In Attendance: Board members Bill Zack, Kris Sanford, Jane LaRiviere, Susan Parkman, Tessa Spillane, Steve Pritzker, Liz O’Leary, Lori Dauphiny, Robbie Tenenbaum, Martin Stone (speaker phone) and guests Mark Bedics (NCAA staff) and Marshall Foley (chair of the NCAA Rowing Committee, speaker phone)
Committee Reports
Treasurer’s Report – Jane LaRiviere
Business Savings – $14, 525
Checking – $24,829.63
Board members should submit receipts to Jane for an up to $400 reimbursement for travel to convention.
Championship Committee Report – Robbie Tenenbaum
Robbie asked for any issues involving DII/III since there has been so much focus on DI. Tessa and Susan said no. Robbie reported that DI survey sent out by NCAA rowing committee got a 100% response. Thanks to Robbie for calling folks who were getting close to deadline.
Legislative Review Committee Report – Bill Zack
The new NCAA legislation regarding foreign tours will not be applied during the summer so our sport should not be impacted.
Membership Committee – Tessa Spillane
Currently there are 276 total members who have paid. There are 12 programs from last year who have not renewed. Tessa will follow up by phone next week.
Awards – Kris Sanford/Tessa Spillane
Nothing to report
Nominating Committee – Will Porter
Nothing to report
Lightweight Committee – Lori Dauphiny
Lightweights will have to pay full IRA fee. Fee is per school.
4 lightweight programs have expressed interest in going to the US Rowing collegiate championships prior to the IRA to row small boats.
Coaches Poll Report – Jane LaRiviere
Discussion centered around whether we should rank all NCAA events and/or do a team rank. Jane and Steve asked 25 pollsters their opinion. They received 19 responses back. 10 said yes, 6 said no.
Questions/comments:
There is a concern of accuracy, particularly for the 4 – could we do a one year unpublished trial run?
It is a lot more work – can different coaches rank different boats?
Can there be extra time to get it done instead of the Monday after racing?
Is it possible to rank first 8s on normal schedule and other boats later in season?
Since we are a team sport, should we do a team ranking?
Should there be different weight given to the different boats going toward the team ranking?
Could coaches rank the 3 boats, send to the chair who then puts the info into a computer system that comes up with team rank?
There was a question to Mark Bedics regarding how much the poll affected the committee rankings and he said not at all. It is for publicity purposes only.
How does this affect DII/III?
Resolution – Head of committee will come up with recommendation for all divisions.
Coaches Education – Report given by Martin Stone
Conference will be hosted by Mark Rothstein at University of Michigan at a date TBD.
Hall of Fame – Liz O’Leary
There have been 4 nominations for this years Hall of Fame. 3 are current coaches. Liz is going to establish guidelines for the selection to help guide the process more. She will have a recommendation to the board by January 1 as the general consensus from the board is that current coaches should not be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Liz asked for board approval of inducting Nat Case for this year. Board is going to discuss prior to the membership meeting tomorrow.
Election of 2010 Officers:
President – Bill Zack
VP/Treasurer – Jane LaRiviere
Secretary – Martin Stone
Championship – Robbie Tenenbaum
Legislative Review – Bill Zack
Membership – Tessa Spillane
Awards – Tessa Spillane/Kris Sanford
Nominating – Will Porter
Lightweight – Lori Dauphiny
Coaches Poll – Steve Pritzker
Coaching Education – Mark Rothstein
Hall of Fame – Liz O’Leary
Other Business:
Mark Bedics asked about viability of Worcester as a future NCAA site. Board asked rowing committee to check into wind issues at the end of May. Consensus was it was a very good site except for when the wind made the course unfair and lane changes had to be made. Question arose as to how flexible the NCAA would be to adjusting schedule to accommodate wind issues.
Bill Zack – Asked Mark and Marshall about the process of the current recommendations going though the cabinet so that the board can educate the membership to everything that is coming up.
Mark’s response is that the committee is meeting via telephone conference on Tuesday to come up with recommendations for individual awards being reinstated and how play-ins will work. The recommendations will go to the cabinet in February. They will look at survey results.
Questions for Mark /Marshall:
Kris – Can 2011 decision for AQ be reversed? Mark – not for many years unless the cabinet is presented with new information. Cabinet will either go with committee recommendation for play-ins or come up with something on their own. They usually go with committee as the idea is that they are the experts.
The first year there may need to be a play in is 2012.
Liz – How much will Rowing committee take into consideration survey results? Marshall – they will look at it but how each member chooses to use it is up to them.
Jane – Why were there 3 restrictions listed in #3 of survey? Mark – That came directly from the CRCA board / rowing committee working group. No other sports have restrictions.
Steve – Is it appropriate to wait to put AQs forward until we have better consensus? Mark/Marshall – many conferences have been waiting for many years to get this done and do not want to wait any longer.
Jane – What is position of Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference? How many teams will be able to field full teams? Marshall – The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference is for AQs and the play-ins provide an opportunity to make the championships. Coaches are willing to be put at a disadvantage at the championship (play-in on Thursday) if given the opportunity to go. Currently there are 5 teams in the Metro that field full teams – he is not sure of the 6th (Drake) as they just were added. But all six will field full teams in spring 2010.
Bill – Are there other consequences of AQs and being a team sport that we do not know about? Marshall/Mark – they do not think so.
Lori – Since all but 5 people voted to reinstate awards, will committee agree to push forward with this recommendation from the coaches? Marshall – There is a possibility. He was taken by surprise by awards being taken away. It is important to the NCAA to have consistency in how they handle sports.
Other comments:
Lori – People did not know that AQs required play-ins.
Robbie – People responding to survey with no answers is basically taking it out of our hands and telling them to come up with the solution themselves.
Mark – Has not been part of a sport that is so split.
Lori – By setting standards at conference level we would grow the sport.
Marshall – Why wouldn’t coaches want to row boats they will be racing at conference all year as it will give them a better chance of making the NCAAs?
Robbie/Bill/Kris – The philosophy of NCAA is opportunity for all to make the championships which is not the same as the top 16 teams being selected.
Liz- A play in the day before is not fair.
Marshall – The short term goal would be to make your team fast enough so you are not one of the play-in teams. Further down the road, the committee could re – look at the current play in system and change it if they saw fit.
Bill – How do people get their opinions out to the committee before the conference call?
Mark/Marshall – call committee members. Play-ins are a done deal. When the play-in occurs is what is up for discussion.
Robbie will set up a time for membership to meet with committee members here to voice opinions outside of membership meeting.
Other NCAA news:
Selection show will take place in 2010.
Line-up forms will be collected earlier at championships so athlete names can be up on screen.
Hotels will have 3PM check out on Sunday.
Meeting was adjourned at 8:30PM.
Respectfully submitted by Kris Sanford