Present:		Ron Wyzynski, Bob Price, Don Burroughs, Bob Dickenson, Troy Dixon, Steve Donahue, Art Faura, Tom Kohl, Brian Hemelgarn, Al Herbert, Jimmy McKinzey, Terry Miller, Nick Nystrom, Glenn Purdy, Barb Strome, Elaine Viney, Emi Vishoot, Bill Zehler
Not present:	Keith Burke, Michelle Fox, Patty Salvatore
Guest:	Don Wood (Coach, Dayton Juniors, to discuss juniors' seeding)

1. Appointed positions

Emi Vishoot resigned as OVR Boys' Volleyball Program Liaison, effective November 1, 2004.

Tom Kohl was appointed to the new office of OVR Boys' Program Director.

The position of Juniors' Program Director (Bill Zehler) was changed to Girls' Program Director.

Brian Hemelgarn was reappointed as Regional Referees' Chairperson.

Michelle Fox was reappointed as Women's Tournament Director.

2. Elections

OVR registration numbers should be included with names and signatures on candidate's petitions. Incumbents need not repeat petitions (point of note; unchanged).

The voting booth, to be staffed approximately 8 hours per day, will be available at Adult Regionals and all sites of Girls' Championships. A mail-in ballot will be available online.

Voting booth staff will be paid and provided with T-Shirt and food.

Campaign literature cannot use OVR or USAV logos. No campaign literature material may be placed near the booth other than the profiles.

Elaine Viney will continue as Elections Chair.

Flyers and/or ballots will be distributed in team packets.

3. Financial Reports

Ron Wyzynski will provide final 2003-2004 budget at the January meeting, following conclusion of the OVR fiscay year (which ends on October 31).

4. Penalties and Fines

Bob Price will form a Sportsmanship and Ethics Committee before the October meeting to address additional consequences of, for example, ejections.

Fines in place now for not officiating ($100) will continue.

Tom Kohl suggested a fine for Open teams enter Club tournaments.

The Region will enforce policies that are already in place.

5. Men's and Women's Program

The OVR may lose use of Kent State University. Other sites are being considered.

All adults' tournament results will be posted by the Wednesday following each tournament.

Men's and women's seeding systems need not be identical.

The officiating team must provide a USAV-certified first referee, beginning with the 2004-2005 season.

All OVR teams, including adults, will be required to wear identical uniforms as noted in rulebook regarding logos, sleeve length, etc. Teams showing up with illegal uniforms can play, but will forfeit those matches (receiving no seeding points).

For Women's competition only, players registered to Open level teams may play down to A.

At Regionals, it must be stressed that teams have no "home court".

Men's and Women's teams that participate in Nationals and that submit a newsletter article will be compensated $200.

6. Juniors' Program

6.1. Background Screening

Background checks are now required for all individuals working with juniors, including officials. Individuals may not work with juniors until their background screens come back "Clear". Steve Donahue will administer the background screening program, forwarding forms to SSCI and recording results in the OVR database. The background screening fee is $20.

6.2. Regular-season competition

Because there are no 11s' tournaments, the girls' 11s' division will no longer be offered at registration.

Grade-level play will apply (starting at 12s) based on grade level, regardless of age, for club-level volleyball for play within the OVR. Teams playing outside the OVR must play at their age-appropriate level, and grade level play is not available for Open teams. Grade level will be required at registration for all juniors.

Bill Zehler recommended expanding 10-and-Under to allow for coed play. Teams can also be all boys or all girls. Until April 1, coaches would be allowed to pop a ball over for serves that fail.

Seeding points will be determined by a new, nonlinear function of teams' results, together with weights that are dependent on tournament strength. Tom, Troy, Art, and Nick met to establish initial weights for various prominent tournaments. Nick will develop and implement new algorithms for evaluation.

Open teams may no longer play up to the next older Club level. For example, a 16 Open team will be allowed to enter a 16 Open, 17 Open, 18 Club, or 18 Open tournament, but it will not be allowed to enter a 17 Club tournament. Teams that illegally play up (e.g. 16 Open to 17 Club) will be flagged, with consequences for both the team and the tournament director.

For 10s-14s, the start is the last weekend (not the last Sunday) of October, provided the scholastic season is over.

6.3. Power Challenge

Sites and dates:

13s: 3/19-20 KSU (4 courts)
14s: 3/19-20 Cincinnati (5 courts)
15s: 3/12-13 Site TBA (5-6 courts)
16s: 3/12-13 Toledo (6 courts)
17s: 3/12-13 Maumee
18s: 3/19-20 Maumee

Invite top 20-25 teams from each division

Entry fee: $320;

Guaranteed 7 matches

6.4. Power Tournaments

1-day OVR tournaments, hosted by others and with higher point values

Top team from Power Tournaments or Power Challenge may qualify for the Bid tournament

6.5. OVR-Kaepa® USA Girls' Volleyball Championships

Over 890 teams played in our 2004 event. Over 20 dropped, with 5-6 being refunded.

