February 13, 2007 – Cross Country Canada is seeking active or retired athletes who are interested in serving as the Athlete Director on CCC’s Board of Directors. If you are interested in making an important contribution to Cross Country Canada, please consider putting your name forward.

The Process:

1. If you are interested in being CCC’s Athlete Director, send your name to Tom McCarthy before March 15th (address below).

2. An election to nominate CCC’s Athlete Director will be held at an Athlete’s Meeting at the 2007 National Championships, in Quebec City. The date, time and location of the meeting will be announced as soon as it is confirmed. That meeting will be open to all athletes with a CCC racing license. At this time, all interested candidates will be asked to say a few words about themselves and what they’d most like to help CCC with. If any interested candidates cannot attend the meeting at National Championships, they can send a few written notes that will be read at the meeting. Voting will take place at that meeting, and the athlete’s nominee will be announced then or shortly thereafter.

3. The name of the athlete’s nominee for Athlete Director will be passed to the nominating committee for the Board of Directors. The nominating committee will submit that name for election at the CCC Annual General Meeting in June, 2007, in La Ronge, Saskatchewan. The Athlete Director’s term would start in June 2007.

The Position:

The Athlete Director has three major tasks:

– Board Member: The Athlete Director is a full member of Cross Country Canada’s Board of Directors, which is a group of volunteers that leads CCC and sets the organization’s overall vision and direction. The Board of Directors (BOD) is led by the CCC President (Dave Rees). As a member of the Board, the Athlete Director assists with the following:

– Setting CCC’s direction through input into the planning process, including the long-term plan, CCC’s annual Business Plan, and Strategic Plan.

– Monitoring and overseeing the overall direction and performance of Cross Country Canada, including financial assets.

– Providing advice on issues that are of strategic importance.

– Bringing an ‘athlete’s perspective’ to the Board of Directors.

– Looking past 2010 to think about the long-term future of CCC.

– It should be noted that the Executive Director, CCC’s senior staff member (Al Maddox), is responsible for the day-to-day operations of CCC. The Board is generally consulted on operational issues only when they have potential strategic implications – i.e. if an operational decision could impact CCC’s overall direction.

– HPC Member: The Athlete Director is also a member of the High Performance Committee (formerly the National Ski team Committee), which is responsible for providing advice and guidance on CCC’s high-performance programs. As a member of the HPC, the Athlete Director takes on the following tasks:
– Providing advice and guidance on the direction of CCC’s High Performance Programs.

– Overseeing and monitoring the implementation of CCC’s High Performance Programs, including the Long-Term Athlete Development Model and the National Ski Team programs for able-bodied and Para-Nordic athletes.

– Participating in the National Team selection process at the spring meeting of the HPC.

– When asked and as appropriate, as a member of the HPC, participating in various selection committees for National Team trips and teams.

– Athlete Communication: Finally, the Athlete Director can be an important way for all of CCC’s athletes to communicate with CCC and be informed with respect to CCC decisions. In this capacity, the Athlete Director has a lot of discretion; however, any of the following could be tasks of CCC’s Athlete Director:

– Maintaining informal contact with athletes.

– Communicating with the National Ski Team Athlete Representative.

– Setting up formal representation structures, such as an Athlete’s Council.

– Working through online tools to better inform and communicate with CCC’s athletes.

– Gathering feedback on CCC proposals of a strategic or operational nature.

– Details: CCC is looking for anyone with interest in learning about CCC and about decision-making process, and for people with a high degree of passion for the sport and the community. No other experience is required.

– The term of the Athlete Director is TWO years; however, an Athlete Director could put their name forward for election to a second or subsequent term if they wanted.

– Generally, the Athlete Director’s presence is needed at 2 face-to-face Board meetings per year (usually in Canmore), the Annual General Meeting (in the summer), several conference calls over the year, and the annual meeting of the High-Performance Committee (usually every April in Canmore). These meetings start on Thursday/Friday and continue on weekends.

– Additional time commitments are dependent on what the Athlete Director chooses to take on related to any of the three major task groups as described above.

– This is a VOLUNTEER position, and no honorariums are provided. However, CCC does cover all expenses related to the duties of Athlete Director, including travel and accommodation for meetings etc. Compensation is not provided for missed days of work/school.

Questions:

If you have any questions about the process or the position, or if you would like to put your name forward as a candidate, please contact CCC’s current Athlete Director, Tom McCarthy, at tom@xcottawa.ca.