NEW MISSION, NEW FORM, NEW FOCUS

THE NEW USROWING! 

• Responsiveness • Fiscal Responsibility • Transparency • Efficiency • Change •

Does USRowing come to mind when you read these words?  Well . . . 

Should they? Yes -- and USRowing is working hard to make that happen.

On August 22, 2008, over 98% of the voting Organizational members approved the new governance structure for USRowing in the form of the new Bylaws.  The new USRowing Bylaws will replace the current Constitution and Bylaws on January 1, 2009.  This is an important milestone on the road to the New USRowing.

A Bit of Background . . .

In 2004, the Board of Directors undertook a top-to-bottom review of USRowing, with a primary aim of improving the organization’s performance – at all levels. Four years and thousands of people-hours later, USRowing has prepared a plan – with three components – to accomplish this: a New Mission, a New Form and a New Focus.

New Mission Statement

Complex, hard to follow, and even harder to implement and measure, USRowing’s former mission statement was ready for a remake. In 2005, the USRowing Board of Directors reformulated and adopted a new, simpler and more focused mission statement.

New Form

Next, the Board of Directors evaluated whether, in its current form, the Board and the current USRowing committees could effectively implement the New Mission. Quickly realizing that the current governance model had exhausted its utility, in 2006, the Board adopted the “best practices” model for non-profit governance, the Carver Model of Governance, which tasks the Board of Directors with developing “the ends” (or policies) and makes the Chief Executive Officer and the organization’s staff and committees accountable for developing “the means” (or the plans) to implement the Board’s “ends.”

2006: Board Downsizes

In keeping with the Carver Model and in order to improve its efficiency, the Board decreased its size from 18 members to 12 members by eliminating six of 12 regional representative positions. The Board also added staggered terms to improve institutional history. 

2006: Board Appoints Governance Task Force

The USRowing Constitution and Bylaws had repeatedly proved themselves to be outdated, inconsistent with Pennsylvania law and the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act (TSOASA), internally inconsistent and a hindrance to effective organizational leadership. The Board assembled the Governance Task Force (GTF), a group of key stakeholders from the USRowing community, and tasked the it with rewriting the Constitution and Bylaws to embody the Carver model and to enable USRowing to implement its New Mission. 

2007: Board Restructures Referee Committee

Last summer, the Board voted to accept the recommendations of the Governance Task Force to restructure the Referee Committee by decreasing its size from nine to five members, separating the Committee into a policy body (the Committee) and an implementation body (regional reps), and substituting three at-large members, one regional referee coordinator member, and one athlete member. The newly-constituted Referee Committee has been active and successful since that time.

New Bylaws

On August 22, 2008, the organizational membership approved the new Bylaws. They will go into effect on January 1, 2009, replacing both the current Constitution and the current Bylaws. The new Bylaws enable USRowing to adopt the Carver Model. The major points of the new Bylaws are:

Structure of Committees

• uniformity (size, election process, composition)
• decrease size
• 20% athlete representation 
• appointment of at-large member and committee chair 
• appointment of chair

Other

• decrease quorum in line with non-profit best practices
• add at-large board members

New Focus

With the New Mission and New Form in place, USRowing will be able to implement its New Focus – on you, the rowers, coaches, and officials.

The New Mission, New Form, New Focus are critical to enabling USRowing in becoming the membership service organization your Board and staff know you want. The Board of Directors expresses its gratitude for all of those who played a role in the evolution of USRowing, especially the Organizational members who endorsed the change by approving the new Bylaws.

For more information on the governance changes, please contact a member of the Board of Directors. Our contact information can be found in the “Contact Us” section of the USRowing Web site) or click here.