Intervention was required to seed teams correctly that had won bids to nationals. Such intervention caused no harm: teams that were moved up did not win Gold, nor did teams that were moved down win Bronze.

At the club level, taking the top 32 teams to Gold/Silver/Bronze/Copper worked very well.

The Junior Championships will again use 40 courts in the same space.

Only required personnel can be present at the Championship desk to relieve congestion.

Match assignments should include round numbers but not times.

Barb Strome will perform JODP functions at the Junior Championships.

The Awards Committee will manage presentation of team awards.

6.6. Bid Tournament

Tentatively: April 9-10 and 16-17 at the GCCC: April 16-17, 20 courts maximum: 12s and 13s: 16 per division. Final dates and sites will be posted on the OVR website when available.

There may be a play-in on Saturday morning in the event of ties.

6.7. National Tournaments

We will no longer have to ask whether teams will go to the Invitational, which is now first-come first-serve. The Invitational is now open to anyone, including Club teams. Both the Invitational and the Boys are in Louisville.

JOVC: 13s will go to National and American divisions. 18s may increase to 48+48 (from 48+24) in 2006.

6.8. High Performance

At the HP tournament, the OVR HP team finished 6th/15, the Youth team finished 6th/24, and the Y2 team finished 12th/24. The HP tournament level was very high, with participation by Southern California, Arizona, Hawaii, and others.

The HP tournament entry fee, currently $800, will increase next year.

170 girls attended tryouts for 36 spot for our 2004 tryouts. For 2005, tryouts will be distributed geographically, filtering to a final tryout at the Bid tournament with collegiate coaches assisting. Earlier tryouts can be held on evenings during the week, expanding players' opportunities to attend.

USAV will require that HP coaches have CAP II certification.

There is not a coaching program in place to train coaches for high performance. Coaches' participation in the the January clinic in Colorado Springs would be very helpful.

A boys' HP program is needed.

Don Burroughs will develop HP selection criteria to be distributed through the website.

6.9. Coaching Education

Over 500 coaches passed IMPACT training in approximately 30 clinics, including club-hosted clinics. Wick Colchagoff, Lynn Morris, and Bart Gensburg assisted Don, and the region saved $16 per manual by printing and binding them locally. For those wishing to host IMPACT clinics, site rent will be paid from IMPACT fees. Don Burroughs is now a certified IMPACT trainer

Over 90 people showed up for the 2004 OVR CAP clinics in January at The Ohio State University. John Neville and Diana Cole were added for the 2004 clinics at St. John's Arena (OSU). Others excellent instructors would like to come for 2005. The new CAP III curriculum is not yet available.

6.10. Boys' Fall League

Emi Vishoot is organizing the Boys' Fall League.

The Championships will be held on October 31.

The September-October registration fee will be $20 for players and $25 for adults.

7. Officiating

7.1. Officials' Compensation and Reimbursement

Referee fees are now $150 (raised from $135) per day for up to 6 matches at a regular-season juniors' event. Each additional match is $25/match beyond 6 matches.

The OVR will reimburse officials who work at any National event (Adult, Girls' JOVC, Boys' JOVC) in the amount of $100, per event/site.

The OVR will reimburse officials who pay application fees for national level (Junior National, National, National scorekeeper) certification in the amount of one half of the fee after successful completion of certification.

7.2. Officials' Clinics

Clinic dates and sites will be announced on the OVR website when details are confirmed. Two additional clinics will be offered to make make numbers at each more manageable.

To allow indivuals to attend multiple clinics, officials' clinics will be separated from club directors' and tournament directors' clinics.

7.3. Head Refereees' Responsibilities.

Brian will develop guidelines for head referees' responsibilities.

7.3. Junior Officials' Development Program

Each team must have at least one certified second referee and one certified scorekeeper, including at least 2 players per team. After April 1, coaches will have to serve for teams without certified junior officials.

Barb Strome will approve clinicians to deliver junior officials' clinics. Individuals would like to be clinicians must notify Barb by September 15.

Certifying officials and dates will be recorded for junior referees' and scorekeepers' certifications.

Officials will send certification paperwork to Barb for entry in the OVR database.

Clinicians will enter attendance information (rather than club directors).

Monthly reminders will be sent to club directors for teams lacking junior officials' certifications, along with additional reminders on the Wednesday prior to tournaments.

7.4. Junior Professional Officials

26 junior professional officials were certified. All passed and can work 10s' and 12s' tournaments.

8. Awards

Bob Dickenson will chair the 2005 Awards Committee. Bob will select members for the 2005 Awards Committee as his first action.

9. Future Board Meetings

October 3, 2004		10am start		Westerville South HS
January 17, 2005		9am start		Kent
August 12-14, 2005		8pm start		Columbus