USFIFS - United States Federation of Inline Figure Skaters

[jkaplenk]

www.usfifs.org

[Arthur Lee]

Congratulations to the formation of the United States Federation of Inline Figure Skaters!

Arthur

[jkaplenk]

Now that we've got your attention...

Watch for some exciting announcements. We also have a very high quality website and events to reveal in a few weeks. Keep checking.

Joe Kaplenk

Originally Posted by Arthur Lee

Congratulations to the formation of the United States Federation of Inline Figure Skaters!

Arthur

[rolaboi]

Originally Posted by jkaplenk

www.usfifs.org

How will it be possible for any skater who joins this federation to compete in the US or represent the US, when USARSC governs the roller sports body? Just curious and I am sure you have already considered this??

It would be like anyone in Australia or another country starting up an independent body (believe me many have considered it) but there is no loop hole to permit international represenation outside of the current governing federations b/c of the affiliations with the government etc..

And what would be the benefit to any US skater who joined your federation and 'left' or 'turned their back' on USARSC?? What can be offered, or more so, what is your long term goals for these skaters and the sport?


Also, you have an event penned for August 2008, the National and World invitational.. How do skaters register for this event, as I know it has been difficult for us to register interest in events and more so, approval has not been granted in the past if it is not a CIPA affiliated competition, governed by their rules. And will you be required to apply for a 'sanction' via USARSC to run a 'roller sports' event in the US??


I only ask these questions in the interest of skaters who consider these options.

Thanks

[jkaplenk]

Thanks for asking. These are good questions. We also do have an FAQ on our website with more answers to questions. Our door is always open to ideas, suggestions and complaints and I will do what I can to respond quickly. (Note my comments on other posts about customer service)

Yes, we did consider all this. We do not plan on having representation in competitions outside our own and those we co-sponsor with other organizations. We will invite skaters from other countries to compete in our events, but this will not be under the jurisdiction of any other current organizations. This will just be an additional skating opportunity much like ISI on ice provides additional opportunities for skaters on ice that belong to USFS. We will also work with organizations outside the U.S.

What we are doing is providing opportunities for skaters to compete that are locked out of the current system. When JO was eliminated most skaters that were competing in inlines in freestyle had no categories to compete in. USARS has ignored complaints, suggestions, proposals and offers of help. The numbers have nose dived and I understand there were almost no youth at USARS Regionals and Nationals on inlines in freestyle.

If the organizations want to compete in inline figure skating then they need to provide opportunities and encouragement to this segment. I hear a lot of complaints about coaches that actively discourage inline figure skating. Besides the lack of opportunity this is probably the next biggest cause for the decline.

We will also focus on holding events anywhere. This includes outdoors, gyms, parks as well as indoors. This should actually also help the rinks because of the increase in skaters and coaches. It will especially help skaters that are hit hard with the price of skating.

Inline figure skating has not achieved anywhere near the popularity it deserves. By having an organization that strictly focuses on inline figure skating it is our hope to bring this to reality. If there are more skaters that do inline figure skating and then cross-over to the regular skating organizations, so much the better. We want to hit the market that is not currently served.

Inline figure skating has attracted skaters and coaches from roller, ice and inline skating. That is reflected in the makeup of the Board. Hopefully having an inline figure skating organization will have the further effect of preventing skaters from having to go to ice permanently and will give them an opportunity to continue to have their foot in roller skating. The ISU/USFS provide much clearer competition levels than the FIRS/USARS based structure as I've also mentioned elsewhere. There are also many more coaches and officials familiar with the ISU rule structures.

I personally plan to continue to compete in USARS as well as USFS and ISI whenever I can and this is just one more venue. I hope to get my USARS and RSA coaching certs also. I already have the basic PSA. My major goal is to also get a number of tests passed in all disciplines.

We have written USARS and asked that they allow us to get sanctions from them for our events. We wrote over a month ago and there has been no response. But this is no surprise. We have also written all the major skating and coaching organizations and inline hockey organizations in the US offering to work together. We received one glowing compliment and one meeting resulted in a lot of interest. We are also quite flexible in how this all works out after they officially respond.

At least two of the inline figure skating manufacturers and at least one boot manufacturer have been overwhelmingly in support of our efforts.

