Nov 13 2015 Edition

What happened in the previous two weeks:

As just announced minutes ago, the 2017 USA Curling Men’s and Women’s National Championships will be held at Xfinity Arena in Everett, Wash. The bid was a joint effort between the Seattle Granite Curling Club and Snohomish County Sports Commission, and was supported by an $80,000 state tourism grant.
Scotland’s teams have now been confirmed for the Curling Night in America event being staged at Curl Mesabi in Eveleth, Minn., Dec. 3-5. NBC has appointed Tanith Belbin White (2006 Olympic silver medalist in ice dancing) as the “sideline reporter” for the nine programs that will air on NBCSN in January and February.
I have wrapped up interviews for the Deputy Manager position and will announce a hiring decision shortly.
USCA Head Ice Technician David Staveteig is working at the European Curling Championships (competition is Nov. 20-28) at the invitation of the World Curling Federation.
The Luc Violette team won the Youth Olympic Games Trials in Blaine, Minn., on Sunday.
Eight athletes were named to the USA Curling Wheelchair National Team following the conclusion of the World Team Trials at the Wausau (Wis.) Curling Club on Sunday.
Several U.S. teams competed in the Colonial Square Ladies Classic in Saskatoon, SK, last weekend, with the Erika Brown team reaching the quarterfinals. The men’s Red HPP Team (led by John Shuster) and women’s White Team (led by Jamie Sinclair) are both competing in The National Grand Slam this week. The men’s HPP Red Team won the Huron ReproGraphics Oil Heritage Classic in Sarnia, Ontario, earlier in November.
The online volunteer registration site for the 2016 Nationals in Jacksonville is scheduled to go live later today or early this weekend.
I’m working with USCA sponsor RAM Restaurant and Brewpub and Curl San Diego to see about arranging a company outing in February when Ram has its annual leadership conference in San Diego.
Chairman Rich Lepping and I had a teleconference with the USCA WCF representatives and WCF Director Andy Anderson to discuss the idea of asking the USCA Board of Directors to consider taking a definitive position on the controversial broom head technology, which you can read more about in this Washington Post article. At this point we are not pursuing this, but will be continuing to communicate with the USA Curling constituency about the WCF’s process and any further impact on USCA events. There will be a brief update included in the next U.S. Curling News.
The next U.S. Curling News print magazine is going to press later today.
Thirty-two people attended the Town Hall meeting by teleconference Nov. 5. Those speaking in addition to Chairman Rich Lepping and me were USCA AAC Chairman Allison Pottinger and National Team Coach Phill Drobnick.
I have been appointed to the USOC NGB Classification Working group to be able to provide input for the new classification system the USOC Sport Performance division is undertaking. This is important to the USCA because the USOC is moving away from the Foundation, Medal Opportunity and Development classifications to a system they say will create more transparency and clarity into what performance measures are necessary to receive support from the USOC. The USCA currently falls in the Medal Opportunity category. NGBs in the Development category receive minimal to zero funding.
I have signed a contract through 2019 with Life Wear Technologies as a new USCA sponsor. Executives of Life Wear have been introduced to the Panthers Curling Club to see about setting up a possible employee team building even to introduce them to curling firsthand.
A USCA fundraising campaign tied to the 2016 WFG Continental Cup was launched Nov. 6 and continues through Dec. 8^th.
The annual USCA audit began last week.
I had an exploratory call with a sponsor prospect in the sports medicine field recently and am working on a detailed proposal based upon the learnings from that call. USCA Athletic Trainer Brian McWilliams provided the introduction to this company.
The WCF Road to Olympics Tour was held at the Milwaukee (Wis.) Curling Club last weekend.

What’s up next week:

Chairman Rich Lepping and Director Chris Sjue will participate in recognition ceremonies for 2015 USA Curling Volunteer of the Year Darryl Horsman at Coyotes Curling Club in Tempe, Ariz., this weekend (and will also be playing in the Fall Fiesta open bonspiel there).
USOC 2016 International Relations Grant application deadline, Monday.
USCA Operations Group meeting, Tuesday.
WFG Continental Cup Media Event, Las Vegas, Thursday.

What’s coming two weeks from now (Nov. 22-28)

Meeting with The Orleans executives in Las Vegas for Burned Stone vodka sales and promotion planning.

Nov 13 2015 Edition

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