Congratulations to Chad Ullom being appointed as At-Large board member. Chad had been the long term Vice President since 2010 and is excited to return to service. We received (4) letters of interest from members that were all qualified to perform the requirements of the position. We thank them all for volunteering to support and guide the USAWA.
The 2025 Gold Cup was a tremendous event by all accounts. USA Participants included Chad Ullom (Middle Fingers Straddle Deadlift), Denny Habecker (Peoples Deadlift), Al Myers (One Hand Fulton Barbell Deadlift (2″ Bar)), and LaVerne Myers (One Hand Fulton Barbell Deadlift (2″ Bar)).
This was a splendid display of strength by world class athletes who had to have already established an IAWA World Record to participate in the Gold Cup.
Denny Habecker completed the rare trifecta of attending the USAWA National Championship, IAWA World Championship and IAWA Gold Cup in the same year. For those of you who love numbers Albany is 665 miles from Lebanon, Belfast is 3284 miles from Lebanon and Derby is 3490 miles from Lebanon. That is commitment.
September was an exciting month with the Andy Goddard Memorial World Postal, Old Time Strongman Championship, Colorado OTSM Classic, One Ton Challenge and the Two-Fisted Challenge. Chad Ullom earned lifter of the month by winning the Old Time Strongman Championship primarily on the strength of his massive 725-pound Kennedy Lift (a masters and ALL age class record). Only (5) USAWA athletes have broken 700 pounds on this lift.
Chad is a 2016 Hall of Fame inductee and this is his 7th time being recognized as lifter of the month. He has been the long running Vice President of the USAWA and Vice President of the IAWA. He currently holds 347 individual records and 72 team lift records.
Congratulations Chad!
Do you know a USAWA member who should be recognized as a future Lifter of the Month? Send nominations to the acting Secretary at sanjiv_gupta@hotmail.com
Hey everyone! Beth Skwarecki here, the new Secretary of USAWA. At our 2024 national meeting, the membership voted in a new rule that splits the Secretary/Treasurer (formerly one position) into two, a Secretary and a Treasurer. I’d like to explain that change, and include some information on how members will interact with these two roles.
Briefly: because the Secretary/Treasurer did a ton of work. While the bylaws list five duties performed by the President, four performed by the Vice President, and three performed by At-large board members, there are a whopping fourteen duties assigned to the Secretary/Treasurer.
This may be a suitable workload for some people in some circumstances (honestly, I am impressed by everybody who held this position in the past!) but in 2024 we are a growing organization. Due to this growth, our Secretary/Treasurer has had to deal with increasing numbers of meet sanctions, concerns from membership, etc, while still doing the work of keeping our finances in order.
Eric spoke to me earlier this year to ask if I would be interested in the Secretary/Treasurer position if he were to step down. Upon discussion, we decided to make a proposal to split the roles. This proposal was presented at the national meeting and passed unanimously.
I’ll give an overview of the proposal here, but you can read the full thing in the 2024 national meeting minutes. Several items in the rulebook and bylaws had to be amended, but the most important ones were Article 5, defining the board, and Article 9, defining the duties of the Secretary/Treasurer.
The Executive Board of the USAWA was, and still is, a group of five people. Under the old bylaws, the board contained these specific five positions:
With the change, passed during the 2024 national meeting, the board still contains five people, but the four officer roles are separated so that the Secretary and Treasurer are no longer required to be the same person. Any two roles may be combined, so that in the future we could go back to having a combined Secretary/Treasurer if the membership so desires. Or, for example, we could have a President/Secretary and a Treasurer/Vice President plus three at-large members. Any board positions not filled by officers shall be filled by At-large members. There must always be at least one At-large member.
After the membership passed this change to the rules, Eric Todd stepped down as Secretary, while retaining the role of Treasurer. He then nominated me (Beth Skwarecki) to become the new Secretary. (This vote also passed unanimously.) I was already an At-Large member of the board, so the five board seats still belong to the same five people. Next year will be an election year, so this could change. Currently the board seats are as follows (and the positions are elected in this order):
The section of the bylaws describing these duties has now been split, with financial duties going to the Treasurer and duties relating to forms, applications, and communication being the purview of the Secretary. Both positions still serve on the board and attend meetings as described in the bylaws.
These are pretty straightforward, but as a member, here are the major things you need to know:
Any appeal, grievance or complaint by a member must be directed in writing to the USAWA Secretary, who will then present the issue to the Executive Board to be decided by majority vote. Failure to follow this protocol will result in appeals, grievances and complaints not being officially recognized.
The rulebook will be updated soon with these and other recent changes. I also plan to write a few more articles explaining other changes that were (or, in the case of knee sleeves, were not) passed by the membership. Please direct any questions or official communication to me at bethskw@gmail.com.
By Al Myers
The USAWA Lifter of the Month for January 2019 is Chad Ullom. Chad was the overall best lifter at the Dino Gym Challenge, which was the only competition held in the month of January within the USAWA. The Dino Gym Challenge is currently the longest running annual competition in the USAWA held at the same location every year. This year celebrated the 16th year of the Dino Gym Challenge (started in 2004).
By winning the best lifter award at the 2019 Dino Challenge, it made Chad the lifter who has won the best lifter award at the Dino Gym Challenge the most times. This was his 6th overall win (2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015, and 2019).