Category Archives: USAWA Business

Time to vote for the 2025 Annual Awards

by Tony Lupo

If it aint broke ………Thank you to Al Myers, the previous awards director, for his service to the USAWA in this capacity. He started the USAWA Awards Program in 2009 and it’s running smoothly.

It’s that time of the year again to nominate deserving lifters for the yearly awards!  The USAWA award program was started to honor those individuals that display outstanding achievements throughout the year in different categories. Part of the USAWA budget goes to these awards, which means that part of your membership dues supports this program. These awards are to be presented at the Annual General Meeting of the USAWA, which happens at the same time as the National Championships. Usually the USAWA Awards are yearly – meaning they are for the previous year’s accomplishments. I would consider yearly as being the time since (and including) last year’s National Championships. Now for an overview of the rules for nominations:

  • You must be a USAWA member to make a nomination or cast a vote
  • Nominated individuals must be a USAWA member to be eligible
  • Only one individual may be nominated per person per award
  • Two nominations for each award may be submitted, one for your choice of the Winner and one for your choice of the runner-up.
  • The awards are for the accomplishments since last June
  • An individual may be nominated for more than one award

These are the different awards for which you should choose your nominations for:

 Athlete of the Year – This award is for the individual who has accomplished the most athletically within the last year in the USAWA. Top placings at the Nationals and World Championships should figure in highly. Also, participation in other Championship Competitions such as the Heavy Lift Championships, the Grip Championships, the Club Championships, the OTSM Championships, the Team Championships, or the National Postal Championships could factor in.  Participation in elite IAWA events such as the Gold Cup should make an influence on earning this award as well.

Leadership Award – This is for an individual that has shown exceptional leadership qualities within the USAWA during the past year. Things that should be looked at are; going above the level expected of an Officer position, promoting sanctioned events with emphasis being on promoting National or World Competitions, promoting the USAWA by developing a strong club, writing articles for publications about the USAWA, or through other means.

Sportsmanship Award – This goes to an individual who possesses and shows great sportsmanship within the USAWA. The act of sportsmanship may be by conduct at all events, or by an specific example of exceptional sportsmanship.

Courage Award – This goes to an individual who shows the courage to overcome an obstacle in order to return to competition. This may be a comeback from an injury, or just having to deal with difficult personal issues but still shows the courage to compete in the USAWA.

Newcomer Award– This award goes to an individual who in new to the USAWA or has become involved again. It doesn’t have to go to someone in their first year of being involved in the USAWA.

As stated earlier in the rules, I would like you to submit your choice for the WINNER and your choice for the RUNNER UP for each award. I will score it this way; for each nomination per award, 2 points will be awarded for the nominated winner and 1 point for the nominated runner up.  I will then add up all the points from all nominations with the person receiving the most points declared the winner and the one with the second most points the runner up. So, you can see that the Award Winners are chosen by YOU THE MEMBERSHIP! That’s the way it should be done.

Please email me at: lupoa0313@gmail.com with your nominations. The deadline for nominations is May 31st, 2025. That gives everyone a couple weeks to make their decisions.  My experience with this is that if a person does not make their nominations shortly after reading this announcement, it never gets done. So, make it easy on yourself (and me!) and turn your nominations in today!!!!

Procedure for bidding on Championship meets

In addition to the National Championships, which are awarded according to the policy in the rulebook, the USAWA has several other championship meets like the Heavy Lift, the Grip Champs, and the OTSM Champs. (Sanjiv Gupta has compiled a list of all our championship meets, and the history behind them, here.)

Usually these meets are bidded and awarded by an informal process, but starting this year we will have an official policy that is transparent to all interested meet directors. The promoter of each championship will be decided at the previous year’s championship, whenever possible. Sanctions are still granted by the Executive Board, via the Secretary, as usual. But the EB will give priority in awarding championship sanctions to (1) the winner of the previous year’s championship, followed by (2) the winner of a vote taken at that championship.

