Board of Directors' Meeting

Saturday, August 9, 2003

(board members listed in boldface)

Present:		Ron Wyzynski, Bob Price, Nick Nystrom, Terry Miller, Emi Vishoot, Art Faura, Bill Zehler, Al Herbert, Keith Burke, Michelle Fox, Brian Hemelgarn, Bob Dickenson, Elaine Viney, Tom Kohl, Glenn Purdy, Jimmy McKinzey, Steve Donahue, Barb Strome

Not present:		Troy Dixon, Patty Salvatore

Guests:		Paul Claridades, Eric Gillespie

Introduction of Guests – Bob Price

Bob welcomed Elaine Viney to the board and introduced Barb Strome.

Ron Wyzynski – CEO/Executive Director

Ron thanked the board for letting him be the Executive Director and confirmed his commitment to the Ohio Valley Region.

The Ohio Valley Region continues to be in a financially sound position due to frugal spending, solid business practices, valuable fundraisers, and dedication of our staff.

Molten volleyball sales benefit our membership, and sale of Badens provides a valuable opportunity to Ohio schools.

2004 OVR Regional Championships and OVR-Molten National Bid Qualifier will be held on April 16-18, 2004 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center using 40 courts. Setup on April 15-16. Adult Regionals will provide non-playing tournament directors.

2004 OVR Junior Championships will be held on May 1, 2004 at various Columbus sites and on May 8-9 and 14-16 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center using 36 courts. Setup for GCCC on May 6-7.

Working with Paul Claridades, the OVR will host a new tournament in Charleston, to help grow volleyball in West Virginia. This year's event will take place on April 24-25 (setup April 19 or 23), coinciding with the Ringling Brothers Circus at the Charleston Civic Center. Paul and others from Charleston will gradually take over that tournament in coming years.

Molten® will be the official ball of the OVR (and of USA Volleyball) through 2008. OVR members benefit through excellent rates, including direct shipping of any number of balls.

Official volleyballs for 2003-2004: Molten® Super-Touch™ for men, women, and girls 13s-18s; Pro-Touch™ for boys; Volley-Lite™ for girls 10s-12s

Staff changes: Building on last year's successful online registration, any paper registrations for 2004 will go to Nick. Steve will continue to collect checks and continue with verifications. Tom Kohl will be more involved in seeding, following Yoon's resignation. Due to the online reporting Nick introduced last year, coordinating juniors' results no longer requires a separate position. Al Herbert is increasingly involved with running tournaments at KSU and Charleston.

Bob Price – Commissioner/President

Details regarding background checks for individuals working with juniors are still pending. Background checks probably will not be implemented for this season.

Juniors' directors and coaches must avoid violations of OHSAA's 3-player rule. This includes apparent violations that might occur through not updating their rosters on the OVR website.

Bob confirmed that player transfers do not exist in the Ohio Valley Region, excepting certain extenuating circumstances. Transfers for tournaments following the OVR Championships, for example, are not granted.

Michelle Fox – OVR Women's Tournament Director

Information on registration will be sent by e-mail, following up with hardcopy mailings only on request.

Regionals: Steve Donahue and Al Herbert will assist with setting up playoffs to avoid delays. Players greatly appreciated having certified officials for pool play. The entry fee for Regionals will be increased to $150, in return for all-day officials. A format playing all adults on Sunday was strongly recommended to the Bid committee.

Keith Burke – Men's Tournament Director

Divisions have reached an unprecedented level of equality: 2003 Regionals required more matches to decide playoff spots than ever before. Pre-playoff games were needed on all 4 courts of Men's A, including 2 games on one of the courts.

Keith suggested having a computer and database at the championship information desk would help guests locate teams and individuals. Nick offered to arrange that new facility.

Brian Hemelgarn – OVR Referees' Chairperson

The following individuals passed their ratings at this year's championships:
National Scorekeepers: Ron Moose, Tom Joseph, Bill Kissell
Jr. National Referees: Kristine Mullen, Rich Pillar, Rich Hambrock, Nathan Mahaven, Jim Sagenich
National Referees: Jimmy McKinzey, Dan Litteral

What constitutes a legal Libero uniform has changed, to be noted immediately online.

