POSTED: Sunday December 6th 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

USATF passes bylaw changes

The main principle of the newly passed changes is to clearly state where responsibility lies for business-related decision-making in the organization.

INDIANAPOLIS
- USA Track & Field passed a series of bylaw changes by voice vote
acclamation Sunday morning during the Closing General Session of the
organization’s 2009 Annual Meeting.

 

In 2008, membership passed
governance reform that primarily dealt with USATF’s Board of Directors.
As was the case last year, the main principle of the newly passed
changes is to clearly state where responsibility lies for
business-related decision-making in the organization, to decrease
potential liability for volunteers and the National Office, and to
establish clear lines of accountability.

 

Passed unanimously by
USATF’s Board of Directors during their November 18 conference call,
the approved amendments establish the primacy of the Board of Directors
as the organization’s fiduciary and the group that establishes USATF
policies; gives the CEO discretion to act, under the Board’s direction,
in the best interest of the sport, or to protect USATF from liability
or other financial risk in emergency situations; gives the CEO
authority to accept or reject meet management and officials if their
participation poses a risk to USATF; codifies an ethics committee; and
amends the process by which Team USA staffs are selected.

 

Team
staff selection changes affect Olympic, Outdoor World Championships,
and Pan American Games coaches and managers. Men’s and women’s
subcommittees will maintain qualified pools of candidates for coach and
manager positions.  The Chief of Sport Performance; the Director of
Coaching; the Chairs of the Men’s and Women’s Track and Field, Race
Walking, and Coaches Advisory Committees; the Long Distance Running
Division Chair; the Athletes Advisory Committee Chair; and an
International Athlete of opposite gender named by the Athletes Advisory
Chair will select proposed lists of coaches and managers from the pools
for background screening by the CEO and Board approval. A second
amendment enables individuals to serve as head Olympic coach or manager
more than once, if qualified and selected to do so.

 

 The
amendments also simplify the Bylaws by moving procedures from the
Bylaws to the Regulations.  The Bylaws are reserved for basic corporate
structure and principles and members’ rights.  (For example, the Bylaws
state who has the right to vote, and the Regulations state when and
where voting takes place.) The amendments also eliminate legal jargon,
to communicate in plain English.

 

USATF’s Board of Directors
previously adopted a $21 million budget, which signals a 40 percent
increase over recent years and includes five “Excellence Challenge
Grants” to go directly to proposed programs promoting competitive
excellence in the Youth, Masters, Race Walking, Long-Distance Running
and Disabled disciplines. Total grant money, which will be distributed
by USATF’s Board of Directors’ standing committees, ranges from $25,000
to $50,000 for each group.

 
For a complete summary of bylaw changes, visit http://www.usatf.org/events/2009/AnnualMeeting/Hightower3.pdf

 

 About USA Track & Field

 

USA Track
& Field (USATF) is the National Governing Body for track and field,
long-distance running and race walking in the United States. USATF
encompasses the world’s oldest organized sports, some of the
most-watched events of Olympic broadcasts, the #1 high school and
junior high school participatory sport and more than 30 million adult
runners in the United States.

 

For more information on USATF, visit www.usatf.org

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Keywords · USATF · athletics · track and field

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Name: Jill Geer
Organization: US Track and Field
Email:
Phone: +1.(317) 713-4654
URL: http://www.usatf.org/

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