We hope to have registration for Nationals setup by February. We have several things that have to happen. The date may also be moved. We have also have made and will be making offers to several organizations to hold joint events, so it depends on their response.

This is what we currently plan. A lot depends on what happens the next few months as to what our next steps are. I will keep the newsgroups updated as much as possible.

Joe Kaplenk
President
United States Federation of Inline Figure Skaters
www.usfifs.org

Originally Posted by rolaboi

How will it be possible for any skater who joins this federation to compete in the US or represent the US, when USARSC governs the roller sports body? Just curious and I am sure you have already considered this??

It would be like anyone in Australia or another country starting up an independent body (believe me many have considered it) but there is no loop hole to permit international represenation outside of the current governing federations b/c of the affiliations with the government etc..

And what would be the benefit to any US skater who joined your federation and 'left' or 'turned their back' on USARSC?? What can be offered, or more so, what is your long term goals for these skaters and the sport?


Also, you have an event penned for August 2008, the National and World invitational.. How do skaters register for this event, as I know it has been difficult for us to register interest in events and more so, approval has not been granted in the past if it is not a CIPA affiliated competition, governed by their rules. And will you be required to apply for a 'sanction' via USARSC to run a 'roller sports' event in the US??


I only ask these questions in the interest of skaters who consider these options.

Thanks

[jkaplenk]

I do understand the difficulties that CIPA has created in having any events that are not of their own rules. I think the organizations are going to run into some real difficulties when there is a lot of evidence that they have severely restricted skaters ability to compete, have ignored complaints and coaches have actively discouraged the sport. I'm not sure that preventing other organizations from holding similar events and providing additional opportunities serves their interests in the long term.

In addition,in the US there are several jam skating, roller derby, inline hockey and other sports that rightly would be under USARS. AAU has inline hockey along with USA Hockey. There is a US Roller Hockey Association also. I hear rumblings about ISU trying to put inline speed skating under their control for the Olympics since a lot of inline speed skaters went to ice to compete in the Olympics. Skateboarding even went to the bicycling federation to get in the Olympics. USARS and FIRS would seem to be the most likely places to go of all the sports.


Joe Kaplenk

[jkaplenk]

I apologize for the slowness that is being reported. Apparently there is a bug in Microsoft Publisher that I used. This was done as a quick setup and is a temporary host. We are looking at ways to speed it up. It is being hosted on a very slow link rink now. It is only 440K.

We will be moving to a high speed ISP with our new website that will available as soon as we are done with the design. There is no time frame yet on this. You should be quite impressed with the website ;-}

Thanks for the suggestions and comments people have made. Keep 'em coming.

Joe Kaplenk

[jkaplenk]

We are looking for inline figure skating enthusiasts willing to serve on the USFIFS Board of Directors and as chairs and members of the national level committees. Some of the committees and chairs are already in place. Complete details on the roles are on our website and in the Bylaws at www.usfifs.org

The Board and committee work is done via the Internet for the most part and we will hold meetings at our national events, but will try to do some conference calls on speakerphones for people unable to attend. We would like committee chairs to be on the Board if possible.

The Board has a weekly communication with votes when needed along with detail on organization events and a lot of discussion.

You will need to join USFIFS. It is okay with us if you belong and participate in other skating organizations.

Basically the committees are:
Basic Skills - develop and extend the USFS Basic Skills program to work with inlines and develop and modify Basic Skills competitions.
Competitions - responsible for singles and pairs rules as well as sanctions and implementing competitions from the Basic Skills and Dance Committees. It is also responsible for judges and providing officials
Dance - responsible for solo and team dance as well as synchro and Theater on Inlines and developing and modifying dance events and categories.
Public Relations, Technical, Website and Membership - responsible for these topics including providing equipment and web interfaces for events.

There may be subcommittees or individuals responsible for each of the above roles as well as additional roles that will be created eventually.

If you are interested please email me at my AOL email address: jkaplenk. Please send information about your skating experience along with any other background that might be helpful. All positions are approved by the Board. There is no pay or reimbursement at this time.

Joe Kaplenk
President
USFIFS
www.usfifs.org

Originally Posted by jkaplenk

www.usfifs.org