October 3, 2007

Significant changes to the Code of USA Diving  

At its Annual Meeting in Anaheim, CA last week, the USA Diving General Assembly made a number of amendments to the Code of USA Diving (“Code”). The Code serves as the by-laws of the Corporation, encompassing the governance structure, voting procedures and makeup of the Board of Directors and committees.

Among the amendments adopted by the General Assembly were three of particular importance.

The first is the restructuring of Athlete memberships. Two new categories of membership known as Competitive Blue and Competitive Gold replace the membership classes of Senior, Junior and Future Champion. The Competitive Blue membership permits an athlete to compete in any USA-D sanctioned invitational meet, Association Championship meet and Future Champion Meet. With a Competitive Gold membership, an athlete may compete in any USA-D sanctioned meet. In either case an athlete will also need to satisfy the eligibility requirements for a particular meet. Competitive Gold members age 21 or older may also compete in Masters competition.

The General Assembly adopted a series of amendments that essentially completed the restructuring of the governance of the Corporation to a policy-governed, staff-driven entity. While retaining the election of members to various positions, the titles of elected officers were eliminated. Elected members to the Board of Directors are now known as Chair of the Board (formerly President), Vice Chair Administration (formerly Vice President Administration), Vice Chair Competitive Excellence (formerly Vice President Competitive Excellence) and Treasurer. The Immediate Past President will now be known as Immediate Past Chair.

The competitive vice presidents, Vice President International, Vice President Senior and Vice President Junior, respectively, are now known as Chair of the International Diving Committee, Chair of the Senior Diving Committee and Chair of the Junior Diving Committee. All continue to be elected at large by the General Assembly.

In furtherance of the policy-governed, staff-driven model, changes are made to the committee structure. Each committee will report to the General Assembly, the Board of Directors or the Chief Executive Officer. A few committees will report to more the one entity depending on the committee’s duties under the Code.

The last of the structural changes to the governance of the Corporation is the codifying of the authority and duties of the Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”). These authorities and duties were adopted by the Board of Directors in 2006 prior to the hiring of Debbie Hesse as CEO. They are made part of the Code to ensure that the position of CEO and the authority and duties of the position are transparent and available to all members of the Corporation.

The third significant amendment to the Code involves Subpart D - Code of Conduct. The Governance Committee determined that the Code of Conduct is a policy matter that comes within the purview of the Board of Directors. The General Assembly unanimously ratified that decision. The General Assembly went on to adopt several proposals to amend the Code of Conduct. These approved amendments will be directed to the Board of Directors as advisory decisions.

Beginning with the 2008 edition, the Code of USA Diving will not be printed in the Rulebook. It will be available online at www.usadiving.org . The printed Rulebook will contain direct references (URLs) to the various parts of the Code. The new Rulebook will be a more “user friendly” size to fit in a pocket.

It is expected that the updated Code of USA Diving will be posted on the USA Diving website by November 1, 2007. Questions regarding the Code may be directed to Bill Farrar, Chair of the Governance Committee, at bilfarrar@yahoo.com .

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