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Post by Dan Gorman on Oct 2, 2008 11:32:22 GMT -6
I heard rumor there is to be one at this time. I've also heard rumors as to the intent of the meeting. Allow me me go off half-cocked and comment on the part I've heard.
Seems to me that the current iteration of SWIFA is far healthier than any of the past ones and growing managably. Why are people screwing with that? Not happy with something volunteer to fix it. Don't want to help fix it? Quit yer bitching and fence.
If there are legit issues, raise them where they can be discussed.
Dan
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Jett
Maitre
On the back![ss:Default]
Posts: 112
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Post by Jett on Oct 2, 2008 12:39:27 GMT -6
In my opinion SWIFA is doing great. If something works, leave it alone.
If this little turn of events harms SWIFA, FCUH is already discussing removing themselves from SWIFA.
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Post by Dan Gorman on Oct 3, 2008 0:34:39 GMT -6
Talk to the Aggies. Oscar has been great to them over the years and I see them supporting him strongly. He's been nothing but excellent to us and collegiate fencing as a whole. To raise any kind of issue with him or any of the current SWIFA leadership has to be some kind of joke.
Dan
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Post by Deanicus on Oct 3, 2008 10:53:21 GMT -6
Oscar has already announced his resignation as Vice Chair of SWIFA, and honestly who can blame him.
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Post by Dan Gorman on Oct 3, 2008 14:11:00 GMT -6
I think it's in SWIFA's best interest to beg him to reconsider. It is a huge mistake to let him step down based on the actions of (I trust) a few malcontents.
Dan
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Post by LongBlade on Oct 3, 2008 16:25:58 GMT -6
Status of the SWIFA Conference
There will be no special meeting held to discuss the draft proposal of the Competitions Operations Manual at the Longhorn Open this weekend. This would violate the procedure for holding special meetings as set out in Article VI, Section 2, of the SWIFA By-Laws. "Special Meetings: A Special Meeting may be called at any time, and held at any place where a member team is located, by the Chair, and shall be called by the Chair upon request of not less than a majority of the member teams of S.W.I.F.A.. Member teams shall be given no less than fourteen (14) days advance notice of any such Special Meeting, unless advance notice is waived by a majority of the member teams."
I have received a number of e-mails and calls protesting the lack of advance notice of the special meeting tentatively scheduled to be held at the Longhorn this weekend. There does not appear to be a majority in favor of having the meeting and I will not call a special meeting if a majority of the member teams don't want it. Anyone wanting to informally talk about SWIFA or draft proposal of the Competitions Operations Manual at the Longhorn is free to do so. This is America. That is your right.
I will call a special meeting within the next six weeks, and after I can give all the teams sufficient notice. The plan is to do it through my office since I can arrange a conference call for the member teams who cannot attend due to travel distance. They can attend in that manner or by written proxy if they cannot attend in person. (See By-Laws, Article VI, Section 2.) This would allow the greatest input to all the members, regardless of distance. Anyone who can present a better plan, please feel free to do so.
There have recently been a number of e-mails circulating making wild accusations and complaining of the mismanagement of the SWIFA Conference by one coach and some of the members of his team. Rather than work within the rules or act in a constructive manner, they have decided to create drama and demand the removal of the entire Executive Committee of SWIFA (to be presumably replaced by themselves). It should be noted that these e-mails were not sent directly to the members of the Executive Committee of SWIFA.
If one coach or team is unhappy for whatever reason, they have a simple procedure in place to deal with it in the By-Laws that they, themselves, also previously voted to approve.
The procedure is set out in the By-Laws in Article IV, Section 5: "Removal from Office by Member Teams: Any officer of S.W.I.F.A. may be removed from office by the following procedure: 1. A petition by one third (1/3) of the member teams of S.W.I.F.A., and 2. An election in which the officer receives less than a majority. 3. The election may be held at either an Annual meeting or a special meeting of the S.W.I.F.A. membership."
I find it rather interesting that someone who thinks they can run SWIFA better cannot even read and understand how to apply the By-Laws.
The current members of the Executive Committee consists of me, the Chair, and our Treasurer, Damaris Dotson. The position of Secretary was unexpectedly vacated due to a family tragedy which I will not discuss. Our Vice-Chair, Oscar Barrera, resigned on October 1, after receiving a forwarded e-mail. I have discussed this matter with him and he was insulted by it, is of the opinion that it is probably not in the best interest for him or the South Texas Division (As the serving Chairman of the Division) to be involved in the dispute, and also that it is simply not worth the problems to continue. (I am the current Secretary for the South Texas Division, and in that capacity, I respect his opinion and have to agree with him.) That is too bad for SWIFA, since Oscar has served as a referee or worked as a member of the bout committee or operating committee for several of our competitions, and had arranged for the conference to use the Division's equipment, and personally delivered it as well, for free. Oscar has also in the past often proved to many of the individuals and teams involved in SWIFA that he would always go out of his way to support them with his efforts and help provide them with necessary equipment in non-SWIFA events as well.
Damaris Dotson has served as our Treasurer since the creation of the conference. She set up the initial interest-free SWIFA checking account with me, and has always provided complete reports as required in the By-Laws. A complete report was made at the last annual meeting. Additionally, it is common knowledge that she has and will provide anyone wanting the information a current report upon request. I spoke with Damaris regarding the accusation made about the lack of information and she told me she thought it was "d**n, funny". She also informs me that nobody asked her for a report of our finances at SWIFA #1 at U of H on September 27, 2008. She does not intend to resign.