High school will use rally scoring (3/5 varsity, 2/3 sub-varsity) and the net serve next year. West Virginia and Pennsylvania are using rally scoring this year. Ohio may use the Libero in 2005. This is an opportunity to invite HS officials to OVR membership and training.

Rule stability is expected to continue through 2004, after which FIVB will meet (following the Olympics).

Online testing will continue this year, but with a new 1-hour limit (including for Regional referees).

Professional Officials' Clinics: Westerville: December 6. Toledo: December 14. Pittsburgh: January 3. KSU: January 10.

The region increased from 309 to 326 officials, including 34 new provisional officials.

Rating tournaments will be the second and third tournaments at KSU, along with the boys' tournament. The Presidents' Cup, February 14-16, may also be used.

Bob Price suggested that the region pay several raters to visit larger tournaments, providing valuable feedback to experienced officials.

Officials' pay scale for 2003-2004 is unchanged: $135/day for up to six matches. Any matches beyond six at a regular, local tournament are an additional $22.50 each. For Regionals, $22.50/match under 2/3 format; $15/match for two 25-point games (or 21-point games).

Paul Claridades and Eric Gillespie – Charleston VBC

Charleston program has grown from 60 girls trying out for 30 spots for 2002 to 100 girls trying out for 2003. Geography, however, poses a significant problem, as it has been difficult to attract Ohio teams to West Virginia.

Local education and training would be helpful. Bill recommended doing IMPACT and perhaps IMPACT+ to start.

The region will assist through the Big Top Volleyball tournament, training, and perhaps other efforts that are in their planning stages.

Terry Miller – OVR Scorekeepers' Chairperson

Ron Moose passed as National Scorekeeper.

There's a move to return to using professional scorekeepers for Nationals, and Junior National certification is being brought back.

Professional officials should send Terry their scoresheets from one match each year.

Bill Zehler – Juniors' Program Director

Bill and Emi attended the YJOVD meeting last week.

The OVR registered 10,084 female junior members.

Bill will contact Ron Sours to ensure that the region receives information on juniors' waivers.

The OVR hosted 712 teams on 32 courts at the 2003 Junior Championships, leaving only 2 openings overall. Every team that entered on time was finally accepted.

The deadline for next year's registration for Junior Championships will be April 1.

5 OVR girls made the Youth National Team. 4 are starters. Trickle down from HP to grass roots is very favorable. Bill recommended a new HP sand effort, attracting summer interest from both boys and girls.

Bob mentioned that at a coaches' meeting last weekend, 3 college coaches said that Ohio is now one of their top 5 states for recruiting.

Bill will schedule a late-September forum at Westerville, at which one representative from each club will pick up rulebooks and receive instructions, updates, and clarifications. [This forum was later canceled due to low projected turnout.]

The ROD requested scorekeepers for all National events.

Bill distributed and discussed a report titled "04 YJOC Champ Proposal to Improve and Grow". All divisions will increase by at least 24 teams. New "National" divisions would include automatic bid for regional (Bid) champions. The National division would include the top 2 OVR teams, and the American division would include approximately 3-5 more.

Tom Kohl – Juniors' Tournament Director

The Juniors' Tournament Packet is being revised extensively for 2003-2004. No points will be awarded for incorrectly run tournaments.

Power Challenge tournaments will be run on March 6-7: 13s, 14s, 15s; March 20-21: 16s, 17s, 18s. Sites will be finalized by October 1. Tom Kohl will announce the Power Challenge tournaments and accept registrations early (as with Bids).

Major OVR tournaments will be posted as soon as possible. The full schedule will be published on Sunday, November 30.

A tournament directors' meeting will be held on December 6 at Westerville South HS.

Al Herbert – Junior Officials' Development Director

10,000 certification cards and 500 patches were distributed to officials.

Al expects next year's nationals to require certified second officials and scorekeepers (as before).

