Excutive Director Report
May 08, 2008

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Dear USA Water Ski board members, sport discipline board members, principals of the sport and USA Water Ski staff,

A key to success in many business arrangements is the development of healthy partnerships. Within USA Water Ski, we have developed healthy partnerships with our sponsors, and we are working toward helping them each to enhance their bottom lines, which is the ultimate indicator of success. However, there is a partnership we have not fully developed as well as we would like, and that is with Polk County Sports Marketing (the home county of USA Water Ski). Mark Jackson, a former show skier, and a television personality, is the director of Polk County Sports Marketing. He is also a person with a great deal of clout throughout the county with various movers and shakers.

Mark is currently in the midst of developing a huge, multi-million dollar sports complex near Auburndale, which is right down the street from our headquarters (well, 10 miles down the street). Within the complex will be a variety of sports fields accommodating soccer, baseball, football, and maybe other sports that I am not aware. He will also house the Central Florida Sports Hall of Fame; his new offices; various other sport headquarters; and, for water skiers, he will develop a 76-acre lake for show skiing, wakeboarding,
kneeboarding, hydrofoiling, barefooting and three-event water skiing. The lake is not particularly configured for three-event water skiing, but it can serve as a practice venue. Mark has developed all of the funding for the project, which is in the midst of final planning. Construction will be under way soon.

The sports complex he is providing, his relationship with the city of Auburndale, and our HQs facility together offer tremendous opportunities for water skiing both in the provision of skiing opportunities for people getting under way to those who are highly experienced. We are currently involved in discussions brainstorming business relationships and how we can develop synergistic opportunities that provide worthy service to all water ski sport disciplines and make sense in a business way. From time-to-time in the weekly USA Water Ski report, we will report on the progress of the new sports complex and our progress with discussions with Mark.

Last week, Brandon Wolf, manager of the USA Water Ski Competition Department along with Leon Larson attended the American Boating Congress. The following is his report:

Leon Larson (Chair of the Waterways Education Committee) and I attended the American Boating Congress put on by the National Marine Manufacturers Association in Washington D.C. this week. This conference, held annually, brings many of the boating industry’s executives together to learn about and
discuss some of the legislative issues that impact the industry. For me (being the rookie) this was a highly educational experience. There are 2 key lessons that I took from this trip:

1. Leon is not only an expert on boating and waterways advocacy issues, but he is also a walking GPS navigation system. He led me through the streets and underground tunnels of Capitol Hill as though it were his own backyard. If it weren’t for him, I would have been completely lost the whole week!

2. It is imperative that USA-WS stay abreast of legislative issues which have significant impact on the water sports industry, and continue to advocate on the behalf of our members.

One of the greatest benefits of attending this conference is the opportunity to visit with various congressmen and their staff members to develop awareness of the boating/waterways access issues that our organization is dealing with in their specific states/districts. Leon and I met with staff members in the offices of Florida, Wisconsin, Maryland, and California. The key issue at hand is the Clean Boating Act/Recreational Boating Act (S. 2766/HR 2550). This legislation, if passed by Congress, will reinstate a 35 year exemption that applied to water-based, incidental discharges of all vessels, including recreational boats.

The exemption was recently nullified by a U.S. District Court. If this legislation is not passed, for things like rainwater run-off and engine cooling water, recreational boaters will have to go through a complex and costly federal and state bureaucracy to get a permit just to go out on the water with their friends and family. If this legislation is not passed boat operators will have to obtain such permits, and do so by September 2008. We are hopeful, however, that the legislation will be passed as there are currently 30 congressmen co-sponsoring the bill, and those that we spoke with this week were receptive to it.

The wave of increased transportation fuel costs has caused everyone to take note, including the office staff within USA Water Ski. For the past several months a number of staff members have adjusted their work schedules to either flex or virtual. In the case of flex, those folks are working a weekly four-day schedule, which includes 10-hour days (a few of those employees also car-pooling). Those who are working through a virtual office approach normally are away from the office setting two days a week and work through their laptops from home, a local coffee shop, or any other appropriate locale.

Since our office is in a very rural location (miles from almost everyone’s home), the savings to our employees has been substantial in light of escalating fuel costs. One example has two employees carpooling
and realizing a savings on fuel alone of approximately $60 each per week. We have also noted a positive effect on our utility payments (they are less than before).

Immersing ourselves in making efforts to accommodate employee needs, endorsing green-ness, and saving some resources at the office takes some adjustment. There is the matter of trust that folks working virtually are actually working, and that folks spending 10 hours at the office rather than the traditional eight are as productive. Thus far, the staff has reacted positively, been highly productive, is mature, is passionate, and might now be devoting more energy to their jobs than when we were practicing traditional office work shifts. My caveat to the staff has been that we cannot leave the office vacated, and we must have staff on hand to answer members’ questions on a prompt basis. So, in other words, schedules must
be planned so that adequate office staff is always on hand to respond to inquiries.

This is certainly a sign of the times we are in. I suspect we will continue to see adjustments within our workforce approaches to accommodate both USA Water Ski and our employee needs as we move forward.

Have a great weekend.

Steve Locke
Executive Director
USA Water Ski