USA Ultimate

Task Force Assembled, Rader Consulting Retained, Timeline and Key Steps Announced

Colorado Springs, Colo. (November 10, 2016) - USA Ultimate, the national governing body for the sport of ultimate in the United States, revealed today several key details related to the development of its next strategic plan. The plan, which will identify the organization’s goals and the strategies needed to accomplish them, will span three years (2019-2021). It will be launched in 2018, coinciding with ultimate’s 50th anniversary and the final year of USA Ultimate’s current strategic plan.

USA Ultimate has retained the services of Rader Consulting, LLC to facilitate the process alongside a board-appointed strategic planning task force and a pair of special advisors. Owner and President Kae Rader brings with her more than 30 years of organizational leadership experience as an executive coach with the Center for Creative Leadership – a top-ranked provider of education and research – as well as institutions like the U.S. Olympic Committee and El Pomar Foundation. 

The task force, which includes four members of the board of directors, consists of Henry Thorne (chair), President DeAnna Ball, Chief Executive Officer Tom Crawford and Val Belmonte. Board member and Hall of Famer Steve Mooney will serve as a special advisor along with David Barkan, fellow Hall of Famer and engineer of USA Ultimate’s previous strategic plan.

"We’ve put a great team together," explained longtime board member Henry Thorne. "We have people who are deeply rooted in the sport like myself, along with high-level sports and strategic planning professionals who have a wealth of knowledge learned throughout decades of experience with other amateur sports."

In order to engage and communicate with the sport’s many stakeholders, USA Ultimate will initially poll its entire current membership base of 54,497 individuals, plus recently lapsed members and a database of parents and other stakeholders. The stakeholder opinion survey will mark the first of many steps designed to further embrace ultimate’s constituency of athletes, coaches, observers, volunteers, parents, educators, local affiliates, state organizations, league and event organizers, sponsors, licensees, media partners and governing bodies.

Information from the initial stakeholder opinion survey will then help guide the dialogue at a series of nationwide town hall meetings organized and hosted by USA Ultimate. An estimated 8-12 meetings will occur early next year – February through April – in strategically selected geographic areas with robust ultimate communities.

"We’ll see where the data takes us," said Thorne. "We’ll most likely follow up the town hall forums with additional surveys testing the ideas and strategies that were discussed."

Based on the key findings from these three stages (initial survey, town hall meetings, follow-up surveys), the strategic planning task force will present a draft of the plan to the board and staff for review, discussion and refinement. The board of directors will approve the final, three-year strategic plan at the 2018 summer board meeting and unveil it at the sport’s 50th anniversary celebration in conjunction with the 2018 National Championships.          

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