Participating Members: Joan Eckerson, Jared Coburn, Todd Miller
I. Election of Officers
Joan Eckerson nominated Todd Miller to serve as Vice President and Jared Coburn to serve as Secretary/Treasurer, which were unanimously approved.
II. Election of New NSCAF Members
Recent changes to the NSCAF Bylaws require that the BOD be increased from three to five members (four members from the general membership of the NSCA and one public member). Therefore, a call for applications will be posted on the NSCA Website, the NSCA Bulletin, and the NSCA Connect for one at-large member and one public member.
III. NSCAF Appointees to the Scholarship and Grant Review Committees
Joan Eckerson appointed Todd Miller as the NSCAF representative for the Grant Review Committee and Jared Coburn as the representative for the Scholarship Review Committee.
IV. Scholarship Review Committee Report
A. Joan Eckerson presented changes to the scholarship application recommended by the Scholarship Review Committee, which included the following:
- In the directions for the cover letter, delete the line that reads “Furthermore, take this time to explain how receiving the funding will impact your future as a strength and conditioning professional,” since that same information is requested later in the essay.
- Rather than submit multiple scholarship applications, allow the applicant to select all scholarships they believe they are qualified for in the drop-down menu in the Applicant Background Information form on Part I, page 1 of the application; the applicant should also include the scholarship(s) for which they wish to be considered in the cover letter.
- Require that the applicant include the number of years (or months) that they have been a Member of the NSCA in Part I of the application.
- Include a checkbox in Part I to indicate if the applicant currently holds a NSCA certification and the number of years that they have been certified.
- Include a conflict of interest statement to determine if the applicant has a relationship with a member of the Scholarship Committee or the NSCAF, or make NSCAF and Scholarship Committee members ineligible to write letters of recommendation for the applicants.
- Include a line asking if the applicant has ever received a NSCA scholarship and, if so, which scholarship(s) and the number of years they were funded.
- Part I, page 3 – For the Memberships, Honors, and Certifications, Community Involvement, and NSCA Involvement sections; add gridlines and a column for “years” to the box and instruct the applicant to list the items.
- Part II, page 4 – Add a column for “GPA” between the “dates of attendance” and “degree” columns.
The Scholarship Review Committee also questioned whether points should be considered for individuals who have never been funded, and whether there should be a limit to the number of scholarships one individual may receive.
After some discussion, the BOD determined that both NSCAF and Scholarship Review Committee members should not be eligible to write letters of recommendations for scholarship applicants to avoid any conflict of interest. Rather than ask applicants if they have previously received a scholarship, ask them to list previous scholarship awards in the Memberships, Honors, and Certifications section on Part I, page 3. The other changes to the application were approved by the BOD as recommended by the Scholarship Review Committee.
At this time, the BOD was not in favor of providing extra points for applicants who have never been funded or limiting the number of scholarships awarded, since this was only the first year that the number of applications was greater than the available funding; however, the BOD did ask for a distribution of the number of undergraduate, master, and doctoral students who received scholarships this year, since applicants at the undergraduate and master’s level who may have limited NSCA involvement may be discouraged from applying in the future.
B. The Scholarship Review Committee recommended that Mr. Jason Roe take the place of retiring committee member Mr. Kevin Vanderbush, which was approved by the BOD. Because of the recent changes in the NSCAF Bylaws, Mr. Jon Jost is no longer eligible to serve on the Scholarship Review Committee because he is a current member of the BOD. Therefore, the BOD appointed Dr. Matt Stock to the Scholarship Review Committee (he recently submitted his application to serve on the committee and deemed to be a qualified replacement).
C. Joan Eckerson also indicated that the Scholarship Review Committee was beginning to become more staggered with these two new members, and that the other members of the committee, Dr. Damian Stanziano and Dr. Helen Binkley, were in their third and final year of their second term. To stagger the committee members optimally, as directed in the NSCA Guidelines for Committees, it was recommended and approved by the BOD that Dr. Damian Stanziano serve his term through 2013, and that Dr. Helen Binkley be asked if she would consider serving one additional year through 2014.
V. Grant Review Committee
A. It was suggested at the July 11, 2012 BOD meeting that the NSCAF consider providing grant funds incrementally versus full funding at the onset of the grant period, and also require a reporting form from the grant recipients. After some discussion, the BOD agreed that a formal end-of-year reporting form would allow for better follow-up with regard to successful completion of the project, publications, presentations, etc. Joan Eckerson indicated that she would contact the NSCA to determine if they could help with the administration of the reporting form and record-keeping and asked Todd Miller to begin to draft a 1-2 page final reporting form. The BOD was not in favor of incremental funding at this time.
B. In 2012, there were no applicants who met the criteria for the International Collaboration Grant, which awards up to $50,000. Currently, both the US collaborator and the international collaborator are required to be NSCA Members in good standing for five (5) years. Because the 5-year NSCA membership requirement for the international member may be too restrictive, it was recommended that the criteria for the grant be changed so that only the US collaborator is required to have been a NSCA Member for five years. Joan Eckerson stated that she would draft the proposed changes for future review and approval by the BOD. Because no grant was awarded, up to $100,000 may be available for the International Collaboration Grant in 2013.
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 10:00 am CST.
