Author Archives: Beth Skwarecki

Draft Agenda for 2025 Annual Meeting

Note on time management: The time planned for the Annual Meeting is two hours, and the Annual Meeting must include elections. To facilitate this, members of the current Executive Board plan to call the following motions at the following times:

  • Elections will be motioned to begin when about 90 minutes have elapsed since the call to order, or when new business is completed, whichever happens first.
  • A motion to adjourn the meeting will be called at or around the two-hour mark, assuming elections have been completed. 

Any important business that cannot be completed during the Annual Meeting may be handled at a follow-up meeting, tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, September 17, 2025, at 6 p.m. Central time, to be held virtually (on Zoom or similar). 

Robert’s Rules of Order will be in effect, which allow members to vote on adjournment, so the exact timing may turn out differently. Final scheduling/planning of the follow-up meeting will be up to the newly elected Executive Board.

Beginning

  • Meeting call to order – President Denny Habecker
  • Notetaker – Secretary Beth Skwarecki
  • Roll call
  • Approval of previous minutes – motion to waive reading since they have been posted on the website since last year

Reports

  • Treasurer’s report (Eric Todd) – submitted
  • Website director’s report (Beth Skwarecki)
  • Awards director’s report (Tony Lupo)
  • Records director’s report (Tony Lupo)
  • Drug enforcement director’s report (Chad Ullom) – submitted
  • Officials director’s report (Joe Garcia)
  • Postal meet director’s report (Denny Habecker) – submitted
  • IAWA representative’s report (Sanjiv Gupta) – submitted

Survey presentation

  • Brief summary of member survey results (by a member of the advisory committee)

Unfinished business

  • Weaver stick rule change – rules and record keeping were changed by the Executive Board since the last Annual Meeting. Time is given here for members to motion to amend or overrule, if desired.

New business

New lift approval – requires membership vote

  • Reflex bench press (Clint Poore)

Proposed bylaw changes

  • Change geographical membership requirement to US residency, not citizenship, to bring in line with how this is currently determined and enforced (by address of residence)

Proposed rule changes

  • Amend drug test policy to remove requirement for Executive Board to vote on approving appeals before testing (to account for new testing setup with MRO)
  • Bavarian deadlift rule change: remove requirement that hands must be within 12”.
  • Wrist wrap rule requiring 1 mm maximum thickness: increase or remove the limit.
  • Leggings rule: amend uniform rules to allow solid colored, form fitting pants (in addition to, or instead of, shorts) that allow the position of the knee to be clearly seen. 

New business brought up by members at the meeting

  • Time is reserved for any needed discussions, motions, votes, etc. 

Elections 

Board elections must be in this order. One person may hold up to two positions. The board must have a total of five members.

  • President
  • Secretary
  • Treasurer
  • Vice-president
  • At-large member(s)

Elections of special assignment directors, if needed

  • Website director 
  • (Others as needed)

Choose location/host of 2026 National Championships

  • Bid #1: Sanjiv Gupta, Colorado
  • (Other bids may be submitted before or during the meeting)

Choose location/host of all other 2026 Championships, if not previously announced

  • Grip Championships (2025: Sanjiv Gupta, Colorado/remote)
  • Club Championships (2025: Sanjiv Gupta, Colorado/remote)
  • Heavy Lift Championship (2025: Eric Todd, multi-location)
  • Team Championships (2025: to be held in December and decided then)

The agenda is also available as a printable PDF, below.

Please direct any bids or requests to the secretary at usawasec@gmail.com.

National Meeting 2025 – draft agenda (1)Download

Light Weight Decathlon – The Return of the No Weight Dozen! (Meet results)

The weekend of 28 – 29 June 2025 saw the return of an old event. Looking back in the Record Books, the No Weight Dozen ran for two years in 1999 and 2000. Earlier this year, at Clark’s Gym we decided to bring it back to life. The idea was to choose lifts that are challenging, yet something most folks can perform. With the input from several folks a list of 10 events was drawn up from those that had only a few records over 100 lbs – and the meet sanctioned. 

In spite of temperatures in the upper 80s and dewpoints around 75 F (31 C and 24 C for those north of the border) in Columbia of course, the turnout was fantastic. We had 20 lifters from four gyms and two nations compete. Two people emerged as the champions of a challenging two days – on the women’s side, Lisa Gore from Clark’s Gym was the champion. On the men’s side, Tony Hose from Clark’s Gym edged fellow teammate Jeff Wenzel to take the title. 

Thank you to all who participated. The response was far greater than I imagined. The weights may have been light, but there was a ton of fun and camaraderie. The results below showed that there was a lot of good lifting that took place from good lifters – including two lifters who will be inducted into this year’s Hall of Fame. As we look down the road for the future, it is my hope to swap in some different lifts and take out a few that were a bit more challenging to keep the list fresh. Additionally, we’ll look for a date that is further away from other meets. Lastly, given the great response, we’ll keep track of team performances if we get enough lifters from various gyms and compare common lifts. In fact – there are a myriad of stats we can produce. Just ask!

Any suggestions for next year’s event will be welcome. 

Results are below.

LightweightDecathlon.docxDownload

Saxon bar at Nationals

A notice to all who plan to lift at the 2025 USAWA Nationals:

A 3″ Saxon bar will be used for the Saxon deadlift, as per the rulebook. An announcement on Facebook incorrectly stated that female competitors would be using a 2″ bar. This is not the case and only the 3″ bar will be used for all competitors, since the rules of the Saxon deadlift require a minimum of 2.9 inches.

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