2002 USQRA AGM AGENDA  -  Download this Document

I.          Approve Minutes

II.          Roll Call

III.         President’s Report   

IV.        Commissioner’s Report      

V.        Treasurer’s Report (Proposed Budget)

VI.        RAC  Reports                       

1                                            Atlantic Mike Duda and Kerri Myer

2                                            Heartland Bob Crandall and Kevin Orr

3.                     Mountain Terry Gumbert

4.                     Pacific Terry Luxembourger and Lynn Nelson

VII.       Committee Reports

A.  Officials   

C.    Classification

D.    Wheelchair Specification Committee Report

E.    Hall of Fame Committee

F.     High Performance Training Program

VIII. Constitution and Bylaws

·        Amend Player Transfer rule (1 below)

·        Clarify what constitutes a Player Transfer (2 below)

·        Clarify 150 Mile Rule (3 below)

·        Clarify definition of  “Home City”  (4 below)

·        Amend regional and sectional seeding process (5 below)

·        Broaden powers of the Commissioner (6 below)

IX.   Rule Change

·        Players over 50 are classed ˝ point lower (7 below)

X.        Old Business

XI.        New Business

·        Hiring an Executive Director

XII.       Elections

A.        President

B.        1^st Vice President

C.        Secretary

XIII.      Regional, Sectional, and National Bids

PROPOSALS

1)

Proposal to Amend Article III, Section 3, Player Transfers, of the Bylaws  

Proposal to delete sub-paragraph 5 of the Player Transfer Rules passed at the 2001 AGM. Sub-paragraph 5 states "If a player transfers to a higher ranked team, the transferring player will not be allowed to play in any USQRA post-season tournaments such as Regionals, Sectionals or Nationals in the first full season of their transfer. If a player transfers to a lower ranked team, the player can play in post-season play."  

Rationale:  This rule has not served its purpose of deterring transfers. People have found loop holes and have made a political mess of transferring. We think if a person takes the time to take up residency and moving costs, etc to get within the 150 rule etc. that that should be enough. It may be good for a player to leave his current team. Even if both teams agree, there is not a good out right now. It seems to make players and teams resent the sport more than it helps the sport thrive. 

2)

To amend Bylaw Article III, Section 3 to add a second sentence in the opening paragraph that reads:

A transfer shall be defined as any player move from a rostered team in the current or previous year.

Rationale: this amendment makes clear that players may not use linguistic distinctions to avoid the transfer rules. 

3)

To amend Bylaw Article III, Section 4 to add a paragraph c. 

c. 150 miles shall be determined on a straight line, or "how the crow flies." 

Rationale: to codify past precedent and make players and teams award of how the rule will be applied.

 4)

To amend Article III, Section 4 to add a paragraph. (or d. if the previous amendment is approved): 

d. A team's home city shall be defined as the location of its primary practice facility as identified in its team registration. 

Rationale: to codify  past precedent and to put teams and players on notice of how the 150 mile rule will be applied.  

5)

Article VI Post Season Competition

Section 5 Seeding of teams.
The seeding of teams in each regional and sectional tournament shall be determined by a committee, which includes the Commissioner and the RAC's, and be based upon rules established by the USQRA. Final seedings will be set two-weeks prior to the start of Regionals and Sectionals.

Rational:  This just formalizes the process and hopefully will take some slack off of the commissioner.

6)

Bylaw Article III shall be amended to include the statement:

The Commissioner shall have broad, subjective power to allow any transfer based upon the best interests of the sport, competition, the player and the teams involved.  A protest of the Commissioner's decision will only be upheld where the Commissioner can articulate no legitimate basis for a transfer decision. 

Rationale: every transfer has a story and each player has good reasons to transfer, however, we have imposed a series of rules to preclude anti-competitive transfers which often preclude transfers that have little effect upon competition.  The membership's decision upon this proposed amendment will send a clear message as to whether the Commissioner should give great weight to the human factors involved in a transfer request.

7)

Players over 50 are classed ˝ point lower 

Rational:  Sports that have a larger population to draw from frequently form a "Masters Division" for their older players.  Quad Rugby hasn't the luxury of a large population.  Metropolitan Atlanta has more than four million residents.  It can barely put together one wheelchair rugby team.  Knowing that this is hardly a phenomenon and exclusive to only the State of Georgia, I see the possibility of a national Senior Quad Rugby League as extremely remote at best. 

Wheelchair sports keep those of us with a disability active and healthy.  As we get older that need does not diminish. An active lifestyle will help us maintain a stronger heart, a limber body and more muscle mass.  Sitting on the bench at a rugby tournament is not active.  Playing once a year in an "old timers" tournament is not active.  Endurance, strength and stamina diminish in our older years. A fifty year old 2.5 cannot play as a twenty year old 2.5.  A fifty-five year old 3.0 cannot play as a twenty-five year old 3.0.  There is no senior league to go to.  My proposal is that, once a player reaches the age of fifty, he/she provides a birth certificate to a panel of classifiers and the classification is dropped by half a point. A player that has played as a 3.0 will play as a 2.5.  Fifty year old .5's will play with no points assessed.  USQRA cards of older players will have their birth date on it (actually, not a bad idea for all cards) and the classification would read 2.0/50+ (for a former 2.5).  Wheelchair rugby is such a wonderful sport and the intention here is to keep players involved in the game and as competitive in the game for as long as they wish to play.