The meeting was called to order at 9:26 am by Chairman Art Tokle.

Moved (Dodds, Lussi) to accept the minutes of the fall meeting held Saturday, October 6, 2007. Passed.

Financial report: Treasurer Doug Hoffman was unable to attend the meeting but suggested a phone conference. Tokle called his number on a cell phone, set in speaker phone mode, and a 25 minute report and discussion followed.

Hoffman started with a financial report that showed that we are solvent (details on request). Then he mentioned some of the major expenditures from the past year, including the special account for the Junior Olympic Team.

Next Hoffman moved to discuss a meeting that he had in March with Janet Bliss, Larry Stone, Matt Cook, and Ashleah Hoffman who has been doing our actual book-keeping and signing our checks for that last several years. Art Tokle had received a fax copy of the notes from that meeting. Changes in Hoffman's business structure as well as personnel changes in Eastern Ski Jumping demand some changes in how we do our business in the future:

1. With Larry Stone retired and his position filled by Casey Colby, the credit card previously in Larry's name must be changed to Casey and/or Matt Cook (the choice will be made by those two NYSEF coaches).

2. The JO account has a debit card used for in/out payments from parents for JO expenses. However, the JO account seems to have been rather loosely managed for some time.

3. Doug Hoffman's daughter Ashleah worked for Doug and has been doing the actual book-keeping and signing our checks, but Doug emphasized a need to name one person to deal with Ashleah so she wouldn't have to field requests and communications from various people, most of whom she doesn't know. The present chaotic situation pointed up the important part played by Marianne Fairall over a number of years as she not only drove the fund-raising, but also created a clearing house for income and expenditures.

4. Hoffman has combined his firm with another and can no longer provide Ashleah's services pro-bono, so we need to change the present arrangement.

5. Somehow we neglected to keep our tax-exempt status up to date (apparently some official letters were not properly received) and Nick Burke and Doug Hoffman have set to work to correct the situation. Nick reports that the status has now been re-establisted, but there is some question of the tax exempt status of donations made during the in-between period.

   [ Added May 13 -- Janet Bliss (a lawyer) has read these minutes and pointed out that ESJ&NC did not simply lose its tax exempt status. She wrote on May 12
   "ESJ&NC as a corporation was dissolved by the State of VT back a few years ago." and on May 13 "... we lost our corporate status; ie ESJ&NC was not a legal entity for several years."
   I hope that this clarifies the situation. DCW ]

6. In response to questions by Matt Cook, Doug Hoffman stated that neither he nor Ashleah should have the title of Treasurer of Eastern Ski Jumping.

The Committee agreed that we should still have our books looked over at least twice each year by a professional, and that perhaps Doug Hoffman might be willing to do that for us.

Nick Burke told us that we will need a new person residing in Vermont to be the official "Agent" of Eastern Ski Jumping & Nordic Combined, Inc., to receive official mail and see to it that the mail is properly responded to. Jon Farnham, who now lives in Putney VT, volunteered to take on this responsibility.
Moved (Stone, Dodds) that Jon Farnham be named the official "Agent" of Eastern Ski Jumping & Nordic Combined, Inc. Passed

This ended the long discussion of financial and corporate matters. We thank Doug and Ashleah Hoffman for their efforts, keeping track of our financial situation over the past several years, and also thank Nick Burke for dealing with our legal matters. Thank you Ashleah, Doug, and Nick!

Recruitment Video: Don West reminded the Committee that we had agreed it would be good to have a video available to help in exposing kids to our sport. Apparently some such videos already exist, one in the Central Division, which we might use. Joe Lamb mentioned that the new USSA Nordic Program Director John Farra, who recently replaced Luke Bodensteiner, might add a person to his staff with the job of aiding in club development. We need to work with Farra as he moves into his new position.

REPORTS FROM THE PAST SEASON

Eastern Development: Matt Cook reported on a plan to coordinate our jumping with cross country event in an effort to expose young racers to jumping. This was done in 2008 and Matt intends to continue it.
Cook also reported that the venue manager at the Lake Placid ski jumps has agreed to construct a new smaller ski jump, 6-10 meters, with plastic. The 18 meter jump is a bit too large for beginners and the new hill should fill the void.

In response to a question by Larry Stone regarding development at various Eastern clubs, it was agreed that the good snow in December helped attract new kids, but we could see growth only at Andover, Lebanon and Hanover. Perhaps it was simply because the other clubs were not represented at the meeting.
Tom Dodds suggested moving our high-profile junior competitions a bit later in the season because his small-hill jumpers don't really get going until the new year. This led into a discussion of combining the two upper valley programs (Hanover and Lebanon). Finally it was agreed that an actual "combining" was not the goal, but rather a coordination of the two schedules. Lebanon's snow making permits jumping to start there earlier and Hanover (Ford Sayre) should make early training at Lebanon an official part of its program. Conversely, the Hanover hills complement those in Lebanon (in-between sizes) and Lebanon should make training at Hanover part of their official program.