How championship bids will work, in 2025 and beyond:

  1. Bids for championship meets shall be submitted to the Secretary by the date of the current year’s championship, and should also be shared with the attendees of the championship. The bid should include the location, promoter, lifts to be contested, and as many other relevant details as possible.
  2. If the winner of the championship wishes to host the next year’s championship, the EB will consider this the primary bid for the championship, and will accept it so long as paperwork is in order, sanction fee is paid, and the bid is acceptable to the EB. The sanction will be issued within 7 days of the championship when possible.
  3. If the winner declines to host, or in case of a tie, a vote shall be taken among the members in attendance at the championship meet. Minutes should be kept, indicating the names of members who were in attendance for the vote, and the tally of votes. All bids from interested parties shall be presented and voted on. If remote entries are accepted, remote votes from those lifters must also be accepted. All efforts must be made to ensure the vote is fair and all athletes in attendance have an opportunity to vote. If an Executive Board member is in attendance, they shall oversee the vote.
  4. The EB will award the bid to the winner of the vote, again assuming that paperwork is in order, sanction fee is paid, and the bid is acceptable to the EB, and will do so within 7 days when possible.
  5. If no bids are made, or if a championship is not held, the Secretary will post a call for bids no later than December, so that a decision can be announced by January of the year of the next championship.

This new policy applies to the Grip Championships, Heavy Lift Championships, and OTSM Championships. If the Team or Club Championships were to return, they would abide by this policy as well.

The National Championships, Postal Championships, and Presidential Cup do not use this procedure, since they each have their own procedures already in effect. (Nationals are decided at the National Meeting, Postals are done virtually by scoring postal entries, and the Presidential Cup is held by the President.) All championships get priority on the meet schedule, with no other meets allowed to be held on the same date, so getting them scheduled early helps everyone.

The bottom line: if you want to host next year’s [Grip/OTSM/Heavy Lift/etc] championship meet…

…you can obtain priority for your bid by ANY of the following:

  • Winning this year’s championship (then you have first dibs)
  • Attending this year’s championship, and making the case to attendees why you’d be a great host (so you can win the vote)
  • Discussing the matter with the other potential hosts, and deciding amongst yourselves who will submit a bid (similar to the friendly way rotating championships like the Heavy Lift have traditionally been done – there will still be a vote under this new rule, but it will be an easy choice).

The EB understands that this new policy favors existing championship hosts, but it also incentivizes potential hosts to attend and compete in the championship they wish to host. It also allows and encourages friendly discussion among potential hosts to coordinate bids, if desired. We hope that the transparency here helps everyone.

Planning USAWA’s future

Last year, we had an advisory committee that was tasked with looking into options to grow and modernize our organization. This year, the board would like to bring the committee back, with a special focus on surveying the membership and volunteers (meet directors, record keepers, etc) to determine USAWA’s biggest problems and opportunities. This information will then guide future proposals.

The Executive Board is now putting together the committee to handle this important task, and we want to make sure we open this opportunity to the membership. A small committee (around 5 people) will be selected.

Sanjiv Gupta will head up this effort. He describes it as an opportunity to discuss what is going well, what could use improvement, opportunities to get people involved, and threats to the USAWA staying relevant. The time commitment will be a few hours per month, and mainly consist of email communications and video calls.  The committee will be active through approximately March of 2025 to be able to provide a report for the 2025 National Meeting.

Anyone who is interested in serving on this committee should contact Sanjiv directly at sanjiv_gupta@hotmail.com.

2024 Q3 Secretary’s Report

By Beth Skwarecki

Hi folks! I thought I’d start giving a rundown of business that has come before the board over each quarter, as well as routine business that has crossed my desk as Secretary. This report is for Q3, July through September 2024.

As you’ll see, sometimes our plate is relatively empty, and sometimes we have several orders of business in the same week. I do post notices on the website when something happens that is important for membership to know promptly. I hope this quarterly report is helpful for conveying the big picture of all that we do behind the scenes.

