Vin Lananna being placed on "Administrative Leave" by USATF board!

pop_pop!_v2.2.1 wrote:

B Mueller wrote:

I would swear their mission statement is to enrich a few executives, to provide lavish boondoggles for their friends

That pretty much sums it up.

This can be applied to virtually any political position. And yes, USATF can be considered a political entity.

Becca Gilespy Peter has a great post on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/162889787132224/permalink/1629141503840371/

In it she says the whole the Board can appoint someone to be the head if the President can't serve temporarily is clearly designed for something like an illness or car crash where the PResident is in a coma and physcially can't serve. Here, they say there is no wrongdoing but he's not serving anyways.

I was at the Board Meeting yesterday... well kind of.

The "Board Meeting" began 9am by kicking the guests out due to a SafeSport hearing that was not technically part of the actual Board Meeting. That's fine.

That lasted maybe 45 minutes or so, then we were let back in. Instead of following the usual order of things on the Agenda, we jumped right to some unfinished business from the last meeting (voting in NSAF as a 5-D member), then Thom Confer had asked to address the board about para athletics, so he did.

Then the board went into executive session, with the assurance that we would go back into open session after.

I never got a copy of the agenda, but normally anything requiring executive session is the last thing. All business that can be handled in the open part of the meeting is done first.

The board then met in executive session for well over 3 hours. I stuck it out, as did Thom, everyone else who had wanted to attend ended up leaving.

Just before 2pm we were informed by USATF security that the meeting had adjourned while in executive session because they ran out of time, people had flights to catch and such. There was no information about what they had discussed in executive session or what the outcome was.

Here is some of the business the Board normally conducts that did not happen yesterday: Approval of minutes from previous meeting, Chair's report, President's report, IAAF report, CEO's report, financial report, etc.

It's not always gripping stuff, but it is important. The financial report was of particular interest to me because there have been multiple signs of cash flow problems at our national office (very late checks, budgets and programs cut, etc).

So after the meeting adjourned were were told we could go back to the room. I did. I asked the national office if I could get a copy of the financial report. They said no. No financial report will be made available until the next in-person board meeting, scheduled for June.

Vin had no knowledge or forewarning of this. Uhhh NORMALLY in these sorts of circumstances, people work behind the scenes to get someone to resign. I am confident that no one tried to get Vin to resign.

The Board does not have the power to _remove_ the President. If the Board wants to remove the President before the Annual Meeting, they have to call a special meeting of the delegates and the delegates have to vote by a 2/3 majority to remove the President. That never would have happened here, the delegates elected Vin and are still salty that the Board overruled their vote on IAAF Council representative.

So the Board abused article 10F of our bylaws:

"F. Succession and vacancies: There shall be no order of succession to any office. If the Board determines that the President is temporarily unable to serve, it may, in its sole discretion, name another individual to fill the vacancy temporarily. The Board shall fill temporary or permanent vacancies for Board Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, or Treasurer. If the President resigns or is permanently unable to serve, the Board shall name a successor until the following annual meeting, when a special election shall be held for the unexpired portion of the term."

CLEARLY VIN IS STILL _ABLE_ TO SERVE AS PRESIDENT!!!!

This bylaw is designed to cover situations where the President is incapacitated physically or mentally. Like if they were in a car wreck and in a coma, or they had a stroke. Or maybe if they were going to be in rehab for a few months.

Letsrun asked if this was a silent coup? YES.

Becca,

You're post made it clear what 10F is intended for and how Vin is perfectly "able" to serve as president. We added it to our article.

Here we are where we were 50 years ago. Gotta fire Stephanie, Steve Miller, Max, and Jill as a first round. Drain the Indianapolis swamp!

Ollanne Casselle all over again wrote:

Here we are where we were 50 years ago. Gotta fire Stephanie, Steve Miller, Max, and Jill as a first round. Drain the Indianapolis swamp!

LOL I promise that Jill is not the problem in this particular situation.

The Board did the right thing. He has too many conflicts of interest and refuses to let go of his position with Track Town USA. MONEY is too important to Vin.

Stop trying to nitpick though the rules to prove that the Board can't really do anything. Clearly this is the first formal step in removing Vin from his presidency.

He should resign.

I suggest that Nike "temporarily suspend" payments on their current 23-year sponsorship of USATF until they can get rid of the corruption on its board . On a permanent basis, perhaps there's something akin to a morals clause in the sponsorship contract that would allow Nike to consider the contract broken because of malfeasance, e.g. not following their own bylaws.

You think USATF is always wrong wrote:

The Board did the right thing. He has too many conflicts of interest and refuses to let go of his position with Track Town USA. MONEY is too important to Vin.

Stop trying to nitpick though the rules to prove that the Board can't really do anything. Clearly this is the first formal step in removing Vin from his presidency.

He should resign.

USATF IS ALWAYS WRONG

It is wrote:

You think USATF is always wrong wrote:

The Board did the right thing. He has too many conflicts of interest and refuses to let go of his position with Track Town USA. MONEY is too important to Vin.

Stop trying to nitpick though the rules to prove that the Board can't really do anything. Clearly this is the first formal step in removing Vin from his presidency.

He should resign.

USATF IS ALWAYS WRONG

This whole deal is a gol' durn shame.

Allow me, for a brief few, just to say a "Thank You" to Becca for explaining what went on. It is refreshing to have someone who was "actually" there (as much as one could be given USATF's shenanigans apparently) and to come on this board and tell us what happened.

My only question is....what does Unites States Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms have to do with running?

As an observation USATF appears to be a dysfunctional organization. Insiders that run things for the benefit of themselves and their buddies.

Remember when he suddenly left Stanford for shady reasons? And now this.

Time for USATF to move on to someone else.

That by-law doesn’t read like it requires any conditions for the board to determine that the president is temporarily unable to serve. The board can just determine that the president is temporarily unable to serve without needed it to be related to some incapacitation. If there is policy that states the intent of the by law, I would be less skeptical of that interpretation. But I think a legal interpretation is necessary to reach a more distinct conclusion.

Anyways, my bet is that Nike bribed the IAAF for worlds. USATF is trying to cover their A, and Vin is caught in the middle of this mess.

Lananna nana fo fana....... Lananna

USATF is incorporated in VA as a Virginia Nonstock Corporation.Here are some pertinent factors to consider.

13.1-860. Removal of directors.

B. If a director is elected by a voting group of members, only the members of that voting group may participate in the vote to remove him.

E. A director may be removed only at a meeting called for the purpose of removing him. The meeting notice shall state that the purpose or one of the purposes of the meeting is removal of the director.

13.1-861. Judicial review of elections.

Any member or director aggrieved by an election of directors may, after reasonable notice to the corporation and each director whose election is contested, apply for relief to the circuit court in the county or city in which the principal office of the corporation is located, or, if none in the Commonwealth, in the county or city in which its registered office is located. The court shall proceed forthwith in a summary way to hear and decide the issues and thereupon to determine the persons elected or order a new election or grant such other relief as may be equitable. Pending decision, the court may require the production of any information and may by order restrain any person from exercising the powers of a director if such relief is equitable.

13.1-932. Corporate records.

A. A corporation shall keep as permanent records minutes of all meetings of its members and board of directors, a record of all actions taken by the members or board of directors without a meeting, and a record of all actions taken by a committee of the board of directors in place of the board of directors on behalf of the corporation.

B. A corporation shall maintain appropriate accounting records.

D. A corporation shall maintain its records in written form or in another form capable of conversion into written form within a reasonable time.

E. A corporation shall keep a copy of the following records:

3. Resolutions adopted by its board of directors creating one or more classes of members, and fixing their relative rights, preferences, and limitations;

4. The minutes of all members' meetings, and records of all action taken by members without a meeting, for the past three years;

13.1-933. Inspection of records by members.

A. Subject to subsection C of § 13.1-934, a member of a corporation is entitled to inspect and copy, during regular business hours at the corporation's principal office, any of the records of the corporation described in subsection E of § 13.1-932 if he gives the corporation written notice of his demand at least five business days before the date on which he wishes to inspect and copy.

B. A member of a corporation is entitled to inspect and copy, during regular business hours at a reasonable location specified by the corporation, any of the following records of the corporation if the member meets the requirements of subsection C and gives the corporation written notice of his demand at least five business days before the date on which he wishes to inspect and copy:

1. Excerpts from minutes of any meeting of the board of directors, records of any action of a committee of the board of directors while acting in place of the board of directors on behalf of the corporation, minutes of any meeting of the members, and records of action taken by the members or board of directors without a meeting, to the extent not subject to inspection under subsection A;

2. Accounting records of the corporation; and

3. The record of members.

C. A member may inspect and copy the records identified in subsection B only if:

1. He has been a member of record for at least six months immediately preceding his demand;

2. His demand is made in good faith and for a proper purpose;

3. He describes with reasonable particularity his purpose and the records that he desires to inspect; and

4. The records are directly connected with his purpose.

D. The right of inspection granted by this section may not be abolished or limited by a corporation's articles of incorporation or bylaws.

13.1-934. Scope of inspection right.

A. A member's agent or attorney has the same inspection and copying rights as the member he represents.

B. The right to copy records under § 13.1-933 includes, if reasonable, the right to receive copies by xerographic or other means, including copies through an electronic transmission if available and so requested by the member.

C. The corporation may impose a reasonable charge, covering the costs of labor and material, for copies of any documents provided to the member. The charge may not exceed the estimated cost of production, reproduction, and transmission of the records.

I have only been plugged into USATF as a hobby-jogging parent of kids who have made it to nationals a couple of times. From my low-level, consumer perspective USATF is a centrally inept organization that limps along on the strength of local level volunteers.

I generally attribute failures to laziness and ignorance first and malice and corruption last. Sure people suck, but they are mostly lazy. However, the hidden financial info and running a guy out on the rails is a lot of smoke for there to be no fire.

Back to my hobby-jogging dad role: If the USATF is interested in growing the sport and supporting those interested in it, it would be great if they could provide a clear path to every nationals event with dates and locations, on something crazy like a website... oh, and timely. Sure, they eventually get that done, with the possible exception of state level sites that never get updated, but AAU has been bombarding me with the same info for weeks but I can't dig it out of the pile that is the USATF website to plan our summer. C'mon, help a brother, help a brother.

I have always been very concerned about Lanana's conflict of interest with Nike and UO.

But this is totally messed up by the USATF board and not an okay way to approach that situation.

Thanks polevaultpower for keeping us informed as usual.

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