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December 11, 2020
Message to Annual Meeting Attendees
On Sunday, December 6, 2020, the delegates at the USATF Annual Meeting voted on several items presented by both the Law & Legislation Committee and the Rules Committee. In accordance with Article 21-A, amendments to the Rules of Competition are considered in every even-numbered year (a rules year) and amendments to the Bylaws and Operating Regulations are considered at every odd-numbered year (an L&L year).
Rules Committee
Since 2020 was an even-numbered year, the Rules Committee gathered throughout the Annual Meeting to discuss the approximately 80 amendments presented to the committee in accordance with Article 21. As a result of these meetings, the Rules Committee presented a package to the delegates for their consideration and vote. Below are the results of the vote on the Rules Committee package.
Rules Package
Received 327 votes in support of passing the Rules Committee package (90.6%)
Received 34 votes not in support of passing the Rules Committee package (9.4%)
Received 4 abstentions
Therefore, the Rules Committee Package
passes
with more than the required majority of the votes.
Law and Legislation Committee
Although this is not an odd-numbered year and, therefore, not an L&L year, this year the USATF Board of Directors passed a series of temporary amendments to the bylaws and regulations (June, October, and November) in an effort to ensure compliance with certain guidelines shared by the USOPC and one requested by the High Performance Division leadership. For the amendments to be permanently adopted, they needed to be ratified by the delegates with a two-thirds (2/3) vote, in accordance with Article 21-D. Ultimately, the USATF Board amendments were divided into five separate items, as further described below. The Law & Legislation Committee met throughout the USATF Annual Meeting to discuss these five items. The L&L Committee submitted a package of the 5 items to the floor, recommending passage of items 3, 4 and 5 without discussion and sending items 1 and 2 to the floor for further discussion. The votes for the L&L items were separated into four separate ballots, as further described below.
Ballot 1
contained items 3, 4, and 5, and were presented in the Law & Legislation package. Item 3 amended Article 11 to add two more athletes and two more independent members to the Board. Item 4 amended Regulation 18 to set forth National Office control over the Championship bidding process. Item 5 amended Article 11 to make the High-Performance Executive Committee the electorate for the High-Performance Board seat. Below are the results of the vote on items 3, 4, and 5 as presented in the Law & Legislation Committee package.
Ballot 1 Results:
Received 459 votes in support of passing the Law & Legislation Committee package (87.9%)
Received 63 votes not in support of passing the Law & Legislation Committee package (12%)
Received 4 abstentions
Therefore, the Law & Legislation Committee package
passes
with more than the required two-thirds of the votes.
Ballot 2
contained item 2, which was presented directly to the delegates (not contained within the Law & Legislation package). Item 2 sought to amend Article 10 to adjust the Presidential duties and allow the Board to select its own chair. During the Annual Meeting Closing Session, there was a floor debate over Item 2, with arguments made by both sides of this item.
Ballot 2 Results:
Received 303 votes in support of passing Item 2 (57%)
Received 224 votes not in support of passing Item 2 (42%)
Received 6 abstentions
Therefore, Item 2 does
not pass
as it did not receive the necessary two-thirds vote in support.
Ballot 3A and 3B
both stem from item 1 regarding changes to the Law & Legislation Committee structure and process. The opponents to item 1 requested that this item be bifurcated into two separate ballot items in order to separate the L&L process from its structure and composition. Ballot 3A sought to amend Article 21 to change how amendments to the bylaws and regulations are presented and handled by the Law & Legislation Committee. Ballot 3B sought to amend Regulation 11 to give the Board approval over committee chair appointments and Regulation 16 to amend the structure of the Law & Legislation Committee.
Ballot 3-A Results:
Received 271 votes in support of passing the amendments to Article 21 in item 1 (53%)
Received 235 votes not in support of passing the amendments to Article 21 in item 1 (46%)
Received 9 abstentions
Therefore, the amendments to Article 21 of item 1 does
not pass
as it did not receive the necessary two-thirds vote in support.
Ballot 3-B Results:
Received 320 votes in support of passing the amendments to Regulation 11 and 16 in item 1 (62%)
Received 193 votes not in support of passing the amendments to Regulations 11 and 16 in items 1 (37.6%)
Received 2 abstentions
Therefore, the amendments to Regulations 11 and 16 of item 1 does
not pass
as it did not receive the necessary two-thirds vote in support.
Since some of the USATF Board’s amendments were not permanently adopted by the delegates, those items that did not pass (Items 1 and 2 above) will revert back to the language contained in the USATF bylaws and regulations following the 2019 Annual Meeting.
Respectfully submitted,
Pam Fales, Chair, Organizational Services
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