(updated 21-mar-09 21:27 )  

For Background see emails that this story reports on:

[Email from [US Squash to NCS Squash]   [from NCS Squash to members]  [from US Squash to DC area members]

U. S. SQUASH Expels National Capital District 

Dateline March 19th - Squashtalk has learned that on March 10th Kevin Klipstein, CEO of U. S. SQUASH, formally informed the leaders of the National Capital SRA, a 35-year member of the national association centered in the metropolitan Washington D. C. area, that it will no longer be recognized as a U. S. SQUASH district as a consequence of National Capital’s vote earlier this month to offer its 450 members the option of obtaining a local-only membership (as opposed to having to join U.S. SQUASH as well). Klipstein stated in the email that he sent to  Meherji Madan, National Capital’s President at the time (who has subsequently resigned) that that decision constituted “a clear violation of a fundamental principle of our relationship,” and emphasized that as a result of this expulsion, “tournaments will not be sanctioned if they are run by the District, league results will not count for ratings and rankings.”

Though there has often been an understandable tension between regional Districts and the national association when issues involving control and autonomy arise, what has caused National Capital to be singled out by Klipstein this time appears to be the somewhat related and still evolving question of what computer platform system should be utilized. When U. S. SQUASH ended its use of Railstation last summer after several years in favor of an integration effort involving the Topdog system (purchased by US Squash) and iMIS (provided by Advanced Solutions International), causing a six-week computer shutdown in the process, the District most affected by the transition was National Capital, which has easily the most active summer adult singles league of any regional Association and whose substantial investment in its own software system resulted in its decision to offer the local-only membership option to limit the expense to its members.

U. S. SQUASH has spent an undetermined amount of manpower and thousands of dollars in the intervening months in what is still an ongoing effort to develop and integrate the Topdog system, which has shown enough flaws and glitches (the reporting of the S. L. Green and Grand Masters as recently as this past weekend was unacceptably slow, as one example) to cause National Capital, which has taken no fewer than three Board of Directors votes on the matter, to choose to remain on the Railstation system along with its BCI Software model, a decision whose fall-out has engendered substantial and increasingly personal disagreements with Klipstein in the lead-up to this expulsion notice.

Relating to the Topdog development, Klipstein points out that US SQUASH has been working with most districts to ensure their needs with the online system are met. He states that a technology committee was formed several months ago with the districts to address their priority needs involving the system, and National Capital has declined to participate. (National Capital has contacted us to contest that, maintaining that their webmaster, Fawad Syed sits on that committee.)

The officers of National Capital are led by VP for leagues, Malcolm Jenson, who was the District’s founding father 35 years ago and has been an essential part of its glory years as a prominent regional Association, including flourishing winter and summer leagues and the growth of the prestigious Woodruff-Nee Invitational, which celebrated its 60th anniversary last month, and the Fitzgerald Cup competition with Baltimore into elite events on the squash calendar. They have unsurprisingly reacted in strong and defiant fashion to Klipstein’s edict, noting that he had proceeded without a formal vote of the U. S. SQUASH Board of Directors, a point Klipstein reluctantly conceded during a 45-minute phone March 20th phone interview with Squashtalk reporters, though he insisted that the Board supported his decision, which he asserted came only after six months of attempting to negotiate a peaceful resolution of this matter with National Capital’s leadership. Squashtalk has also contacted two long-time U. S. SQUASH Board members, both of whom became skittish about discussing this dispute on the record, expressing “confidence” in Klipstein while also claiming that they were “on the periphery” and not familiar enough with all the pertinent details or backdrop to feel comfortable about responding to reporters’ questions on the topic.

With inflammatory emails (see enclosures) flying back and forth in the 10-day period since Klipstein’s expulsion of National Capital, and with both sides at this point distrusting the other’s motives, maligning each other’s integrity and girding up for battle, a defining event might well be how the District members respond to an attempt that Klipstein has already initiated late this past week to install a local U. S. SQUASH Committee and thereby disenfranchise Jensen and the current National Capital Board. If this latter salvo fails and the Washington-area members choose to remain loyal to Jensen’s group, they constitute a sufficiently sizable and influential force to likely cause U. S. SQUASH to reconsider its position and seek an amicable resolution, similar to what happened this past autumn, when U. S. SQUASH sought to alter the format of the Five-Man Teams competition but was ultimately forced to discontinue that attempt in the face of overwhelming disapproval on the part of the player group. That Five-Man event turned out to be highly successful, possibly a happy precedent for what eventuates on this occasion as well.

EMAIL FROM US SQUASH TO NATIONAL CAPITAL DISTRICT PRESIDENT:

EMAIL FROM NATIONAL CAPITAL DISTRICT TO ITS PLAYERS/MEMBERS:

EMAIL FROM US SQUASH TO ITS MAILING LIST OF NATIONAL CAPITAL INDIVIDUALS:

 

 

 

 

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