Equipment for beginners: Most clubs encourage beginners to jump first on their Alpine skis, but this leaves a considerable transition to make when the skiers first change to jumping skis. Apparently this transition is effectively eased by the intermediate use of Alpine bindings mounted on jumping skis.

Joe Lamb suggested the some decades ago, the Lake Placid junior program would begin its activities with dry-land training in October. Joe suggested that this would give the young athletes something ski jump related to do in the fall so they might not be diverted into hockey or other winter sports that start at similarly early dates.

This ended the broad discussion of junior program development.

Report on SuperTour and Continental Cup Skiing: Matt Cook suggested that Casey Colby (not present), who took the Eastern Teams to elite events, would really be the one to report on this subject. Matt did mention that Andrew Bliss stepped up has skiing and scored FIS points.

North American J-I & OJ Championships: This event was summarily moved to Whistler to give the Canadian organizers an opportunity to try out their brand new Olympic facility. Originally Lake Placid was named to host the Nor-Ams and there is still considerable chafing in the East over the change of venue. The event was difficult and showed that the Vancouver organizers were still at a very low point on their learning curve. However, the hills were in decent condition, especially considering the amount of snow that fell during the days and nights of the competition. The Canadian hosts folded in the Canadian National Championships which were also opened to U.S. jumpers. Chris Lamb won the Canadian title on the Normal Hill, and on the big hill, Nick Alexander was the top U.S. jumper, finishing in fourth place. [ See results ]

In the discussion that followed it was agreed that it spoiled the concept of a Nor-Am championship event for juniors when it was also made one of the qualifying events for the World Junior Team and therefore moved to early January. It was especially bad this time when the first qualifiers were in Lake Placid and the next followed on the other side of the continent about four days later! This issue should be pressed vigorously at the upcoming USSA Congress in Park City.

The discussion also revisited the idea of bringing older skiers back into the J-II JO event to give J-I skiers something to aim for through their season, including skiers not ready to compete on the 120 meter hill. The point of separating JO & Nor-Am was that the best Junior-I skiers should be skiing on 90 and 120 meter hills, preparing for international competition. Many J-I skiers simply are not ready for the big hills, especially in the early weeks of the season. Control of these decisions lies with the Athletic Development Committee of USSA, Todd Wilson chairman.

U.S. Nationals: Casey Colby took a team of five to Park City late in the season for the National Championships in both special jumping and Nordic combined skiing. In the special jumping, Eastern skiers on USST and Team-X took half of the top six places:

On the 90, Andrew Bliss was in fourth place after the first round, half a point from third. Colin Delaney put in a very good performance in the Nordic combined competition, passing ten competitors to finish in eighth place with the sixth fastest cross country time. On the previous day, Colin teamed with Bill Demong to win the SuperTour team sprint event. [ See Results ]

FIS Equipment Controls: Joe Lamb has been a member of the FIS committee which establishes rules controlling clothing and equipment for ski jumping. Joe asserted that our skiers must get familiar with the rules and be accustomed to equipment testing and, most important, they must be tested and know that they are in compliance before they get to a high level meet such as the National Championships.

Joe reported that this FIS committee in currently considering special equipment rules for Nordic combined competitors and for women, different from the rules for male special jumpers. Martina Lussi pointed out the importance of informing all competitors of the rules and any changes at the earliest possible time.

Masters Jumping: Don West reported that Masters ski jumping in the Eastern U.S. is the strongest that it has been in years, largely due to the development of an enthusiastic group of Old Boys in the Lebanon Outing Club. Eleven different names appear in Masters Class results at various 2008 Eastern meets. At the National Masters Championships at Norge (Chicago), one third of the competitors were Easterners, who brought home seven medals. At Norge, Don West was honored as the 23^rd inductee into the Masters Ski Jumpers Hall of Fame, which was established in 1988 by Earle Murphy. [ See Writeup & Results ]

At the Eastern Championships, Mark Breen outdistanced Matt McKenney and Jon Farnham to repeat as Eastern Masters champion and be the first to take home a new annual award to the Eastern Masters Champ, named in honor of Earle Murphy and Don West. [ See Results ]

At the end of February, Don West and Jack Gasienica (IMD) represented the U.S. at the World Masters Championships (IMC) and both brought home medals. [ See Writeup & Results ]

Nordic Officials: Art Tokle reported that the retirement of Galen Sayward and his son Mike Sayward as Eastern Nordic Officials, as well as the possible withdrawal of Dan Warner, weakens the East's team of officials, especially in the already thin list of experienced Technical Delegates. The Officials Association will meet during the Flaming Leaves weedend in Lake Placid.
Jon Farnham suggested running an officials clinic in the upper valley. Tokle and Peter Claus (Officials President) agreed that this might be done.

