Present:		Ron Wyzynski, Bob Price, Keith Burke, Don Burroughs, Stephen Donahue, Art Faura, Al Herbert, Gary Hesse, Michelle Hills, Tom Kohl, Ken Leckler, Terry Miller, Nick Nystrom, Patty Salvatore, Hank Trimble, Emi Vishoot, Bill Zehler
Not present:	Michelle Fox, Brian Hemelgarn
Guests:	Adam Evans, Keith Johans, Scott Ebright, Larry Worth

Executive Director's Report – Ron Wyzynski

• Ron Wyzynski thanked to all directors and officers for their hard work and efforts. Ron summarized payroll and expenses (includes payments to USAV, SSCI (background screening), legal fees, rulebooks, etc). Payroll of employees accounts for 19.3% of expenses which is lower than previous years.
• Nationwide Arena will be site for AVP winter indoor beach volleyball tour; to coincide with our 2008 Winterfest tournament weekend.
• Having our own courts (24) provides significant savings
• JVDA is pushing for change in organizational structure within USAV and regions. If there are no changes, JVDA-affiliated clubs may choose to boycott the National events (Qualifiers, JOVC) andRegion Championships.

Commissioner's Report – Bob Price

• With USA Volleyball's restructuring of its board of directors, YJOVD no longer has a voice.
• The RVA group will meet in September in Kansas City, and the ROD will meet at USAV in October.
• USA Volleyball is not yet requiring regions to use the national registation system. Nick will visit USA Volleyball headquarters on August 23 to pursue interoperability between USAV and OVR systems.
• 31 clubs completed club licensure last season. These will be listed on the OVR website this year. The main roadblock has been whether clubs provide a Due Process procedure.
• It remains each club's responsibility to collect fees from its members.
• The 2006-2007 season was very quiet in terms of complaints and sanctions.
• The OVR received the Niggo O. Nelson national communications award for the best regional website.

Elections

• Michelle Hills was elected to fill the board position vacated by Glenn Purdy, concluding 8/31/2008.
• Ron Wyzynski was elected to the office of OVR Registrar.
• Loren Paulozzi was elected to the office of OVR Boys' Program Director.
• Gary Hesse was elected to the office of OVR Junior Officials' Development Director.

Juniors' Volleyball

Bid Tournament Review

• All board members and officers remained and participated in a discussion of Bid tournament dates and procedures, described in the document Ohio Valley Region Bid Tournament – Suggested Revisions.
• Bill Zehler moved that we keep our Bid dates for 2008 and pursue the maximum number of teams we can support. Steve seconded. Passed, 12/0/1.

Boys' Volleyball – Tom Kohl

• The OVR Boys' Program as representative, exhibiting strong performance at nationals.
• Boys' registration declined somewhat due to several western Pennsylvania teams registering in the Keystone Region. Most OVR boys' programs now originate in major metropolitan areas, especially the I-71 corridor.
• 31 teams participated in the Ohio Valley Region Inc. Kaepa® USA 2007 Boys' Volleyball Championships
• Tom suggested offering a minimal-cost membership to encourage young teams who would play only in-house, rather than in regular OVR tournaments. Tom will bring a proposal to the October meeting.
• Bob Price asked whether we should continue to support the Ohio boys' tournament via use of our courts in the Convention Center in May? Consensus: Yes. However, increased compliance is needed with respect to not bringing in outside food, not going outside their area, and not relocating chairs.

