USAT's "Stay to Play" Policy -- you have got to be kidding
- Thread starter Bones
- Start date
Either he has done the Askinas 180 or they took it down to re-write the article without the comments below it. I did send the Esche letter to several board members. Who knows what happened. It is very typical with this staff.
Yes it is, I wonder if it is gone to remove all the negative comments or removed because they know it was not right. I guess we need to wait and see over the next couple of weeks.
Bottom line for me is that my kid gets on a plane in 2 days for a competition in Russia and thanks to the latest boneheaded move by the USAT, now that will likely be her big TKD trip of the year and we will find an alternative for our summer vacation even though we already had planned our route to see and do all the things we wanted to do both in Florida and along our way to and from.
I will rent a car with the agency I want, get a hotel through the means of my choosing, eat at the establishments that I find tasty and wipe my butt with the toilet paper that I like and the USAT will have no say in any of those choices.
I will rent a car with the agency I want, get a hotel through the means of my choosing, eat at the establishments that I find tasty and wipe my butt with the toilet paper that I like and the USAT will have no say in any of those choices.
Actually I wonder how they are going to police it. I would love to be as trusting as you, but I know these people - well. IMHO Some will get exemptions, some won't. Depends on who you are and who you know. Stupid thing is a great number of people stay at these hotels already because they are close or they think they are cheap. The problem is being forced to do it.
I am more wondering how it is economical to have a person(s) man the office to handle the requests...
Not to mention, it's an extra step one has to take.
When I make reservations for an even I don't consider having to check and recheck (rinse repeat) the internet for some bogus rules that throw my travel plans off. Weather, air traffic, yes, organizational rules? not so much.
Then again I foolishly assume these things would be set well before the season starts...
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Sometimes people just need to put the cart before the horse
I thought the message was pretty clear and the 3 possibilities for exemptions are:
If you already have a room elsewhere, let us know and we will see if we can add it to the list. If they can't add it to the list, I don't know what they will do with regards to forcing you to cancel your reservation or granting an exemption. But since I don't already have a room, I don't need to find out.
If you don't already have a room but want to get a room somewhere else, let them know and they will try to add the hotel of your choice to the approved list. If they can't then I don't know what they will do with regards to allowing a person to stay at the non-approved hotel or forcing them to choose from the list. I presume they will force you to get a room at an already approved hotel, based on the wording of the statement. But I was not planning on getting a room anyway. We were going to go the vacation rental way ourselves so this doesn't apply either.
If you live in the area and aren't in need of a hotel, let them know. Well I don't live in the area, and like John Esche's letter asks, exactly what radius around the convention center is considered "the area" anyway?
So why should I bother calling or e-mailing them? They have my phone number and e-mail address. If they want to clear something up with me, they know how to reach me by any number of methods.
Thank you for posting...I hope that you will continue to post...Allot of people on this BBS respect what you have done for TKD...I hope that you will continue to fight for the Rights of TKD athletes in the USA. And continue to hold the USAT accountable...We are all hoping for positive changes in USA TKD
I would not use the term kickback. to me kickback implies getting money back from a vendor and the only one who knows about it is the person getting the money. In this case it is pretty clear the USAT will be getting something for using THS.
If people feel this strongly about it they should not go. Just go to the AAU event held the same time. Then let the USAT know the reason you will not be comming and stick to it.
Wow. Seems like a new problem with USAT/WTF comes up on a weekly, sometimes daily basis.
Daniel
Daniel
Well I am going to the A.A.U. event in FT. Laurderdale and then I was driving up for a couple of my athletes one being my son, but now I was just told that they believe that if you do not have a Hotel room or an exemption than they believe you will not be able to compete, I cannot get the exemption because I already told them I did not have a Hotel romm but was driving in. I was also informed that the proceedure is being looked at again by the power to be.
The last thing I will say on this subject here is the member are suppose to have a voice which we do not anymore, secondly the USAT are doing everything possible to ruin what could be one of the strongest orgs. for competition, without the membership and all the little people they do not have enough money to run the NGB for the sport but maybe that by itself is a great thing.
Terry, I agree the USAT does need to improve on getting the members input. The only way to make that happen is to not go along with their decisions. If everyone stayed away from Juniors and Nationals one year that would get their attention.
Forgive - rebate is the correct term, kickback is what I feel today. When does the bleeding end? The grassroots have never been a priority with the USAT. At first it was, "we have to do this first, then we will get there." now it is "We have to take care of the Elite players first - membership still increases." Well it doesn't work that way. We now have 4 athletes who are getting stipends. Last year we had 4 athletes - and two of them failed to make the team. We started a U24 team as part of a sort of grassroots effort and IMHO screwed them over. This year the Elite Division was eliminated except for 14-32 black belts..... and on and on. We have a board member who "Firmly believes that the governance of this organization belongs to the Males. This is a male dominated sport and the men should handle the governance." We can't have a female Olympic Coach because there "isn't one who put someone on the team" and then we send a male buddy of certain people who never put anyone on the team and overlook a female who did.
I don't think you have to worry about this being the smallest JO's in history, I think that has already been insured.
Well once again USAT does not know what is going on, just got off the phne with a Austin he is an intern and knows nothing about anything, then this lady comes on and tell me that the only person with any authority about this is Mark kaufman and he is not available. When ask if I could talk to the head honcho I was no and that Mark would return my phone call when he has time. Well ain't that to know when he has time, forget about when I have time or if I will have time it is solely up to them about when they get back to you. My God I feel like I am a kid again waiting for daddys approval.
From the phone calls I have received, Mark does not do well at returning phone calls, but he answers text messages almost immediately. Contact me and I will give you the number#. You have no idea how many state presidents call me and ask for help since neither Mark or David (in their words) will return their calls. However, Mark is speedy on the text and twitter. Follow him on twitter. BTW - Mr. Esche received an answer from David - saying call me. I guess he doesn't want anything in writing that I can post
For those who want Mr. Kaufman's number - a lot of the old qualifier info packets and others have staff member cell numbers - so I consider them public domain.
For what its worth, this one is going to be simple....
I AM NOT GOING.
I was considering it, but now... mind made up. No one needs to go. I have no elite players, no future olympians, or hall of famers.
So for the price of going to the J.O.'s and seniors, we can attend all the local tournaments around between DC and NY and achieve the same goal.
I AM NOT GOING.
I was considering it, but now... mind made up. No one needs to go. I have no elite players, no future olympians, or hall of famers.
So for the price of going to the J.O.'s and seniors, we can attend all the local tournaments around between DC and NY and achieve the same goal.
I am sorry, how long were you "Grassroots Director" of USAT and how long has passed since you "resigned"? It would seem to me that what attention there was to grassroots people (however big or small) all fell apart under your watch as Director of Grassroots.
Please tell me, and others, exactly what good you have personally done over the past 5 years or so that you sat on the board, first as the chair and later as the grassroots director? Because frankly, I am not sure what you ever did, good or bad (other than oversee the destruction of what there was of a grassroots effort in the org.) Ohh, you handed my daughter her badge in Atlanta a few years back. Other than those 2 things, what did you accomplish during your years on the board?
