USA Cycling Board Election, Open Cyclocross Positions Announced; CXM Gets Out The Vote, Encourages Candidacy

There are a whopping seven positions open on the USA Cycling Cyclocross Committee. Seven! Passionate cyclocrossers, this is your opportunity to have a voice and a role in shaping the sport we love.

Cyclocross Magazine wants to make sure that all of our readers — and potential candidates — can use Cyclocross Magazine as a sounding board during this “election season.” We want to see passionate cyclocrossers running for these open positions, and to build awareness of candidates and where they stand on the issues most important to them (and to supplement the information that will be available through USAC), we’re willing to post any candidate statements on our site and facilitate discussions with the candidates. Just email news [at] cxmagazine.com with a statement about yourself, why you’re running, and what you hope to accomplish. For more information about the positions available, see below.

Additionally, we encourage you to use the Cowbell Forums to talk about the issues that are important to you with cyclocross and USA Cycling. Even if you’re not running, it’s important that you make your voice heard.

Nominations will be open August 1st, voting begins on the 15th and ends on the 31st. Press release below. [Update: fixed USAC typo that listed UCI road race promotion as a requirement for UCI race director position]

USA Cycling Board approves bylaw and governance changes; Election process announced

Colorado Springs, Colorado – The USA Cycling Board of Directors approved the revised bylaws and final governance structure during its July 13 meeting with the changes being effective immediately. As previously announced in May of 2011, the USA Cycling Board of Directors approved a revised organizational governance structure with the goal of ensuring the bylaws and operating principles of the company accurately reflect the current business models of the sport today and for the foreseeable future. The new governance structure is designed to clarify roles and responsibilities and eliminate ambiguity in the original documents when USA Cycling, Inc. was created in 1995.

We started down this path nearly four years ago,” said Steve Johnson, CEO of USA Cycling. “During that time we have engaged in countless hours of dialogue that, quite frankly, has produced some of the most interesting and productive discussions of my tenure with USA Cycling. I think the board of directors and the trustees have done an absolutely remarkable job of reshaping the company to be more reflective of the current business trends in our sport as well as one that will be much more responsive to the needs of our various membership categories.”

More information, including a complete list of committees and vacant positions, the Amended and Restated Bylaws of USA Cycling, Inc. and the Second Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation, can be found on USA Cycling’s Governance webpage.

ELECTIONS

USA Cycling’s 2011 election cycle, which had been delayed pending board approval of the bylaws, will open for nominations on August 1 with elections beginning August 15. Members of their respective electorate groups will then be able to nominate and vote for qualified candidates under the revised governance structure. In all, 29 seats on seven different sport committees will be up for election with voting ending on August 31. As has been USA Cycling’s practice, voting will be conducted online through members’ “My USA Cycling” account.

Under the revised governance structure, which was developed by the USA Cycling board and staff over the past 16 months, the current five associations (USCF, NORBA, USPRO, BMXA and NCCA) will be replaced by seven sport specific committees: BMX, Pro, Collegiate, Cyclo-cross, Mountain Bike, Road, and Track.

“Giving each stakeholder group, including team managers and masters, a dedicated position should increase the interest in governance participation for all these groups,” explained Wayne Stetina, USCF representative and vice-president of the USA Cycling board of directors. “The further decision to split USCF into separate Road, Track and Cyclocross Sport Committees charged to work directly with USA Cycling staff to develop programs and rules for their specific disciplines provides greater opportunity than ever for future event and membership growth.”

“The new structure will allow each discipline’s stakeholders to have a stronger voice in how things are structured and regulated within the governing body of cycling in our country,” stated John Bucksbaum, USA Cycling Development Foundation representative to the Board of Directors. “These positive changes in governance will well serve the membership of USA Cycling for years to come.”

The new sport committees’ role will be to serve in an advisory capacity and work with USA Cycling staff to develop competition rules and consider issues relevant to their respective discipline. Each sport committee will also nominate and elect representatives to the USA Cycling Board of Directors. Under the new model, representation on all sport committees will be based on membership categories rather than by region. This structure will allow all of the stakeholders in our sport to have a more relevant and consistent role in the development and growth of each specific discipline.

Due to the recently approved governance changes by the USA Cycling board of directors, the previous election calendar was delayed and a transition plan developed to ensure the implementation of the new structure can begin with the 2011 election cycle. The USA Cycling board approved a transition plan guided by the fundamental philosophy of attempting to respect the remaining terms for all current association trustees. Based on input from affected associations, each trustee has been placed in a sport committee position for which they should otherwise be qualified for the remainder of their term, with the exception of those trustees whose terms expire in 2011. All vacant positions were then assigned a “term” designed to create a reasonable staggering of the committee members so that, in the future, only a few are being elected in any one year. The vacant positions will be filled in the 2011 election.

In all, 30 sport committee seats will be available in the 2011 election. USA Cycling will begin taking nominations for available sport committee seats on Aug. 1. Elections will open Aug. 15 and voting will be available for the specific electorate groups through Aug. 31 via their “My USA Cycling” account. Open positions may be filled only by members of the respective qualified candidate pool and voted upon by the appropriate electorate group as outlined below.

[Ed. note: non-cyclocross positions removed]

CX Committee Positions to be elected in 2011: 7*

*indicates additional Industry position will be nominated and elected by the committee

Following the sport committee elections, each committee will then elect representatives to the USA Cycling Board of Directors at a committee gathering in Colorado Springs in mid-October. Already elected directly from a pool of eligible athlete representatives, current athlete directors will retain their seat on the USA Cycling Board of Directors. Representative seats for the sport committees will be elected at the meeting in October.