Ohio High School Boys' Volleyball – Scott Ebright and Larry Worth (OHSBVCA)

• The grant program has been successful thus far, with 4 schools starting programs. Scott thanked the OVR for its grants and volleyballs, and he presented an overview of the status of Ohio boys' programs. In particular, working through girls' HS coaches seems to be a successful approach.
• The state championships are based in central Ohio, rotating to other areas every other year. Last season’s championships were in Cincinatti, drawing close to 2000 spectators to the final match between Moeller and Elder.
• The OHSBVCA no longer has to follow OHSAA rules because volleyball is not yet a sanctioned sport. A coach can coach 3 players from his or her own school. This is an Ohio Boys' Volleyball rule designed to make it easy for teams to become varsity in their respective schools.
• The Ohio boys' club season runs from September 1 though the last week of February, picking up again from June 1 through the end of July. The high school season is March through May, and there is a no-contact period for the 4 weeks before Labor Day.
• 48 Varsity and 14 freshman/JV teams, including teams from other states and Canada, attended the tournament held at the Convention Center last May. The first weekend in May 2008 would work, e.g. Friday at 3pm, given that the state tournament starts on the second weekend.
• The OVR Kickoff Tournament, including both boys and girls, will again be held the last weekend in January.
• Nick requested that Larry and Loren develop a FAQ section on finding and starting boys' programs.

Results from the Club Directors' Forum – Bill Zehler

• Club directors requested improved communication of board discussion.
• Club directors requested inclusion of head-to-head competition data (analogous to AES, possibly drawing on AES data).
• Friendship tournaments: New official training vs. new junior official training vs. scrimmage only
• Coolers and/or food inside and outside tournament facilities
• "Other information" will be moved to the top of juniors' tournament infomation (and relabeled)
• Boys' teams will no longer use National and Regional designations
• Update Athletes' Bill of Rights to omit reference to verbal agreements being binding
• Extending no contact rule to coaches would be unenforceable, and furthermore, coaches are adults.
• OVR policies and forms will be documented by September 1, to the extent possible.
• The OVR will no longer assign seeding points to the Girls' or the Boys' Championships.
• 13s will be divided into 13 National and 13 Regional.
• Should an 11s' division be added to allow more opportunities for 10s to play?
  • This would entail a 7´ net.
    
  • We will support 11s' teams and tournaments.
• Bid Tournament
  • Date already decided: moving to May is not feasible at this time, but will be reconsidered for future seasons.
  • Revisions to the seeding system are under development.
• Representation on the board of directors and restructuring proposal (To be taken up as "New Business", below.)
• IMPACT certification update: presented by Don Burroughs at the July meeting
• Tournament format
  • Return to the gold/silver/bronze format? (To be taken up as "New Business", below.)
  • Should tournaments start earlier (8:00 or 8:30)? (To be taken up as "New Business", below.)
• Process for sanctioning events and getting approval
  • Juniors' tournaments will be published as they are sanctioned
  • Tournaments which are advertised before they are sanctioned will not be sanctioned
• West Virginia is behind in membership growth
  • The Big Sandy Arena is available only on Easter Weekend and the last weekend in January.
  • Due to the format, the 2007 SpikeFest ran until midnight on Friday, and then until 1am on Saturday. To be sanctioned again, a sufficiently experienced tournament director must be hired.
• Power League sanction: proposed for the Premier Academy and the Maumee Recreation Center, 20 teams per league, 3 dates, 4-5 matches per day. To be supported explicitly on the OVR website, and to receive points equivalent to a National Challenge tournament.
• Tryout dates are already presented in writing. Players can be approached by other clubs after October 31 and after their school seasons are over.
• Bill relayed that the JVDA feels that bids must go back to the regions
• The request for a database of players with unpaid fees cannot be met because it would introduce unacceptable legal issues.

