A History of SkateFAIR.
SkateFAIR has a short but interesting history.
Skating Fans for Accountability and ISU Reform (SkateFAIR) has its roots in an offhand remark made on January 21, 2003 on the SkateFans mailing list. Someone had noticed some spectators at U.S. Nationals booing skaters. Like nearly everyone else, Trish O'Brien was against booing skaters, but added that she found nothing at all objectionable about booing Ottavio Cinquanta, the president of the International Skating Union (ISU). Skating fans all over the Internet had been appalled by the idea of secret judging ever since it was first introduced by Cinquanta, and some had already brought protest signs to previous events. Trish hoped that some signs would show up at Worlds and escape confiscation, and then wondered if an organized protest outside the arena would work.
As SkateFans' list members continued to discuss topics such as the composition of the U.S. World Team, reports from Europeans, the re-start rules when equipment fails and so on, the idea of a protest at 2003 Worlds in Washington, D.C. continued to percolate. More and more people posted to say they hoped it would happen and would join in if it did, and Naomi Paiss volunteered to write a press release describing any planned protest and get it distributed to the press. She also mentioned that a critical mass of 30-40 people would be needed to attract any attention, and that we would need a protest permit. People not previously planning to attend Worlds started wondering if they could make it after all. New ideas for protest signs were floated.
By Wednesday, January 22, one day after Trish first brought up the idea,
discussion of a possible protest had swamped the SkateFans list. It was
beginning to look as if there really was enough interest to make it happen.
Naomi volunteered to look into getting a permit and, to lighten the load on
SkateFans, suggested someone set up a separate list to discuss the planning.
Excitement was growing, more sign ideas came in, and Trish posted that she'd set up a separate mailing list. People were invited to join by sending an email to 2003worlds-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Naomi reported that the D.C. police were faxing her the info about protest permits, and mentioned that there might be a hefty fee. Someone who couldn't be there in person offered to contribute money toward that, if needed.
The discussion on signs continued. Someone who'd carried one at Skate America offered to share it with others, and someone else offered to host the graphic on her site, so people could download and print it before Worlds. Finally, someone asked if people could please use the new list that had been set up, since her mailbox was exploding. It was still only Wednesday. By Thursday, January 23, the new list had 70 members. Good thing, because right about then, things really started to heat up.
What's in a Name?Wednesday evening, Naomi received the faxed permit application and posted the questions we had to answer. Hardest question? "Name of group."
People had also started asking about contacting the media and, for that, too, Naomi pointed out that we needed a name and some sort of "manifesto" that could serve as a press statement. She nominated Louis, long-time figure skating writer, for the statement.
People started kicking around ideas for a name, but soon realized that we needed to know what our core issues were before we could choose a name. Were we protesting the way the new judging system was ramrodded through, the Code of Points, the secrecy in judging, all of the above, or what? After some discussion, Louis boiled it down to three main points:
- public accountability for the judges' marks -- NO SECRET JUDGING
- improved ISU leadership that will work to solve, rather than disguise, ethical improprieties within the sport
- meaningful ISU reform, including lifetime bans for judges and officials guilty of misconduct".
Louis also mentioned that he was playing around with names for the group that could be represented by the acronym "FAIR." One of his ideas was "Fans for Accountability and ISU Reform."
Thursday afternoon, a poll was posted so list members could vote on the name of the group. The choices were:
- Skate-FAIR: Skate Fans for Accountability and ISU Reform
- Skate FAIR: Skate Fans Advocating ISU Reform
- SOS: Save Our Skating
Meanwhile, the volunteers kept coming. By Friday morning, a Web site
committee of 6 had formed, Web space had been donated and people began
offering to collect and/or write background material for the site.
On Friday morning, well before the vote on our name had been concluded and before we had a statement of principles, both Louis and Naomi reported that they had been contacted by Amy Rosewater of the Washington Post, who wanted more details on the protest.
Now that the national media were knocking at our door, we needed to make some decisions about how PR would be handled. Up to this point, there had been no real structure to the group, no officers, no chairpeople of anything -- just many deeply interested and knowledgeable skating fans exchanging thoughts and suggestions, and fans who happened to be professionals in various fields offering to donate their expertise. Now, Naomi offered to serve as our initial designated spokesperson, and the group gratefully accepted.
By mid-afternoon on Friday, the poll showed that Skating Fans for
Accountability and ISU Reform (SkateFAIR) had garnered 84% of the votes,
and, with our brand new name, we applied for our protest permit.
Early Monday afternoon, Louis posted the draft Statement of Principles and asked for comments and suggestions. The revised version was posted on Tuesday, January 28, for last-minute objections (there were none) and, a little after 2:30 p.m., Naomi posted that she'd talked to Amy Rosewater and sent her the Statement of Principles [link to Statement of Principles], and that there would be a blurb about us in Wednesday's Washington Post.
Issues, Issues, IssuesMeanwhile, the discussion on a wide variety of issues continued fast and furious.
Policy: What caused this spontaneous uprising of figure skating fans? Louis agreed to coordinate a committee to develop fact sheets.
Signs and Symbols: Some interesting thoughts on how to use indigenous materials at Worlds...
Internal Organization: Some preliminary discussion about introducing a little more structure to the group, but no one was really interested.
Membership: It was suggested that the Web site include a mechanism for people to become members of the group (for free, of course) so people around the world could show their support, even if they couldn't attend Worlds or help with planning from afar.
Money: Did we need any? What for? If so, how would we handle that? We knew we might need some for Web site expenses and hand-outs for spectators at Worlds, but nobody wanted it to get complicated. List members who keep track of money for a living (accountants and bookkeepers) tried to come up with something simple.
Web site: A new list was set up for the Web team. Strategy and content would be set on the main list, but the ensuing technical chat could take place on the separate list. Ideas for Web content were honed, and the Web committee reported that registration of the Web site name was complete and the Web team was proceeding.
After all this, it was not quite 6 p.m., Tuesday, the 28th. The next day would be our birthday, and we'd be one week old.
Happy Birthday, SkateFAIR, from the Washington PostOn Wednesday, the 29th, we woke up to discover that we did indeed have a blurb in the Post by Amy Rosewater. Congratulations, Naomi and Louis, and all who contributed so thoughtfully, passionately and quickly! No time to take a breath, though. All the issues that had been raised in the first week remained unresolved to some degree, and much more discussion and eventual consensus were yet to come.
By Sunday, February 9, 2003, two and a half weeks after the inception of SkateFAIR and six weeks before Worlds, the group had over 150 members and was still growing. We look forward to having a positive impact on the future of the sport we love so much, and invite you to join us!
