From: les@SAIL.Stanford.EDU (Les Earnest)
Subject: Re: Report from USCF delegates meeting
Reply-To: les@cs.stanford.edu
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 06:05:09 GMT

Thanks to Paul Stek and others for recording their impressions of the
USCF annual meeting.  I am delighted with the approval of the
reduction in Board size, having tried for many years to get such
legislation adopted.  Eleven directors are still too many, but by the
time the Board gets down to that size (in late 1994) I predict that it
will be small enough to complete tasks in something under one-fourth
the time consumed by the present 26 member Board.  That means that
they should get a lot more done.

(FYI, Earnest's law of committee constipation states that the quality
of decisions is proportional to the square root of the number of
members while the time it takes to reach a decision is proportional to
the square of that number.  In practice, more than 7 is generally a
bad idea.)

My last (minor) success in this area was in 1980, when the Board size
was reduced from 32 to 25, but only after one delegate (Tom Boyden,
bless his pointed head) elected to reverse his vote, causing it to
pass by one vote.  All subsequent attempts until now have failed,
apparently because the "old guard" board members opposed it out of
fear of losing their positions.

This year's success is attributable to a management consultant named
John Carver who was reportedly hired for $7,000 a day to tell us how
to get organized.  I generally have no use for management consultants,
but the fact that he was able to convince the directors that the board
should be smaller makes it all worthwhile.  In the long run we will
save much more money than has been spent on this guy.

In a meeting following the House of Delegates, the Board voted to
dismantle its archaic committee structure and to refocus its efforts
on setting goals for the organization while leaving the execution
largely up to the staff.  I note that based on last year's decision by
the House, directors are now elected directly by licensees.  This and
the resulting combination of having a number of bright new directors
who apparently think for themselves, the planned reduction in the size
of the Board, and the restructuring of the Board-staff relationship
looks as though this organization is finally getting its act together
for the first time in its 72 year history.  These are exiting times!

Regarding the new, smaller board, Paul Stek says:
   [.  .  .]  The plan was universally accepted with the only concern being
   that each of the three regions will be dominated by a particular community
   in that region. (California in the west, Chicago in the middle, and 
   Penn. in the East.)  Expect the regions to be further divided or
   something. 

I agree that political machines pose a risk but would point to a
different list of candidates: Southern California in the West (which
has very little in common with Northern California other than a state
government), Colorado in the Central Section (this small district
already has half of the eight Central directors), and New Jersey/New
York City (the traditional Eastern cycling mafia).

In consideration of this threat, I plan to offer an amendment next
year that will permit no more than one director to be elected from a
given region.

  A long discussion with the providers of insurance to the USCF 
  was a bit disturbing.  It certainly appears that the real concern is
  liability prevention rather than rider safety.  [.  .  .]

Unfortunately, there is some validity in this view.  Even though the
USCF now has a couple of million dollars in its coffers as a result of
the surplus distributed from the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, a
single big lawsuit could easily bankrupt the organization, even with
the insurance that is carried.  There is a plan afoot to transfer most
of the assets to a new cycling foundation that is independent of USCF
so that if USCF is hit by a liability "bomb," it can be dissolved and
the foundation can then jump-start a new national cycling body.

--
Les Earnest                                  Phone:  415 941-3984
Internet: Les@cs.Stanford.edu              USMail: 12769 Dianne Drive
UUCP: . . . decwrl!cs.Stanford.edu!Les         Los Altos Hills, CA 94022
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.racing