The OVR board of directors convened on August 9-11, 2002 at Mohican State Park for the annual retreat and board meetings. Organizational discussions began on the evening of Friday, August 9, followed by formal board meetings on Saturday, August 10, and Sunday, August 11. The meetings were punctuated by the annual OVR awards dinner on Saturday and followed by a cook-out on Sunday, both of which were open to all members. This summary reflects that weekend's results.

Present:		Ron Wyzynski, Bob Price, John Buck, Keith Burke, Don Burroughs, Bob Dickenson, Troy Dixon, Steve Donahue, Art Faura, Michelle Fox, Brian Hemelgarn, Al Herbert, Tom Kohl, Rick Laskey, Terry Miller, Nick Nystrom, Glenn Purdy, Emi Vishoot, Bill Zehler.
Not present:	Patty Salvatore
Guests:	Becky Carl, Jimmy McKinzey, Janet Nelson, Ed Novak, Sue Stephens, Hank Trimble, Sandy Widders.

CEO Report [Ron Wyzynski]

Ron circulated documents regarding registration, budgets, and championship dates. The region is on excellent ground, and we are committed to maintaining our high standards for championship events. Ron recommended that staff be compensated fairly for their efforts.

Juniors' Play Following Championships

Janet Nelson, Ed Novak, Sandy Widders, Becky Carl, Sue Stephens, co-directors of Columbus United Volleyball, presented arguments for relaxing restrictions on junior players following OVR championships. Bob Price and Bill Zehler are developing a proposal addressing these issues. Bill announced the new Athletes' Bill of Rights, to be passed out at tryouts.

Commissioner's Report [Bob Price]

Online registration will be a major issue this season. The ROD may mandate background checks for individuals working with juniors: club directors should be made aware of that possibility. The OVR continues to grow and to have the potential for more growth, especially for boys. Mike Chandler, USA Volleyball, speaks very highly of the OVR.

Men's Tournaments [Keith Burke]

Plans status quo for the following year. The men's Open playoff format was discussed, concluding that the current practice works. 92% of men's teams participated in the 2002 Regionals.

Women's Tournaments [Michelle Fox]

Looking into an extended contract with KSU, which is attractive due to remodeling and new flooring. This year we have KSU from the first weekend in January through the end of April, alternating adults and juniors except for the first 3 weekends in January (adults). Women's Open will continue as is.

Referees' Chair [Brian Hemelgarn]

Rick reported that last year's promotional efforts doubled the number of new people coming to December officials' clinics. Very few people had to attend make-up clinics; would like to eliminate February make-up clinics. However, only half the players as in past years came to the player-ref clinics. There is a need for improvement in player refereeing and scorekeeping, especially at the BB and B levels.

Brian suggested a pay increase for officials, and is developing dates and agendas for this year's clinics. Rotating to Cincinnati/Dayton may be possible, but not for this year.

Online testing (13 regions already do it), organized by the New England Region, will eliminate up to 2 hours at the end of each clinic.

5 of the 7 candidates sent passed their junior national evaluations. Jimmie McKinzie and Dan Litteral passed as National candidates.

Officials must help enforce standards to avoid unsafe facilities.

Bob P.: Incident Reports have helped in tracking and preventing problems. Those are applicable, for instance, to officials who don't show up.

Brian introduced the possibility of certifying 16s-18s to ref lower age divisions (e.g. 12s, 13s).

Brian also suggested changing First-Year Provisional and Provisional ratings to Provisional 1 and Provisional 2, with the promotion from 1 to 2 not automatic at the second year and with Provisional 1 restricted to, e.g., 14U.

Tom observed the need to ensure that tournament directors do not intentionally and repeatedly hire fewer than the required number of officials.

Scorekeepers' Chair [Terry Miller]

Junior National candidate fees increased from $100 to $200. The Scorekeepers' Chair is to sign off on all candidates: JN candidates must be able to keep score.

Each team must have a certified [knowledgeable, competent] scorekeeper at Junior Nationals.

International Scorekeepers (Brian): Jimmy McKinzie went to Dallas to get certified. Emi and Glenn (retired) are also certified. International Scorekeeper clinics now offered at the Open.

Online scorekeeping tests are not an option at this time.

No scoresheet changes this year. Roster and lineup sheets will change.

No new junior national scorekeeping certifications are being issued.

Juniors' Program [Bill Zehler]

Best year we've had; very few problems.

The large number of ASEP attendees obviated the need for a Junior Advisory Board Meeting.

Athletes/Parents Bill of Rights: to be handed out by club directors at tryouts.

Club directors will need information on possible background checks.

Junior Championships: confusion over which team officiates playoffs must be avoided. Plans strictly online registration for 2003 Championships.

The College Coaches' Packet was the most successful we ever developed. Plans are in place to improve on that for the coming season. Changes to NCAA recruiting policy will preclude coaches attending our May tournament.

