All-Star Ideal Governing Organization

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ASCheerMan said:
Can you ironically wear them? How does that work? What's different than just wearing them... othern than it not being 1984.
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Fierceboard is slowly becoming self run. Just a matter of finding the right rules and adjustments to not need constant moderation (though some will always be required).
 
BlueCat said:
I think most would agree that the USASF has done some great things and had a few missteps along the way. There have been a few tentative steps toward restructuring and transparency, and they appear to be at least hearing SOME of the complaints out there. However, any change basically requires the people currently in power to give up some of that power. That is difficult to achieve in the best of circumstances.

As a purely hypothetical exercise, what should the ideal governing body for all star cheer look like?
  1. What would be it's main priorities? (specifics - not just a generic mission statement)
  2. Who (or what type of people) should be in charge?
  3. What should be the mechanism (if any) for rotating people in and out of "power". (voting? certain groups have permanent seats? Who gets to nominate new officers? etc.)
  4. How much of the financial and other "inner" workings of the organization would be made public?
  5. Which (if any) meetings and votes should be public and which should be secret?
  6. What limits (if any) would you put on the amount of power/influence that the group would have overall?
  7. What limits (if any) would be put on any individuals and the amount of time they can serve in positions of power?
  8. What limits (if any) should the organization be able to put on critical opinions of their policies?
  9. What controls (if any) should they have over where/when/what type of events EPs can have?
  10. What controls (if any) should they have over coaches? gym owners? athletes?
  11. How should this organization be funded?
Please try to be as realistic with your answers as possible.
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I am going to start with the most important part to me: autonomy. The head and top of the organization can have no ties to the outcomes for the rules it makes as individuals, but only concern themselves with what rules and regulations means for the sport as a whole. I am not 100% sure of every single piece of regulation that would be needed to make that happen (such as what tax legal entity is required or who all the startup loan money has to come from) but if we all decided that the main requirement before creating the new government was it needed no controlling or direct outside influence I think the rest would take care of itself.

1. Any controlling government / organization should create the framework for how things should operate, and let them flourish from there. There should not be micromanagement of every situation, nor should it be needed if constructed properly. Then it should have three main goals: police force (to make sure the rules are followed), rules people, and growth of the sport.

2. The main governing body should be run by people who understand cheerleading, but have as little connection to the rules that they create affect. A gym owner cannot also run this governing body because he is going to create rules that are more biased to gyms (and specifically his gym) than say parents, EPs, or just coaches. These people exist, but usually have left cheer because they went on to pursue 'real world' jobs because they pay more. It must be understood people would have to be well compensated for this job to get the talent needed to run the organization. The second tier below these people should be run by rotating committees to represent all the different factions of cheer. The EP's, gyms, coaches, parents, athletes, music, chor, vendors, all of them. I would make the governing body the executive branch. The consumers (gyms, coaches, and parents) the house and the producers (EP's music chor, and vendors) the senate.

3. Power needs to be rotated in a staggered manner (meaning not everyone is 'replaced' at once). President needs to be voted in but willing to give up any connection to any outside cheer organization (a gym owner gives up his gym). The rest could be rotated through by voting of their peers. EP's could vote on who represents them, gym owners vote on who represents them, and so forth. 4 year tenures where 50% are exchanged out every 2 years would allow for a culture to exist, but rotate people through.

4. All that is required of a 501c3

5. All voting should be done publicly. When you are forced to explain and show your actions you tend to make better choices.

6. Tough question. I think if the mission statement is right, this wont present as much a problem (but will always be percieved as too much power by some).

7. Everyone except the president can run indefinitely, but not for consecutive terms. The president I havent figured out yet. That position requires sacrifice to be voted in an out. I may be rethinking what the president does exactly. Perhaps the president is only a tiebreaker?

8. If the organization would release rules at least one year before they take affect, and after crowd sourcing different drafts, public opinion should not have as strong an influence on what happens. Some times I think it is silly a message board has as much power as it does.

9. No specific controls should exist to limit an individual event, but some general ground rules laid to allow events to exist, and from there the EPs figure the rest out.

