WASA Minutes 11/04/2009

Attending: Jan Calnan, Canada; Andrea Cooper, USA; Claire Ginocchio, France; Lee Jones, USA. Absent: Nicolas Verite, France; Michael Wadson, United Kingdom, Moderator: Andrea Cooper

Next WASA conference call will take place on Wed. December 2nd. Same time as usual, please mark your calendar.

USA noted that contact was made with Brooke from Australia, who was very interested in joining the group. In order to include Australia, US and Canada would need to take the call at 7:00am, UK at 12:00pm and France at 1:00pm. This would put Brooke at 11:00pm, which he has agreed to do. Andrea asked everyone to let her know what days of the week might work for this new time frame and will get back to the group with the results during the next call. Nicolas, please take a moment and email me acooper19426@earthlink.net the days of the week that might work for you at 1:00pm. I have already spoken with Michael (UK) about this. ThanK you.

Federations:
Next, Jan shared with us the conversation that she had with Rhea Schwartz, about the ISU Adult Committee. Rhea (USA) along with two other members, Wolfgang Stummer (Germany) and Barbara Standki (France or US?) currently serve on this committee. Paul Smart, who recently passed away, was a member of the ISU Adult Committee; she has not been replaced to date with a new committee member. The adult skaters serving on this committee where appointed sometime between 2000-05. Apparently, without ISU support many countries will not allow their Adults Skaters to test or compete on the ice. The main accomplishment of the ISU Adult Committee has been the formation of the Oberstdorf competition, which is one among the few International Adult Skating Competitions.

Rhea was glad to hear that WASA has formed, and we have agreed to invite Rhea to a WASA conference call sometime in the near future as a guest speaker to tell us more about the ISU in relation to Adult Skating.

It was felt that WASA’s role should be a supportive role if ever contacted by the ISU Adult Committee, or any other Federation. It was also felt that it would be best, initially, not be pro-active in terms of reaching out to this ISU committee, but rather to learn more about the ISU with regard to Adult Skaters.

Comparing Notes:

We went around the table and each country reported what they liked the most about the Federation and system of the other countries:

USA: Was very impressed by Canada’s Parks and Recreations offices offering free Public Skating at various cities throughout the country. It was felt that this added to Canada’s reputation as a “Skating Country.” Lee mentioned that there is a retention issue with skaters in the USA and that a “Bridge” program exists in theory, but widely utilized. Also, it was mentioned that a “Lap Skating” program was developed by a rink in the US to promote figure skating as a sport for “Wellness and Fitness” and to attract people from the gym to the ice. We have since learned that the USFS has the “Lap Program” material available, and will look into this further.

France: was very impressed with the availability of “Private Lessons” in both Canada and the USA. Apparently in France, private lessons are only allowed on public sessions, and as we all know this is an impossible environment for a private lesson to take place and, especially, if the public session is well attended. Like Russia, elite skaters train in groups with one coach rotating from student-to-student dispensing instruction. USA and Canada confirmed that this format is used in their countries too, but are in addition to private instruction. Private lessons in France are allowed on “patch ice,” but it seems to be something that isn’t easy to attend (location wise,) or in abundance either.

Canada: Appreciated the way that parents brought their kids to skate in the UK, but then start skating themselves. In other words, since as a matter of course, the majority of Canadians learn to skate as children, the mind set is that skating is for kids and they’ve “done” that already. France added that the perception in France is that skating is for kids only, too. In France there are mostly two types of skaters: kid skaters, and kid skaters who have returned to the ice after college. The third set in France is an adult, who loved to skate as a kid, remembers that and returns to the ice as an adult for “dream fulfillment.” US added that even though there is a larger population of adult skaters in the US, the general perception is that not only is skating just for kids, but it is mostly for little girls, too.

Existing communication forums for adult skaters:
We all reported about the existing communication forums in all of the countries:

USA:
www.skatingforums.com (8,847 members. This board was started by an Adult Canadian Skater!)
http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/ (19,937 members)
Adult Pair Skating “Chat” Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=60217752929&ref=ts (180 members)
www.usfs.org (used to have a discussion board, but we think it has shut down, or changed, ever since Ice Network took it over.)
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/icedancers/ (Private Dance forum)

England:
http://www.skatingforum.co.uk/ (658 members)

France:
www.pantinaqeadulte@yahoogroupes.fr (200 members. Claire, I think the URL here is not right, please correct. Thank you.)

Canada:
(Jan, please list all adult skating discussion forums in Canada. Thank you.)

Goals:
As a group we decided to narrow our goals down to something that we can realistically move on and accomplish, while keeping a somewhat of a broad-brush stroke.

We all agreed to drop the goal for the time being of attempting to place more adult skaters on federation committees. It was felt that if we can accomplish the following goal that more “committee representation,” would be a natural outgrowth, and something we can address down the line.

So, we decided that the initial goals for WASA should consist of the following:
• Attempt to change the “perception” of Adult Skaters in all countries from the bottom up.
• Promote Adult Skating within rinks and clubs in all countries.
• Promote Adult Skating as an avenue for “Wellness and Fitness,” and an alternative activity to going to the gym in all countries

France suggested a number of ways to accomplish this, which included building a website, or putting together some kind of YouTube piece to distribute to skating clubs. The idea was that it would be important to show images of adult skaters in various activities, such as in Basic Skills classes, recreational, competitive, testing, synchro, singles, dance, pairs, theater on Ice, ect…

USA mentioned that a brochure piece put out by the USFS already exists, but we don’t know to whom, or if it is widely distributed. However this brochure lives on the USFS website. Below is a link to this brochure:
Adult Skating Program brochure (PDF) Scroll down to bottom of page for brochure.

There was a little bit more discussion devoted to the idea of putting a website together, but it was decided that this type of project was too time consuming and expensive, in terms of maintenance and something that should be left for each country to embark upon individually.

Canada suggested that we launch a WASA Facebook page. The advantage is that it is free, immediate, and easy to do. This idea will be put on the next Agenda for a thorough discussion with regard to details and function of this type of page.

USA was concerned that the Facebook page might be too passive; meaning that skaters would have to come to it (mostly the already converted,) and somehow know that it is there. After giving it some thought, USA saw the benefits of a Facebook page and that it would be a good idea complimented by a piece that could also be distributed. In other words, we would have two avenues: one with Facebook where skaters come to us, and another piece that we could be distribute (go to them,) and in particular, to adults who are unaware that skating is an option at all. This second piece will also be put on the next agenda for discussion. Please be prepared to discuss additional ideas that you might have to help reach these goals.

International Call:
It was decided that there should be two WASA representatives from each country, so that if one person can’t keep the call date that the other will be able to, in order to keep continuity and a flow from one call to the next. Jan and Michael, please find a WASA partner, let Andrea know as soon as you can so she can make contact with them and hook them up on Skype. Thank you. Although Claire is moving to Canada, she will still be representing France in the WASA group. It was also felt that we have enough momentum behind us at this point that we can now have calls on a monthly basis. We will try this and if it is not enough, revert back to bi-monthly calls.