Alan Abrahamson uses some pretty amazing double-backwards-reverse logic to claim that criticism by Lionel Leach (who is black) of Stephanie Hightower (who is also black) is motivated by racism. That is hardly credible.
Everyone who commented on Leach's letter recognized that his rhetoric was over the top, but that doesn't change the basic point, which is that Hightower is threatening to punish a committee chair for supporting a vote in favor of Hersh instead of her. Leach was entirely correct that she was bullying someone over and he was entirely correct to be concerned about it. The USATF is a membership-based organization with delegates who vote. They should be able to vote freely for what they think is best for the organization and not be bullied or threatened by leadership for voting the wrong way.
Those of you comparing this to a business and supporting "the boss" are just wrong. In business, the boss doesn't ask employees to vote on whether the boss should be chosen for a position. If the job of USATF delegates is to do what Hightower wants or be punished, then the whole business of voting is just a sham anyway.
Stephanie Hightower tries to bully Law & Legislation Secretary, gets called out by Lionel Leach
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Larry Eder from RunBlogRun weighs in: http://www.runblogrun.com/2015/03/controversy-continues-in-usa-track-field-it-needs-to-end-by-larry-eder.html
The Board of Directors needs to get outside of the meeting room, because, I can tell them, that there is trouble brewing. That the board did not figure out how a guy like Bob Hersh was respected when he had a vote of 392-70 is just ridiculous. I have been in the US, and Europe for six weeks. I can tell you that the USATF Board is being questioned by many on both sides of the pond. -
polevaultpower wrote:
Larry Eder from RunBlogRun weighs in: http://www.runblogrun.com/2015/03/controversy-continues-in-usa-track-field-it-needs-to-end-by-larry-eder.html
The Board of Directors needs to get outside of the meeting room, because, I can tell them, that there is trouble brewing. That the board did not figure out how a guy like Bob Hersh was respected when he had a vote of 392-70 is just ridiculous. I have been in the US, and Europe for six weeks. I can tell you that the USATF Board is being questioned by many on both sides of the pond.
I made it to NCAAs. I'm running behind on everything I wrote but I did get a response from Tim Baker. I asked him if he would speak on the phone. If not I said, "I am curious what you may have said or done to give Stephanie the
impression, "During the Annual Meeting, in your public statements and
committee activity, you were very outspoken and critical of decisions
made by the board and committees, and critical of the overall
direction of USATF."
Tim Baker wrote, "I don't have a clue about what she was talking about and you should ask her. You might note that she gives no specifics about anything I said or did. She only characterized my actions as negatives She also doesn't seem to understand what the Law and Legislation Committee Does. We try to bring peace to the warring factions in USATF. The fact the at L&L package was approved by a vote of 92 to 8% of the membership indicates that we did a pretty good job. The fact that Ms. Hightower was in the 8% should give her pause concerning where she stands. Also, she seems to suggest that since she appointed me to the Committee, I am required to speak and vote in favor of what she wants. I have been appointed by 4 different Presidents, and in the past it has always been understood that they expected me to do what was best for the organization. If she feels that I should be a puppet and she pulls the strings then she should terminate my appointment. I she does, I will continue to hold the positions I have held all along, and speak out as a member of USATF."
I have reached out to speak to Stephanie via Jill Geer and not heard from her. -
TrackCoach wrote:
Btw, I remember when people turned on Bill Roe, Logan and even Masback, therefore, maybe it is just natural thing for track & field people to not like whoever is in charge.
Masback was twice threatened by the USOC that the USATF would be decertified. He also sold the ship to Nike then abandoned ship in the middle of the knight to work for them. Masback is bad news. -
OK! Steph started this recent kerfuffel - we've heard now from Leach, Abrahmson, Baker & most everyone else. Steph, you get the last word. What's up? Stephanie, where are you?? Ms. Hightower, please finish what you started & DO NOT, as has been USATF's wont lately, come back to us in 6 to 9 mos. with a 'memo'. We are ALL waiting. Not just Lets Run posters, but readers of Runners World, T & F News, the IAAF….
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They Cant Even wrote:
As someone else typed on here, USATF can't even operate a decent up-to-date website. It's a baseline test of competence which they fail miserably.
Posted on Letsrun. -
There were two primary issues that took up the bulk of the open portion of the Board of Directors Meeting: Volunteer Communication Policy and IAAF Council Nominee.
This post will focus on the discussion regarding a volunteer communication policy.
Obviously this conversation was spurred by the mass email that youth chair Lionel Leach sent to the youth email list. The National Office has received many complaints about it and even a threat of legal action. The email allegedly was sent to some youth athletes. This has made the National Office aware that they need to better understand how the process works by which the various volunteer groups access and send emails.
This topic is of great interest to me personally as the Communications Chair for my Association. I agree that the National Office needs better awareness of the flow of communication and policies to make sure that communications that are associated with USATF are appropriate and up to their standards.
Anyway, so after Max and Larry gave a brief intro to the topic, Stephanie attempted to give more context to her email to Tim Baker. She said that she was reviewing her appointments to all committees, and checking in with the chairs of those committees to make sure their appointees were still active and such. So somehow this led to her wanting to have a conversation with Tim Baker. She said she tried to call Tim several times and could not reach him, so she sent the email.
While I have not personally contacted Jim Murphy (the L&L Committee Chair), I spoke with someone who has, and my understanding is that he is perfectly happy with Tim’s performance as L&L Secretary. I should ask Tim Baker if he ever missed any calls from Stephanie.
Stephanie made no statements indicating that Jim Murphy was unhappy with Tim Baker, however, by jumping immediately from “I contacted all committee chairs” to “I wanted to have a conversation with Tim Baker”, I think a lot of people in the room may have drawn that conclusion.
The conversation shifted back to the fallout from Lionel’s email. People have complained that they feel like their privacy was violated, that their private emails were used for a public discussion.
Max expressed concern about the legal exposure and the negative publicity. People assume that emails like this are coming from the National Office. This is not just a youth issue, Max recognizes that they need an overall policy to handle all of this.
Larry James (the Board’s legal counsel) said that he had about three pages of questions and was still adding more. Among other things, they need to address issues such as: Should all communication with members go through the National Office? When does a committee chair get to use USATF logos, letterhead, etc.
At this point they are simply trying to gather facts. They talked about putting together a Board of Directors Sub-Committee to work on this issue.
There was some discussion among various Board members, mostly repeating points that had already been made.
Stephanie emphasized that she did not want this to be an issue that drags on for a year. She also wondered about who had access to the information from people who sign up for events and what happened to it after the event.
Steve Miller wanted to make sure they did not create knee jerk legislation, he wants all encompassing legislation. He said that we all want transparency, but how do you interpret it?
Overall, I thought it was a great discussion.
