AGM8

Minutes of the 1998 USOF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The 1998 Annual General meeting of the United States Orienteering Federation was held at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio on June 25, 1998. It was organized by the Miami Valley Orienteering Club and OCIN.

AGENDA OF THE USOF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

1. Opening of the convention.

2. Approval of the agenda.

3. Report by the Credentials Committee.

4. Election of two certifiers of the minutes.

5. Motion to dispense with the reading of the minutes of the previous annual Convention and any Federation Referendums.

6. Reports from the Auditor and treasurer.

7. Budget for the next financial period.

8. Election of Officers and at-Large Board members.

9. Report of the President.

10. Reports of the Vice Presidents.

11. Proposals from committees and the Board of Directors.

12. Proposals from member clubs.

13. Questions related to the Constitution and Bylaws.

14. Questions related to the competition rules.

15. Questions related to competition meets both national and international.

16. Questions related to USOF publications.

17. Questions related to the membership situation.

18. Questions related to membership fees and other financial matters.

19. Any other business.

20. Closing of the convention and announcements.

MINUTES

ITEM 1. Opening the convention

The 1998 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the United States Orienteering Federation (USOF) was called to order on June 25, 1998 at 9:00a.m. by Gary Kraght (Gary), President.

ITEM 2. Approval of agenda.

ITEM 3. Report by the Credentials Committee.

Paul Regan presented the Report from the Credentials Committee. There were thirty-one clubs representing one thousand two hundred eighty-five votes, which met the 10% quorum.

ITEM 4. Election of two certifiers of the minutes.

Two certifiers were elected: Karen Rogers and Walter Siegenthaler.

ITEM 5. Motion to dispense with the reading of the minutes of the previous Annual Convention and any Federation Referendums.

A motion from the floor was made to accept item 5 as published. The motion passed. Minutes of the 1997 AGM are available from Robin Shannonhouse, Ex. Dir.

ITEM 6. Reports from the Treasurer and the Auditor.

Catherine Yekenevicz was absent and Gary Kraght, President, gave a report for her. The auditor found that the books were in order. Additional information: VWC is closing its books now and expects to have a final profit around $4000. They still have equipment to be sold especially stands and souvenirs. Gary will follow up and get a list published of what is still available through Jeremy Denny who is coordinating the wrap-up.

The Treasurer’s Report followed, given by Robin Shannonhouse. (Please contact Robin if you need a copy of the report and didn’t get one at the convention.) Questions and answers followed:

a. There were more clarifications of the VWC souvenirs, etc ($12,000—T-shirts, sweatshirts, control signs…)

Page 2, AGM98

b. “Office support” was defined as the money paid to Robin each month to meet the expenses of running the USOF office such as copier, telephone, computer, mailings, etc.

c. The money coming to USOF from VWC came in part from sanctioning fees for the “Warm-up” event and from the separate event that was held concurrently with the VWC.

d. Map loan money is kept well circulated by Tom Strat, who keeps close tabs on it. One loan out recently is to ROC to make map for the US Champs scheduled there in October.

e. David Irving strongly suggested that any profits from the sale of Teaching Orienteering be reserved to the reprint the book when that becomes necessary. Karl Kolva responded that any profit is to go to O in the Schools. David responded that a reprint fund should be established before any proceeds are considered profits. About 2500 out of the 4000 printed have been sold or distributed.

f. There were O/NA bills outstanding when the year-end report was prepared.

g. Mike Minium suggested that we will need to generate more funds into Program Development in the coming year.

The report was unanimously accepted.

ITEM 7. Budget for the next financial period

The budget was not available in time for the meeting but can be expected to be presented at the next Board meeting.

ITEM 8. Election of Officers and at-Large Board members.

Frank Kuhn, Nominating Committee Chair, presented a slate of candidates after he announced the new representatives from the Southeast (Frank Campbell and Alt. John Farley) and the Midwest (Tom Murphy, and Alt. Ken Lapin)

J.J. Cote nominated Eric Bone from the floor to run for Vice-President, Competition. After that, Eric withdrew from the At-Large contest.

The nominations were closed by a unanimous vote. The slate was: Frank Kuhn for VP Admin., Michael Schneiderman for VP Club Services, Eric Bone and Robert Buraczynski for VP Competition, Liz Kotowski for VP Mark/PR, Nancy Koehler for A/L Comp, Barb Sleight and Laurie Searle for At-Large.

Karen Dennis, Caroline Ringo, and Paul Regan were appointed to count the votes, which were made by paper ballot.

