USATF Nat Office - resignation

[passed it]

James Thornton - Director of Special Events resigned from his position to pursue other avenues.
Looks like Masback has had more turn-over in staff the past 12 months than Ollan had in 20 years.
Any reason(s) for the exodus!!!!

[Guest]

Re: USATF Nat Office - resignation

Please give a listing of all the turnovers under both regimes. And while you're at it, please adjust for number of staff under Masback (which is many times what it was under Cassell). This isn't one of those piss-ant boards where you can get away with unsubstantiated charges without backing them up. The ball's in your court, ace.

[passed it]

Re: USATF Nat Office - resignation

Most of Cassell's staff left when he was booted, or died in office.
Just look at the directory for USATF the past few years and YOU will see new names!!!!

[Guest]

Re: USATF Nat Office - resignation

C'mon, Craig was saddled with tons of Ollan hires (admittedly, Thornton was not one of them). If he has a fault as a CEO it's that he didn't use the "new broom sweeps clean" theory when he came into office and bounce them all, given OCC's known habit of being sure never to hire anyone brighter than he was. And that's saying something!!!

[Guest]

Re: USATF Nat Office - resignation

I'm shocked, shocked! To think that two icons of the sport could be trashed in public so nastily.

[luv2run]

Re: USATF Nat Office - resignation

How long were some of those people there when they left? It is the nature of NGBs to have a decent turnover rate.

[gm]

Re: USATF Nat Office - resignation

>given OCC's
>known habit of being sure never to hire anyone
>brighter than he was. And that's saying
>something!!!

I'm willing to bet that Cassell is much brighter than you, anonymous person.

[Guest]

Re: USATF Nat Office - resignation

>C'mon, Craig was saddled with tons of Ollan hires(admittedly, Thornton was not one of them). If he
has a fault as a CEO it's that he didn't use the
"new broom sweeps clean" theory when he came
into office and bounce them all, given OCC's
known habit of being sure never to hire anyone
brighter than he was. And that's saying
something!!!<

The problem wasn't who OCC hired, it was who he didn't fire. Perhaps his major fault was actually a virtue carried to an unfortunate extreme. He was very, very loyal to the people who worked for him and never had the stomach for firing anyone, no matter how incompetent they were (and he did have some beauts in his day). He had some strong professionals working for him, but the performance of the National Office was decidedly mixed because of the mediocrity that OCC tolerated.

In the end, though, what brought Ollan down was his failure to promote the sport effectively and his utter inability to keep the organization on a sound financial footing by attracting and retaining major sponsorships. If he had hired a strong marketing director, or if he had posessed better personal skills at this, he might still be there.

Craig has done much better in this respect than Ollan did. He has also had more personnel turnover than Ollan had, but most organizations (and not just NGB's) have a certain amount of turnover. I think it would have been a mistake for him to sweep everyone out immediately. Instead, he gave everyone a fair opportunity to prove him/herself and to decide for themselves whether they wanted to continue working for the new management. He also gave himself an opportunity to evaluate where everyone fit into his plans for the office.

It hasn't been perfect, but it seems to be working.

[Guest]

Re: USATF Nat Office - resignation

Come on now!

The relative IQ of Cassell is not the question nor was it the problem during his reign.

The fact that the Nike deal with USATF (that we still labor under) was so "deftly" handled by the "big O", for millions less than Nike came to the table expecting to pay... is!