OVR Girls' Championships

• 943 teams participated (of 971 teams registered) at the GCCC. 3 of the 971 were issued a refund, one due to a medical emergency and one because they were the 33rd spot in a 32-team division. 9 additional teams played at Westerville South, receiving extra matches in return for playing at a different site. Everyone playing at Westerville South received a medal, and everyone appeared to have an excellent experience.
• Overall, 1097 teams registered, and 1072 teams participated.
• There was a request for coaches to be able to sign up the night before.
• In the verbiage for seeding, reference to head-to-head seeding will be removed because it is impossible to consider head-to-head results for a tournament of this size.
• Should there be a penalty for not reporting that a team will not be at the tounament, since reseeding the pools introduces significant delay?
• One club brought a different team than the one registered for the tournament. In this case, the team was allowed to play, and its scores were consistent with the strength of the pool.
• 25 teams withdrawing is a high number; this was primarily due to incomplete teams. Bill suggested that players be allowed to participate in two championship events in special circumstances, provided that players meet criteria to be developed. Bill will develop these criteria for the October meeting.
• Should players registered to National teams be restricted to playing only on National teams? Bill will bring a proposal tomorrow morning.
• 2008 Girls' Championships: 10s, 11s, and 12s will play on May 3 and 4 at the GCCC. The split will be determined as soon as possible.

Coaching Education and High Performance – Don Burroughs

• Don Burroughs presented the Coaching Education and HP budget from 2007.
• 15 coaches attained CAP Level 2, and 31 coaches attained CAP Level 1. 614 coaches obtained IMPACT certification.
• Bill Zehler noted that the workload for CE and HP has been continually growing. For example, we do more IMPACT certifications annually than more than 30 of the 40 regions combined.
• We previously added Ron Lehman as assistant for girls' High Performance, and now it would be valuable to add an assistant to help with boys' High Performance. Don currently has 5 assistants for CE, which may increase to 6. Glenn Freed and Larry Worth have both expressed an interest. Steve recommended that we at least consult with Margie Belman.
• Other regions decouple CE and HP. The OVR's organization is superior in that CE fully funds HP and additional conditioning programs.
• VCAP Volleyball Conditioning Accreditation Program certified instructors are Don Burroughs and Jeanne Colpus. VCAP is typically tied to CAP, but since we have our own instructors, we can offer VCAP-specific clinics.
• New IMPACT instructors: Paul Claridades (WV), Jon Bennett.

Special Events – Al Herbert

• Al distributed income figures and other information on the Winterfest, Bid, and Challenge tournaments.
• The Bid tournament will retain the April dates because shifting it is not practical at this time.
• The Winterfest will be the National Challenge for 17s and 18s.
• Al has access to OhioNets (to run almost exclusively 2-net tournaments), Hiram, Premier (for 12s), etc.
• Trash left at facilities is a serious problem.

OVR Juniors' Tournament Director's Report – Tom Kohl

• 2007: 101 tournament directors, 937 tournaments, 112 locations
• Bob and Brian to give Tom the number of tournaments he can sanction on specific weekends
• Tom circulated draft procedures of OVR juniors’ tournaments for 2008, including the following proposals to be made tomorrow morning:
• No courts with connecting poles can host tournaments.
• Courts requiring a step-in lines will be limited to 10s’-12s’ teams.
• Joint National/Regional events will be allowed after the last weekend of Championships.
• Coolers and food are not permitted inside or outside OVR event sites.
• Adam Evans volunteered to help Tom as necessary.

Adults' Volleyball

• Bob Price noted that adults’ volleyball is stagnating and requires change – thinking out of the box – to invigorate our program. Hank Trimble noted that Adam Evans revisited the ideas Hank previously developed, leading to a program that may work very well, and presented them to Michelle Fox. Adam presented a proposal for a new format for adults. Motivation: Players want more chances to play after pool play. The proposed system allows teams to “play up” without the penalty of not playing after pool play. The system is designed to fairly place teams for the OVR Regional Championships based on their results for the entire season. Teams do not specify division at registration. Instead, they enter tiered tournaments – AA/A, A/BB, and BB/B – and earn points based on their results and the tournaments’ levels. Most formats then work smoothly, excepting a 3 court, 4 team per court event, which may run long due to having a quarter-final round. Complete details are available in Adam’s presentation, with examples worked out in a corresponding spreadsheet. Considerable discussion led to several suggestions for tweaks to the system, which was generally seen as a positive step toward increasing playing opportunities and providing a better experience for adults. Adam will work with Michelle Fox and Hank to continue to refine the proposed system. A proposal for the 2008 adults’ format will be brought for consideration to the October board meeting.