The newly elected officers and At-Large Board members are:

Michael Schneiderman, USOF VP Club Services

Frank Kuhn, USOF VP Administration

Eric Bone, USOF VP Competition

Liz Kotowski, VP Marketing and Public Relations

Nancy Koehler, USOF Board At-Large, Competition Rep

Laurie Searle, USOF Board Member, At-Large

A motion was made and seconded to destroy the ballots. It passed 1268 votes to 17.

ITEM 9. Report of the President

a. We can congratulate ourselves and be proud of how we did on putting on the VWC.

b. Club memberships have grown about 2%. Monterey Bay Orienteering Club is newly chartered. The Midwest Region is up 16%. Individual clubs have shown growth in many areas. The Pacific region has not grown in spite of chartering a new club.

c. A slide presentation on the Long-Range Plan completed the President’s report.

ITEM 10. Reports of the Vice Presidents

Mike Minium gave his report for Program Development.

1. The Board approved a new National Championship, the US Junior Team Championship (including the JROTC, High School, and Middle School divisions)

2. There are prospects for new clubs in several regions, especially FLA, VA, and OR.

3. A new club start-up model was applied to start a new club in Indianapolis, which hopes to be chartered soon.

4. The promotional brochure is doing well. 20,000 were printed and distributed to clubs at a subsidized rate in two and a half months. 20,000 more were printed and have been sold at cost. Mike is looking for sources of funding to print and subsidize up to 100,000 more. We need a head of the Youth Committee. We may be able to get Junior Team T-shirts out to clubs to sell. Our liaison position with Sons of Norway is open and needs to be filled.

Michael Schneiderman gave his report for Administration.

1. The map fund and fund raising committees are active.

2. The USOF insurance files have been reconstructed. Mountain bike-O and Night-O are covered by our insurance.

3. The Rules committee is under the strong leadership of Steve Shannonhouse. They have a two-year project underway to bring the rulebook up to date.

Secretary Betsy Hawes reported that the Grievance and Convention committees have been active. The by-laws committee has not been called on much in the past year.

Robert Buraczynski gave his report for Competition.

1. Sanctioning is active under Ed Scott. It helps to get information to him as soon as possible.

2. Piras deClair has been working to get more course consultants, but it is proving hard to find them.

3. Event consultants are being assigned by Paul Regan.

4. The ski-O fund administrator has worked with Mitch and Robin to get funds available to the team on time.

5. Bill Cusworth was called on to explain why the rankings are delayed. It seems to have been a combination of computer program glitches and lack of personal time for Bill to spend on the project. He hopes to have them posted by the 4^th of July weekend.

ITEM 11: Proposals from committees and the Board of Directors.

No proposals were submitted.

ITEM 12: Proposals from member clubs.

Sharon Bond presented a proposal from the Miami Valley Orienteering Club that was directed at opening the Board Net to interested USOF members. There was extensive discussion and rewording of the motion. Straw polls were taken of those present with a solid majority favoring such a change. After that the motion was withdrawn and the matter referred to the Board.

ITEM 13: Questions related to By-laws.

No questions were asked.

ITEM 14: Questions related to the competition rules.

No question were asked.

ITEM 15: Questions related to competition meets both national and international.

Does the Long-Range Plan contemplate any major competitions in the USA over the next 10 years? The Plan is not complete at this time, so the question can not be answered.

ITEM 16: Questions related to USOF publications.

Karen Dennis asked if USOF general information like the by-laws, A-meet guidelines, and forms could be put on the Internet in a downloadable form. Tom Kopp added that sample press releases would also be a help in that form.

Barb Sleight asked if the USOF Binder is still binding. Robin replied that it is a basic collection of all we have that is written down. It was done in 1986 and needs to be updated before reprinting. The current work on the rules will lead to that. It seems a good suggestion to get the information downloadable or available on a disk.

Mary Frank asked for information on what clubs are using for publicity. She wants to put together information for new clubs.

ITEM 17: Question related to the membership situation.

No questions were asked.

ITEM 18: Questions related to membership fees and other financial matters.

No questions were asked.

ITEM 19: Any other business:

President Gary Kraght presented the President’s Awards. The awardees were

Next, Gary presented the Silva Award to Catherine Yekonevitch.

ITEM 20: Announcements and closing of the Convention.

1. Jack Williams announced that next year’s convention will be held in the last week of June by DVOA. 7 days of A-meets are planned during 9 days as well as many family vacation activities and workshops.

2. Rick Hood announced a program of training at the Georgia Navigator Cup in January. Many activities are planned for Monday of that weekend.

4. Mike Minium gave thanks to all who produced the convention this year.

5. The meeting was adjourned at 12:22p.m.