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Wildwater Committee Minutes
October 11, 2005

by John Pinyerd
USAWildwater Committee Chair

Attendance: In order to ensure that all voting WWC members could attend, the WWC held their meeting by conference call 8:30 PM EST. WWC members attending by phone were John Pinyerd, Ben Sandiford, Martin Bay, Chris Hipgrave, Chris Wiegand, Tom Wier, Geoff Calhoun and Mike and Kristen Beck. Also attending was USAC/ICF board member Dave Mason.

Old Business:

  1. The motion was made that Ben Sandiford move forward with procuring Plaques for Tom Calhoun, Chuck Brabec, and Ed Loffell that state our appreciation of their dedication to USA Wildwater. The motion passed and was unanimously voted for.
  2. Hipgrave gave the Treasurers Report. We currently have $7,768 (if you include the $2000 from USACK). Outstanding expenditures include our housing in Ireland (Rob Murphy), which brings the new balance to about $7000.
  3. Pinyerd discussed the need to implement a process for Nominating and Voting on the 06-07 WWC using email and USAWildwater.com. The motion unanimously passed that Pinyerd would develop the language (for WWC approval) for the process where Rachel Gunn (USACK) will handle the collection of nominations and Chuck Brabec will post the nominations on USAWW.com. Rachel will also count the votes.
  4. The selection of 06 Team Manager(s) for next year was discussed. The Beck’s did a great job this year and we can support them with help from stateside. Sandiford’s motion that the Beck’s be named as the 07 Team Managers unanimously passed. It is the WWC’s intent that the Mangers receive uniforms and the base level of support like team members. The Beck’s will coordinate housing/travel for the World Cups as well.
  5. The call for an amendment of the WWC Bylaws to reflect new ICF Rules change allowing 6 boats/team with 4 boats per competition, (4 each in of the Sprint and Classic races) will be handled as follows:
    • Hipgrave, Wiegand, Calhoun and Pinyerd will develop the language for the WWC Bylaws.
    • The language will be distributed to the WWC and approved.

New Business:

  1. 2006 Nationals – The board unanimously voted for the FIBArk Organization to host the 2006 Nationals June 15th-17th on the Arkansas River near Salida CO. As of the WWC Meeting, they were the only official bid we received. FIBArk will make these improvements for 2006 Nationals:
    • They will be better trained now that they have run the 05 Nationals
    • They have backing from the entire FIBArk board and will promote US Nationals on their web site
    • The Sprint will be through Cottonwood (a class IV rapid).
    • There will be a minimum guarantee of $1500 in Nationals prize money.
  2. 2006 Jr Team Trials – The board unanimously approved these bids for Jr. Team Trails:
    • Eastern Jr Team Trials will be run by the NRC on the Tuckaseegee (March 18th and 19th) in conjunction with USA Senior Team Trials
    • Western Jr Team Trials will run by FIBArk in conjunction with USA Nationals in Salida, CO June 15th-17th
  3. The venue selection for 2006 Team Trails included the choices of the NRC running the race on the Tuckaseegee (NC), or the League of the Northwest Whitewater Racers holding the race on the Skycomish (WA) or having our trials with the German Team in Bala. There was a spirited debate over the Skycomish (WA) or the Tuck (NC) and the importance of spreading our two national events between the East and the West. On a split decision vote that followed the demographics of the WWC, the NRC was awarded Team Trials to be held on the Tuckaseegee Gorge (NC) tentatively on March 18th-19th.
  4. Calhoun made the motion to tighten the percentage cut offs for making the WW Senior Team (to make it harder to make the team) vs what was in place for 2005. There was not a second to the motion.
  5. The WWC passed the following resolution for requirements for USA Masters Racers at the 06 Masters Worlds:
    • All racers must be USACK Members
    • Racers will need to pay for the fee that the World’s organization will charge and their uniform in the form of a donation to USAWildwater (USACK). The expected total should not exceed $150.
    • Racers will need to have raced at a regional or national level whitewater race within the last year to help show that they are capable of racing at the Masters World Championships.
  6. Sponsors/Uniforms/etc. – The WWC was urged to continue to develop sponsors that can donate funding or goods/services in kind.
  7. Hipgrave addressed the subject of Procuring WW Boats/Boat building in the USA.
    • John Diller (Savage River Inc) has starting building Wildwater K-1s and has the Esox and Millennium molds. You can reach John at srwjd@mindspring.com or by calling 301-334-2335
    • We have an opportunity to bring boats over with the Canadians. Contact Hipgrave for more information.
  8. Bay will need to work with Wier for support on getting the 2005 Rankings completed.
  9. Pinyerd’s motion to require all participants at Wildwater Training Camps to be USACK members unanimously passed. The local organizer will need to enforce is as appropriate.
  10. The Patagonia discount of 60-65% for 05 Team Members is viewed as a very nice perk. The board commends Hipgrave and USACK for pursuing this for the Wildwater team.
 
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