I have just finished a series of articles on how the USHPA should proceed with its process of revamping the competition system to encourage more participation by USHPA members in competition. Each one of these articles went out as a separate email to all of the USHPA directors and interested parties to encourage them to think about the issues.

It is clear from my articles that what I want is an open and transparent process. Something that would invite the interested parties among the membership to participate up front and develop a consensus proposal that would go to the BOD in the Fall. Something that was inclusive (in the same vein that the Competition Workgroup wants to encourage inclusiveness in competition).

I have asked the Competition Workgroup to email worksheets to all the identified interested parties (those who submitted comments to their proposals) that will allow them to test various scenarios for meet valuation based on past competitions. This would be very easy to do.

I have been told that this will never happen. That the Competition Workgroup is committed to working in secret and will not be opening up their process in any way. That they will come back to the Fall BOD with their existing proposal and attempt to ram it through the BOD without any alternate proposals being considered.

I do not know if this is true, but I certainly hope that it is not. But if this is in fact the direction that they are likely to take, I would ask your help in stopping it before it becomes true.

I ask you (especially all the Regional Directors who are receiving this as an email) to ask Mike Haley <<email>>, Lisa Tate <<email>>, and Riss Estes <<email>> now to not come back to the board with a proposal for changes in the competition system, unless it is a consensus proposal developed by a recognized open and transparent process. I ask Regional Directors to not support any proposal that has not been reached by this process, and to make it clear now (before it gets to the BOD) that you will not support any such proposal.

The USHPA membership needs to feel that there is a high standard of good BOD governance going on at the USHPA and without this transparency I don't believe that that will be possible.