JUNE 11, 2005

The meeting was called to order by Tomek Amborski at 4:00 PM at GGFC.

ATTENDENCE:
     Tomek Amborski – Chair
     Elizabeth Earls – Vice Chair
     Glenn Willette – Treasurer
     Anna Estrada – Secretary
     Frances Lee – Halberstadt
     Jane Meinhardt – M-Team
     Mike Pederson – GGFC
     Maureen Griffin – Kids on the Fence

The first order of business was the election of seven delegates to represent the Northern California Division at the USFA Congress to be held at Summer Nationals on July 2^nd at 7:30 am at the host hotel. Jane Meinhardt, Elizabeth Earls, Robert Cotter, and Glenn Willette were nominated, the nominations voted on. All were approved by a unanimous vote. Additional nominations will be solicited over the remainder of the weekend, and will be voted on via e-mail by those people in attendance at this meeting on Monday. This will enable our chair to notify the USFA of who our delegates will be.

The second order of business was a discussion of the division qualifiers for national tournaments. There have been problems at previous tournaments that could have put the validity of our qualifying tournament at risk. The possibility of the division qualifiers being run by the division was iscussed. Either the executive committee would run these tournaments, or appoint a tournament committee. A rental fee would be paid to the hosting club, but the division would be responsible for registration, checking eligibility, and immediate reporting of results to USFA. We will ask the member clubs to consider this proposal and forward their input. The matter will be voted on at the annual meeting.

The next order of business was the election of next year’s division officers. Our bylaws require that a nominating committee be formed. A motion was made that the nominating committee consist of the club representatives. The motion was seconded and passed. Clubs will e-mail the Secretary ( \n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it "> This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) and confirm the identity of their club rep, as well as that person’s e-mail address. All nominations should be submitted to the secretary, and they will be posted on the division web sit as they come in. Nominated individuals must be present at the annual meeting in order to be elected.

USFA bylaws require that the new officers be installed by August 1, 2005. There was general agreement that the meeting should occur after Summer Nationals. A motion was made that the annual meeting be held Saturday, July 16^th at 4:00 pm. The motion was seconded and passed.

Discussion of location concluded that San Francisco was the most central location for our division. Because no one was able to contact Halberstadt FC to confirm the availability of their club for the meeting, a motion was made that the meeting take place at GGFC. The motion was seconded and passed.

The fact that the USFA Youth Development Committee has changed the composition of the youth regions was brought up for discussion. There are now 12 regions. Our region will be composed of the Northern California, Central California, and Mountain Valley divisions. At some point the USFA is going to ask these three divisions submit names of possible candidates for the position of Regional Youth Coordinator to the Youth Development Committee chair, Kelly Williams. The job description for this position is posted on the RYC link on the USFA webpage.

Finally, there was a discussion of the Bay Cup. The number of events in particular was discussed. It is difficult to find a free weekend for the division to schedule another event. Also, there are fencers that are eligible to fence in several categories, and with there being six events in each category, the end result is fencers competing almost every weekend, or competing several events in one day. For coaches, there is the desire to balance competition with training, and sometimes for young fencers and/or their parents, it is a challenge to educate them about the importance of skipping a Bay Cup.

It was noted the Bay Cup schedule for this year has already been posted and has actually expanded. This trend is likely to continue because of the economic rewards for the clubs associated with hosting these events. It was also brought up that the initial intent of the Bay Cup was to provide competitive opportunities for developing fencers, and that as fencers became stronger they would leave the Bay Cup.

The conclusion was that it is up to the individual clubs to start thinking about what the purpose of competition is in their training plan. Parents and fencers must be educated about the balance of training, competition, and recovery in the development of the complete fencer. Consideration should be given to the possibility that as fencers are fencing more national, regional, and perhaps international competitions, they should consider leaving the Bay Cup, or at the least making it a secondary focus.

The discussion turned to the possibility of the division holding tournaments on top of the Bay Cup schedule (i.e. schedule an epee event the same weekend of a Bay Cup foil event. Elite Musketeers did this successfully this season.

Motion was made to adjourn the meeting at 5:33 PM. The motion was seconded and passed.