Bring USA Shooting into Compliance

After a months long struggle by six members of the USA Shooting, Inc., Board of Directors to resolve several grievances concerning elections to the Board and various Bylaw infringements, six “Board Member Grievants” filed a Section 10 complaint with the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) on August 13, 2015 in accordance with USOC bylaws after exhausting all possible resolution routes with USA Shooting (USAS).

One day after Scott Blackmun, USOC CEO, named a three-person USOC hearing panel on September 3, 2015, USAS President Dr. James Lally, USAS CEO/ED Robert Mitchell, and Gary Anderson, a vice-president of the International Shooting Sport Federation (the ISSF) and the senior ISSF representative to the USAS board, “on behalf of USAS,” filed a declaratory judgment action in Colorado state court naming the six Board Member Grievants as defendants, seeking resolution of issues regarding the election that were raised in a previously filed Grievance as well as the pending Section 10 Complaint. Significantly, the state court action seeks not just a resolution of the election grievance issues, but also attorney fees and costs from the Board Member Grievants.

The USOC hearing panel ordered the parties to mediation on September 25, 2015. On October 1, 2015, within two hours after the initial coordination conference with the USOC appointed mediator, Jason Turner (the Olympic Bronze Medalist in Air Pistol from 2008 and actively training for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio) was served court papers pertaining to this declaratory judgment action. Service of one of the defendants now requires a response to the court within 21 days. Mediation is scheduled to take place in Chicago on October 20 and 21, 2015. Complainants believe that the lawsuit pending in Colorado state court is not only inconsistent with USAS’s stated willingness to mediate, but also runs counter to the purposes and intent of the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act (TSOASA), which was intended to provide a forum for the resolution of disputes between athletes and NGBs without having to resort to the court system. Any issues that are not resolved by mediation efforts are to be heard by the USOC Hearing Panel the week of November 30-December 4, 2015 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.*

All of this costs money! Lots of money! Lawyer fees, travel to mediation, the hearing panel expenses, and any judgments including fees and costs that USAS seeks which could be imposed by the Colorado State Court. Jason doesn't have the essentially unlimited resources of USA Shooting which Lally, Mitchell and Anderson are using.

Please donate to Bring USA Shooting into Compliance. Your gift in support of Jason, of whatever size, will be used to defend and strengthen the athlete voice within USA Shooting.** This is your chance to support the athletes in the sport that we all love and respect.

*The six Board Member Grievants, of which Jason is one, seek to bring USA Shooting into compliance with the requirements of the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act (“TSOASA”), USOC bylaws and policies applicable to NGBs, and USAS’s own bylaws.

**Any funds remaining after paying all applicable legal fees and related expenses will be donated to directly support athlete training at USA Shooting, but only after any USOC imposed probation is lifted.

There is more information below:

Link to New York Times Article
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/10/11/sports/olympics/legal-dispute-roils-usa-shooting-team-as-rio-olympics-approach.html