Region I Committee Meeting Minutes

The meeting was called to order at 5:30 with the following people in attendance:

Minutes from Teleconference meeting June 7, 2007 were read and approved with a few revisions.

Jennifer discussed the USAG confidentiality rules and the importance of confidentiality on the board.

The Region 1 Financial Statement for July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2007 was reviewed and approved.

Website: Jennifer requested that information that needs to go onto the website be sent to her via e-mail.

A newsletter will be posted on the website by December 2007. It was decided that hard copies do not need to be mailed out.
All committee members were requested to give Jennifer an article or update to be included in the newsletter by September 30, 2007.

Coach of the Year- USAG is going to honor a JO Coach of the Year each year at Championships. Each Region is to select a Regional Coach of the Year to submit to USAG. This year the Regional Committee selected Trent and Jill Spaulding of Diamond Elite as the Region 1 Coaches of the Year.
Camp Financials- The Regional Camp that was held in San Mateo was a success with a net profit of $10,886.44
Apparel Fund Financials- Jennifer reviewed the apparel fund financials with the Committee. Last year we spent over $40,000.00 on apparel for the Level 9/10 athletes.
Selection of Camp Hosts: Jennifer will create criteria and a bid form to put on the website for clubs that are interested in holding the Region 1 Clinic in their facility.
Apparel Process

Coach Shirts/Apparel- We discussed ways to make the apparel process easier at Regionals. One idea is to pre-order most items to have available for the athletes and coaches to take right from the meet. We decided that we will need 6 people to size for the level 10 sessions and 3 people for the level 9 sessions.

Jack congratulated the Region on the success of our Elite athletes.
State Top Directors- a discussion was had regarding the State Tops Directors and who they are. Jack is not kept in the loop on the State Directors, that is all run through Gary Warren.
Jack reviewed the Elite Calendar with the Committee and discussed the possibilities of the Elite Qualifiers. The possibilities are as follows:

A discussion was had regarding the difficulty of running the Elite Qualifiers since Region 1 only has 4 judges with the proper rating.

Regional Base Score Clinic will be in Phoenix on December 1st. Kittia Carpenter will be the clinician.
The Regional judges were selected by the State Chairs with input from their state committees as well as NAWGJ boards. The Western and National Judges were selected by the Regional Committee with input from the State Committee and NAWGJ Boards. ** Please see the assignments in the Judges Section on the website.

Background Checks- USAG will require background checks starting in October. Anyone renewing in October must complete their background check prior to being able to renew. Then each professional member will be required to complete a background check as their membership renews. After a year from October, all professional members in USAG will have a background check done.
Sanction Violation Procedure- Jennifer reviewed the new sanction violation procedure that is listed in the new R&P.
GK Rights- Jennifer reviewed GK's rights to a non-exclusive right to sell apparel at State meets and above.
Event Specialists: USAG is now allowing Regions to choose whether to allow event specialists at Regional Meets. While there are a lot of benefits to this, this committee expressed concern with the logistics at our Regional meet. It was decided that each state is requested to allow event specialists at State Championships to get a feel for the number of athletes that will participate and how it works logistically at a championship meet. The Committee will revisit this issue for next season after all of the states report back.
Jennifer reported and reiterated the information that was learned at the State Chair Workshop. Basically. "A States policies cannot be stricter that the USAG R&P."
Financial Reporting Requirements

All State Chairs and Regional Chairs must annually publish a financial statement showing the period from July 1st to June 30th .

After a discussion and vote, the Level 8-10 Regional Meet was awarded to AGA in Long Beach.

In order to be sure that all seniors are acknowledged at Regionals, State Chairs are requested to get Jennifer their list of Seniors as soon as practical. Jennifer will look into getting them gifts from A-1 Awards.
The Regional Petition Procedure was discussed. State Chairs are required to send a list of their state's petitioned athletes to Neela at the petition deadline. Neela will not only communicate with the coach of the petitioned athlete but with the state chairs and the meet host as well. It is required for coaches to enter the petitioned athletes into the Regional Meet pending the petition.

Region I Calendar was distributed. The Elite Qualifiers will be added as soon as the dates and locations are decided.

Several committee members expressed that August is a BAD time for National Gymnastics Day. Jennifer will pass that opinion on to the National Office.