As I mentioned in Tuesday’s news and notes post, the USEF coaching search continues to wind its way through the USEF. Nearly two weeks after the open forum at Red Hills there is little new to report as of this afternoon. One frustrating part about this process is that the news has come in bunches followed by long spurts of silence. In January and February we had a burst of candidate announcements, which was followed by weeks of silence until the short list was announced, which led to a flurry of news and the open forum, and now we are back to the waiting game. We’d all like the process to be resolved fairly and quickly, but the crystal ball and tarot cards at the USEF don’t work instantaneously. Joking aside, representative governance almost by definition involves bureaucracy and committees that take a long time to reach a consensus. Anyone who works for the government or a large organization understands this frustrating reality. But the fact is that doing things slowly but correctly is preferable to undue haste.
As you recall from our coverage of the open forum during Red Hills, the only remaining task of the Search Committee is to make a final recommendation to the Eligible Athletes Committee and the High Performance Committee. The Eligible Athletes will meet to discuss whether they want to consider other applicants from the short list and then they will interview and consider all of the applicants resulting from that decision. Whether the Eligible Athletes will consider other applicants is anyone’s guess at this time.
As of this week, the Eligible Athletes are in the process of signing confidentiality agreements, making pinky swears of silence, and scheduling their meeting (probably via conference call) to discuss considering other applicants. Confidentiality agreements are a very expected and appropriate step to protect the candidates and the security of the discussions in the Eligible Athletes meetings from being disclosed to the candidates. In terms of scheduling the meeting, imagine trying to get that many top eventers on the phone at the same time.
After the Eligible Athletes reach their decision, they will brief the High Performance Committee. The responsibility is then on the HP committee to make a final recommendation to USEF CEO John Long who will negotiate and execute the final hiring contract. Mr. Long seemed very committed to the USEF making a decision by Rolex when he spoke at the open forum. Clear as mud? Go eventing.