Schedule of Competitions and Training Camps

Summer Event: Matt Cook announced that he had made some changes to the preliminary schedule that he had circulated by e-mail.

Winter Schedule: Matt Cook did considerable work, contacting the jumping clubs to prepare a good tentative schedule. Matt read through the latest version of this schedule, week by week. During that discussion, and later in the day, a few changes were made. The most current schedule is posted. [ See Schedule ]

This year, the Eastern Nordic Kids Festival and the Lead Dog fun-meet were both folded into the annual Lions Club competition, which became a three-event competition with many participants of all stripes. Several members of the Committee expressed the opinion that this event, while it was great fun, subverted both the Nordic Kids competition and the competitive aspect of the Lions Club event. They suggested that it might be better to separate the Lions Club and Lead Dog events, perhaps running the former on Saturday and the fun-meet on Sunday.

LUNCH! The meeting was suspended at 12:11 pm for lunch which was brought and put out by Kim Farnham. A few members took time from lunch to talk business and brought the resulting proposals to the Committee in the afternoon session.

FIS Competitions in North America: Joe Lamb reported that FIS Cup and Continental Cup assignments had not yet been made, but that there was some hope to hold a Ladies Continental Cup event in Park City in December.
Also, tentative plans would have Nordic Combined World Cup-B coming in December to Steamboat, then Park City, and finally Vancouver.

Joe Lamb also mentioned plans to have the ladies involved in some of the World Cup competitions. This would involve preparing a second hill, the "Normal Hill" in addition to the Large Hill, which would provide a second hill as a backup in case of foul conditions.
Lamb also mentioned a desire in USSA to hold a Nordic Combined World Cup event before 2010.
The site is not yet chosen for the 2009 World Junior Nordic Championships.

SuperTour Schedule: This year, Steamboat had a high level Nordic Combined training camp and competition over the July 4 weekend, in direct conflict with the long running Fourth of July competition in Lake Placid. Matt Cook reported that Steamboat intends to have another such event this summer to be a SuperTour meet, and we don't know what the outcome will be for Lake Placid.
The Flaming Leaves SuperTour event seems secure.

Junior Olympics: The 2009 event will be in Alaska in early March, and several members questioned the appropriateness of Junior jumpers from all over the U.S. traveling all the way to Alaska every few years for JO's. It is especially hard (and expensive) for Eastern skiers and their families. In response to a question from Don West, yes, the Alaska organizers include some tourist events so that participants don't just go to ski, they also visit Alaska a bit.

North American J-I & OJ Championships: The site for 2009 Nor-Ams has not yet been chosen, but many members agreed that Lake Placid should be the host, given the way that their 2008 event was pulled away from them.

Kids Competition in Europe: It is anticipated that the Nordic Combined Summer Grand Prix event in Klingenthal GER will include boys and girls in their mid-teens.

Coordination with NENSA: Matt Cook is working to coordinate our junior jumping schedule with the New England Nordic Ski Association (NENSA) as a way to give exposure and perhaps to attract interest from some of the large number of kids now involved in cross country racing.

Miscellaneous Notes from Joe Lamb

Coaches Merry-Go-Round: Lasse Ottesen, jumping coach for the U.S. Nordic Combined Team will return to his native Norway as a coach. Dave Jarrett, who has been with the NC Team for several years, will assume the coaching duties.

Homeland Security: U.S. athletes competing abroad have run into trouble with a law forbidding U.S. citizens to be out of the country for more than 180 days per year.

Designs for Jumping Hills: The hill design committee is working to produce an entirely new set of specifications for jumping hills, involving very technical curves.

Great NC results: Bill Demong and Johnny Spillane had great seasons, with Bill finishing third in the World Cup standings.

New FIS Rule Book to appear this year. This happens every four years.

Women's Jumping: Many interested groups have joined to together to battle against the decision not to include women's jumping in Vancouver in 2010. The IOC has established a new event, a Youth Olympics for developing athletes, to run on even years between the traditional Olympic Games. The first such Winter Games will be in 2012 and Joe pushed hard in an FIS meeting to include women's jumping but finally had to withdraw his motion because he was far short of having enough votes. He did not want the record to show that the motion was voted down.
Now the best real hope seems to be having women in the 2014 Olympics.

(Team-X:) Larry Stone noted that the coach of the independent U.S. Jumping Team, Jochen Danneberg, has signed a contract to serve through 2010. In the present situation, it is not at all clear how many athletes, if any, will be sent to the 2010 Olympics, and how they will be selected. Larry noted that FIS has adopted new, stronger qualification requirements based on World Cup points, and that we may have only one or two athletes who meet the qualification standards.

