March 28, To Zone Chairs and Zone Delegates to the USA Water Polo General Assembly:

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1 March 28, 2013 To Zone Chairs and Zone Delegates to the USA Water Polo General Assembly: Thank you for participating in our 2013 Water Polo Assembly. You have a very important role in representing our membership. Your insights and comments are valued and taken very seriously. We are proud of the great strides we have made together over the last six years, but it could not have been done without the dedicated involvement of our members (athletes, coaches, referees, parents and volunteers), USAWP staff, and our past and present Board members. We have all risen to the challenge of saving our National Governing Body (NGB) and we are now winning, prospering and playing offense. There was a lot accomplished at the Assembly, but rather than rehashing the entire weekend we would like to address an important item that was discussed at the Assembly and give you our thoughts on where USAWP stands today. Board Term Limits There was some confusion at this year s Assembly regarding the issue of Board term limits. Prior to our 2012 Assembly, USAWP s bylaws provided that Board members could not serve more than two terms, of four years each, with a partial term in excess of two years counting as a full term. Thus under the bylaws then in existence, a Board member s total service could have been limited to as little as six years. At the 2012 meeting the Assembly Delegates asked the USAWP Board to eliminate board term limits entirely. The Assembly Delegates were concerned about losing productive board members, many of whom joined in 2006, to comply with the two-term limit that then existed in the bylaws. We didn t realize that at this year s Assembly, fully half of the delegate body was not present last year, and that you had not been fully briefed on the previous Assembly Delegates request. Rather than support the no term limit proposal, the Board asked the 2012 Assembly for time to study the matter and come back to the 2013 Assembly with a recommendation. The Board felt the no limit proposal was a significant change from the bylaws. The intent of the term limits provision in the bylaws was to create a new philosophy for USAWP by requiring sufficient change in Board membership to insure new people with new ideas would always be added to keep the organization from getting set in its ways and becoming stale. As promised to the 2012 Assembly, the Board conducted an extensive study of more than 40 other non-profits and NGBs, and found a wide range of policies on term limits. Many had no term limits at all, and many had limits of different lengths.

2 As you know, at the 2013 Assembly, we recommended a compromise: retaining term limits, but extending the maximum time of service by one term. This is consistent with the spirit of the Bylaws to insure we constantly have new members on the Board, and also to allow productive board members to serve a bit longer if they would like to do so. We now realize that some new Assembly Delegates, without the context of the previous Assembly, saw this as an attempt for the Board to maintain power. This was not the case. However, we should have better briefed the 2013 Assembly Delegates, and for that we apologize. We could have also sent the proposed changes out to you far enough in advance so that you would have had the opportunity to get familiar with the proposal and the context. We will make that happen in the future. We also want to take the opportunity to reaffirm that your organization is in its best shape ever. Since 2006, we have accomplished a great deal. Together we have pushed our sport forward in three main areas: Growth of Sport & Membership Programs Our membership has increased approximately 50% from less than 24,000 to more than 35,000 over the last six years Junior Olympics is not only the largest tournament in the world with 8000 athletes (750 teams go through regional qualification for the 550 slots available), but also one of the finest according to the feedback we have from participant surveys: o Big water and great venues with new award ceremony o More consistent officiating with more training, evaluation and pay for performance o Better bracketing and more games for each team o JO Expo for rising high school seniors to connect with college coaches Our collective efforts are helping water polo grow beyond our own membership numbers. USAWP has worked to help implement water polo throughout more high schools in Arizona, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Tennessee, and Florida NCAA programs are growing for the first time in many years, with six new NCAA varsity teams fielded this year at three colleges: Monmouth College, Emmanuel College and Notre Dame College. This is a priority for us, and we are working to continue to expand varsity programs We are a leader in Safe Sport, including background checks for coaches and referees Our partnership with the Positive Coaching Alliance provides our coaches, players and parents with new resources and strong values to maximize their potential as athletes and as people

3 Our Olympic Development Program is now more than 1,700 athletes strong, building advanced skills and objectively evaluating our top future athletes, coaches and officials We initiated a judicial grievance process that gives any member with a dispute recourse to be heard by a fair, impartial hearing panel that has teeth to take action We established an Academic All American certification for high school athletes We expanded our Masters offerings, including a range of new competitions such as a college alumni focused tournament, as well as inner tube and beach water polo at this year s masters nationals, in addition to more traditional Masters tournaments We made significant investments in referee training, certification and evaluation We launched Splashball at more than 200 clubs, as well as at Y s and other community pools, offering water polo more broadly across America National Teams USAWP s women s team captured our country s first Olympic gold medal in London the first for the USA in over 100 years In the last two Olympic Games our teams have captured more water polo medals than any other nation and our men returned to the podium for the first time in 20 years Our women s national team has won gold in 7 of the last 8 top FINA international competitions We more closely aligned the activities of our junior and other pipeline national teams with our senior teams and coaching staff Our Organization Built a capable and professional staff located close to our national team base Executed a successful financial turnaround o 2005 audit: -$733,000 deficiency in unrestricted net assets caused auditors to give a Qualified Opinion stating their doubts about USAWP s ability to continue as a going concern and provoked USOC into heightened oversight of our NGB o 2006 was the first year we had a surplus in 9 years and we have had surpluses for each of the past five years through 2012, which we have used to erase the debt we inherited o We hired a qualified Chief Financial Officer who overhauled cost controls and our financial reporting systems. We also established a finance committee of the Board to oversee performance on a monthly basis

4 o Revenues increased from $3.5 million in 2006 to $8.9 in 2012 million despite the severe recession Fundraising from donors has grown from $93,000 in 2006 to $690,000 in 2012 and the number of donors has increased to more than 1000 Sponsorship revenues have grown from $256,000 in 2006 to $825,000 in 2012 Because of the success of our teams and improved USAWP relations with the USOC, USOC support to USAWP has grown from $697,000 in 2006 to more than $1.16 million in 2012 with additional increases in direct athlete support Approximately 90% of each incremental dollar generated has been invested back into the sport either in new membership programs such as Splashball, more Masters tournaments, ODP, enhanced insurance coverage, background checks, increased officials and coaches training as well as increased support for the national teams We have also introduced a range of membership options both to lessen the cost of people looking to try water polo and to provide choices to those who want to have a more affordable experience At the same time our overhead costs have been reduced to less than 12% of total expenses amongst the best performing non-profits We earned the Guide Star Exchange Seal, recognizing our commitment to transparency of reporting in the top rank of non-profit organizations The staff developed operating procedures, Codes of Ethics, standards and human resource policies for the entire organization and monitors them for compliance Recognition from Sport Leaders USAWP has received recognition from our governing bodies over the last two years Scott Blackmun, CEO, United States Olympic Committee has said What USA Water Polo has accomplished is remarkable Dale Neuburger, Vice President, FINA said USAWP is a great American sports success story, in the upper echelon of National Governing Bodies in sport performance and good governance

5 Today water polo is growing, providing more services to our members and having more success with our National Teams than at any time in USA Water Polo s history. This is all being done in a transparent and open governance setting under prudent financial management. Together we are winning the battle to make water polo a main stream sport across this country and improve our international performance. We have many more things to accomplish to make our mission a reality, and with your help we can make it happen. Thank you for your continued involvement and support. Michael Graff, Chairman, on behalf of the USAWP Board of Directors