VALLEY CITY, ND — It was busy this week as the NDHSAA took a hard look at their committees, by creating a committee to examine the state of their committees. The North Dakota High School Activities Association (NDHSAA) Board voted to establish a new committee. The Special Unit for Committee Knowledge and Studies (S.U.C.K.S) this week. This committee is going to determine if the organization has too many committees.
The move follows years of complaints that NDHSAA takes to long to make decisions. Policies often run through the Athletic Review Committee, the Eligibility Committee, the Appeals Committee, the Finance Committee, the Sportsmanship Committee, and even the Concessions Stand Pricing Subcommittee.
Board Forms New Committee To “Give The People What They Want”
NDHSAA officials insist this new committee solves the problem. Online chatter resurfaced, and not all the comments sound positive. Or do they?
Board members believe she was demanding the S.U.C.K.S committee be formed in 2013. NDHSAA leaders were shown this tweet and had a 3-hour discussion about it. Board members said they were “giving the people what they want” when forming this committee.
“We heard concerns the NDHSAA may be overly bureaucratic,” said one board member. “So, naturally, we formed another layer of bureaucracy to look into it. That’s just how things get done.”
The Special Unit Committee on Knowledge and Studies plans to meet quarterly, but the Scheduling Committee already pushed the first meeting to 2027 because it hasn’t scheduled a time yet.
Skepticism Remains Among Parents
Some parents and coaches remain skeptical. They remember how long it took for them to pass the 3-class basketball plan. Then as fate would have it, they had to have meetings to discuss their own bylaws.
“I just want to know why my kid has to sit out half the season because we moved across town,” said one Fargo dad. “But I guess we need five committees and a sixth one to tell us we didn’t fill out the right form in triplicate.”
Others defended the move, saying that without committees, “NDHSAA meetings would just be people making decisions, and no one wants that kind of chaos.”
NDHSAA leaders claim the new committee will deliver its findings by 2031. Three other committees must approve them first. It’s very clear to me, this new committee sucks.
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