Validity of US Rowing Elections

[crewu]

Guessing from Sean Colgan's letter that Glen Merry's lack of interest in catching the perp might cost USRowing/NRF an established donor.

http://www.colganfoundation.org/about-cff/

[caustic]

Wow. USR has officially become the biggest $h!t-show in US athletics. Good work dumbfucks. Lifetime ban for the whistleblower? If I were him (assuming that he's not the guilty party, but if USRowing isn't accusing him of anything, I'd be willing to believe he's innocent), I'd be putting up one hell of a fight and throwing out an absolutely massive lawsuit. If I were still a paying USR member (I got tired of the bullshit years ago, now I kinda feel like a rat that hopped off the ship early), I would *definitely* be exploring litigiation regarding violation of member by-laws (the USR governing board, being members, are also required to abide by that), not to mention possible breach of contract litigation (you enter into a contract when you pay membership dues). If one election is suspect, *all* elections are suspect. all elections should be voided and a new special election, with a third party monitor to govern the rules, be enacted. ASAP.


Simply put, if USR is not investigating the actively pursuing the guilty parties and working to make the system transparent, they are part of the problem. At this point, if donors are pulling away from USR, logically the next step would be to create a competing national organization and have it recognized by those donors, and over the period of a few years it will likely eclipse USR and be recognized by the USOC at that point as the new national governing body. Strangely, there's a fair amount of precedent like this in United Stated Rowing History.

[completeIgnorance]

About the Colgan family support of rowing. It would simply suck if they pulled their support of USRowing, but there is quite an awesome program in Philly that could greatly benefit from their generosity......PCR!!! I hope they continue to keep up the local efforts.

[wowwee]

Wow. USR has officially become the biggest $h!t-show in US athletics. Good work dumbfucks. Lifetime ban for the whistleblower? If I were him (assuming that he's not the guilty party, but if USRowing isn't accusing him of anything, I'd be willing to believe he's innocent), I'd be putting up one hell of a fight and throwing out an absolutely massive lawsuit. If I were still a paying USR member (I got tired of the bullshit years ago, now I kinda feel like a rat that hopped off the ship early), I would *definitely* be exploring litigiation regarding violation of member by-laws (the USR governing board, being members, are also required to abide by that), not to mention possible breach of contract litigation (you enter into a contract when you pay membership dues). If one election is suspect, *all* elections are suspect. all elections should be voided and a new special election, with a third party monitor to govern the rules, be enacted. ASAP.


Simply put, if USR is not investigating the actively pursuing the guilty parties and working to make the system transparent, they are part of the problem. At this point, if donors are pulling away from USR, logically the next step would be to create a competing national organization and have it recognized by those donors, and over the period of a few years it will likely eclipse USR and be recognized by the USOC at that point as the new national governing body. Strangely, there's a fair amount of precedent like this in United Stated Rowing History.

FYI - The by-laws and "CEO Policy Manual" were updated in mid-October. http://www.usrowing.org/About/Governance.aspx
Also, the minutes of the September board meeting have not been posted, which likely would have discussed these changes.

[wowwee]

I hope everyone gets out and vote. No complaining unless you vote.

As an "individual member" of USRowing, you have the ability to vote for only 2 positions on the Board of Directors - the Male and Female Vice Chair. The "power" group who has the most votes for the BOD are the "Organizational Members" - they have the ability to vote for 6 positions. Current and former athletes have the ability to vote for 4 positions and the BOD "appoints" 2 at large Directors. As the BOD runs the show (committees have little power to change organization), the ability to change organization is VERY difficult. Voter apathy is rampant amongst both "individual members" and "organizational members". Less than 1% of individual members even vote, and but for the "sham Mid-Atlantic" election, "organizational members" hardly vote. The best "voting block" is amongst current/former athletes! They vote in higher percentages than any other group...by alot!

Absolutely no disrespect to individuals meant at all by the following, rather just an illustration of how voting impacts BOD.....the last 2 Board Chairs were elected to the Board in uncontested elections and received 8 votes each. So, 16 club (organizational members) elected board members who became the Chair.

Does your club vote? Do you know who they vote? Most clubs I know of DO NOT vote, don't know they can vote, and if they do vote, there is no real process to determine how they vote.

Apathy is the problem and keeps all incompetent organizations incompetent.

[lt.wolf]

FROM NOT of the year
Posted by
rowing » 10 Dec 2013 05:27 pm

Not - The US Rowing elections scandal, I urge you all not to vote for any of the incumbents. This scandal draws ill will of all associated with US Rowing. The administration , the BOD and Glen Merry are guilty under the flag of US Rowing - with no back bone to voice a fair and equal system.

[wowwee]

From another post, it seems there was some sort of "explanation" provided at the convention??

Was this a one on one conversation or an explanation to the assembled crowd? Anyone have some specifics?

How is there no one that can post the details to call-out the guilty party(s) of this craziness?

[Sherman]

US Rowing convention explanation

No proactive explanation was given at the convention. Glenn Merry touched briefly on the fact that the MidAtlantic election was being rerun because fraudulent votes had been cast and nothing more. After he was done, he was asked whether or not usra staff or the board had administration access during the 2013 election. He turned things over to Chris Liwski, who is the lawyer for the Board. He confirmed that Election Administration credentials were available for 2013 (and, yeah, they've been available to staff and I guess anyone who they hand them out to in ALL of the previous year's elections). Want to know what kind of "insights" or access that gives people ???? From VoteNet's site, it says it gives all of the voters emails, their usernames, their passwords, whether they've voted. Oh, and also the ability to cast votes. You do the math.

[crewu]

Why are they covering up who did this?

[rowing]

Why? Because we have to ask ourselves, how long they have been doing this?

[Long'n Strong]

But I have to ask: Why would they do anything untoward? What's to be gained? There's no money to be made from rigging the elections, and the power/ego trip has to be pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

[wowwee]

But I have to ask: Why would they do anything untoward? What's to be gained? There's no money to be made from rigging the elections, and the power/ego trip has to be pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

They? Certainly depends on who "they" is, ie USR staff or board. If you're the CEO, or a staff member hired by/supported by the CEO, your incentive is your job and your salary. If your professional life has been defined by being part of USRowing (and there are a few, including the CEO), there's plenty to be gained by rigging the elections.

As to board members, I'd agree there's not much financial incentive, but power/ego trip is different for everybody. It was rather clear that the CEO's job was in jeopardy well prior to the "rigged" election. I'd suspect his hiring of Curtis Jordan helped deflect and change some board members minds, but if not, getting folks on the board who support you wouldn't hurt either. (The hiring of Jordan has certainly proven to be a great move)

I think there's plenty to be gained (financially and power/ego wise) to provide enough incentive for someone to "rig" an election. I guess what surprises and disappoints me the most is that regardless of your feelings re: any staff member or any board member, there don't seem to be enough board members who recognize that this election fiasco is BAD for USRowing in the short and long run, and if they're looking out for the best interests of the organization, they should be demanding a full accounting of this whole mess.

[lt.wolf]

Quick note - This matter has been turned over to the PA authorities for criminal processing.

[yeahbuddy]

blarney! here come the coppers. would you ever think someone would end up in the stockade?

[wowwee]

Quick note - This matter has been turned over to the PA authorities for criminal processing.

Minutes from December BOD meeting reflect a vote by the board to do so. Also, you'll note the board voted unanimously to keep the CEO.

http://usrowing.org/Libraries/Governanc ... .sflb.ashx