• The positions of Men’s Tournament Director and Women’s Tournament Director have not been unified into Adults’ Tournament Director. Micki Fox will continue as Men's and Women's Tournament Director until the October meeting, when we will revisit the issue.

• An OVR Adults' Forum will be held on October 21, 3pm, at Westerville South HS

OVR Officials' Division – Terry Miller, on behalf of Brian Hemelgarn

• Brian, currently officiating the World University Games in Thailand, e-mailed his report prior to the meeting.
• Brian recommends increasing officials' fees to $180/day or $30/match for juniors, and $180/day for adults. Alternatively, $27.50/match ($165/day) for 2008, going to $30/match and $180/day for 2009. This would increase teams' entry fees by $12 or $6 per team for juniors, and by $9/team for adults. Motion and vote: see "New Business", below.
• Ken Leckler noted that teams come into Championships and other late-season events ill-prepared with respect to protocol, e.g. court changes. Consensus: This is an R1 responsibility throughout the season.
• Ken Leckler asked whether the OVR should prevent coaches from having their teams do pushups between points? Consensus: If it happens before the whistle, it is not a violation.

OVR Scorekeepers' Chair Report – Terry Miller

• The only proposal for scorekeeping is to take the score at the time of substitutions off the scoresheet, moving to a very small format. This is being developed by Steve Crane, possibly for the next quadrennium.
• Mike Rolfes and Terry Bush obtained their National Scorekeeper certifications.

Proposal to Restructure the OVR Board of Directors – Michelle Hills

• Michelle presented a document intended to motivate OVR restructuring. Considerable discussion ensued. Bill explained that most board members serve multiple roles: officiating, directing clubs, coaching, and otherwise, motivated by their love for the game. Nick asked whether those who drafted the document, as part of their research, have attended any board meetings to explore whether juniors' issues are being addressed. Juniors' club directors have not attended. Bill mentioned that the OVR had a Juniors' Advisory Board, which collapsed after 3-4 years due to lack of participation, and which we then followed by the Club Directors' Forum, held every summer. The OVR would fully endorse representative individuals providing input. This must include junior players, who are not represented in the document being presented. Don described his experience since 2000 being that the board listens to and considers all incoming issues carefully, even being relayed by Bob Price when issues are expressed in e-mail. Don said that many of the concerns he hears in the field are never brought to the board by those who have those concerns.
• Bill proposed that the OVR form an Organizational Review Committee (ORC) that would include 7 members (including the chair) to examine our structure to recommend changes and/or constituency of an advisory committee. Members will include the following: three representatives for juniors' clubs representing National and Regional teams, one representative for boys' volleyball, one representative for adults' volleyball, one representative for officials, and one chair (Adam Evans). Ron volunteered to attend as a resource. He helped with incorporation of the Region, has extensive knowledge of the Region, and serves as a nonvoting member. Application deadline: October 1. Applications must be sent to Adam Evans at evans@ovr.org. Deadline for committee work: August 2008 board meeting.

OVR Information Systems and Communcations – Nick Nystrom

• Complete details were distributed in Nick’s August 10 report.

Registration Processing

• Steve Donahue presented information on payments, background checks (2090, only 2 of which came back with a record), requests for certificates of insurance, verifications, and numbers of e-mail message processed.

OVR Awards

• A new awards committee must convene and determine deadlines and procedures.