For your information, the current state of the SWIFA account (provided to me by Damaris) is $4,315.62 in the bank. Trinity University paid their $450.00 dues, which is included. The dues payment from Sam Houston State is in processing and their university bursar's office called me last week to get the SWIFA Federal Taxpayer ID number so they could issue us a check. The check written to U of H for hosting the SWIFA #1 has not yet been cleared through the bank. The conference is running on a surplus. The then three members of the Executive Committee had reviewed the latest bank records and had discussed raising the amount to be issued to the host clubs to $1,000.00 in view of the addition of new member dues, paid or expected, a surplus carried over from last year, and in view of the additional expenses incurred by the host teams due to gasoline prices. This must be formalized at an official meeting, which I was going to call in the next few weeks, when all this drama occurred. (See By-Laws, Article IV, Section 4.) We were also going to replace the vacant position of Secretary, which must be ratified by the member teams. (See By-Laws, Article V, Section 6.) The members of the Executive Committee had decided that we would announce the vacancy and notify the teams to submit nominations before calling a special meeting to vote on this. We felt that this would allow the greatest input from all the member teams.
I have been serving as the elected Chair of the SWIFA conference since its current incarnation. I was approached by several individuals and asked to draft a proposal for a set of By-Laws (or rules for operating the conference) for SWIFA. These individuals realized the previous SWIFA was disorganized and was in trouble and asked for me to help. I spent countless hours working on the initial proposal, and have drafted all the suggested revisions since then. I have drafted the current proposal for a competitions operations manual. In order to do so, I read through the entire Operations Manual for the USFA and made additional rules for SWIFA, which was necessary since we reference their rules unless they are inconsistent with SWIFA's. I do not claim it is a finished project, but I personally believe it is a good start. I have attended all the SWIFA competitions and meetings since the By-Laws were adopted and have solicited much input from the individuals associated with the conference and others. I have never charged for doing the work, have never been compensated in any way by the conference for the time and effort involved, and have never accepted any reimbursement for my expenses. I also donated the initial $100.00 seed money to set up the SWIFA checking account so we would never have to pay a service charge. I do not intend, and never have intended, to serve as the Chair of SWIFA for life. My goal is to form a working conference. I would like to serve for the remainder of the term so I can complete the job. I have no intention of stepping down before then for anyone unless I am voted out by the procedures set out in the By-Laws. If one coach or his team wants to try to do this, I have shown you the procedure above. I will try to explain it to you further if you still have problems understanding and following it. I think the fact that we have a budget surplus, have added new teams to a growing conference, have written rules for running the conference, have a website up and operating (despite the lack of a Secretary to update it immediately), and that everyone else seems to feel that SWIFA is a working and worthwhile organization, speak to the state of the health of the conference and to the efforts the Executive Committee of SWIFA to do a good job.
There was a special meeting called before the SWIFA #1 at U of H on September 27, 2008. (There is a precedent for doing this when the existing member teams unanimously voted to allow San Antonio College to join the conference last year without waiting until the beginning of the next season.) The sole purpose of this meeting was to vote to allow two new teams to immediately join the SWIFA conference (Sam Houston State University and Trinity University). I also informally passed out the draft of the proposal for a Competitions Operations Manual and asked for them to take it to their teams to look it over before we did anything officially on it. That meeting was rudely interrupted by one coach who was present, and not the official representative of his team, and subsequently by the team representative following his lead.
All of the recent drama about a crisis with SWIFA is the work of one coach and his team. There is, simply put, no crisis. Additionally, the outcry for removal of the members of the Executive Committee similarly comes from the same one coach and his team.
Kyle Maysel SWIFA Chair
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Post by katyblades on Oct 6, 2008 13:25:41 GMT -6
Kyle, Oscar and all the SWIFA Officers,
Thank you for your work in establishing and maintaining SWIFA. They don't know what it was like before, and how many of you/us worked together when it was a coalition. The Aggies even held a Texas Collegiate Championships one year.
Now there are multiple events, university clubs, etc. It is amazing.
I am sorry that you have been subjected to the insults.
Augie
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Post by DavidSierra on Oct 6, 2008 14:25:39 GMT -6
*chuckle* anytime you try to create something, you're subjected to this kind of stupidity.
Just look what I've had to go through over the years with the SSCC. However, if I might lend a bit of advice based upon that experience, I would suggest you utilize entirely the formal procedural methods of communication, rather than posting on internet boards like this.
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Post by JEC on Oct 6, 2008 19:03:46 GMT -6
Kyle, Oscar and all the SWIFA Officers, Thank you for your work in establishing and maintaining SWIFA. They don't know what it was like before, and how many of you/us worked together when it was a coalition. The Aggies even held a Texas Collegiate Championships one year. Now there are multiple events, university clubs, etc. It is amazing. I am sorry that you have been subjected to the insults. Augie Strongly agree.
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Post by Deanicus on Oct 7, 2008 10:08:34 GMT -6
I would suggest you utilize entirely the formal procedural methods of communication, rather than posting on internet boards like this. He took care of that, all the representatives from the member schools have received an iteration of this lengthy write-up.
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nemo
Blademaster
mobilis in mobili
Posts: 729
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Post by nemo on Oct 8, 2008 7:02:35 GMT -6
I would suggest you utilize entirely the formal procedural methods of communication, rather than posting on internet boards like this. He took care of that, all the representatives from the member schools have received an iteration of this lengthy write-up. I would suggest both methods. If SWIFA thinks it has bones of contention, just look at the home division of this very forum. Yet, while completely outside the official loop, this forum has provided information and a trace of transparency where little existed before it. Just look at the SSCC/RYC thread.
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Post by Deanicus on Oct 8, 2008 13:46:13 GMT -6
If only we could get more member-schools involved, forums like this would be the most ideal form of communication for SWIFA. Considering we only meet four times a year, and only have proper meetings at two of those four tournaments. So many things go unspoken until it's too late, like our current situation.
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