters and give your proposal a fair shot at approval... otherwise no complaining if the other side shows up.

In this case the proposed by-law changes were nothing more than a naked power grab by the NRF attempting to gain a permanent majority of the Board (9 of 15) which would be controlled by the NRF representing the 40 members of the national team, leaving a minority representation for the remaining 85,000 members of USRowing, not to mention that if anyone ever wanted to run for a seat on the board they would need to be "vetted" and approved by the existing board before their name was even eligible to be placed on the ballot. USRowing needs the expertise and help of many constituencies in trying to mend what has historically been a very dysfunctional organization, but this proposal was not a good faith effort to engage the entire membership in an effort to achieve that goal, which no one would ever argue against. If a reorganization of the Board at USRowing were to be proposed with input from all the constituencies of USRowing as opposed to a small group, I firmly believe that it would sail through with everyone working hard to make it work for everyone, especially the national team members that we all want to see supported far more than they have been by USRowing in the past several decades.

[fullmetal]

I'm curious as to by what margin the by-law revision did *not* pass...let's hope the member organizations are keeping their heads on straight.

[bendtheoar]

I'm curious as to by what margin the by-law revision did *not* pass...let's hope the member organizations are keeping their heads on straight.

Voting:

Approved: 72.753 weighted Votes 49.1 %
Do Not Approve: 75.492 weighted Votes 50.9 %

Required a 2/3 approval to pass. Former National Team athletes get a vote and each organization gets a vote. Total number of eligible voters: 1,680 Majority of which were organizations with approx. 200 athlete votes I believe. 14 percent of eligible votes were cast. Not a great involvement by the membership, which is not unusual for any USRowing voting. That's probably one of the reasons that the organization has trouble engaging with its membership, although I think it is probably incumbent on the organization to reach out and provide reasons for that engagement at times other than when there is a controversial issue being decided on.

[Long'n Strong]

Does anyone know if USRowing presented the arguments for and against the proposed changes? It's rather difficult to vote when you're not really sure what you're voting for.

[lt.wolf]

I did speak wih and ask someone from the “proposal” side to write something up and send it to me to post. I did not receive it.

From what i understand former National Team athletes are eligible to vote for 10 years after their last team.