New Business

• Motion 1. Bill Zehler: “When a team competing in any OVR championship can’t meet the minimum number required for competition, a waiver will be considered by the tournament director to fill the complete team.” Hank seconded. Bill described the mechanics, to be refined for October and then documented on the OVR website. Passed, 12/0/0.
• Motion 2. Terry Miller: “Raise officials’ pay to $180 per day / $30.00 per match. Adults to be $180 per day.” Emi second. Friendly amendment (Emi): can we put a 3-year time limit on the raise? Discussion: a 20% raise may be out of line, whereas a 10% increase to $165 over 3 years would be more reasonable. Defeated, 1/11/0.
• Motion 3. Terry Miller: “Raise officials’ pay to $165 per day / $27.50 per match. Adults to be $165 per day.” Discussion: Increasing officials’ pay ends up costing parents more, and several parts of the Region are experiencing economic hardship. Passed, 9/0/2.
• Motion 4. Al Herbert: “Courts needing to use a step-in line. for a regulation court be limited to 10s-11s-12s tournaments.” Bill seconded. Passed, 12/0/0.
• Motion 5. Al Herbert: “Connecting courts with common poles not permitted for OVR Tournaments.” Terry seconded. Discussion: should this be related to age group also? Passed, 12/0/0.
• Motion 6. Al Herbert: “After last weekend of OVR championships, tournament directors may host tournaments that have both National and Regional team entries.” Bill seconded. Passed, 12/0/0.
• Motion 7. Al Herbert: “Team canceling from a tournament after the deadlines (2 weeks) be listed as the very last place team in that tournament unless a replacement team is entered. Multiple teams canceling will be tied for the very last place.” Bill seconded. Defeated, 0/12/0.
• Motion 8. Steve Donahue: “The adults’ tournament entry fee be raised to $120.00 per team.” Terry seconded. Discussion: Steve presented the motion on behalf of Michelle Fox, who is not present. The rationale is not known. Terry: Some faciliites in the Dayton area are increasing rates. Passed, 11/0/1.
• Motion 9. Steve Donahue: “Require that every juniors’ coach must have IMPACT certification within 60 days of their registration.” Emi seconded. Discussion: Don said that the reason we can get affordable insurance is because all coaches are required to have IMPACT certification. Nick: 188 coaches registered for the 2006-2007 season are not currently listed as IMPACT- or CAP-certified. Approximately 20% of these may actually be certified but not listed due to infomation discrepancies, but this still leaves well over 100 uncertified. Nick: Club staff begin registering on September 1; can the 60-day requirement be met in all cases? Don: To support boys' programs, the OVR plans to offer IMPACT training in October. Ron: the last-minute IMPACT clinic offered at the regional championships should be restricted to coaches registering after April 15 (or similar restriction). Bob: In October many girls' coaches are still involved with their schools’ programs. Passed, 12/0/0.
• Motion 10. Bill Zehler: “Raise the maximum entry fee for regular-season juniors’ tournaments to $170.” Terry seconded. Rationale: the increase is necessary to accommodate the raise for officials. Passed, 12/0/1.
• Motion 11. Bill Zehler: “Raise the entry fee for the OVR Girls’ Championships to $235 per team.” Steve seconded. Passed, 10/1/1.
• Motion 12. Al Herbert: “I move that the entry fee for the OVR Adults’ Championships be set to $180.” Hank seconded. Passed, 12/0/0.
• Motion 13. Steve Donahue: “Fine a club $200 for every coach who fails to receive IMPACT certification within 60 days of registration.” Art seconded. Tom suggested a friendly amendment of refunding the fine if the certification is promptly obtained. Bob: we would prefer not to restrict ourselves in this way. Ron: this is a liability issue on which we cannot be lenient. Keith suggested that the coach be ineligible. Bob: this is already taken care of; the coach would be suspended. Bob: should the fine be per coach, per event? Passed, 11/0/1

Future meetings

• October 21, 2007, 10am, at Westerville South HS
• January 21, 2008, 10am, at a Cleveland-area site TBD
• May 16, 2008, 7pm, at the downtown Columbus Hampton Inn
• August 8-10, 2008, 7pm, Columbus Marriott Airport