Vin Lananna being placed on "Administrative Leave" by USATF board!

I'm a clam too wrote:

all of us clams expected this

Does your babysitter know you are playing with her computer?

I have no idea what Stephanie has been doing behind the scenes, I am sure she 100% supports Steve Miller on this.

But this is Steve Miller leading the charge. He has been working to undermine Vin since the beginning, including giving Jeff Manning _many_ misleading quotes/information in the article that came out a few weeks ago.

And to be clear, the Board members are volunteers, they do not live in Indy or get paid by USATF. The Board meeting locations are not typically very exciting... They normally meet in-person 4 times per year. December at the Annual Meeting (that was in Columbus this year), USATF Indoors (typically Boston or ABQ), USATF Outdoors (typically Eugene, Sacramento or Des Moines) and then a fall meeting (usually Vegas or Indy).

There are perks to being on the board, but no one is doing it for the exciting destinations those meetings take you to.

Funny how things work out, eventually...

I, for one don't care for the man so he gets what he deserves.

vivalarepublica wrote:

That by-law doesn’t read like it requires any conditions for the board to determine that the president is temporarily unable to serve. The board can just determine that the president is temporarily unable to serve without needed it to be related to some incapacitation. If there is policy that states the intent of the by law, I would be less skeptical of that interpretation. But I think a legal interpretation is necessary to reach a more distinct conclusion.

The broader context is that both 10G and Virginia non-profit laws (USATF is incorporated in Virginia) make it really clear that the Board doesn't have the power to remove the President. Period.

The board is trying to get around the intent of the law by saying it is temporary. But it's clear to anyone with half a brain that there is nothing temporary about this. We all know that this investigation will be just like USADA's investigation of Salazar: It will drag on for years and there will never be an announcement that someone has been cleared.

What a NORMAL BUSINESS does (and Steve knows this since he is this genius businessman) is try to get the President to resign. Not that anyone could have convinced Vin to resign, but no one even TRIED prior to this meeting. That's the "right" way to handle this situation, if you think the President needs to be gone (which I do not personally think).

If trying to get the President to resign doesn't work, and you cannot wait until the next Annual Meeting in December, then the Board has the power to call an emergency meeting of the delegates. Which obviously they weren't interested in doing because they know damn well the delegates are not going to vote Vin out of office.

And FFS, it was bullshit to try and tackle all of this at this board meeting. The Board could have had a 3 hour conference call a week ago to hash out most of these issues, then met in-person for further discussion and the vote. It's really poor leadership by the Board Chair to turn this into such a clusterfuck that they were unable to even approve the minutes from the last minute, or allow there to be a treasurer's report.

Remember when Oregon won the 2011 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships without a course?! Haha- there is no collusion, no collusion.

The World According Vin is CRASHING!

I think you maybe are on to something.

Vin pushes the needle for change , makes people nervous with ideas of change.

Board does not want to upset the $$ apple cart that pays. Hightower as you recall was given her IAAF seat by the board overturning the peoples vote. ( there own insider with IAAF)

Until we get a forensic audit of funds, follow the money as they say, this board and executive committee will play games with the largely volunteer organization.

Maybe the DOJ's investigation will start something that can unearth the truth.

After looking at the broader context, yes, I agree with you there.

If you want Vin (a volunteer) to let go of TrackTown USA... then Max (a paid employee) should let go of his http://www.maxsiegelinc.com where he represents track athletes and https://www.matchbookcreative.com which does all of USATF's business. How is that not a COI?

Becca,

No one will see the financials until after USAs and USA JRs. The reason is that the N.O. had to pay a lot of monty to both Drake and Indiana to host the events. I would guess they are spending more than $500k for these two events (which are typically held at the same location at the same time). So, instead of hosting the events at a place that could potentially break even, they are paying two places to hold the meets... all while cutting the budgets for Youth and Para. Now please tell me how that makes any sense?

Lucky us... maybe there will be another lawsuit where USATF has to pay millions in lawyer fees and a potential settlement instead of supporting athletes. This is so exciting and the #1 reason I love this sport... the drama! Did they not learn anything from the Youth incident?

Board does not want to upset the $$ apple cart that pays

Isn't Nike the main apple cart? How would anything Vin does upset them?

I do agree though, Vin is probably making people nervous, and this is all a scam to get him out.

Get a Life wrote:

If you want Vin (a volunteer) to let go of TrackTown USA... then Max (a paid employee) should let go of his

http://www.maxsiegelinc.com

where he represents track athletes and

https://www.matchbookcreative.com

which does all of USATF's business. How is that not a COI?

Here comes the race card

sdfgkl;sdfg'd wrote:

I do agree though, Vin is probably making people nervous, and this is all a scam to get him out.

What is the threat according to the USATF board? Simply COI? Or, does Vin represent a threat to the establishment?... whatever that might mean. Vin seems to me, to be establishment. So ultimately, what is the inside beef?

Danny Dumbo wrote:

sdfgkl;sdfg'd wrote:

I do agree though, Vin is probably making people nervous, and this is all a scam to get him out.

What is the threat according to the USATF board? Simply COI? Or, does Vin represent a threat to the establishment?... whatever that might mean. Vin seems to me, to be establishment. So ultimately, what is the inside beef?

Vin is NOT establishment in this case. Vin represents "the people" in this context, and actually listens to them. He literally went on a "listening tour" all over the country.

Yes, Vin represents a threat to the powers that be.

Lawsuit? wrote:

Lucky us... maybe there will be another lawsuit where USATF has to pay millions in lawyer fees and a potential settlement instead of supporting athletes. This is so exciting and the #1 reason I love this sport... the drama! Did they not learn anything from the Youth incident?

NO. No they did not learn anything from the youth incident.

Here's what makes all of this a massive clusterfuck. Way worse than the youth situation...

About two weeks ago, the national office sent out a MASSIVE policy change. All volunteers at Association track meets (for all ages, even masters-only meets) will have to do the background check ($16) and SafeSport Training (90 minutes) and as of right now, this means you also have to buy a $30 USATF membership too.

It was a little vague exactly which events this was applicable to, but I believe it is any event where the Association is the LOC.

This isn't just certified officials. This is the dad raking the long jump pit, the boyfriend putting up the pole vault crossbar, the kids running the concession stand... That's what they want from us.

We JUST had the Annual Meeting and there was NO discussion of this. There was NO discussion with the Associations Executive Committee. This was national office employees with NO background in our sport making a BIG decision on their own.

They claim this is necessary to comply with USOC mandates, but I am confident we could tweak this to make it doable, and still be in compliance with what the USOC wants (and actually keeping kids safe).

So we have a double whammy. We have the National Office imposing regulations that many associations are simply unable to comply with. And then the Board abuses their power and removes the President that these same lowly worker bees voted in.

How do we even make it to December? This is exactly how you blow another $1 million in legal fees.

Someone needs to run against, and defeat Hightower when she runs for IAAF delegate in December. That gets her off the Board ...

What kind of a power trip is this guy Miller on? The guy’s been a head coach, athletic director, executive at Nike, and even adjunct professor at Oregon. Why is he 110% on the Stephanie side of things and acting like a tyrant?