The real meeting begins

Sorry for being late with this afternoon's post, but instead of spending time working on the blog, I had dinner reservations at the Grand Floridian at 6:30 and stayed to watch the Magic Kingdom Fireworks from there. After the fireworks, we took the Shuttle to Disney Springs (which is across from the hotel), and it's possible we did a little shopping. 

So, it's now after 11 p.m. and I'm finally getting to work. 

The Governing Council was scheduled to start at 1:30, but some technical issues delayed it by about 30 minutes. The hotel has horrible cell reception, so U.S. Figure Skating got a wifi set-up for the meeting, and shared the information with the delegates at the start of the meeting (since we need service to vote electronically). But there was a request with password - please don't use the wifi for streaming.

 Amanda Evora Will, interim president, started the meeting and asked the crew to play a video with the highlights from Worlds held last month in Boston. About 10 seconds into the video, it started buffering and stalled out. When Amanda asked if they wanted to try again, the tech crew in the back of the room said a simple "no." 

Amanda thanked everyone for their support during her time serving in the role. While Nationals and Worlds were extremely successful events, the plane crash was devastating time and required so much of the leadership team. I'm sure she's relieved to come to the end of her service. 

One project the board is taking on in the coming year is updating the bylaws. It is obvious to everyone that our bylaws need an overhaul because there are sections that should be policies and not bylaws. Some bylaws also have problems with ambiguity that have caused issues this year. 

The major project this past year was choosing a new CEO. There were 21 initial candidates, then it was whittled down to 4 who came to Boston during Worlds, and then there were three finalists. There was a consensus in selecting Matt Farrell as our new CEO. Matt was in attendance and he gave a short introduction. He starts May 19.

Treasurer Vicki Hildebrand talked about the 2026 Budget. We rebounded from two bad years and will finish 2025 in the black. 2026 is budgeted to be breakeven since it's an Olympic Year and will have additional expenses. But we have to be realistic about the coming years with several potential challenges. The increasing cost of insurance, particularly for liability insurance for organizations that have high risk. Our media rights are expiring in June 2026. Travel costs are increasing and we're a very travel-heavy sport. And let's not forget, the economy is uncertain. 

We had the report from the Foundation, which had a PPT that was impossible to read. And perhaps had far too many details for the audience. Thankfully, a coffee break followed with both Coke & Pepsi products!

"And now, a word from a (new) sponsor"  O2X, human performance solutions. Their PPT was also impossible to read. 

Finally we got down to business - voting for the bylaw changes. There were four exhibits for changes and they were logical and not controversial. All four were accepted. The first was filling non-voting board vacancies, the second was the assignment of proxies for coach delegates, the third was to remove the Officials Training Committee and Domestic Officials Recruitment and Management Committee and create a new Domestic Officials Committee, and finally the fourth was to allow for flexibility when a deadline falls on a federal holiday or a weekend.

Next up was the committee reports. I was very surprised by the number of committee chairs who were not in attendance for Governing Council. And with the reports of the committee, come the isolated items. 

The first isolation asked to amend the new rule regarding the required Technical Element Score for Seniors qualifying for Sectionals. The amendment would spell out the process for replacing someone who didn't meet the requirement. The Singles Committee was open and appreciative and the amendment was accepted. 

The second isolation was cancel the amended rule that removed the restriction on coach test judges from being the minority on test panel.That isolation did not succeed. 

The final isolation was to delay that start of CJS replacing 6.0 events until July 2027. There was a lot of discussion around this topic and we used the full 15 minutes plus another five debating the pros and cons. Thankfully, the question was called and the vote took place. The proposal was not accepted and the plan to launch 6.0 with CJS will move forward with the go-live happening in July 2026. 

And that's it for now. See you tomorrow morning.