Discussion: Team meeting

Anyone there? Trying to Skype in and Linda's not answering...

Checking now

Try again

No answer from here at the BOD meeting either. She called clem (via cell) an hour ago, but no word since. She is "offline" according to clem's skype.

I got in, thanks kissy!

How so?

Kris called me. Try calling Kris.

What is her handle?

krisbeecroft . It's mostly over :(

Eddie and I convened our own meeting. We agreed to a new team mascot and considered the meeting a grand success.

Was it the Big Balter?

Snoopy!

I think I saw something on the agenda about team uniforms? What was the result of that? #uniwatch

Patrick, the more urgent item is the Selection Committee has to have a meeting (email, perhaps) re under-21s on the Senior Team.

What's the issue?

The story is probably a couple decades old. Some in the Senior Team leadership are convinced that under-21s have no place on the Senior Team, some think that they are quite welcome once they are meeting the selection criteria, and the rest are somewhere in-between. At various times, one opinion triumphed over the other, usually on the side of no juniors on the (formerly Standing, now Senior) Team. At various times there were semi-official or official policies that the Selection Committee used. At present I am not aware of any, but the issue comes up regularly (aren't we fortunate that at least recently a few juniors can regularly challenge the oldfolks?) and it sounds reasonable that there should be a written policy by which the Selection Committee would be guided. Other selection criteria are already guided by written policies, e.g. the required citizenship status of Senior Team members.

Please note that this policy will concern only the (formerly Standing, now Senior) Team list, and not the WOC team.

So you might hypothetically have a young person strong enough to represent the USA at WOC but OUSA might keep them off the team, depriving them of support, coaching and other resources available to team members to improve and perform better for our country? Not seeing the logic.

The logic is that support and coaching are available through the Junior Team and there shouldn't be double-dipping. I personally disagree with this logic, somewhat strongly, but I'm not the one who makes policy decisions, only selections based on policy.

I see. So either that person stays down on the junior team. Or they join both junior and senior teams. Or they move up to the senior team and walk away from the junior team.

The person is a candidate for both WOC and JWOC teams (and maybe WUOC). I could see it being useful to participate, therefore, on both jr and sr standing teams: you get an opportunity to train with, and be in good communication with, your fellow teammates for both teams. Coaches could easily coordinate training plans and perhaps decide which coach would have lead responsibility for the athlete. It might also be a good excuse for more communication between jr and sr teams.

On the other hand, if the athlete decided to only be on the senior team (given the opportunity), that might create an opening to bring a younger junior up to the JST.

An advantage of keeping them on the junior team is that it would provide more resources for the older seniors to stay on the team and keep training at a high level. Mind you, I think at the senior level that adding another person would not be a big drain on resources, but rather add more energy. On the junior side, we've got 24 athletes on the team; there you are beginning to stretch the resources, and we've capped it approximately that number.

If it were my decision I would not legislate it, but figure out, with the athlete participating fully in the conversation, what makes the most sense for supporting that person. On a case by case basis.

And speaking of double-dipping, I have watched with some trepidation but also with pleasure Erin's participation with the senior team and the U25 or WUOC team conversations. Trepidation because there is more than enough work for him at the junior level, which is what he is contracted to do with the expectation that it is a full-time commitment. Pleasure because I know he has good ideas to contribute throughout the programs, and I do want to see his vision (eg investment toward sustainable development programs) and approach spread throughout OUSA programs. I hope that we can find other coaches and resources to serve the seniors, while keeping Erin very much in the loop as an (unpaid, unless sr team funds it) advisor. An alternative approach would be to split Erin's time, and use half the donation for junior coaching to hire another part-time junior coach.

Also: any senior team members interested in attending the CT or NY training camps the next two weekends? Becky Carlyle & Erin Schirm coaching. Would be great to have you.

figure out, with the athlete participating fully in the conversation

This indeed sounds like the best approach, but this hasn't been the way athletes have been nominated to the Senior Team. The proposal at the Team Meeting was to have athletes apply (actively) rather than be selected (passively). I'm not sure this change will be in effect for 2014, actually I'm not sure after the meeting what the status of this proposal is.