PA/USATF LDR Committee Meeting Minutes for December 11, 2005
Submitted by Linda M. Hall

Members in attendance were: Tyler Abbott (NB Excelsior, men's chair), Pontus Ahlstrom (West Valley Track Club), Tom Bernhard (NB Excelsior, road scorer), Tony Coffey (Aggies), Linda M. Hall (Buffalo Chips), Tara Hillier (Impala), Katy Hollbacher (Adidas Transport), Don Porteous (Tamalpa, xc co-chair), Dan Preston (Empire, xc scorer), Dennis Scott (Buffalo Chips), Lloyd Stephenson (NB Excelsior, masters chair), Nelda Williams (Impalas), Mark Winitz (WVJS).

The meeting was called to order near the finish line following the Christmas Relays at Lake Merced, San Francisco at 11:10 am by Committee Chair Tyler Abbott.

The minutes from the previous meeting (on 9/18/2005) following the Jamba Juice 5k race in September were unanimously approved.

SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS:
Ultra: No report.

Cross Country: No report

Sponsorship/Fundraising: No report.

VOLUNTEERS: No report.

LDR BANQUET: Banquet planning is on track for Saturday February 11. It will be held at the Chieftain in San Francisco at 5th and Howard. The price will be about $30 per person. The food is Eurasian fusion. A large screen will be available for race videos and slides. Notices will be sent out at the beginning of 2006.

RULE CHANGES Proposal: Increase cross country prize money: (Stephenson) Lloyd Stephenson proposed changing Cross Country Rule #7 to increase the minimum prize funds to $2000 for the Championship and to keep all other races at $1500. Following an extensive discussion about entry fees, points and prize money, Stephenson withdrew the motion.

Scoresheet Integrity (Preston): Dan Preston discussed the ongoing problems with score sheet submissions, the lack of a grace period for submissions, drop down scoring, and continuing numerous appeals. Specifically, there have at this point been many documented examples of submitted scoresheets never ariving at the destination, which has made for a high level of appeals.

Proposal: Online scoring listing. Abbott proposed allowing the scorers to maintain an online yes/no type listing to show what teams have submitted scoresheets. Following discussion, this motion was seconded and approved by unanimous vote.
Scoring Grace Period: Preston proposed a two business day grace period for submitting results, after friendly amendments. During this time only automatic dropping down will be allowed, exact language to be determined by the chairs (see Appendix A). This motion was seconded and unanimously approved.

NEW BUSINESS:
2006 Road Grand Prix Schedule: Several changes in the 2006 Road Race Grand Prix were discussed. LSI Logic Race originally slated as a 5K in April has dropped out. This has opened up a slot in the series. A new bid was submitted by the Buffalo Chips for the Susan B. Anthony women�s only 5k race to be held in Sacramento on August 12. It would be a double point race for women only with $2600 prize money. It was moved and seconded to add this race to the Grand Prix series. The vote was: 12 in favor, 1 opposed, 1 abstention. Thus, the motion passed.

The Applied Materials 5k race scheduled for Thanksgiving Day (Nov 23, 2006) was discussed to answer questions that were raised in the last meeting. Mark Winitz handed out the press release from the 2005 race. It was very successful with about 1800 participants. There were two separate starts, one being for elite athletes. The course is a half mile loop which is completed 6 times for the 5k. Their bid was reviewed in September and implicitly rejected due to the grand prix already having the maximum number of races. They pledge $5200 to be dedicated to PAUSATF athletes with $9000 open to all comers. It was proposed and seconded that this race be scored for open men only, with a $2600 prize purse, pending approval by the race management. The vote was 5 in favor, 1 opposed, 4 abstentions. Thus, this motion passed. [After the meeting the race management approved the offer, and the LDR Executive Committee voted to make it a double point race and to allow only open and masters runners on the short grand prix comp list to be comped.]

PA Championship Scoring: A motion was made that, in races where teams are declared, the team declaration should be allowed as the score sheet. This proposal was made into a motion which was seconded. The vote was 2 in favor, 5 opposed and 1 abstention. Therefore this motion failed. It will still be necessary to submit a separate scoresheet even if teams are declared in advance.