I took over as Secretary at the National Meeting in June of this year, so my first few weeks were spent learning my new duties under the guidance of former Secretary Eric Todd, and tying up loose ends from the National Meeting (posting the minutes, updating documents, etc). Apologies if I’ve forgotten any events from those early weeks. What follows are my notes from Q3 (July through September).

  • 7/21/2024: The 12th edition of the Rulebook was published online, incorporating updates from 2022-2024. See announcement here. 
  • 7/29/2024: Eric Todd stepped down as Website Director, on the grounds that that it makes more sense for the Secretary rather than the Treasurer to hold that position. The board unanimously appointed Beth Skwarecki to the position.
  • 8/29/2024: The records director approached the board with a member’s concerns about discrepancies between the rulebook and record book on how Weaver Stick records were kept. The board unanimously approved changes to the rulebook to resolve this issue. These changes and their rationale were documented here.
  • 9/8/2024: A positive drug test was obtained from a lifter, and a 6-month suspension applied (first offense). That member was removed from the membership roster.
  • 9/11/2024: Abe Smith stepped down as both Records Director and At-Large EB member. The board asked for nominations for his EB replacement.
  • 9/12/2024: Remaining board members unanimously appointed Tony Lupo to Records Director. Tony had already been involved in updating records, and Abe suggested him as his replacement in this position.
  • 9/13/2024: A member brought some possible errors in Weaver Stick records to the Secretary’s attention. However, he declined to share documentation that would allow the records to be corrected. Anyone with information about such errors is invited to contact the Records Director or the Secretary.
  • 9/13/2024: The same member also alleged (in a website article submission and subsequent emails) that the board acted improperly in changing the Weaver Stick rules and that the Secretary/Website Director violated unspecified duties of her job. Upon being reminded that complaints must be filed according to the Bylaws (Article 21, part C), he declined to file a complaint.
  • 9/16/2024: The 13th edition of the Rulebook was published online, containing the Weaver Stick updates.
  • 9/23/2024: Remaining board members appointed Sanjiv Gupta to the At-Large executive board seat.
  • 9/23/2024: The board was asked to mediate a disagreement between IAWA leadership and a US-based meet promoter who was bidding for an international event. After communicating with the parties involved, and determining that IAWA’s procedures were being followed appropriately, the board decided not to intervene.
  • 9/25/2024: New Records Director Tony Lupo reported that the records team has published an update to the individual records list and to the Century Club. A further update was made on 9/30/2024.
  • During this quarter,
    • 18 members joined or renewed
    • 11 new meet sanctions were approved
    • 5 members joined the Century Club of people with 100 or more records:
      • Stacy Todd
      • Allison Lupo
      • Clint Poore
      • John Carter
      • Joshua Monk
    • 5 members moved up the ranks in our officials system:
      • Kim Van Wagner and Christopher Lansdown passed their rules tests and are now officials-in-training.
      • Crystal Diggs passed her practicals and is now a Level 1 official.
      • Abe Smith and Beth Skwarecki each documented 25+ meets’ worth of experience, and are now Level 2 officials.

Please direct any questions, concerns, etc to the Secretary at bethskw@gmail.com.

New records director, records update, and Century Club update!

By Tony Lupo

I am honored to be the new Record Keeper for the USAWA. This is a big job and I hope to live up to the trust put in me by the executive board. I would like to thank my predecessors, John Strangeway and Abe Smith. They did a great job keeping the list intact. It is a huge job.

I also want to thank Sanjiv Gupta for his help as well. Since the Nationals, Sanjiv, Abe, and I have acted as a team in all things. The records are now up-to-date through the Second Quarter Postals (6/30/2024). If you spot any errors in your records, let me know! I can be reached at lupoa0313@gmail.com.

We should have some rapid updates coming out in the next week as we work through July, then August, and September. After we get caught up, then we’ll tackle the TEAM LIFT file.

Welcome and congratulations to newcomers Stacy Todd and Allison Lupo to the Century Club on the Women’s side! On the men’s side, welcome and congratulations to Clint Poore, John Carter, and Joshua Monk! Thank you all! 

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