Emi Vishoot – OVR Boys' Volleyball Liaison

Boys' Nationals: 18 OVR boys' teams participated at Nationals. Renaissance 18 Red won 18 Club, and Cincinnati Black 18 took 5th place. OVR teams also took 1st and 2nd in 17 Club. Selection criteria were established at the YJOVD meeetings for Open. 2003 was the first year this event was over-subscribed. Earning a bid will be required through a designated Bid tournament to be implemented for 2005 and, if possible, 2004.

Emi requested help with the OVR boys' fall league, expected to run September-October. Elaine volunteered Monte Moser as the tournament director. Emi will contact coaches through Monte Moser's list. [The league was postponed to 2004.]

OVR Boys' Championships: Sunday, February 29. Keith will be the tournament director and secure a site. If more than one site is necessary, Jimmy will be the tournament director at the second site.

Don Burroughs – Director of High Performance and Coaching Education

Coaching education: Changes to the coaching education department at USA Volleyball will mean changes to CAP.

High Performance:

The HP Camp team finished 3rd out of 8. Coaches: Paco Labrador and Jeff Wagner. The HP Youth team finished 5th out of 8. Coaches: Wich Colchagoff and Tony Geer. 5 OVR players were selected for the Youth National Team, up from 1 last year. 2004 HP tryouts are tentatively scheduled for the Friday night before Bids.

Don would like to move to coaching education funding better coaching education, and a summer HP camp funding the traveling teams.

The International Children's Games will be held in Cleveland (Baldwin Wallace College) next summer: July 29-August 1, 2004. 5-court, 3-day tournament: 20 teams. 14 international, 6 national. 15-and-under, FIVB rules.

Nick Nystrom – Publications Editor and Webmaster

Prior to the meeting, Nick distributed annual summaries detailing progress and status of the OVR website and publications.

Many improvements are planned to support both professional and junior officials.

The 2004 OVR Handbook is proceeding well and switches from previous years' PDF technology to combined HTML/CSS that will be superior for browsing while remaining adequate for printing.

The region must ensure that photos of regional champions are taken, for OVR records as well as to meet juniors' enthusiasm. Following Terry's recommendation, Nick agreed to direct OVR photography.

Keith requested online reporting of men's tournament results and automated calculation of standings, as was done for juniors in 2002-2003. (Michelle prefers to continue receiving pool sheets, through which she reviews individual game results.)

Providing accurate dates of birth will be stressed for all registrations for positive identification and also for verification of age-group teams.

Steve Donahue – Verifications Officer and MIS Director

Over 3000 certifications are in the coaching database.

Steve will continue working with Ron, serving the region's needs in whatever way necessary.

Filling Terms and New Positions – Bob Price

Bill Zehler was re-elected as Juniors' Program Director (9/1/03-8/31/07).

Ron Wyzynski was re-elected as Registrar (9/1/03-8/31/07).

Barb Strome was elected as Junior Officials' Development Director (9/1/03-8/31/07).

Elaine Viney will serve as Elections Chair for 2003-2004.

Bid Tournaments

2004 Bid Committee: Art Faura, Al Herbert, Tom Kohl.

Awards Committee – Brian Hemelgarn

Bob Dickenson will serve as the Awards Committee Chair

Additional OVR Meritorious Service Awards have been determined and will be announced after they are presented, for instance at coaches' clinics.

USAV Meritorious Service Awards are being framed for Micki, Keith, Hank, Brian, Emi, Don, Nick, Terry, Steve, Tom, Al, Don Roderick, Scott Garver, and Wendy Alfers.

Art requested nominations for national awards by the end of January.

Fees Summary

Registration and tournament entry fees are unchanged with the following exceptions:

The entry fee for adult Regionals is increased from $130 to $150 to allow professional officials for pool play as well as playoffs.

Registration fee for female juniors increased from $45 to $50, reflecting increasing cost of the Junior Championships and operating expenses.

The entry fee for the Bid tournament will be determined based on the committee's work.