How much notice should US Fencing give for NAC day schedules, check-in times and policy changes?
Issues centering on the timeliness of US Fencing notifications for national event day schedules, check-in times and policy announcements have been around for awhile, but seem to have reached a new high recently. Specifically, these issues are:
the shortened notice periods for day schedules and check-in times
The compacted NAC schedule this season due to the pandemic has brought regular registration deadlines very close to the event date. As such, US Fencing cannot set check-in times early enough to inform flight reservations. Instead, most fencers have relied on day schedules and where available, indicative check-in times released by US Fencing to make their flight arrangements and hotel bookings.
With the pandemic, airlines have cut back sharply on their flight capacity even as demand for air travel has now returned. Flight costs are far above pre-pandemic levels, and savvier planning is needed to find cost effective flights.
Coast to coast flights especially, have skyrocketed in price. Going to Summer Nationals from the West Coast is a very expensive event this year, more so for fencers from the Bay Area where non-stop round trip flights are sold out, but were available as of last week for $1,966 person.
US Fencing released the Summer Nationals day schedule 6 weeks ahead of the event, even as many parents were getting desperate as airfares to Philadelphia were rising fast in the West. The non-stop flights were scarce and expensive and those with one stop required a minimum of 7 hours flight time, most exceeded 10 hours.
The July Challenge day schedule was released only last week, 4 weeks ahead of the event. With this event, the challenge shifts to East coast families to find reasonably priced flights and reasonable commute times to Salt Lake City, with only a few weeks to go before departure.
For years, parents have been asking US Fencing to release check-in times for NAC events as early as possible. During the school year pre-pandemic, check-in times informed the booking of flights and hotel rooms, so that the number of missed school days and missed work days were minimized. The closer we get to the date of departure the more expensive the airfare. so, the earlier we know the check-in time, the more able we are to find reasonably priced flights to the NAC location. The difference of a couple of weeks can increase airfares between 20% and 50% in normal times. It is much worse now, with returning demand but still insufficient supply of flights.
With greater return to normalcy in the Fall, we look forward to a return to greater lead times in the announcement of day schedules and check-in times.
We strongly suggest that US Fencing start applying a standard of reasonableness in timeliness of its notifications of day schedules and check-in times. Short notice subjects fencing families to significantly higher costs in an already very expensive sport. Failure to give timely notice makes fencing economically viable only for the most affluent fencing families - surely this is not an outcome that US Fencing is aiming for?
See the discussion below on United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) bylaws that require US Fencing to act reasonably and disseminate selection criteria to athletes in a timely way.
2. major policy flip flop with 1 weeks notice
On June 17, 2021, US Fencing released its’ team selection criteria for the 2021/2022 season including the announcement that:
The Division I events at the Summer National Championships (to be held July 3-12, 2021 in Philadelphia) will count for team and rolling points for all cadet and junior weapons.
Contrary to this announcement, US Fencing had on March 10, 2021 announced that “"All National Championship events are open to U.S. citizens and permanent residents only…… All events will count as Rolling Points only and will not be used for team selection; As it has in previous years, the July Challenge will count as the first domestic point event for the 2021-22 season and will be conducted utilizing birth years for the 2021-22 season."
NOTE: US Fencing removed the March 10 announcement from its News Archive for several days and reinstated the announcement on June 29,2021 with revised wording that lines up with the June 17, 2021 announcement. This certainly counts as re-writing history! Or do we call this gaslighting?
The flip flop in policy on which events count towards team selection came exactly one week before the close of the regular registration deadline for Summer Nationals. While this flip flop affects a small number of fencers competing to represent the United States, it still sets a very bad precedent.
Any affected fencer who had relied on the original March 10 announcement and decided to skip Summer Nationals, and attend the July Challenge only would have been caught completely off-guard and left scrambling.
To add insult to injury, US Fencing defended its’ June 17 announcement on the basis that the one made on March 10 was a mistake!!! A flippant response to a serious issue! If you read the wording of the original March 10 announcement, it is quite clear that there was no mistake. This was an outright policy reversal.
And, even worse, US Fencing advised those affected that 2 weeks notice in advance of the Division 1 events was sufficient, the 2 weeks counting as the one week before the regular registration deadline(June 24) and the additional week being the one between that deadline and the start of Summer Nationals where the fencer would have to pay late registration fees ($285 in tournament fees and $285 per event entered) to compete.
And all this assumes that the fencer had not relied on the original March 10 announcement, and made other plans that could not now be reversed.
How on earth can one week’s notice ever count as sufficient notice to book a reasonably priced flight to Summer Nationals under current pandemic conditions?
In fact, the bylaws of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) are very clear that national governing bodies (NGBs) like US Fencing must establish clear selection criteria and disseminate these criteria to athlete’s in a TIMELY way. (Section 8.4.1(d)(ii) highlighted in purple in the bylaws).
By any reasonable standard, one week before the close of regular registration for a qualifying event IS NOT timely notice. The situation is aggravated in the face of a prior contradictory announcement that a fencer may have relied and acted on.
Section 9 of the USPOC bylaws (highlighted in purple) further state that the NGB must use reasonable means to protect the athlete’s ability to participate in an event if selected, including the protecting the athlete’s attempts to get selected.
Can giving one week’s notice of a major change in selection criteria be considered reasonable under any circumstances?
We think all reasonable people will say no!
US Fencing flip flopped on an important policy affecting team selection, it leaves us wondering how reliable US Fencing announcements are going forward. Should we be checking in with them regularly to make sure they have not changed their minds on something that may have a big planning and financial impact for fencing families?
