Over two years ago, USATF hired Deborah Daniels to do a report as to how USATF could better protect its athletes. She finished the report and briefly presented it to the board almost two years ago.
I was asked to take part in the process, because of my efforts around SafeSport. I now regret doing so. I thought that I was helping make our sport safer, but instead I just became a pawn in a political game.
When USA Gymnastics had a similar report produced by Daniels several years earlier, they published it. Their constituents and the media could hold them accountable for the how they met, and failed to meet, the recommendations in the report. I thought we would do the same.
I was wrong.
In my opinion, Deborah Daniels was fed bad information regarding how our L&L committee functioned. She never interviewed anyone on the committee or any volunteers regarding that topic. This led to her giving recommendations on the topic that I personally feel were misguided. Others may disagree, but we can’t have a conversation about it because no one else outside the board and the staff and myself has read the report.
While I disagree with her recommendations around board structure and L&L, she has many other recommendations in the report that I do agree with. Some of them were quietly implemented by Madeleine, others have been ignored.
I don’t know why the report is not published. I have asked multiple people and no one will give me a straight answer. I did not get a copy until nearly a year after it was completed, because I reached out to Deborah directly to let her know it had not been shared with me and she reached out to the National Office.
I could leak it. I could publish the report and we could have conversations about how we as an organization could better protect athletes.
I’m also positive that this would lead to disciplinary proceedings against me and that I would lose my membership in this NGB. The report is the property of USATF. It is not public and it is not mine to share.
The only reason I am even mentioning the L&L aspect of it is because that was revealed to USATF’s membership last year in an effort to get us to change our bylaws regarding L&L.
My opinion is that it’s wrong to tell people that they should vote for something because this report says so, without showing them the actual report.
But more importantly, it’s wrong to claim something is about protecting athletes, and then not use it to protect athletes.
Good NGB governance needs a system of checks and balances. This report should be public so that we can hold the organization accountable to it, or if some of the recommendations are not good recommendations, have conversations about the best way to move forward.
I don’t know which is worse, me sitting on information that could protect athletes or me losing my membership in my NGB and thus losing my ability to do anything from within moving forward. I shouldn’t be in this position. This report should have been made public nearly two years ago.