Moving from Joe Lamb's comments to ...

Financial support for our representative at the Park City meetings (aka USSA Congress): We had already approved, by an e-mail vote, to support Matt Cook to attend the meetings plus a workshop to precede the meetings. His allowance was increased in this meeting.
Moved (Stone, Marianne Fairall) to grant $300 each to Art Tokle and to Matt Cook who will represent Eastern Ski Jumping at the upcoming USSA Congress in Park City. (Passed)

Fund Raising: The silent auction held in Salisbury brought in $3200. Credit goes mainly to Jennie Frenette, who was assisted by Martina Lussi and others, but apparently not enough others. Martina mentioned that more volunteers are needed to spread the effort a bit thinner. Thanks also to SWSA for providing time and venue for the auction.
Joe Lamb volunteered to support an Eastern Cup competition for Juniors with a donation of $1000. He will provide appropriate advertising signs to display on the outruns. Details will be ironed out with Matt Cook and others.

Eastern Division Coach: Our bylaws state that the Executive Committee of ESJ&NC consists of the four officers (Chairman, Vice-chairman, Secretary and Treasurer) plus the "Eastern Division Coach". Until now, that position was held by Larry Stone, but with Larry's retirement, we have a void. The two obvious choices are Matt Cook and Casey Colby, both NYSEF coaches. Matt suggested Casey's name, but with Casey not present to defend himself, the committee sent him home to work out the choice with between themselves. The Committee will abide by their decision.

CLUB NEWS
Andover Outing Club: Tim Norris reported that the Andover program is going along, with some facility maintenance and upgrades planned for this summer.

Harris Hill in Brattleboro: The Harris Hill group, which is in the middle of a complete rebuild of their jump, including a new steel tower, was not represented at the meeting. Joe Lamb has been in contact with Rex Bell, one of the prime movers in the project, who told Joe that he had worked first with Dr. Bland (see remark below), then with Reed Zuehlke, and finally with Kyle Gilbertson on designs for the new inrun. Joe made a quick visit to the construction site, but made no formal measurements.

Pat Howell has promised a written progress report on the new construction at Harris Hill. We will add it to these minutes when it is received.

Doc Bland has retired from his post as chief of jumping hill design for USSA and the suggestion was made that Gilbertson might be a good person to develop into a replacement.
In a related item, Lamb also mentioned that an FIS representative will be inspecting the jumps at Chicago (Norge), Westby and Ishpeming.

Lebanon Outing Club: Jon Farnham reported the LOC started the season with a financial defecit but ended with a surplus. He didn't explain why, but we know that we had a good snow year. Farnham said the weekly jumping sessions on the 23 meter jump (plastic surface) will begin soon.

Lake Placid: Last winter was the first time that the ORDA crew preparing the ski jumps had no members with a jumping background. It is the observation of this reporter that the crew did quite a good job on hill preparation. However, Matt Cook reported that they are working toward an agreement with the venue managers, Tony Carlino and Greg Stratford, to have the NYSEF coaches, Casey Colby, Matt Cook and Sean Burke, working alongside the ORDA crew in the coming winter. Presumably the idea is to pass along knowledge and ensure quality control.
Matt also mentioned that ORDA may be creating a new track setting system for the 90 meter inrun. Joe Lamb suggested that an alternative being considered is a refrigerated track. There are several competing designs but an approved refrigerated track is now required for World Cup competition.

The other clubs were not represented by this late stage of the meeting.

CLOSING REMARKS:

Larry Stone has retired from his coaching position and hence loses his position on the Eastern Committee. Considering his long experience, this would be a loss to Eastern jumping, and he volunteered to assist the Committee in various ways. His offer was enthusiastically accepted. It is not clear whether Larry will be a member of the Committee or the Executive Committee. Perhaps the appropriate status is Emeritus Member, though the bylaws do not permit a vote.

Joe Lamb, a member of the FIS committee which regulates equipment, suggests that young jumpers, Junior-II and down, be restricted to skis of length 1.43 x [body height], with no consideration of Body Mass Index (BMI).

The session ended with huge show of thanks and a standing ovation for Marianne Fairall for all she has done for ESJ&NC over the past several years. Cheers for Marianne!

The fall meeting of this Board will be held on October 11 at 7:00 pm at the Olympic Training center (OTC, room TBA) in Lake Placid. This of course is in conjunction with the Flaming Leaves ski jumping.

Moved (Farnham, Lussi) to adjourn the meeting. Passed. The meeting was adjourned at 2:05 pm.

Respectfully submitted, Don West (Secretary).