Post-Congress Action Items

Since the USSA Congress, things have moved into action-item mode. The meetings were a great way share ideas and identify ways to take our sport forward, but all the talking and planning is for not without executing these ideas and seeing if they produce results.

Specifically, I have been focused on a couple of things. Last Friday, I spoke with Lynn Dorsey Bleil, the senior partner at McKinsey & Company tasked with carrying out The Report, for about an hour about the study and the task force charged with implementing the recommendations. I reiterated that, as the athlete rep, I didn't agree with the number of athletes that were sampled in relation to the other perspectives, but that any report which identified a need to focus more on the clubs and the end-user was a good one. Lynn was receptive to my comments and was very helpful explaining the process they used to reach the athlete's thoughts, and assured me that while the number of athletes could have been larger, that the quality of the input they received was substantial. We agreed to work together going forward in order to provide targeted feedback for future projects and initiatives.

I am seeking out specific January European races as they get put on the 2014 winter competition schedule, in order to submit them for an expanded quota request. Of course ze Germans have their entire schedule out, but other countries are lacking (let's go AUT and ITA!). January is a time of year when the USA international race quota of 10 spots per race are constantly oversubscribed. With the priority that the USST, USST D-Team, and now sponsored regional projects and USSA Academy members have to these spots, an American skier not on the Team or involved in these projects has even less of a chance to showcase his or her talents abroad.

Finally, I am working with Chip Knight, Dartmouth coach and the USOC athlete rep to the USSA Board of Directors and incidentally my former coach, on the particulars of a collegiate-USST relationship for the next spring and summer. Also, he was able to communicate some details from the EISA meeting, held last week, in which the issues of the Eastern NCAA collegiate circuit were discussed, specifically the "host obligations" agreement for holding a carnival and the preparation of the hill. As the collegiate circuit penalty and quality of field gets better and better, it is increasingly important the conditions and quality of race continue to evolve as well. There isn't a lot of opposition to this idea, but cost constraints of hosting these events and negotiating with the host sites will require some creative thinking to solve these issues.

There has been some interest in filling out positions as athlete reps on the regional boards, and I continue for people to reach out to me (charleschristianson@gmail.com) with any questions about the role and what it would mean. I have gotten a lot of positive response from other members at the Congress about the renewed engagement of all the athlete reps recently. I have no base to compare from, but this opportunity to further affect policy is an opportunity that we should not pass up.

Whether you're on a glacier or a lake, enjoy the summer!