September 30, 2016 Edition

What happened in the previous two weeks:
Inside the curling world

• The registration deadline for the USA Curling Members’ Assembly in Tempe, Ariz., has been extended to Monday, Oct. 3. Jack Lengyel will be the keynote speaker. Lengyel has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in college athletics, with the most famous being when he rebuilt the Marshall University football program and community following a tragic airline crash in 1970 that claimed the lives of 75 people, including the Marshall Varsity football team, administrators, staff and boosters.
• Monday is also the deadline for the nomination process for election of the next USCA Athlete’s Advisory Council representative to the USOC, which is a four-year term limited to athletes who meet the “10-year athlete” eligibility criteria.
• The agendas for the Members’ Assembly and Board of Directors meeting are being finalized and will be distributed by early next week. Operational reports to the Board will be distributed by Wednesday at the latest.
• The ad hoc Membership Committee met again by teleconference this week and is preparing a proposal for reduced first-time membership dues for consideration at the upcoming meetings.
• All national office staff members are currently participating in 360-degree feedback outreach as part of our ongoing professional development and staff evaluation work with Team8 Assessments. This project is funded by a staff development grant from the USOC.
• A learn-to-curl session for injured service members will be held Oct. 10 at the Green Bay (Wis). Curling Club. This clinic is supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
• Pete Fenson and Patrick McDonald have been nominated to the World Curling Federation Athletes Commission.
• The Denver Curling Club will be hosting a WCF Olympic Celebration Tour stop Oct. 21-23, with 2006 Olympic bronze medalist Shannon Kleibrink from Canada participating. The WCF is seeking additional U.S. clubs interested in hosting the OCT this season. Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more details.
• Several more USCA Instructor training and certification courses have been scheduled for this fall.
• The Utah Olympic Oval Curling Club has been accepted as a member of MOPAC, triggering formal recognition as a USCA provisional member, and action on the club’s full membership application at the upcoming Members’ Assembly.

Communications/PR

• The next edition of the U.S. Curling News is going to press now, and the 2016-17 USCA Media Guide/Directory will be going to press early next week. Both are major projects handled by Terry Davis.
• An article on curling, written by Terry, appears in the September issue of Rink Rat, the North East Ice Skating Managers Association magazine. Chairman Rich Lepping and Committee Member Russ Lemcke have been facilitating greater collaboration with this association of multi-use ice rinks.

Events & Television

• The fourth annual Hawaii Charity Curling Classic takes place next Wednesday-Thursday in Honolulu, with Olympians Debbie McCormick and Shawn Rojeski as the featured athletes. This fundraiser has contributed $75,000 to the USCA in its first three years, along with supporting Honolulu charitable causes selected by American Savings Bank.
• A site visit has been scheduled for Nov. 3-4 in Omaha, Neb., location of the 2018 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Curling, with representatives from the U.S. Olympic Committee and NBC.
• Last week Doug Pottinger, the USCA’s Athletes Advisory Council representative to the USOC, and I attended the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Assembly in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Grants/Sponsorships/Revenue Development

• We are ironing out the terms of agreement with Ki Mobility to become the newest USCA sponsor of our Paralympic program.
• Renewed efforts are underway to host a charity fundraising event with an NHL hockey team.
• Progress has been painfully slow, but Hawley MacLean and I are doggedly continuing to pursue the development of a mobile water treatment system with DOW for the USCA ice technicians to be able to use at championship events. We have a call on Oct. 4 with DOW and a potential equipment manufacturing partner.
• The U.S. Olympic Committee marketing department has verbally committed to a proposal we put together for an interactive curling exhibit (Street Curling) to be part of the USOC’s Road to PyeongChang traveling pep rally. The proposal calls for a mixture of cash and VIK benefits to the USCA.
• I am working on a combined sponsorship pitch with a summer sport to a corporate prospect that would align well strategically with both of our organizations.
• Longtime sponsor Hilton Hotels is ending its sponsorship of the U.S. Olympic Committee and Team USA at the end of 2016. The USOC is aggressively pursuing a new hotel category sponsor.
• The USCA Revenue Development Committee discussed many projects and ideas in its recent teleconference, including  grant research and solicitation services; feedback on a proposed effort by several NGBs to share in fundraising staff and efforts; and the design and implementation of a new donor solicitation and recognition program.

Competitive Programs

• Four more athletes have been invited to the 2016-17 National Wheelchair Team Trials following a pre-trials event held at the U.S. Olympic Training Site in Blaine, Minn., last week. There will be 14 athletes in all at the Trials, set for Nov. 3-6 in Wausau, Wis.
• The HPP women’s White team, led by Cory Christensen, reached the semifinals of the KW Fall Classic World Curling Tour event in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario.
• HPP women’s Red team, led by Nina Roth, is competing in the Prestige Hotels and Resorts Curling Classic WCT event in Vernon, B.C.
• Several U.S. teams are competing in the Canad Inns Mixed Doubles Classic in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, this week. This event is one of a growing number of mixed doubles events being added to curling tours across the world.
• Kim Nawyn and Christy Hering participated in a half-day SafeSport workshop by webinar/teleconference last week. This is part of the planning and education process as the USOC prepares to externalize its SafeSport program in January 2017, when the new U.S. Center for SafeSport will launch.
• The Competitions Committee met by teleconference last week to review and discuss appointments for officials for the 2016-17 season for USCA events. Announcements will be made soon.

What’s up next week:                     

• Water treatment solution teleconference with DOW, Tuesday.
• ACES monthly teleconference, Wednesday.
• Fourth annual Hawaii Charity Curling Classic, Wednesday-Thursday, Honolulu.

What’s coming two weeks from now (Oct. 9-15, 2016):

• Curling Night in America site visit, Duluth, Minn., Oct. 11-12.
• USOC Diversity Champions Quarterly Meeting, Oct. 13.
• USCA Members’ Assembly and Board of Directors meeting, Oct. 13-16, Tempe, Ariz.
• World Mixed Championship begins Oct 15, in Kazan, Rassia.