Florida Division - United States Professional Tennis Association

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June 16, 2011As many of you are aware, we are in the midstof a national election of our Board of Directors.The Florida Division Board believes thefollowing candidates have shown strength ofcharacterduring this process and are committed toUSPTA‘s future growth and position in thetennis industry:Nancy CoxChuck GillJeff HawesTom McGrawBill MountfordCentral points on the platform of thesecandidates are - to improve industry relations;create real transparency and enhance memberbenefits. For more details, please visitwww.servethefacts.com.It is important for all of our members toparticipate in a fair and unbiased election.For an opposing point of view, please see:www.saveuspta.com.Most importantly, please take the time to visiteach site, gather your own ideas and thoughts,and vote your own opinion.Ballots must be received by Survey and BallotSystems (in Minnesota) by September 1, 2011.Do not delay, mail your ballot by August 25.Remember to research the facts and VOTE!Florida DivisionFellow USPTA Professionals,By now, some of you know that the governing body of ourAssociation (the USPTA Executive Committee) passedseveral motions regarding the National Board of Officersslate and the national election process. Realizing thatmany members have minimal interest in these matters,it is regrettable that we are compelled to share the contextof these decisions. However, we feel there is enoughincomplete and inaccurate information circulating that itis our responsibility to provide you with a clear record ofwhat happened. There is information here which naturallycomes from our own viewpoint (as this was the way wesaw and perceived it) but we have endeavored to makethis letter as factual an account of the events as possible.It is also, as you will note from the signatures below, theway the majority of the Executive Committee saw thingsand not the accounting of a small, disgruntled minority.NATIONAL BOARD MEETING (January 8-9, 2011)In early January of this year, the National NominatingCommittee finalized their decision on a slate of officers forthe 2011-2013 term. They e-mailed notifications to eachindividual selected to serve requesting a response ofwhether the nomination would be accepted. Tom Dagliswas the Nominating Committee’s selection to serve asPresident. The annual January National Board Meetingbegan at nearly the same time these notifications weresent.Although Tom Daglis was evidently e-mailed notificationfrom the Nominating Committee Chairman on January6th asking if he would accept the position of Presidentfor another term, it was never received. The Chairmanwas informed (from Harry Gilbert, Nominating Committeemember) that Tom had never received the e-mail. So, theChairman immediately sent another e-mail notification onJanuary 10th. Tom did receive and replied to it.During that January meeting, five National Board membersbrought forward several allegations against Tomwhich appeared, in the view of some Executive Committeemembers and USPTA’s Independent Legal Counsel,to be politically driven. The two most prominent allegationswere:1) Placement of the USPTA Florida logo, a USTA Floridalogo and a PTR logo on a shared banner as requested bythe Florida Division at a joint conference hosted in Orlandowhere no less than 80 USPTA professionals attended,and;2) The timing of a response letter to the USTA from ourBoard. As the USTA is the governing body for tennis anda valued industry partner, Board members Gilbert, Gilland Daglis thought that sending a timely response letterwas appropriate.Based on these allegations, the remaining five Board
members proceeded to pass motions which resulted ina vote of “no confidence” for Tom Daglis along with arequest to call for an immediate meeting of the ExecutiveCommittee to remove him from office. USPTA LegalCounsel (Paul Waldman) informed these Board membersthat such minor allegations were not worthy of theirproposed actions. They ignored Waldman’s legal adviceand proceeded with their plan. Several days later, Tom,being advised that it might be disadvantageous for hiscareer to have his character stained by these allegations,withdrew his name from consideration for the 2011-2013slate of officers. As a result, the Nominating Committeewas forced to offer an alternate slate with Tom Daglismoving into the immediate past President’s role.EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING (April 8-9, 2011)Over the course of the next few months, accounts ofthese actions reached the divisional leadership. Theseleaders began contacting one another expressing concernsthat the course of national elections had just beenaltered by the actions of five Board members (to thebenefit of some of those Board members) based onquestionable allegations. Realizing that the majority ofthe divisions felt similarly, the group had a conferencecall in late March to plan a strategy to reverse what hadhappened. During the April Executive Committee Meetingin Houston, this group led a convincing, majority vote(71-42) to respect the original intent and wishes of theNominating Committee by re-installing their initial slate ofofficers. Tom Daglis was not behind these actions. Thedivisional leaders planned and supported these motions.LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST USPTA (April / May, 2011)On April 14th, Randy Mattingley (1st Vice-President) fileda lawsuit against the Association to overturn the actionsof the Executive Committee. On May 11th (District Courtof Harris County, Texas), the Court officially filed a rulingof “Nonsuit” for this case. A nonsuit is defined as a rulingby the judge when there is no evidence which couldprove the plaintiff’s case. A nonsuit terminates the trialat that point, and results in a dismissal of the plaintiff’scase. Therefore, this was a judgment for the defendant(USPTA).In addition to a review of these events, please make noteof these details…• Randy Mattingley’s lawsuit against the USPTAforced the Association to spend $29,381.64 in legal fees.USPTA Legal Counsel advised hiring local representationto defend the Association.• The vote regarding the slate taken at the ExecutiveCommittee Meeting in early April was NOT a largedivision vs. small division decision. In fact, no less thannine divisions voted in favor of respecting the NominatingCommittee’s original choices. Of those nine divisions,four of them have less than 500 members giving themthe status of “small division”. It was both large and smalldivisions which passed this motion.• Our USPTA Legal Counsel (Paul Waldman) waspresent for both the January and April Meetings. Ratherthan try to summarize Paul’s observations of theseevents, we have attached a copy of his affidavit from thelawsuit.• Article VI, Section 1 of the USPTA National Bylawsclearly states the Powers of the Executive Committee.Should any disagreement exist with any other bodywithin USPTA, such as the Board of Directors, as to thescope of the Executive Committee’s powers, the determinationof the Executive Committee shall be final. To beclear, the Executive Committee is made up of two representativesfrom each of the 17 divisions, eight currentBoard members, and three national past Presidents. Asa group, this body is responsible for the governance ofthe Association.Thank you for your careful consideration of this information.Please know that the role of leadership in ourprofession’s trade association must be taken seriously.We appreciate your trust in our judgment to make toughdecisions. Thank you for your faith in us and support inthese matters.Finally, there will be an extremely important election takingplace in a few weeks. We will be soliciting supportfor certain candidates. It is our sincere hope that youwill help us elect these individuals to represent us on theUSPTA National Board of Officers.Sincerely,Jeff Cohen, Florida Div. PresidentRichard Centerbar, Florida Div. Reg. VPFLORIDA DIVISION BOARDJoe Roediger, Eastern Div. PresidentWarren Lem, Eastern Div. Reg. VPKim Davis, Intermountain Div. PresidentNelson Alapi, San Diego Div. PresidentAlden Bock, Intermountain Div. Reg. VPDophie Poiset, San Diego Div. Reg. VPMolly Card Beckmann, Midwest Div. PresidentBrian McCoy, Northern Div. PresidentPaul Marcum, Midwest Div. Reg. VPJohn Schollmeier, Northern Div. Reg. VPBill Fletcher, Pacific Northwest Div. PresidentHunter Lipscomb, Pacific Northwest Div. Reg. VPBill Phillips, Southern Div. PresidentPat Whitworth, Southern Div. Reg. VPINTERMOUNTAIN DIVISION BOARDPat Hanssen, Mid-Atlantic Div. PresidentMID-ATLANTIC DIVISION BOARDJohn Cleary, Mid-Atlantic Div. Reg. VPSOUTHERN DIVISION BOARD
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Florida Division - United States Professional Tennis Association

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