USATF Foundation expels masters from mission statement
Two days ago, the USATF Foundation trumpeted plans to hand out $385,000 in âgrant fundingâ this year. The loot, said director Amory Rowe, would go to âconstituents ranging from the earliest beginners to the most elite veterans.â So where does that leave us geezers? Donât ask. I shot an email to Tom Jackovic, the groupâs executive director, and he graciously replied within hours. His note is below. The upshot is masters get zip. And the foundation has even taken masters out of its mission statement. But theyâd better watch their Form 990 tax statements. An archive of these records still shows the USATF Foundation as listing masters in its mission.
As far as tax filings go, weâre still part of USATF Foundationâs stated purpose.
So hereâs the exchange I had with Tom, the only paid employee of the foundation (at over $100,000 a year). IÂ wrote him Tuesday:
Hi, Tom, and happy new year!
I read with interest todayâs news release about the latest USATF Foundation grants. But Iâm still mystified why masters arenât mentioned among grant winners â or even on your site. As you may recall, I wrote about this nearly three years ago in a blog post:Â
So a few new questions:
1. When will an online form be created for masters to apply for grants? http://www.usatffoundation.org/grants/default.asp
2. Have any masters athletes or organizations applied for grants?
3. How much money is in your masters fund now, and when will you begin drawing from it?
Thanks for your attention, and congratulations on your fund-raising,
ken stone
La Mesa, California
Hereâs what Tom said in reply â a note CCâd to Bob Weiner (and possibly others):
Some background first. Foundation Board member donations have been the primary source of revenue â more than 98% over the first seven years in fact â and the causes which draws these individuals to the Foundation are the things they have agreed among themselves to fund.
The board members have so far focused on two critical areas in the athlete âdevelopment pipelineâ which were not being fully funded by the USOC or by USATFâs limited discretionary funds. Those areas of concentration have been and continue to be youth programs and emerging elite athletes.
That being said, it should also be pointed out that, to our knowledge, only one request has been made to the Foundation for grant funds, and it was for an area â medical support staff on a WMA team â which Board members felt uneasy granting because no sense of priorities within the masters community had been conveyed to them.
There has been a small amount contributed to the Foundation earmarked for masters, $1,005. We canât envision a successful mastersâ grant program having much impact unless $50-75,000 per year is donated and disbursed through procedures designed by the leadership of the mastersâ community.
But that is the challenge we are about to undertake â to see what the depth and breadth of support will be for masters programs and projects in the community at large. And we are looking forward to engaging the mastersâ leadership in creating a grant program or project which would excite the community at-large!
I hope this lets you know where we are today, and that it wonât be too long before we begin to move forward. Thank you for your interest and I hope you choose to support the Foundation and its mission.Â
I wasnât satisfied with his answer, so I shot Tom this follow-up:
I Â appreciate your honesty. But I have problems with your points.
We in masters track had no idea that the Foundation needed âa sense of priorities within the masters community.â
We in masters track havenât been asked for a set of âprocedures designed by the leadership of the mastersâ community.â
And since the USATF Masters T&F Committee budget already is $50-75,000 per year, itâs impossible to see how the Foundation could get that same amount in revenue for masters programs.
In my 2007 blog post, I noted the absence of an online application form for masters seeking grants. You still donât have one.
But even more revealing is your âAbout the Foundationâ page:
In 2008, I noted that you explicitly said: âThe Foundation is committed to . . . Expanding existing masters events & programs, and access to them.â
Now that line has been removed from the page.
Why?
Thanks for your continued attention.
Tom bravely sent one more note, dodging questions but offering a sliver of hope:
Ken, I appreciate your interest but given that the Foundation has raised over $2,000,000 and only $1000 has been earmarked for Masters from donors, we are only responding to what our board and donors want â and our website now reflects that.
We also received virtually no interest from donors in supporting officials and coaching. The vast majority prefer to support youth programming and emerging elite athletes.
Again, the Foundation has hired Bill Roe to reach out to Masters and other groups in an effort to expand our donor base. I would encourage you to forward any ideas to Bill that would help us reach our goal.
Thanks again for your interest.
Bill Roe, of course, was president of USATF until late 2008, and his new-found masters religion rings a little hollow. What did his regime do for us? Not much. But Iâll be his biggest fan if he shakes loose some cash.
But the USATF Foundation still has some âsplainin to do. If not to us, then to the IRS. As a tax-deductible 403(b) charity, itâs required to file annual statements, called Form 990s. The most recent one available is for tax year 2007. It was filed in August 2008. See it here.
Hereâs what that statement shows as its âprimary exempt purposeâ:
Click on image to make it easier to read.
But sometime in the past couple years, the foundation board (including our own Willie Banks) approved a revision in the mission statement. Here it is:
Again, click on image to make it easier to read.
So thatâs where we stand. The foundation has no money for us. Doesnât make me feel better that officials and coaches also are being left out in the cold.
Best of luck to Bill Roe, but donât hold your breath.
USATF Foundation explicitly vows money for masters
Yet again, we read about the USATF Foundation dropping big dimes on youth clubs across the country â $1,500 here, $2,000 there. Not blinking an eye. But is the USATF Foundation turning a blind eye to masters? Not really. I wrote to some of the principals a year or so ago, and they replied: Well, we havenât received requests from masters athletes or organizations. Of course, if you check out their grant page, you get the distinct impression masters track doesnât exist. However, masters are explicitly invited to seek grants when you read the about page.
4 Responses
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Thomas Fahey - May 16, 2008
In the grant section of the web page there is no section for grant applications for masters athletes. I would like to see grants to help masters compete in national and world competitions. Our younger masters with kids often can’t go to meets because of family responsibility. Many retired masters don’t have the money to go big meets.
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Dan Murdock - May 16, 2008
Tom is right on the money – literally. “Younger” masters athletes with kids do have a difficult time coming up with funds to attend nationals and worlds. I am attempting to save a small part of each check now in hopes to attend Sac State in ’11. Attending a worlds outside of the USA doesn’t even seem like a possibility.
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mellow johnny - May 16, 2008
I agree with both Tom and Dan.
Is performance level tied in with receiving grant money? Or does everyone have an equal opportunity and it’s just based on need? -
Ken Stone - May 16, 2008
Although individual elite athletes have gotten grants, I doubt individual masters will get grants.
Methinks we need to adopt the philosophy of the Youth grantees: Money will advance the sports because . . . .
13 Responses
Ken (and others),
Before anyone gets in an uproar about this, here’s my take on this….
First – we need to remember that the USATF Foundation doesn’t “owe” Masters anything. So, I don’t think we can justify trying to take them to task over how they choose to donate their own money.
Second – In Tom’s emails to Ken, he highlighted a problem that has been in existence for years within the Masters community. That’s is, WE have not come up with a viable plan to
A) help ourselves to generate revenue (i.e. marketing, business partnerships, etc).
B) Define ways to increase participation in the Masters community
If I am interpreting the excerpts from Tom Jackovic correctly, there is an implied call to action for our Masters Executive Committee. “no sense of priorities within the masters community had been conveyed to them.” That sentence implies to me that our committee needs to collobarate with Bill Roe to define said priorities so we will at least be on the Foundation’s radar.
The sentence, “a set of “procedures designed by the leadership of the masters’ community.” again implies that there’s a fundamental lack organizational planning within the Executive Committee.
By the way, I’m not just taking shots at the Executive Committee – I used to be an athlete rep for the committee. But the fact remains that the Masters community and our leadership need to start treating this like more of a BUSINESS. Gary Snyder, used to be an executive for AT&T so, let’s leverage his expertise as much as possible by empowering him to engage in more business development activities.
We have a new Executive Vice-President, Robert Thomas – let’s empower him to get more amenities for our National Teams by devising plans and budgets that can justify a financial infusion from THE USATF Foundation. Moreover, I believe we can write grants to ANY charitable organization under the auspices of “physical fitness”, “fighting obesity”, “exercise for the aging”. These are just some examples.
In short – let’s not waste time with being upset with the USATF Foundation. Instead, let’s choose to help ourselves.
This is the argument used in Colorado to mainly – and still support youth only programs. This argument also justifies a separation of Masters from the rest of USATF. That being said, I have no problem submitting proposals for Master only sports. USATF just don’t take credit for any success that Masters acquire on their own.
we had our time. This is for the upcoming youth and elite athletes. We are on our way out!!!!!
Let us use our business savy to uplift our masters community. We do possess the knowledge after all of our years of experience
I don’t have any facts, but I do have a few thoughts.
1) Masters do pay dues to USATF (I realize that is not the foundation.) What percentage of total USATF dues revenue comes from masters?
2) Often masters are volunteer coaches for our youth.
3) At least for the pole vault, coaches create USATF clubs and any events put on by those clubs require all participants (mostly kids) to have USATF membership (more income as a result of masters)
4) I suspect that some emerging elites get their start from these youth programs coached by masters.
5) Question: Can someone enlighten me about programs by USATF that appear to have a masters athlete focus?
– John
The items listed below are a few simple things that could have a huge impact on participation in our sport and ultimately lead to increased revenue generation.
1. Donate $5 or $10 specifically designated for masters programs when you renew your USATF membership…I did it.
2. Spread the word and let people that you see at the track, on the roads, and in the gym know that they still have competitive opportunities such as open meets, masters meets, all-comer’s meets, college meets, state games, senior games and senior olympics…I do it.
3. Contact your USATF Assocation and ask them to consider printing flyers or postcards that promote membership and list meets held within the association. Then volunteer to distribute the flyers or postcards at local road races and running shoe stores…I will do it.
4. Go to http://www.directathletics.com create an account, search for college meets that allow individual athletes, sign-up, and compete. You will be setting an example for all of the parents sitting in the stands…I do it.
***50+ throwers should contact the meet director to request permission to throw age appropriate implements. Older PV’ers & HJ’ers should contact the meet director to confirm opening heights.***
Maybe now is the time to set up our own Masters Track and Field Association. At least we would get all of the $28 annual dues that we pay into the association. Maybe we could pick up a few sponsors for our association. We already have the leadership structure in place and they are all working for free. We already put on our own meets. It could be done. The USATF and WAVA would probably browbeat and threaten us for a few years but do you think that WAVA wants to hold the world championship in Sacramento and not let USA athletes compete. It would take guts to do it but we have nothing to lose.
Excellent suggestions J.D.and Oleata,but I rather give the extra DINERO at the local level
While I would prefer to see masters programs stay in the USATF it looks like Masters is not a priority and to change that will take considerable effort on our part. How to accomplish that is the issue. There has been a good discussion started but we need to find a way to work together and improve the Masters programs either by more efforts to get the USATF to do more or perhgaps it is time for a separate organization.
So USATF is taking our masters members dues and not giving bak except to fund 2 National Masters Championship meets per year. Something is missing here. Where are the real benefits from my membership? Too bad there isn’t an alternative!
Simple, since USATF masters are obviously a non- viable source of income, The USATF should give all masters an exemption from paying annual membership fees and no meet entry fee’s at local and regional youth meets. Kind of like an AARP card. Infuse Masters events into those local and regional youth meets( As is done already in most states). I can live without a Nationals Championships and so could all of you. The only ones that go to them anyway are the ones who can afford to, so think of the money saved in not going to a Nationals meet that can be used to compete at a WMA World Championships! I bet the USATF will stuttering a different tune then.
Forget about money from USATF. Start a letter writing campaign to potential corporate sponsors (Nike, Puma, etc) stressing the enormous boomer market for their products. The youth market is saturated with athletic products, but the athletic companies have yet to target health-conscious boomers who are not persuaded to buy products by young spokespeople like Michael Phelps. Corporate sponsorship of Masters meets could result in a lot of big-bang-for-the-buck advertising for companies like Nike.
Meet me at the LSU Indoor meet 60m 60-64 on March 6 to get it started
I was a bit perplexed by the following statement from Tom Jackovicâs letter:
We also received virtually no interest from donors in supporting officials and coaching. The vast majority prefer to support youth programming and emerging elite athletes.
Just exactly where do these people think that the emerging elite athletes come from?
I coached high school field and track (the throws) for a long time and I canât tell you how many times I have had kids show up that threw the shot and disc in middle school that were technical disasters because of poor coaching.
Considering how long it takes to correct technical errors in the throws, if I had my choice, I would rather that these kids had not thrown at all. (not that I am necessarily that good but, I would like to think, slightly better than the average throws coach)
And one last question; how many prospective elite athletics have quit the sport because of poor coaching?
This leads me up to my suggestion.
1. Find a middle school that has had little to no success in track and field. (the schools that already have a lot of success probably would neither want or appreciate assistance and territorial disputes are counterproductive)
2. Supply them with a four year grant to hire qualified coaches. This will serve two purposes:
a. It will give the kids access to qualified coaching and,
b. It would also allow the on hands training of the existing coaching staff. (the objective here is NOT to replace the current coaching staff but rather to train them)
3. Do follow-ups to evaluate the following:
a. What kind of impact the program has had on the middle school level?
b. What kind of impact the program has had on the high school level?
c. Has there been an increase in participation at both the middle school and high school levels?
d. Has the program had a positive effect on the drop-out rate? (I mention this because the only reason I stayed in high school was to throw the disc and had to keep my grades up to do so)
As far as developing officials is concerned, I attended the middle school league meet last year and they were measuring the discus to the thirty-second of an inch. If the discus hit the sector line it was a fair throw as long as it mark was less than half way through the line and you were allowed to leave the front of the shot ring to retrieve your shot after you threw. Being a masters level official, I made several very mild comments concerning the rules that were not very well received. Unfortunately, when it comes to middle school officiating, this is usually the case and not the exception. But why bother to grant money for official training? Obviously it’s fine as it is.
Tim Edwards
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