New Members Not Shy as Board of U.S. Olympic Committee Convenes

(ATR) Five new members of the U.S. Olympic Committee board of directors spent their first meeting tackling topics including security concerns at the upcoming Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, and a shortened code of conduct for staff, the board and committees.

During the six-hour gathering at Atlanta’s Turner Field, formerly known as the 1996 Olympic Stadium, USOC security chief Larry Buendorf and a representative from the U.S. State Department briefed the board on Pan Am preparations in light of the drug cartel-related violence characterizing parts of Mexico.

"Everybody is quite aware of the violence that’s happened," said Scott Blackmun, the USOC CEO. "We’re obviously concerned about it, and at the end of the day I think we have a good security plan in place to try to protect our athletes."

Board chairman Larry Probst said he expects to learn more when he attends the Pan American Sports Organization meetings on Friday and Saturday in Guadalajara. The Pan Am Games will take place in October.

Probst added that board member Mary McCagg, who competed in the Olympics as a rower, brought up "the consideration that we should have for the athletes’ parents," and he expressed faith in Buendorf, a former Secret Service agent.

"I think Larry gets it," he said. "He’s a pretty experienced guy and he’s about as professional as they come when it comes to security."

New Members Not Shy

Mike Plant, a member of the board since it was pared from more than 100 to 11, tells Around the Rings that the organization is "so much better off today than any time I can remember, probably the last couple of decades I’ve been involved."

Plant, who was sometimes critical of the way the USOC was run when Peter Ueberroth was in charge, credits Probst and Blackmun for creating an environment in which a "really passionate volunteer organization" can thrive.

Probst said he was "very positively impressed and surprised by the level of participation" of the new board members: former Microsoft executive Robbie Bach, former John Hancock CEO James Benson, four-time Olympian Nina Kemppel, former Visa executive Susanne Lyons and USA Hockey executive director Dave Ogrean.

Added Blackmun,"these are talented people and they’re not wallflowers. I think it increased the level of energy."

Ogrean said he and his fellow newcomers were well-prepared because of a two-day orientation at USOC headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., earlier this month, a "36-hour crash course."

However, despite its increase in size to 15, the board was still not at full strength.

IOC member James Easton, 75, missed the meeting because he is still suffering the effects of a stroke last year. Easton’s executive assistant tells Around the Rings he has no plans to travel for Olympic business in the near future.

Aid to Japan

In the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the USOC sent a letter to Tsunekazu Takeda, president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, "offering whatever support or assistance we could provide and are waiting for a response," Probst said.

As for stepping in to host the World Figure Skating Championships, which had been slated for Tokyo next week, Blackmun said the U.S. Figure Skating Association would have to initiate contact with the USOC, and had not done so.

"We’d want to do anything we could within reason to help," Blackmun said. "We don’t have anything in our budget and our revenues go to support NGBs and athletes, but to the extent we can pitch in and help, we certainly would be willing to do that."

Probst and Blackmun were originally planning to visit the JOC last week to build on the relationship they have forged over the last year and a half, but changed the dates to late April because of scheduling conflicts. The trip is now up in the air.

Ogrean was happy to report that a U.S. sled hockey team returned home Tuesday from Japan, where it won the bronze in an abbreviated tournament. USA Field Hockey also announced that it will donate $2,000 to the aid effort and is hoping to raise an additional $5,000.

New Code of Conduct, Other Business

The USOC streamlined its code of conduct, Blackmun said, but added, "I don’t think we did any radical surgery to the underlying intent."

"We had a very lengthy code of conduct," he said, "that because of its length was a document that I’m not sure everybody who should have been reading it was reading it. So we tried to simplify it."

Blackmun also said the USOC is on budget, in terms of revenue and expenses.

He updated the board on discussions with the IOC over the past few months on the controversial revenue-sharing agreement.

Said Probst, "We’re obviously not going to get into any detail about that other than to say we’re encouraged by the tone of the discussions between us and the IOC."

Paralympic News

The board established a Paralympic advisory committee, with Benson, one of the new board members, as the chair.

Benson is founder and chairman of World T.E.A.M. Sports, an organization dedicated to providing opportunities through sport for people with disabilities.

Washington-bound

Probst and Blackmun are in Washington today for meetings with Congressmen, a donor reception and a free-throw shooting contest on Capitol Hill staged by the USOC and the Congressional Olympic and Paralympic Caucus.

Written by Karen Rosen.