USATF Presidential Election and Finalsprint Series on USATF Corruption

Screw these damn annual meetings, we have the technology today to allow the entire membership to vote on every position and measure securely online. The best thing Logan could ever do for USATF is to open up the process and ditch the outdated annual meeting format.

Thanks, Election News! Since you're not smart enough to ask before assuming, I just came up with it to use on a completely different thread. Anyway, do I need to have governed a nation better than Bush has to know that he's done a horrible job of it? Save your tired, toothless retorts for someone who thinks they're worth anything. I know poor journalism when I see it. Apparently Wejo does, too, despite his poor track record in that area. By the way, how long is that rod you have protruding from your arse?

Hightower only needs 9 more votes to win. I don't think too many people that voted for Bowman will now vote for Hightower. But then again Hightower only needs to pick up 15% (9 of 58) of Bowman supporters. Does anyone out there have a better feel for this?

Read the USATF by-laws. Only delegates get votes, and they're chosen at the association level. The by-law would have to be changed.

TV ads are priced by TV viewership. If packing stadiums was important you can give away free tickets to students. Jay Leno, David Letterman, reality shows, have tiny audiences in the studio.

becca rock me wrote:

So it looks like USATF's top athletes don't mind a little corruption if it serves their ends. Maybe they're mixed in as well...? Juicy.

They want someone who will go to bat for them. Stephanie projects that image, Dee does not. It's as simple as that.

i bet she has a hairy belly,

Let's find out if you're a man or not. Why don't you identify yourself and send your comments directly to Adam at the following e-mail address:

adam@thefinalsprint.com

Why is the USATF Board holding up round #2 of voting for three hours? Is that the time that's needed to make political deals? Imagine the arm twisting that must be going on right now!

Was the first round of votes done by secret ballot? Are there controls in place to insure the votes are counted correctly? Given what I've read about USATF's Board, election tampering is not out of the question here.

One big flaw in the recently approved restructuring plan is that it did not open up the voting to all USATF members. Only delegates elected by the state associations are allowed to vote. This is not fair. All members are impacted by USATF’s actions and all members should be allowed to vote by mail-in ballot -- just like it’s done in the corporate world.

USOC needs to demand that USATF open up its voting and apply whatever leverage it can to make that happen. Right now only local association insiders are allowed to vote. That was the case at the old AAU organization where the vast majority of athletes had so say. Things haven’t changed very much. When will all athletes (not just a select few) finally get a say. To get the right to vote, do we need another act of congress like the one that put the old AAU out of business?

Everything about this election is about NOT electing Stephanie. That is a negative tone and I blame Logan for listening to Cannon and drinking the USOC kool aid!

The AAC will back Stephanie because she is one of them and she will do the most for them, the bread winners.

The LDR is always at odds with the HP and AAC because they do not share the wealth. Simple as that. Puts Dee at a disadvantage.

So Stephanie has to win twice, by the by laws.

And THEN she has to run for Chairman of the board. Ridiculous.

This was just posted on

www.TheFinalSprint.com

. I doubt Jensen will get 100% of Bowman’s votes -- she needs 85% of Bowman’s votes to win. Does it surprise anyone that results of the 1st round voting were leaked? USATF Board members seem unable to follow their own rules.

"According to first-round voting tallies that were leaked to Track & Field News, Dee Jensen would have won the election had Bob Bowman not run and should prove victorious after round two voting concludes at 6pm PST.

In the first round, T&FN Editor Garry Hill reported the following results:

Hightower: 304

Jensen: 263

Bowman: 58

With no candidate receiving more then 50% of the votes, the election has gone to a run-off between Stephanie Hightower and Jensen. Bowman was eliminated and endorsed Jensen. Several delegates who voted for Bowman in round one and spoke to TheFinalSprint.com on the condition of anonymity, said that Jensen was their second choice.

If every delegate who voted for Bowman now throws their support to Jensen in round two, the final results would be:

Jensen: 321

Hightower: 304

Round two voting concludes at 6pm PST and the winner will be announced by 7pm PST."

Can't Logan lead the initiative to change the by-laws?

jsquire wrote:

Read the USATF by-laws. Only delegates get votes, and they're chosen at the association level. The by-law would have to be changed.

Pissed about it all wrote:

Everything about this election is about NOT electing Stephanie. That is a negative tone and I blame Logan for listening to Cannon and drinking the USOC kool aid!

The AAC will back Stephanie because she is one of them and she will do the most for them, the bread winners.

Yes Mr. Insider, the AAC (or was that AAU) will back your friend Stephanie because she is black and female, as is the majority of the AAC.

See

Yes, she is "one of them". But she is not entitled to be USATF's president. Her unethical and selfish behavor may be the cause of her undoing. The behavior of Logan and the USOC in this matter was far more professional that Hightower's behavior.

Why should I? Who is this "us" that this would supposedly render such a foolish judgment? Or are YOU Adam (also) hiding behind a screen name? Let's find out if you have a brain or not. This forum is set up to discuss the sport. Those who make themselves public figures by reporting on the sport are included. Are you some sycophant who can't stand to see anything but praise directed to Adam Jacobs? Sorry, but I think his site and his journalism skills suck and guess what? I'm free to say so here without opening myself up to weirdo stalkers. One more thing, whether or not some fellow anonymous message board user things I'm a "man" is about the least of my concerns. What, are you going to give me your property and your wife if I prove to you that I'm a "man?" What are you, some kind of neanderthal shit-for-brains?

Glad You Are Pissed wrote:

Yes Mr. Insider, the AAC (or was that AAU) will back your friend Stephanie because she is black and female, as is the majority of the AAC.

See

http://www.usatf.org/about/directory/info.asp?parent=Administrative+Division&group=Athletes+Advisory+Committee

Now you are playing the race card. This is seriously ugly my friend.

That's what I thought. I feel sorry for you. Since your mother didn't give you enough nipple time when you were an infant, your social development has been stifled and you can't tell the difference between positive and negative reinforcement. It's not your fault, although you do need to seek therapy if you ever want to overcome your emotional shortcomings. Don't be ashamed to get help - it'll do you some good.

This was decided well in advance of this meeting. It's probably SOP for any time they have an Annual Meeting.

USATF hired an outside company to handle the balloting. No one involved with counting ballots is involved in any way with anyone at USATF, I believe great steps were taken to ensure there were no conflicts of interest there.

You need to read up more on what has been going on. If the USOC had their way, there would be NO democratic process within USATF. They did NOT want us to vote for our president and they felt strongly about that. The current board fought hard to maintain some democracy.

The voting process is an interesting one. Yes, each association only gets so many votes (12 per Association plus more if you have a certain number of members). But AAC has 100 votes. It is quite a big chunk. And each Association is supposed to have at least 20% athlete representation.

It is a strange system, yes, but it goes a long way toward making sure people who are voting are informed. I wouldn't want people voting who were using letsrun.com as their entire source of knowledge.

Weak.

This Hightower win is the disaster that USOC was trying to avoid. We can now look forward to Hightower and Logan going head to head on everything that USATF wants to accomplish.

Time to go to bed and forget about this.