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How to File a Grievance
This information is excerpted from an April 2000 article by Lois Elfman in International Figure Skating magazine, "How Safe are Athletes? -- The sport of figure skating addresses issues of harassment and abuse."
Filing a grievance with the USFSA
Jon Jackson, chairman of USFSA Ethics Committee: "A disciplinary proceeding may be initiated against a member or member club in one of two ways. The first is by an individual member or by a member club filing an official grievance with the Grievance Committee. If the grievance involves an issue involving the Code of Ethics or Code of Conduct, it is referred to the chair of the Ethics Committee and to an appropriate vice president for further investigation. Assuming the grievance complies with the rules, a formal disciplinary proceeding is initiated. which may result in the revocation of the respondent's membership."The second manner in which a disciplinary proceeding may be initiated is by the president or one of the vice presidents. In this instance, the USFSA acts as the aggrieved party, by requesting that the Ethics' chair initiate a disciplinary proceeding against a respondent. Again, assuming the grievance complies with the rules, a formal disciplinary proceeding is initiated, and the matter is investigated and resolved as above.
"A key difference between the two is that a member or member club is time-restricted from filing a grievance, whereas the USFSA is not. An individual member or member club must file a grievance within 60 days of the alleged wrongdoing. The USFSA may refer a matter for disciplinary proceeding without regard to the time of the occurrence of the alleged wrongdoing."
Contact information for Jon Jackson (Ethics Committee chair) and Nancy Piro (Grievance Committee chair) may be obtained by calling the USFSA at (719) 635-5200. Grievance applications are available and there is no filing fee.
Filing a grievance with the PSA
Gerry Lane, PSA president: "People can telephone Jackie Brenner, chair of our Committee on Professional Standards, or our executive director, Carole Shulman, or myself...We send them a copy of our Code of Ethics. I instruct them to read through it and see how this situation that they have in their rink or in their club would be in violation of a certain portion of the code. If they are aware of our Code of Ethics and they find components of it that they feel a certain coach has been in violation of, for whatever reason, they then write a formal grievance procedure."A grievance application can be obtained by phoning PSA at (507) 281-5122. There is a $50 filing fee.