GEVA Women's B
http://www.njvb.com/clubs/livingston/gevaWB
Meeting notes
August 21, 2013
Powerzone Volleyball Center
1. Meeting: 7:30 - 8:30PM
2. Attendees
George Mon - Powerzone
Aivars Bars - Kursa Men's B
John Giga - Kursa Men's B
Shannon LaBianco - Balls Up Women's B
Christine - Balls Up Women's B
Gabby - Balls Up Women's B
Luidgi Faubert - Guapos Men's B
Lynn Marczi - Chipotle Women's B
Samantha Keller - Women's B
Annette Baez - Avengers Women's BB / Get It In Women's B
Barbara Powers - Get Over it Women's B
Debbie Oliver - Get over It women's B
Jeanette Figueroa - Avengers Women's BB / Get It In Women's B
Ellen Law - Livingston women's B and GEVA Women's B Rep
Jacques Benoit - Men's B Rep
George Fetz - Adult competition chair
3. Topics introduced with discussion
Note: GEVA CHANGES for this 2013-2014 SEASON:
Discussed and agreed by the Adult Committee Meeting on August 4 meeting – all await approval at October Executive Committee.
a. New Commissioner = Bob Baker
Director: Atlantic Valley VC, a Girls volleyball program
Served 2012-13 season as GEVA Jr Competition Director
Though new to Adult affairs, he plans to support programs needed to grow adult play and membership
Thank him for the meeting pizza!!!
b. Meeting Minutes
Members should expect to see Board meeting minutes posted with improved timeliness as the current secretary agreed to post within 2 weeks of the board meeting.
Adult Committee board meeting minutes are up on the GEVA website.
These meeting minutes will be posted shortly.
c. Current state of Women’s B
GEVA sanctioned 8 women's B tournaments, none filled. Resulting in GEVA's loss of $1200 from the they ran due to failure to secure enough teams to cover costs.
GEVA sanctioned 4 exclusive women's BB tournaments last season, of which 2 were cancelled due to lack of entries!
Only 3 Women's A teams attended regionals, Men's A was cancelled
Over the last 3 seasons…Women's BB dropped from playing on 24 courts to 10 to 11 in 2013. Women's B dropped from 21 courts to 14 to 16 courts last season.
d. Plans for 2013-2014 Season play
Virtually all requirements for playing regionals have been dropped.
Teams are playing regionals due to it's requirement for getting GEVA funding for Nationals.
DISCUSSION requesting requirement placed on playing regionals.
Suggestion: For teams to play at a regionals, they must play at least 50% of their tournaments at that regional level. i.e. If a B team played 4 of their 7 tournaments at BB, then they play BB regionals.
My task is to attempt to grow the player pool and create more opportunities for players to play.
GEVA will continue to do their thing with pricing and payment process and early bird/late fee. BUT NOW…other host teams can opt out of the GEVA CREDIT CARD payment process. Meaning you can now play host teams directly like Livingston by check, who will cash your check the week of the event, vs having your credit card hit with the registration fee at registration.
Host teams can opt out of using officials to help lower entry fees. But TDs must advertise this first.
I plan to help teams run their own tournaments to help promote and utilize new locations.
I will start running more 1 court tournaments to increase play opportunities
I will request tournaments with guys and gals at the same site
I will work to schedule some adult tournaments alongside Jr ones
I will work to schedule a tournament around college breaks to give those former Jr players some linkage to adult play when they start working.
Growing player pool
Attending some leagues and passing out flyers and offering adult clinics
Powerzone Volleyball Center plans to offer opportunities for growing adult play, this includes clinics, camps, leagues
Will work on scheduling some tournaments in NYC to start building on those players. Will need our NJ-based teams to make the trip out to support these events.
Some tournaments may opt to NOT use certified referees – tournament directors are required to let all teams know this before registration!
GEVA fees
2013-14 Tournament fees hosted by GEVA = $185, early bird entry = $165. GEVA will correct wording of past season which listed the extra $20 as a late fee. Note: tournament fees last season were erroneously charged at $180 and $160.
Cap on tournament entry fees removed for all tournaments.
Individual player fees holds at $55
One Day event fees now available at $10 – this is a one time/one event only use – must be completed on-line prior to playing. This can be cone on-site with a smart phone if TD can verify this is done. This may or may not be upgradeable (meaning that a credit for this one day membership is applied to full membership).
2014 REGIONALS entry fee will be same as 2013. BUT will NOT offer free entry to Nationals to winner.
GEVA will initiate some sort of “loyalty” system. Each team that plays a GEVA sanctioned event earns a point (or points). By the end of the season, we will determine the dollar value of those points from which teams can use towards their Nationals team entry. Also referred to as “banking points” with each event until you “cash them in” at nationals.
GEVA Playing Rules
No cap on number of B teams playing in BB tournaments
Relaxing uniform shirt requirement
This met with surprising resistance As none voiced strong support for this. Most wanted a form of relaxing the rule to “similar color” but dropping the “tank top” vs “sleeveless” difference. I will bring this back to the adult board for clarification.
Shorts must still be of same primary color.
All must note that teams choosing to play out of region MUST conform to their uniform codes. They will NOT offer a uniform waiver for GEVA teams!
Based on feedback from my June and July discussions with team reps about the weakness of officials working Women’s B, Tim Countryman (referee chair) requests all team reps contact him or George Fetz if they have issues with referees. This includes strength of knowledge or consistency. Note the protocol is to first bring this to the attention of the event’s head referee, then player rep (me). Since the day’s discussion centered around just general referee attitudes….I will bring this up at the next GEVA referee meeting that officials should look to team captains as more of someone looking for info an not as a combatant.
e. GEVA ADMIN STUFF
As one of the board’s newest members, I initiated the formation of the Finance committee. We hope to create a budget for the 2013-14 season to enable better allocation of regional resources with budget planning! Hopefully this means we can share more funds with teams or programs.
I created a simple “about GEVA” flyer for handing out to leagues and clinics to provide a simple reference to players who may want to grow their playing experience from recreational play – or continue their college/high school play.
GEVA revised their website again.
Need more people to get on board with yahoogroup forum/discussion group.
4. Items not discussed at meeting but offline with other attendees
Teams will NOW be allowed to register with LESS than 6 players!!!
Bob Baker (who designed a “referee feedback form” for use at Jr tournaments will modify it for adult tournaments.
Peter (Mens BB rep) is working on an Adult facebook page, which will include photos and hopefully discussions from members
I will try to setup a “work team” training session (lines, scorer, R2, R1)
I will also bring to the next referee meeting that Women’s B teams want tighter calls.
George is working for recreational tournaments
Debbie Oliver plans to work with George Fetz on running 50+ (masters) tournaments.
Ellen’s Notes:
Many issues discussed are the same year in and year out – but our immediate UNIQUE task this season is to grow our player pool!!! In the meantime, I will work to improve your playing experience. Depending on my energy level this season – I may work to host a couple recreational men’s and women’s tournaments…we’ll see. We are currently in a MOST unique position this season – which has not occurred EVER – for teams to have an opportunity to request change BEFORE the season starts!!! The next executive board meeting is in October. They will pretty much rubber stamp anything the Adult board approves. So – forward your requests to me and if it applies to Women’s B, I will try to get an email ruling by the adult committee in time for the next Executive board meeting