USA Shooting Seats New Board Members & Selects Officers During Spring Meeting
OutdoorHub 06.13.13
USA Shooting’s Spring Board of Directors meeting held May 18 was highlighted by the nomination and election of renowned physician Dr. James M. Lally (Upland, Calif.) once again ascending to the President’s seat on the 16-person Board.
Returning board member Butch Eller (Katy, Texas) was unanimously elected to the position of Vice President while Kinsey Robinson (Upper Marlboro, Md.) and E.C. (Cris) Stone (Birmingham, Ala.) were both re-elected to their positions on the board as Secretary and Treasurer. Robinson, the International President of The United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers, has served on the USA Shooting Board for six years. Stone, meanwhile, is a banking consultant who has served as a Director and Chief Credit Officer for multibillion dollar financial institutions and is heavily involved as Vice Chairman on the Board of the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP).
Previously serving on the USA Shooting Board as President from 2005-08, Lally takes the seat held previously by two-time Olympic gold medalist and International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Vice-President Gary Anderson, who served as President from 2009-2013.USA Shooting Bylaws state that officers can serve two, two-year terms after which they must take a break of at least two years before they can be returned to the same office. Anderson helped lead USA Shooting through a most successful quad having won four medals including three gold at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Dr. Lally is President and Chief Medical Officer of the Chino Valley Medical Center which is ranked one of the top 100 hospitals in America. Dr. Lally is recognized in the local community as a charitable and giving physician, who leads by example.
Dr. Lally has served as team physician for the USA Shooting Team since 1993 and is currently Chairman of the ISSF Medical Committee as well as a member of the International Olympic Medical Committee. Locally, he oversees the sports medicine programs of the four local high schools in the Chino Valley Unified School District and is a member of the YMCA Board of Directors and serves as medical director to indigent clinics in Chino and Montclair. He serves on the Board of Trustees for Chino Valley Medical Center, Montclair Hospital Medical Center and Canyon Ridge Psychiatric hospital.
Dr. Lally was first introduced to USA Shooting during the 1993 World Cup Final at Prado Tiro, the shooting venue for the 1984 Los Angles Olympic Games. His home and medical practice were in close proximity to the range. He immediately became involved as Team physician. He was subsequently elected to the USA Shooting Board of Directors in 1998.
Anderson has been an ambassador of the shooting sports for over five decades now and his roles as a champion marksman and organization executive have benefited this sport in numerous ways.
Anderson served as the Director of the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) for 10 years from 1999-2009. In addition to promoting firearms safety training and rifle practice for all shooters, Anderson’s primary focus at the CMP was to develop and sustain successful youth shooting programs at both regional and national levels.
Without benefit of a coach or proper equipment (including ammunition), Anderson taught himself how to shoot by dry-firing his rifle for hours at a time. At the 1962 World Shooting Championships in Cairo, Egypt, he stunned the shooting world, then completely dominated by Russian shooters, by winning four individual titles and setting three new world records. At the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, Anderson confirmed his performance in Cairo was not a fluke, setting a new world record and winning the 300 meter free-rifle gold medal. At the 1966 World Shooting Championships in Wiesbaden, Germany, he won three additional world titles. Anderson continued to demonstrate his dedication to shooting by besting his own world record and winning a second gold medal in the 300 meter free-rifle event at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.
A former Nebraska state senator, Anderson worked at the NRA where he served as Executive Director of General Operations where he was responsible for the development of safety, training and competition programs.
Longtime industry leader Bob Delfay (Aiken, S.C.) made his first appearance as a Board member of USA Shooting while Eller and five-time Olympian and three-time Olympic medalist Lones Wigger (Colorado Springs, Colo.) returned to the Board they had served on in previous terms. Delfay and Eller replace out-going at-large Board members Allen Harry (Littleton, Colo.) and John Groendyke (Enid, Okla.).
Delfay has spent more than 40 years in the hunting and shooting sports industry and related conservation fields including 33 years at the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) before retiring in 2002 to pursue private interests in the fields of hunting and shooting sports. As Chief Executive of the NSSF, Delfay led the organization through a period of highly significant growth despite tremendous challenges including a barrage of politically-motivated lawsuits against the industry. During his career at NSSF, Bob was recipient of the 1999 Shooting Industry Leadership Award, was named NSSF “Man of the Year” in 2002 and has won major national awards from the Outdoor Writers Association of America, the Christian’s Sportsmen’s Fellowship and other groups. Since his departure from the NSSF, he has served as President of the Hunting Heritage Trust and as an advisor to the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation and GunBroker.com.
Eller previously served on the USA Shooting Board of Directors as the Treasurer from 2002-10, and currently holds that position with the USA Shooting Team Foundation. Eller has been an active supporter of the organization and has followed its activities since the 1996 Olympic Games. His son, Glenn, is a four-time Olympian and the 2008 Olympic gold medalist in the Double Trap event. A Baylor University graduate, Eller spent 38 years as a CPA with Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young.
Former rifle shooter Mary (Elsass) Weeks (Valley, Ala.) was elected by USA Shooting eligible athlete members as the organization’s new Athlete Advisory Representative (AAC) and was a participant in her first boarding meeting after taking over the chair vacated by two-time Olympian Connie Smotek (Lyons, Texas) after serving the previous eight years in that role.
The AAC representative is responsible for broadening athlete communication between the USOC and USAS Board of Directors providing input to those bodies with regard to both current and contemplated policies. The AAC is a member of the USAS Board and sits on the Executive Committee. AAC representatives are elected to a four-year term beginning in January of the year following the Olympic Games.
Weeks started shooting with Langley Junior Rifle Club in Hampton, Va., and attended the University of Kentucky on academic and athletic scholarships. As a member of the University of Kentucky’s rifle team, she was an eight-time first-team All-American and graduated summa cum laude with a degree in communications.
Weeks continued her competitive rifle shooting after college as a resident athlete at the U.S. Olympic Training Center and as a soldier in the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit at Fort Benning, Ga. During her tenure on the national team, she competed in various national and international matches to include CISM Military World Shooting Championships and the Pan American Games. She retired from competitive shooting in 2004 to attend law school and currently practices law in Columbus, Ga. She is married to competitive skeet shooter Mark Weeks.
