The organization has decided to invite cities to express interest in hosting its headquarters, with a decision on potential candidates expected to come at the group’s annual meeting on Aug. 29.

Even if USA Luge does move its administrative offices, the organization plans on keeping what it called “robust operations” going in both Lake Placid and Park City, Utah. Athletes would continue to train in both cities.

USA Luge has been in Lake Placid since the organization was formed there in 1979. Currently located at 57 Church St., it is one of two winter sports national governing bodies based in Lake Placid, although the other, the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, has moved its main administrative offices in Colorado Springs, Colorado. USBSF also maintains an office in Lake Placid’s Olympic Training Center.

Lake Placid is also the site of one of the two full-length, certified sliding tracks in the U.S., with Park City, being the other.

USA Luge’s board has new members and new bylaws, and made the decision at its meeting Friday and Saturday, according to spokesman Sandy Caligiore.

“The board felt it prudent at this juncture to examine the best possible strategic location for our home office,” Dwight Bell, USA Luge’s chairman of the board, said in a press release. “We expect this process to commence very soon. Both economic and strategic advantages will be considered in the process.”

Cities have until July 31 to express interest. USA Luge said it plans to “render a decision on the long-term home of the organization” in the fourth quarter of this year.

USA Luge has long faced financial struggles, relying on sponsors and private donations to remain afloat. For the most recent fiscal year, ending June 30, 2014, USA Luge reported income of just over $2.1 million, and expenses of just under $2.1 million – roughly a $50,000 difference.

In August of last year, USA Luge Executive Director Jim Leahy told the Enterprise the organization was facing a financial shortfall of a “couple hundred thousand” dollars. The shortfall had been worsened by the loss of a key sponsor, the National Guard. The organization is still operating in a deficit, Caligiore said.

The organization says it received a “comprehensive report” on the possibility of relocating from TSE Consulting about a year ago, and decided to take action on that report at its recent annual meeting in Park City.

USA Luge has about 15 full-time employees and typically has 120 to 130 athletes in its programs, from kids ages 11 and 12 to members of its national and Olympic teams.

The two-time Olympic village of Lake Placid remains a national and world-renowned host site for international winter sports competitions. Most winters it hosts a top-tier luge World Cup competition, including this past December. Also, the U.S.’s top male and female lugers hail from northern New York: Erin Hamlin from Remsen and Chris Mazdzer from Saranac Lake. Several other members of the 2014 Olympic luge team come from New York state and Connecticut.

The news of a potential move from Lake Placid caught the federation’s most accomplished slider by surprise.

“Considering I am born and raised in upstate New York and all of my family is there, it’s convenient that the USLA is within a three-hour drive from home,” Hamlin, who won a bronze medal at the 2014 Olympics in Russia and a world championship in 2009 in Lake Placid, said in a story posted on Syracuse.com, attributed to the Associated Press. “That made it possible for me to get into and stay in the sport for this long.”

Caligiore said Hamlin need not fear that her routine would change if USA Luge moved its administrative headquarters. USA Luge’s coaches, all of whom live in or near Lake Placid, and athletes would stay where they are and keep doing what they’ve been doing.

Also, Caligiore said Lake Placid and Park City are expected to host World Cup races again this coming winter.

USA Luge collected 13 medals on the World Cup circuit last winter, tying the federation’s record from the 1996-97 season. The team is expected to start on-ice practice for the coming international season in October at Lake Placid.