APPEALS: The following appeals were discussed and voted on: Spartan senior men at Folsom, Shoreline: Results were claimed to have been submitted but did not get registered. A motion to approve was made and seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Adidas Transports open women at Clarksburg. Results were claimed to have been submitted (with corroborating contemporaneous email evidence) to the regular scorer on Monday November 14, but did not get posted. A motion to approve was made and seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Adidas Transports open women at PA championships: The team did not know that it had to submit a scoresheet because it had declared its team in advance of the race. Following a discussion a motion to approve was made and seconded. The results were: 6 in favor of accepting the appeal, 1 opposed, 1 abstention. This appeal passed.

Farm Team open men and women at PA championships: The person in charge did not submit a score sheet because he did not know it was necessary due to having submitted a team declaration form before the race. A motion to approve was made and seconded. The results were: 7 in favor of accepting the appeal, 4 opposed, 2 abstentions. This appeal passed.

National Rule on Non-Resident Athletes (Mark Winitz): USATF Regulation 7 (Representation) concerning the eligibility of non-resident athletes for association clubs was amended at the 2005 USATF National Convention. The amendment allows the national sport committees to establish requirements related to representation and eligibility for team scoring in national and regional championships. At the convention, the national LDR committees established these requirements based on a draft submittal by the PA/USATF representatives on these committees (Irene Herman, Lloyd Stephenson, Mark Winitz). These requirements foster locally cohesive association clubs. A discussion ensued regarding the implementation of these requirements in the Pacific Association. The PA/USATF LDR Committee decided to continue discussion at the next meeting.

Cross Country Appeals Period: Dan Preston explained and compared the submission, grace period and appeals process for Road Races versus Cross Country. To clarify the situation with Cross Country scoring, a motion was made that the 10-day protest period will automatically follow the expiration of the just-approved two business day grace period following the posting of results, and the LDR Executive Committee shall adjudicate any protests as soon as possible. An amendment was proposed that the 10-day protest period will begin with the broadcasting of an email to the club list stating that results have been posted, which email will be sent as soon as possible after the expiration of the grace period. The amendment was seconded and passed with a vote of 6 in favor, 2 opposed, and 3 abstentions. Following approval of the amendment, the main motion was approved with a vote of 14 in favor and 1 abstention.

RAC results-Record Keeping: There was a discussion of the ongoing problem that races are not submitting post race results. For the 2005 Grand Prix road series only two races have submitted results. Such records must be signed by the referee, the Race Director and the Timing company. A suggestion was made that when a group bids on a race, they should be sent a set of instructions on how to submit results. The implication is that if the results are not submitted, our PAUSATF athletes will not get credit for their performances. USATF will no longer be keeping single age group records, but they are keeping age group records.

The next meeting will be held following the Emerald Across the Bay 12k race on March 19, 2006.

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 1:15.

_____________ APPENDIX A: Scoring Grace Period Rule

New Section 18.2: 18.2 In order for a club team to be eligible for scoring at a championship, team score sheets must be submitted by email to the official scorer no later than the Wednesday following the race. Team leaders are strongly encouraged to use the scoresheet form available on the appropriate page (road or cross country) of the Pacific Association website, www.pausatf.org; this scoresheet automatically sends an email to the official scorer. The name of each team member, including non-scoring members, should be included on the scoresheets. Due to imperfections in the scoresheet system, a team not initially scored after the Wednesday deadline has two business days after the preliminary posting of results by the scorer in which to submit a team which was not scored. During this period only "automatic" drop-downs may be used, that is, a person in a given age division will be treated as belonging to the next younger age division if and only if (a) they did not run fast enough to score for their team in their own age division, (b) their team in their own age division did not have enough runners to score a full team, or (c) they were not listed on a timely-submitted scoresheet for their own age division. A runner dropping down a division will be treated as if they were of the age of the lower division for that race, and so may re-apply this rule and continue to drop down until they find a division in which they might score. Thus a super senior could score as an open runner under this automatic drop down rule if the person did not run fast enough to score on his or her super senior, senior, or masters team.

Old Section 18.2:
18.2 In order for a club team to be eligible for scoring at a championship, team score sheets must be submitted by email to the official scorer no later than the Wednesday following the race. Team leaders are strongly encouraged to use the scoresheet form available on the appropriate page (road or cross country) of the Pacific Association website, www.pausatf.org; this scoresheet automatically sends an email to the official scorer. The name of each team member should be included on the scoresheets.