Board of Directors: General Membership Director Seat Opening

USA Team Handball board member JD Orr has decided to step down from his role on the board. Mr. Orr will continue to serve as a board member for USATH until the replacement has been selected and appointed. The USATH board and staff would collectively like to thank Mr. Orr for his commitment to the sport of handball and his contributions to the board, and we are excited that he will continue to have a significant presence as a coach and an ambassador for the sport of handball.

Mr. Orr’s board seat is designated for a USATH membership-voted representative, and USATH will implement the process outlined below for selecting Mr. Orr’s replacement.  The term for the newly appointed board member will from the date of their election through December 31, 2024.

Requirements to Run for Open Membership-Voted Board Seat:

• Qualifications for determining eligibility are outlined in section 6.4 of the USATH Bylaws. For convenience, relevant excerpts are listed at the end of this statement
• All interested candidates must complete this form by Friday, August 5^th: https://forms.gle/QDYQdvkYqMGFjPcs5
• Once the online form is completed, the individual will then receive USATH’s Conflict of Interest Statement via DocuSign

After completing both the form and the Conflict of Interest Statement, USATH’s Nominating & Governance Committee will review the information and approve or deny a candidate’s eligibility based on the qualifications listed below.

The voting process:

• The vote will be conducted through an online form on the https://electionrunner.com/ platform, and all members of USATH with current memberships as of Friday, August 5^th will be eligible to vote. Voters will be required to enter a unique, randomly generated voter ID and instructions will be sent to the email associated with each individual’s USATH membership. Any ineligible voters will have their votes dismissed.
• The final list of candidates will be posted on the USATH website and distributed to USATH’s email list no later than Monday, August 15^th
• The vote will open on Monday, August 22^nd at 8am ET and close on Tuesday, August 23^rd at 5pm ET. The link for the ballot along with the unique voter ID will be emailed to each eligible voter when the ballot opens.
• Results from the election will be posted on the USATH website no later than Friday, August 26^th

In order to be eligible to be elected or selected, and to serve, as a Director, a person must:

1. be a natural person eighteen (18) years of age or older;
2. not be a paid employee or consultant of USATH currently or within the last five (5) years;
3. be registered as a member of USATH for at least sixty (60) days prior to her or his election, provided, however, that for the sake of clarity this requirement shall not apply to any Independent Director;
4. not violate Section 6.8 with respect to term limits;
5. not violate Section 6.11 with respect to organizations potentially competing with USATH [Section 6.11 provides that “No individual may serve simultaneously as a Director of USATH and as a director of an organization that may be viewed as potentially competing with the USATH”];
6. not violate Section 8.10.5 with respect to Nominating and Governance Committee members [Section 8.10.5 provides: Members of the Nominating and Governance Committee shall be precluded from serving as a Director or in any other USATH capacity, whether governance or on staff, for a period of one (1) full year after their term on the Nominating and Governance Committee ends.]; and
7. not be a person having a record of a (i) felony criminal conviction involving theft, financial improprieties and other crimes involving moral turpitude or (ii) SafeSport sanction or provisional suspension or a criminal conviction or other court sanction of similar nature.

Section 6.6 (C)   General Membership Directors:  There shall be two (2) General Membership Directors.  Individuals who meet the qualifications set forth in Section 5.1(A)(i) of these Bylaws [ i.e., Adult Athlete Members:  those individuals who register as competitive athletes and are eligible for competition in Team Handball]  and individuals ages eighteen (18) or older who meet the qualifications set forth in Section 5.1(A)(ii) of these Bylaws [i.e., Youth Athlete Members: those individuals (under the age of twenty-one (21)) who register as athletes and are eligible for competition in Team Handball at youth levels of the sport] are eligible to run for the General Membership Director position.  Any individual may nominate himself or herself or another member meeting the qualifications and requirements for General Membership Director by providing notice to the Nominating and Governance Committee within the deadline set forth by the Committee.  The Nominating and Governance Committee shall review the nominations and shall disqualify those who do not meet the requirements for the General Membership Director.  The Nominating and Governance Committee shall submit the approved nominations to USATH, which shall conduct an election among these individuals who meet the qualifications described above.  The candidate with the highest number of votes shall be elected as the General Membership Director.