Members on the Call: Chuck Graziano, Chair, Tim Yount, Staff, Jeff Matlow, Board Liaison, Tom Manzi

The meeting was called to order at 8:03 PM

Hall of Fame Status: The Selection Committee is at work verifying that those nominated thus far meet the criteria set forth in the Hall of Fame Policy. There are 29 nominees so far. The time frame is that nominations are accepted through May 31st, the Selection Committee completes its review and forwards the verified nominees to the Voting Committee by June 30th, the Voting Committee votes on the inductees for 2008 by July 31st and the induction takes place at Congress in September.

Tim suggested that the company that did the awards for the top three finishers at the Olympic Qualifier be used to for this award. Tim described the award that the company produced and all agreed that this first group of inductees should receive something that is first rate. Tim will forward the information to Jim Donaldson.

Town Hall Meeting: Chuck discussed the transition of the Town Hall Meeting to a meeting that is convened by the Board of Directors and which serves the purpose of and meets the criteria for our Annual Meeting. The committee discussed how the AGC can be involved with the process since historically the AGC hosted this meeting and inasmuch as it is normally conducted at the Age Group National Championship.

Given all that is taking place during the weekend of Nationals this year including the USAT Congress, National Age Group Championship, Awards Ceremony for the race, Athletes of the Year Awards, Hall of Fame induction, banquet, Art and Science Symposium and the Board Meeting, it was felt that this meeting was going to be a tough squeeze. Jeff Matlow will discuss with the Board and let the AGC know the outcome of discussions.

Chuck suggested that the “Annual Meeting” could be combined with another element of the weekend that would draw a large percentage of those present, but the business portion could be kept to a brief report in order to meet the requirement of holding the Annual Meeting. Tim expressed that the AGC should still have significant involvement in view of its history and the relationship of the AGC to the National AG Championship.

Athlete of the Year Status: The committee discussed ordering awards for the recipients as an Athlete of the Year. Several options were discussed and it was the consensus to have Tim send our information to the artist that USAT is using to come up with a concept for us to consider in the $50 to $60 per award price range in order to stay within budget. The award would follow the concept of having the sports icons as a prominent part of the award.

In terms of Athletes of the Year for 2008, the process that the AGC is following is to hire Jerry MacNeil as our consultant and use as “raw data” the information available from our National Rankings. Chuck indicated that Lee Zohlman has spoken to Jerry and he has a commitment that Jerry’s preliminary report can be ready immediately following Ironman Florida 70.3 Championship (by approximately November 19th) and the AGC subcommittee could schedule a conference call shortly thereafter to vote on the award recipients.

Tim indicated that the announcement of recipients would not be published in the magazine’s first issue of 2009, since the deadline for publication is October 19th, with a mailing in December. We will be able to use our other communications mediums to make the announcement, however (Membership eblast, web site, etc.).

Strategic Planning Committee: Chuck discussed the fact that he is participating as a member of the USAT Strategic Planning Committee and specifically has responsibility for the Coaches as an interest group. Although he has put out a request for comment on the coaches Yahoo site on two occasions, he has only gotten back a very small handful of comments from 704 members of the site. This, Chuck believed, may be an indicator that coaches are generally satisfied with what they’re receiving from USAT, although the comments that he did get back reflected a common thread that the coaches were looking for more localized continuing education opportunities. As far as the AGC is concerned, Chuck put out an invitation for anyone on the AGC to comment on what they think USAT should be doing in the coming 5 years to best plan for the future direction of the federation..

Other Matters: Tim mentioned that an issue that the AGC might consider is the way in which All Americans are determined, specifically with respect to the National Age Group Championship. In the past, the top 10 finishers in each age group were designated All Americans, but that this designation was also linked to the designees placement in the national rankings. For some reason, the National Championship element dropped out of the process and the All Americans were solely selected from the top 5% of their age group in the National Rankings, with Honorable Mentions being the top 10%. The question for the AGC to consider is whether or not the National Championship element should be restored.

Adjournment: There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:01 PM. The next regularly scheduled conference call will be held on July 8th  at 8:00 EDT.