10. Same answer as 9.

11. Endowment to be raised by gym's, eps, parents, and vendors. Let's setup a kickstarter type thing with no end date, a number to fund to, and start raising. Allow gym owners to start raising, EP's to start raising, everyone. Allow the amount donated to be anonymous if someone so chooses, but public if they want (no inbetween... so some would know how much was donated but not everyone). This would mean no ties to anything. At the end have dues to all to be member to cover operating costs.
 
kingston said:
I am going to start with the most important part to me: autonomy. The head and top of the organization can have no ties to the outcomes for the rules it makes as individuals, but only concern themselves with what rules and regulations means for the sport as a whole. I am not 100% sure of every single piece of regulation that would be needed to make that happen (such as what tax legal entity is required or who all the startup loan money has to come from) but if we all decided that the main requirement before creating the new government was it needed no controlling or direct outside influence I think the rest would take care of itself.

1. Any controlling government / organization should create the framework for how things should operate, and let them flourish from there. There should not be micromanagement of every situation, nor should it be needed if constructed properly. Then it should have three main goals: police force (to make sure the rules are followed), rules people, and growth of the sport.

2. The main governing body should be run by people who understand cheerleading, but have as little connection to the rules that they create affect. A gym owner cannot also run this governing body because he is going to create rules that are more biased to gyms (and specifically his gym) than say parents, EPs, or just coaches. These people exist, but usually have left cheer because they went on to pursue 'real world' jobs because they pay more. It must be understood people would have to be well compensated for this job to get the talent needed to run the organization. The second tier below these people should be run by rotating committees to represent all the different factions of cheer. The EP's, gyms, coaches, parents, athletes, music, chor, vendors, all of them. I would make the governing body the executive branch. The consumers (gyms, coaches, and parents) the house and the producers (EP's music chor, and vendors) the senate.

3. Power needs to be rotated in a staggered manner (meaning not everyone is 'replaced' at once). President needs to be voted in but willing to give up any connection to any outside cheer organization (a gym owner gives up his gym). The rest could be rotated through by voting of their peers. EP's could vote on who represents them, gym owners vote on who represents them, and so forth. 4 year tenures where 50% are exchanged out every 2 years would allow for a culture to exist, but rotate people through.

4. All that is required of a 501c3

5. All voting should be done publicly. When you are forced to explain and show your actions you tend to make better choices.

6. Tough question. I think if the mission statement is right, this wont present as much a problem (but will always be percieved as too much power by some).

7. Everyone except the president can run indefinitely, but not for consecutive terms. The president I havent figured out yet. That position requires sacrifice to be voted in an out. I may be rethinking what the president does exactly. Perhaps the president is only a tiebreaker?

8. If the organization would release rules at least one year before they take affect, and after crowd sourcing different drafts, public opinion should not have as strong an influence on what happens. Some times I think it is silly a message board has as much power as it does.

9. No specific controls should exist to limit an individual event, but some general ground rules laid to allow events to exist, and from there the EPs figure the rest out.

10. Same answer as 9.

11. Endowment to be raised by gym's, eps, parents, and vendors. Let's setup a kickstarter type thing with no end date, a number to fund to, and start raising. Allow gym owners to start raising, EP's to start raising, everyone. Allow the amount donated to be anonymous if someone so chooses, but public if they want (no inbetween... so some would know how much was donated but not everyone). This would mean no ties to anything. At the end have dues to all to be member to cover operating costs.
Click to expand...

This is the best post I have seen in a long time.

It is tough to know how to proceed at this point. There are some great people doing great things within the USASF. However, the way some things have been set up (or evolved) is incredibly flawed and show no signs of meaningful change.
 
Crazy idea: kickstarter that raises all the money to pay off varsity loan and pays to have a new company filed as a 501c3 called the USASF, all current rights positions employees and contacts come over. So same situation but no loan and nonprofit. People can donate and not enough raised wouldn't charge anyone.
 
kingston is always amazes how much we think alike.

Cheer needs to eventually get to where it is a youth sport which is properly supported by an industry, not run by it. Unbiased, credible, accountable, transparent would be some qualities that should be clearly visible.

BlueCat I feel membership is the key. I am on the USASF Parent Action Committee and believe in it's purpose so I don't think there should be any immediate mutinies to create change. That would be destructive, rather than constructive. The current membership and anyone else who wants a voice should be able to go to the current governing body and request changes to be made in an organized manner. If they don't want to make changes in a reasonable time period then the membership has an obligation to the sport to seek the change elsewhere.
 
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