LA Call Minutes- 3.30.16

  
  


LA Call
Wednesday, 3.30.16
10:45am
 
Stefanie Larson- USAC- Thank you everyone for joining us on our call today.  We have Chuck Hodge our Technical Director on the line should any of you have questions for him throughout this call.  Jon Whiteman our Risk Protection Manager is unable to be with us.  He asks to e-mail any questions to him at jwhiteman@usacycling.org.
 
Security breach update- Joan Hanscom- USAC
  • We had a security breach this past week. 
  • Our Event Services Coordinators have been fielding a significant amount of questions regarding password resets.
  • We are working on a link that will be available on the login page to allow people to reset their passwords automatically.
    • Hopefully by the end of today we have the automated solution ready to go.
  • The breach is contained and right now we are in customer service mode.
  • If you receive any questions please let members know they may call USAC directly.
  • Please remember, no damaging information was collected.
  • IT is working with the FBI to find the culprit.
 
Growing officials- Stefanie Larson- USAC
  • I would like to open up a discussion regarding how to grow officials. 
    • I know a lot of us are in the same boat when it comes to the need of more officials.  We have Chuck Hodge on the call to address any questions.
  • First I would like to open the floor to anyone who is willing to share what’s working in their region.  Do any of you have successful programs currently going on? 
  • JD- NEBRA
    • A couple of weeks ago NEBRA and NYSBRA put on a moto officials clinic and we were successful in getting 20 officials who took the C license
    • It was an in-person clinic, full day seminar.  We went down and talked about the assignment process and it worked out pretty well for us for the past year.
  • Dave Fowkes- ICA
    • The discussion of how to recruit officials is great, but the more important question is how do we keep them involved?  How do we keep them coming back?  What incentives do they have?  What about an internship program?  How do you make that ten and keep those same ten from year to year?
  • Carlos Soto – NCNCA
    • We pay our interns as an incentive.  We pay interns mileage to and from the race.  Our interns have to attend at least three crits or three road races.  They must work the race in order to get their mileage paid by the NCNCA.
  • Dave Fowkes- ICA
    • Are they doing the apprenticeship on a motor cycle?
  • Carlos Soto – NCNCA
    • They are apart of the pit crew.  They do classes.  They have to do three internships.
  • JD- NEBRA-
    • NYSBRA has a really robust program where they cover the cost of the C class, they cover the background checks and help with the officials license fee for the first couple of years.
    • NEBRA is working on the promoter side where we offer grants for RD.  Some are bigger events that apply for grants to help bring on shadows.
    • NYSBRA is using a financial model and NEBRA would like to get to that state.
    • There needs to be a sense of community in order for officials to want to stay.
      • Letting people know they have a support system in place is crucial.
      • As a new officials it’s easy to get overwhelmed.
      • It’s important to help get them involved with the racers so they know who the customers are which keeps officials coming back.
  • Stefanie Larson- USAC
    • What about the inclusion of a free first year’s officials license for clubs?  How is that working within your regions?  Are people taking advantage of this?
  • Joan Hanscom- USAC
    • Do you think the clubs are aware of this?  Is there anything we can be doing to help promote that more?
  • Jeff Mertz – IBRA
    • The free license did make an impact from a budgeting standpoint.
    • Our LA already always paid for first year officials license.
      • We also reached out to the RDs and all membership reminding them of this option.
      • It hasn’t made a dramatic impact since we’ve already been doing this.
      • It’s a good gesture for people to recognize.
      • We asked all officials to reach out to their friends and we’re lucky to get 2-3 to come out.
      • We have some fresh prospects and we’re looking forward to see how they work out for us.
  • Dave Fowkes- ICA
    • We do the same.  We see with the free license, the larger clubs will take advantage, but just use their person within their club to answer officials questions, but they don’t actually go out and do the work.
    • We have to extend that license to a member, wife, or a husband because most club members will become officials, but don’t actually work.
  • Bruce Dunn- ABC
    • We had good luck for several years, but we are down to 7 in the state.
    • We do end of the year reimbursements because free never works.
    • We put a program in place where if you upgrade from C to B and work X amount of races, then the officials can get reimbursed.  Make them do the work prior to receiving the money. 
  • Stefanie Larson- USAC
    • How can USAC help you in your efforts? 
  • Dave Fowkes- ICA
    • A lot of the education programs are being rolled out the first day and it becomes tedious.  What about the educational part is helping to get people to sink their teeth in?
  • Chuck Hodge- USAC
    • We want feedback from all of you.  Let me start with a brief of where we are and the where we plan to go.
    • We lost a lot of officials in the last 3 years. 
    • Good news is we’re seeing a growth this year.  This is the first year everyone had to renew their background check and despite that hurdle, we’ve been trending between 3-5% this year.
    • New officials coming in and replacing veterans
      • We need qualified officials.  Having enough qualified officials to carry over to CX season is a need
      • We are short MTB officials
      • It’s the chicken and the egg.  We don’t have enough races, but need more officials to have races.
    • Lower barrier to entry
      • We lowered all fees by $10
      • We’re offering online classes- live online classes for motor C
      • There’s a huge bottle neck because we don’t have a lot of instructors
      • C was taught once a year and people had to wait
        • Now we’re running people through an online system then passing those people back to the LAs
      • SafeSport is now only a 30 minute program for officials
      • We’re still working on providing free permits for all officials classes on C level.  That is in the system to create a simple no cost permit.
      • We’re starting to implement basics that haven’t been done in the past to make things easier for people to come in.
    • To address Dave’s question, we are teaching an elite commissure class in June and we are teaching our first class in Redlands
      • Will have a brand new curriculum in May
      • We will teach how to be a chief ref
      • Cat C class will be important for C officials who have been around for a couple of years.  Some people are happy working that C level, but we want to motivate them to go out more, get involved, and get more experience.
      • We aren’t able to do this all at once.
    • To address the retention question, we started to e-mail instructors and asked when they get a new official, to do more onsite training.  We have the ability to send them to the local association to get them trained
      • I will have a staff member within a month and the prime job will be to help facilitate that.
    • I receive the question- Where do we find these new officials?  It works better at the local level.  We can set the system up, but where do we find the bodies to fill those positions?  Advertise through local club,  friends, families, ex bike racers, watching spouses race?
  • Dave Fowkes- ICA
    • Is there an update on update on the committees?
  • Chuck Hodge- USAC
    • We have all the names and we’re waiting on 1 or 2 to confirm.  This will be announced within a week.
 
