I went to the LDR slate selection meeting last week. I
was disappointed that nothing was posted about the meeting (other than – “Slate
selection meeting to be announced”). I had to track down the where and when of
the meeting which by LDR rules is open to the membership. Since the lack of
communication from USATF NE to the membership was a bone of contention last
year, I’d hoped for better this year. Appearance is everything and this (right
or wrong) gives the appearance of USATF doing whatever it pleases. If you were
on the short-list you got an email invitation to the meeting if not the only way
you would know about the meeting is if you contacted the USATF NE president and
LDR reps. I did so and got to see the inner workings of the LDR
committee.
The short of it was that the meeting itself was productive
with the committee finally adopting a somewhat “open” voting for the Grand Prix
races. This is a huge improvement over the secretly created slates which often
lumped a race you might want in with others you didn’t. Now with very little
restriction we (the members of USATF) will be able to vote on what races we
think are the best to be designated USATF NE championships.
It will be quite interesting to see how this works. It
was refreshing to see LDR willing to move forward on this. My hope now is that
communication and transparency are improved on over the next
year.
I’ll be posting the link to the voting as soon as it
becomes available.
If you are more interested in the “long” of it, here are
my notes from the meeting.
In attendance:
Lisa Doucett – LDR & CSU
Jen Mortimer – MIL
Jan Homquist – LAC
Rick Stetson –
Gordon MacFarland – CSU
Dave Dunham – CMS
Jason Ayr – WMDP
Nico Naranyo – WMDP
Skip Cleaver – GCS
Amanda Wight – Sisu
Dave Kazanjian – WRT
Anna Jean – NSS
Mike Pelletier – NSS
Steph – Sisu
Caityln Germain – Sisu
Chris Spinney – WRT
Tom Derderian – President & GBTC
Jim Garcia – LDR & GLRR
John Barbour – LDR & GLRR
Lisa chaired the meeting. Opened stating the purpose was
to go through the calendar and the races by date and take into consideration
other races, series, traditional dates. Jen Mortimer (Athletes Rep) had a
handout based on feedback she had received on slates. Her idea was to do away
with the slates to better have the series conform to the wants of the people.
She set up groups of races by distance and offered restrictions based on how
close a selected race was to any other races (example: if you picked a marathon
you could not pick another race within 20 days before or after that
marathon).
Lisa noted that the goals was to produce a series that had
geographic distribution along with varying distances and taking into account the
calendar of other events.
Gordon noted that the group was selected and as such
delegated by the clubs to create slates. Noted that last year there were a
number of slates and felt we should have four this year. He also suggested that
the ½ marathon be a category unto itself as ½ marathons have experience
exponential growth in recent years.
Lisa suggested possible modifications to the GP. Then
moved on to selecting races, she stated that having “open” voting leads to a
popularity contest. I stated that there is nothing wrong with that! Jim and
Caitlyn argued the merits of slates versus open voting. Including who’s best
interest are we looking out for…the athletes or the races. Lisa noted a
hesitancy of athletes to select new races as opposed to ones they are familiar
with.
Skip Cleaver went on to suggest having three slates this
year. Caitlyn and others again asked why we weren’t considering Jen’s idea.
Dave K noted that there would be the possibility of conflicts if the voting were
done via Jen’s suggestion. Others noted this could be dealt with by the
committee after. Garcia noted the history of going to a committee over opeing
it up to the masses and that voting for each race may create an inherent
series. Dave again stressed that conflicts could be created using open voting.
Spinney noted that there were enough club reps present that a “straw poll” could
be done using Jen’s format and we could see how that turned out.
While working on the votes, I noted that the mile was
removed and was told that it had been decided at another meeting that bids under
5k would not be considered for the Grand Prix.
Tom D discussed some new ideas he had for other LDR
activities and possible changes to the GP.
Those present used Jen’s suggested form and voted as
follows:
Marathon – VT (9), MCM (2) ½ marathon – NB (8), NE
(2), Middlebury (1) 5k – Hollis (7), ARM (3)
10k – LG (8), Canton (2), Newton (1) 5m – Doyle
(6), Rib (5)
Other: GMAA (6), Amherst (6), Bedford (3), Nahant (3),
Seasons (1)
Side note: discussion about liaisons at the races. The
question was raised regarding USATF ensuring quality control at GP races.
Garcia noted that there is a check list for the liaison and there should be
liaisons at each GP race (this was not the case for a number of races in 2014).
Jason noted USATF should be vetting the race and needs a better plan for what
USATF will do, using the fiasco at the marathon as an example. Tom noted that
we can’t work this out at the GP slate meeting and suggested that this be
discussed further at a later date.
Dave K noted that he worked out a slate based solely on
the dates and came up with one similar to what the poll came up with. He also
noted that a spring marathon opens up the fall for teams to focus on
cross-country.
A proposal was made that USATF could put on its own 5k. I
noted that Hollis was one of the most popular (based on the number of USATF
members who ran) races when it was in the GP 2 years ago. There was much
discussion about adding a USATF managed 5k.
Spinney noted that our poll came up with a reasonable
slate and stressed that we should just allow the membership to vote using Jen’s
suggested sheet.
Pelletier noted that our poll may be misleading and not
necessarily the interest of the membership as we all have our own prejudices
(and a number of people in the room had been specifically harmed by races that
have bid).
Spinney again noted that Jen’s suggestion could be used
and slates would not be needed. Possibly adding a disclaimer that should races
be selected that are in conflict the committee would meet to resolve those
conflicts.
Gordon talked about how we always have certain races (such
as New Bedford) and perhaps we should have limits. The pro’s and con’s of
having limits was discussed with no decision.
Lisa also discussed the idea of having a “1/2’s of New
England” a three-race series of the ½ marathons that had bid.
Amanda and Jen discussed using Jen’s proposal for
voting.
Jan Holmquist went over four possible slates she had
created, based on geography, calendar, etc.
More general discussion on using Jen’s proposal.
Suggestions on how to modify the sheet to allow it to function in Survey
Monkey. Caitlyn suggested the rules be clearly stated, exactly what will happen
and when. Also, what will be done if a conflict arises.
Spinney asked what would be done in the event of a tie
(unlikely) and I asked whether a majority was need for a race to win (no, a
plurality would be enough).
Decision was made to go with Jen’s suggestion.
Lisa will send out information along with the link. This will be located on the
GP page at USATF. The link will also be out on various social media
sites.
Meeting closed.