ASEP: only ~15 club directors, all new, lack certification. Will continue to offer the ASEP course annually.

Junior Officials' Development Program [Al Herbert]

Circulated an image of a proposed junior officials' patch. To get the patch, juniors must be observed at a higher level. It is important that junior officials ask to be rated.

Steve: verification of large clubs was problematic because some didn't report their certifications. Al distributed ~5000 cards for each of the last 2 years; only 400+ were reported last year. Increasing online reporting is critical for 2003.

Juniors' Tournaments [Tom Kohl]

713 tournaments were sanctioned in 2002, 96-97% of which were run correctly. Will focus on increasing compliance: our size requires us to address not only quantity of tournaments, but also quality. Needs input on facilities from officials and coaches.

Appointment of Officer Positions

Juniors' Tournament Director — Tom Kohl
Mens Tournament Director — Keith Burke
Regional Scorekeepers' Chair — Terry Miller

Election Procedures [Brian Hemelgarn]

To maximize votes cast while making the best use of booth volunteers' time, a voting booth schedule will be posted on the web site and at the voting sites.

Brian resigned as Elections Chair. Al, appointed as his successor, will draft a process for the October meeting.

Electronic Registration [Nick Nystrom]

E-registration will be introduced for 2003, allowing for significantly expanded services. It will not be mandatory: paper registration will remain available. US mail will still be required for signed forms and checks: Steve will process those. Credit card payments not planned in the interest of minimizing members' cost.

HP & Coaching Ed. [Don Burroughs]

12 IMPACT clinics in 4 weeks was dense; looking at a longer schedule this year.

CAP I & II: Jan. 3, 4, 5 at YSU.

HP: Park City; Junior team placed 2nd; Youth team placed 4th. HP camp: unable to find a suitable host site this summer.

Goal: by next year coaching education will support itself and the HP program.

MIS Director [Steve Donahue]

Distributed Verification Officer Year End Report and registration statistics.

Plans online reporting of IMPACT, CAP, and ASEP certifications to club directors.

Adult players who coach must be named as coaches at registration and submit signed coaches' codes of ethics.

Website & Publications [Nick Nystrom]

Photos to be done in-house for 2003. Reviewed updates to and schedules for publications (Handbook, registration and tournament packets) and the web site for 2003. Significantly expanded facilities are planned: e-registration, e-reporting of juniors' tournament results feeding automated standings updates, online support for club directors' and coaches' certifications, etc. Addressed issues of worms, viruses, and reasonable precautions.

Boys' Program Liaison [Emi Vishoot]

Coaches can be registered in a different region from their team (e.g., OVR players who coach Keystone Region teams; an issue from Nationals).

John Buck will oversee boys' teams' registration for Nationals, as he does for girls' teams, in 2003.

Bob P. recommended getting a small group together under Emi's supervision, including Ohio HS directors, to establish a framework applicable for the growth of boys' volleyball in Ohio. Boys in high schools not offering HS teams aren't constrained by the split season. Bob, Emi, and others to follow up, encouraging formation of both HS teams and clubs. We should establish a Boys' Tournament Director or Program Director position within the next year. Bob, Brian, Hank, Art, and Keith to follow up on that. Middle school (boys' 12s, 14s) could run through our season.

Bid Tournaments [John Buck]

More teams qualified than ever. There was an effort to get more teams qualified for Open; Team Z even won. Yoon handled seeding, which worked well.

Opening hosting to multiple sites did not work well; John would prefer to secure the sites early (preferably 6-court facilities to turn no one away). It may be necessary to pay slightly more per court for quality facilities.

John suggested hiring an extra referee to help train junior officials potentially going to Nationals.

2003 Bids: April 5-6: 12s, 13s, 14s, 15s. April 12-13: 16s, 17s, 18s (based on when Qualifiers and Easter fall).

A motion to cancel all team subsidies for participating in Nationals, reducing Bid entry fees or avoiding an increase, was voted down. However, the July 31 deadline for submitting articles, as required for the subsidy, is firm.

Rick suggested subsidizing boys' teams as well (tabled until the October meeting). Terry Miller was appointed the chairman of the committee to develop a proposal on subsidies for October. To be assisted by Rick and Hank. John recommended that we retain our current policy of allowing teams entering Bid tournaments to declare whether they are willing to go to the Invitational if they do not make it into the National Championships.

Player Transfer Policy

Bob P.: "The Ohio Valley Region season is November 1 – October 31."

New Business

Al Herbert motioned, "The OVR board authorizes Ron Wyzynski to make adjustments to the pay rates of officials, officers, and staff other than the CEO." Bob D. seconded. Passed 10/2/2.

Brian: should officials' pay be increased? Inequities will be identified and addressed in October.

Tom: should we address a sanctioning fee or increasing juniors' tournament entry fees to cover officials, HP, etc.? Tabled for now.

Next Meeting

October 27, 10:00 AM, Westerville HS.