Members Report w/ License Primary Discipline – Stefanie Larson- USAC
 
https://www.usacycling.org/myusac/index.php?pagename=admin&subpage=report&report=lalicenseprimary
 
  • A couple weeks ago I sent a link to everyone for a report called “Members Report with License Primary Discipline”.   Please do not use this report since we found the system is pulling from the wrong source and is providing incorrect counts.  I apologize for any inconvenience and we will let everyone know once it is up a running again.
 
Alternating times for our monthly LA calls – Stefanie Larson- USAC
 
  • We recently had a request to see if we can alternate times for this LA call each month. 
  • We understand it’s difficult for some of you to make time during your work schedules so in order to accommodate everyone schedules we can alternate times each month.
  • Chuck Hodge- USAC
    • Suggest MeetOMatic.  This can help gather everyone’s votes.
  • Stefanie Larson- USAC
    • I will send the MeetOMatic survey out.
 
Alex’s insurance video– Stefanie Larson- USAC
 
  • I am hoping to post Alex’s insurance video on our website by the end of this week.  This is the video of Alex’s presentation during last year’s symposium.  I will send an e-mail to all of you once it’s posted.
 
Championship medals– Stefanie Larson- USAC
 
  • Please get your medal counts and addresses to me no later than tomorrow.  If I do not receive the counts for your LAs we will send you the same counts from last year and send to the same address we shipped to last year.
 
Questions or any other topics?
 
  • Bruce Dunn- ABC
    • When is the deadline for members to add to a club that hasn’t been renewed for the year?
  • Fred Blattspieler- USAC
    • February 1st was the deadline.  Members can no longer associate with a club that hasn’t been renewed for this year.                         
 


This Article Updated July 14, 2016 @ 07:48 PM For more information contact: