LA Call Minutes- 9.28.16

LA Call – Wednesday, September 28^th

Stefanie Larson - USAC
- Thank you all for joining us on today’s call. Let’s start with membership updates.
Jeffrey Hansen- USAC
- Experienced one-days
  - The experienced one-day is live and ready to go. It has been up and running for a couple weeks while we worked out some final kinks and tested the system. We’re going to start promoting these and will send some e-mails out to folks who haven’t renewed.
  - The cost is $25 and available to anyone who had a non-beginner category. That’s cat 1 for MTB. Cat 4 and above for men’s road, track, CX. Cat 3 and above women’s road, track, CX.
  - People can only buy online and cannot buy on site. Here are some reasons:
    - We need to verify the participant has the appropriate categories in order to purchase the experienced one day.
    - They must use their old account they bought their initial membership with.
    - We are limiting these to one per person per calendar year.
  - The incentive is to try to get more people to try the sport again without having to buy an annual membership.
  - Participants may use the $25 towards the purchase of their annual membership.
  - Participants may also buy it as a standalone even if the RD uses a different registration provider.
  - All you have to do is click on the event, click “buy one-day license”. If you’re logged in with an account, you can purchase the experienced one-day.
  - Please keep an eye on it and let us know if you notice any kinks or bugs.
  - This launched much later than we anticipated since we wanted to get it out in the spring, but it’s here and better late than never. Thank you for your patience.
  - Questions?
Randy Legeai- LAMBRA
- If someone buys one of these experienced one-days, the promoter and registration volunteers only know a participant has the one-day if they bring a paper copy?
Jeffrey Hansen- USAC
- If you’re an RD you can go into your permit and view one-day licenses purchased for your event. The system will give the RD a list of people who have purchased any one-day licenses. These will also show up for RDs that don’t use our online registration system.
- Membership tiers
  - We want to give all of you an idea of how we’re thinking of heading into 2017. We’re looking at the possibility of a tiered structure for both our ride and race memberships.
  - We’re looking at 5 different levels of membership with different levels of benefits.
  - We have the classic race membership and ride membership.
  - We’re still talking about different names for all of these.
  - For example, we’re looking at $100 level of membership that would have race license included and a certain level of merchandise.
  - We learned there were many who took out our race+ride memberships so there is an appetite to add on more merchandise. There’s a significant demographic out there and we want to give them an opportunity to purchase at a higher level so we can funnel more into grass roots racing.
  - Questions?
- Membership vs. License terminology
  - We want to clarify how we’re using “membership” versus “license”. We only use “license” when talking about one-days. We want to get away from using “license” 100% of a time and refer to our annual memberships as a “membership”.
  - We want USAC to be an organization that people join and participate in. We want people to benefit from the membership and don’t want this to be a transactional thing. We don’t want to be the DMV and want to be a true membership organization. Your race membership includes a racing license and we would like your help in spreading this word.
  - When you see “license” on a flyer please encourage RDs to use “membership”.
  - This is the direction we’re going in and hope all of you can be a part of it.
Chuck Hodge- USAC
- 2017 Regulations
  - We’re in the process of taking a look at regulations for 2017 and I have a deadline to get any needed changes in for next year.
  - Sport committee meetings are coming up in October.
  - If anyone has any proposed changes, please let me know. The NTC and board will approve these changes.
- Upgrade regulations
  - I’m starting now on taking a look at upgrade regulations to try to clean those up. Those will be circulated to a few folks up at the top and I will be looking for some good feedback.
  - We aren’t looking at major changes. There’s just some old language that needs to be cleaned up and updated.
  - Questions?
Jon Whiteman- USAC
- RaceClean update
  - I hope all of you saw the RaceClean update that came out in the middle of September. There were several positives with some from 2016 testing. Some happened to be residents in the state of Texas, some racing at Tulsa Tough.
  - USADA is doing their testing as well. They test at our National Championships and National Calendar events.
  - The program is off and running. We always cringe when we see a positive, but we can also argue it’s a measure of success. The point of the program is to deter doping from even happenin. There is evidence that some of the testing tactics are working and we are seeing the results. It’s definitely a double edged sword.

Testing for the rest of 2016
- For 2016 we budgeted conservatively. We didn’t want to spend more than what we brought in from RaceClean surcharges. We have enough money in the budget to add about 4-5 races for the remainder of this year.
- I would like to get some input from all of you. On the last call, I asked for MTB or CX events, but at this point I’m willing to open it up to any type of race. Its’ up to all of you since it’s difficult for me to choose without your help and guidance.
- Please give me races you would like to test in your area. Feel free to send me an e-mail with your list at jwhiteman@usacycling.org.
- Anyone want to jump in with an urgent race off the top of their head?

Jared Zimlin- FBRA
- Our state road race is in the middle of October. This race will have the most attendance of any race of the year and will have the most impact in terms of showing that testing is happening.
Jon Whiteman- USAC
- Perfect example. Thank you. For everyone else, I encourage you to reach out to me. Every dollar we bring in for surcharges is used for testing. We’re asking for your help and want your input.
- 2017 event testing
  - I understand some of you are starting to build your 2017 calendars. I would like to start those conversations now. I’m trying to get some ideas on what 2017 testing will look like for at least the first quarter by mid-November so it gives USADA time to make their arrangements. Within the next week, can you please send me your preferred events for 2017? It’s okay if they are tentative and we will mark them as such.
- LA/RD supported testing
  - If any LAs or RDs are interested in promoting their own testing at their event, whether they find sponsorships or have some money to throw towards the program, we would love to partner with them. Hopefully some of you can explore this option for 2017.
Stefanie Larson- USAC
- Symposium
  - We are in the planning process for the symposium. Are there any specific topics any of you would like to cover in February?
Bruce Dunn- ABC
- During the RD symposium, one of the most valuable sessions was when you had real round table discussions.
  - It would be great to have a two part series where you develop topics. We prefer to hear from other LAs rather than people outside the organization.
  - Let’s talk about best practices and solutions.
Jeff Poulin- NYSBRA
- I completely agree with Bruce. Perhaps you can generate a discussion regarding the biggest problems we have as LAs and what USAC can do to help us solve them.
Stefanie Larson- USAC
- Thank you, Bruce and Jeff. Those are very good suggestions.
- Are there any other topics you would like to discuss on this call?
Kevin Spiegel- SWICA
- May I follow up with the other LAs regarding that the email I sent you yesterday?
  - We’re making some big changes over the next year for our BAR and team competitions with CX, MTB, and road. We like the idea of gaining points across all disciplines for a big prize. This is to encourage our members to try other disciplines.
  - Has any LA done this before and how did you deal with the CX season being across calendar years?
JD Bilodeau- NEBRA
- We restarted a road series and have a couple different CX series. For the most part, we consider the 2016 road season and 2016/2017 CX season to be one block. If you were going to include CX, we would include those 2017 events. Currently, we don’t have a cross disciple series.
Bruce Dunn- ABC
- Our CX series is run separately with separate points, but sored within the calendar year and doesn’t run over.
- The module should allow you to score it however you want to do it. It’s just a matter of the rules you want to set.
Kevin Spiegel- SWICA
- I didn’t see any specific rules or regulations which is why I wanted to make sure. Would racing age be based on the end of CX season so you’re a year older for CX than for road?
Chuck Hodge- USAC
- You may want to look at ending the cross racing age at the end of February. This also may be a good date to end the CX season which will create a more level playing field.
Kevin Spiegel- SWICA
- Currently, our last CX race is December. It’s just the way the rules are written that are changing this upcoming year.
Chuck Hodge- USAC
- The way our regulation reads says the CX season ends the last day of February and your racing age is the last day in February so you’re a year older.
- Make sure your special regulations are consistent and publish so people know what to expect and everything is clear.

This Article Updated October 3, 2016 @ 09:41 PM For more information contact: