The United States Fencing Association (USFA) is the umbrella organization under which fencing clubs, schools and University programs operate. The USFA is divided geographically into 10 sections which are further divided into divisions. The Gulf Coast Division is one of 7 divisions that make up the southwest section.

A MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE CHAIR

As the new season begins there is a lot to be excited about. We have new clubs bringing fencing into more areas of our division. The tournament calendar is bulging with events for all ages and all skill levels. The executive committee has voted to sponsor and co-sponsor workshops and seminars open to all division members. These are to include, but not limited to, referee seminars, weapon repair workshops, and other workshops on broad based topics of interest to fencers, parents of fencers and coaches. In setting a precedent, the executive committee voted to set aside a fund for the maintenance of division equipment. The committee also discussed the possibility of matching grants for new clubs for basics such as dry weapons and wearables. What a great start!!!

Tournament Notification to Division Fencers

On December 7th, the Executive Committee acted to specify how much advance warning about a tournament to the fencers of the Division is required. This was done because the USFA Operations Manual requires that "Classifications cannot be awarded if adequate notice of the competition has not been given to the members of the organizing body via such means as a published schedule, newsletter, or notices sent to all USFA clubs within the division or section" but does not say how timely "adequate notice" must be.

The Executive Committee acted to specify how long in advance notice must be given to the fencers of the Division depending on how the notice is given. In particular:

1. If notice of a tournament is by means of being included on a published schedule of the Division, and the means of publication is delivery to the fencers, then that delivery must have been initiated 15 days before the tournament if delivered by physical means like postal mail or 10 days before the tournament if delivered by essentially immediate means like electronic delivery.
2. If notice of a tournament is by means of being included on a published schedule of the Division, and the means of publication is to make the schedule available to fencers to fetch, then the inclusion on that schedule must occur 30 days before the tournament.
3. If notice of a tournament is by means of notification of all clubs in the Division, then that notification must have been initiated 15 days before the tournament if delivered by physical means like postal mail or 10 days before the tournament if delivered by essentially immediate means like electronic delivery.
4. If notice of a tournament is by being listed on the Internet on askFRED, then the listing on askFRED must occur 30 days before the tournament, but local organizing committees are admonished that while sufficient timeliness of notice might be possible by listing on askFRED, the legitimacy and USFA sanction of a tournament cannot be created by just being listed on askFRED.
5. If notice of a tournament is by any means acceptable to the USFA but not already described herein, then the minimum time requirement will be indeterminate, but both issuers of notice and enforcers of notification requirements should consider themselves guided by an attempt to provide analogously timely notification to the minimum times for the situations specified herein.

Historically, tournaments have usually done one or both of having the tournament be on the Division schedule on the Web site more than 30 days in advance, or notifying every club in the Division by e-mail.

Although the exact wording both of the Operations Manual and of the resolution of the Executive Committee concern entire tournaments, fencers do not fence in entire tournaments, they fence in individual events within a tournament. If a tournament is publicized long in advance but a single event in the tournament is created unexpectedly shortly before the tournament, then the fencers will not have "adequate notice" of the event, and the spirit of the Operations Manual would prohibit awarding of classifications in that new event. Notification requirements would have to be met by the new event for classifications to be earned.

The unapproved draft minutes for the December 7th meeting of the Executive Committee are available in MS Word format. The paragraph about this matter is about 70% of the way through the minutes, starting with the phrase "Continuing on the general topic of USFA National Office expectations for divisional tournaments".

Tournament LOC Notification of the Division's Bout Committee

On December 7th, the Executive Committee acted to specify that advance warning of any upcoming tournament be delivered to the Division's Bout Committee by three weeks before the tournament.

The Bylaws place the complete burden for naming the bout committee for any tournament on the Chairman of the Division's Bout Committee. (Routinely, he will be very interested in any recommendations by the local organizing committee for the tournament.) However, recently, events have taxed the ability of the Chairman of the Division's Bout Committee to fulfill his obligations in a timely fashion, and in a way which would leave him comfortable that the fencing would be free of legal and administrative defects, and the bout committee would have a sufficient reputation to withstand scrutiny from any parties with suspicions.

Although the actual Executive Committee resolution did not comment on things like the possibilities of changes of tournament venue, changes of tournament date, or changes of events within the tournament, you can expect the Chairman of the Division's Bout Committee to be quite flexible. If, three weeks before the tournament, there are still details which may change, the more information you can give the Chairman, the better. As long as the venue is not changed so radically that already-arranged bout committee personnel can no longer attend, as long as the date is not changed so unexpectedly or so much that either originally-arranged or contingency backup personnel for an alternate date can no longer attend, and as long as the events of the tournament are not changed so much that the challenge of conducting the fencing grows beyond the capability of already-arranged personnel selected to meet a lesser challenge, then late changes are unlikely to matter.

The unnaproved draft minutes for the December 7th meeting of the Executive Committee are available in MS Word format. The paragraph about this matter is about 60% of the way through the minutes, starting with the phrase "The assembly discussed recent information from the USFA National Office".

Junior Olympic Championship Qualifiers

The 2004 Divisional qualifiers for thge Junior Olympic Championships, hosted by the Clear Lake Fencing Club, will be held December 11-12 at South Houston High School. Details, including maps, are available here in the tournament announcement letter. Full details of eligibility requirements to compete in the Junior Olympic Championships, and this qualifying tournament, are given in the tournament announcement letter. Pre-registration is at askFRED, as noted in the tournament announcement letter. Masks, cords and lamés will be checked.

Illegality of Profiting from Collusion, Favoring an Opponent

Fencers, coaches, and referees are reminded that the rules of fencing specify that "Competitors must fence to their utmost ability in a sportsmanlike manner until the end of the competition in order to obtain the best possible classification, without giving away touches or seeking to be favoured by being given touches by anyone" (rule t.88). The penalty chart (rule t.120) specifies that "profiting from collusion, favoring an opponent" is a fourth group offense, and the referee is required to penalize it with presentation of a black card resulting in exclusion of the fencer from the particular competition where the offense occurred..

USFA Needs Your E-mail Address!

The USFA has ceased mailing newsletters (unless specially arranged) and now exclusively e-mails newsletters to USFA members (you should have received one Nov. 2nd titled "US Fencing Newsletter - Junior Olympics"). They rely on you to provide your e-mail address(s) on your membership application. If you are not receiving the newsletters, you may not have put a working and legible e-mail address on your application, and you should immediately contact the USFA, or ask the Division Secretary to contact them on your behalf.