USAWA Business Updates


by Al Myers

New Officers

With the new year comes a change in leadership within the USAWA.  The newly elected officers took office on January 1st. Denny Habecker will remain as our President, Chad Ullom will be the new Vice President, and I will take over the position of Secretary/Treasurer, a position that has been held by Bill Clark since the inception of the USAWA.

Membership Dues

With the coming of a new year comes the time that everyone needs to renew their USAWA membership dues. There are some changes in how this will be done.  The USAWA will no longer issue membership cards with membership. Instead, I will maintain a Membership Roster on the website of all current members.  This Membership Roster is kept in the Members Section. The Members Section is only visible for viewing if you are registered for the website and are logged in to the site. There is no cost associated with being a member of the website, and you can be a member of the website and not a USAWA member.  Also located in the Members Section is the USAWA Discussion Forum. Please send your USAWA Membership dues to me for processing.  Membership forms can be found under “Forms & Applications”.

Video Page

The USAWA Video Page is still under construction.  I am hoping later this month I will have enough videos on it to make it viewable. If anyone has videos of All-Round lifts and would like to contribute to this please contact me.  I have set up a USAWA YouTube account that videos can be directly placed on.  Contact me if you want the password for this account.

Facebook Page

Chad Ullom has put alot of work into the USAWA Facebook Page. If you have a Facebook Account, you will want to join this group.  This page contains lots of pictures of USAWA events – way more than you get to see here on the website.

Drug Testing

There will be some changes this year with drug testing.  We will continue to be very aggressive in our drug testing approach, but have to make some changes due to economic reasons.  Last year the USAWA only tested at two events – the National Championships and the World Championships. But in both of these events, several competitors were tested. At Nationals 77% of the competitors were tested and at Worlds 38% were tested. This year more competitions will be tested but fewer will be selected for testing at each meet.  Not all meets will be announced that testing will occur so be prepared to be tested at ANY event!  However, I will give you the heads up on this one – the next meet testing will happen at will be the Dino Grip Challenge, held next month.

Year in Review

I have finished a Year in Review publication of all news that has happened in the USAWA this past year (2009).  This document contains all Daily News articles, all 2009 meet results, Hall of Fame Bios, and pretty much everything else  that has been put on the website this past year. It is all in one neat document. I am going to take it to the printer soon so if anyone wants a copy please let me know. I am going to have it bound. All I ask for payment is to cover the costs of copying and binding.  However, the document is over 200 pages long and over 100,000 words.  I am not sure what this might cost – but I would predict 40$ – $50.  Or if you just want a copy of it in digital format I’ll email it to you free of charge. Let me know soon so I know how many to have printed.

Writers for the Daily News

I am always looking for people to contribute to the Daily News.  If you like to write and see your words in print, maybe writing for the Daily News is for you!! It doesn’t pay much (actually nothing) but the satisfaction you will get from contributing to our great organization will make it all worthwhile!  Again, please send any story or article to me.

National Postal Meet Winners

Today I sent out Championship medals to all class winners of the 2009 National Postal Meet, hosted by John Wilmot. The awards were sponsored by the USAWA.  Congratulations to all participants and be expecting your award for your accomplishments soon!

Welcome Back Joe’s Gym

USAWA Hall of Famer Joe Ciavattone just renewed his club, Joe’s Gym, as a Member Club in the USAWA. Joe’s Gym was a club member in 2002.   Along with paying the club dues, I received individual memberships from 4 Joe’s Gym members.  This includes Joe Ciavattone Sr., Joe Ciavattone Jr., Jonathan Ciavattone, and Mike O’Brien. Hopefully, everyone will follow the great example set by Joe’s Gym and get your memberships in early this year.