Quad Rugby/Story - USQRA AGM Rundown

UNITED STATES QUAD RUGBY ASSOCIATION

April 2003

2003 AGM Rundown

On the morning of Thursday, April 10th, the USQRA's Executive Committee and its membership met in Phoenix, Arizona for its 15th Annual General Meeting. Twenty of this associations teams were represented in person, while several others had their voices heard by way of a proxy ballot. The meeting room was near full capacity with individuals interested enough in their sport to endure a long day of open discussion, and often tedious policy making.

After a quick role call and reports from USQRA President Ed Suhr, and Commissioner Tom Hamill, the RAC's from each of the four sections gave their respective reports. It was quickly evident that the topic of international players and declining numbers of both teams, and players, was a common concern. It was clear that efforts must be made to introduce new players to our sport and we must all nurture the development of new teams if we are to continue to grow. There are pockets of quads out there that need to be tapped into and it is all of our responsibilities to seek them out.

Trisha Suhr of the Classification Committee gave a report and discussed the possibility of adding a player to assist with classifications. The membership rejected this idea, as well as a proposal to add a 4.0 classification to our sport. Consensus was that the current system works well and there is no need to change anything at this point.

In an effort to have our classifiers more involved in the sport an amendment was passed that will require each region to host a classification panel at a tournament of their choice prior to post-season play. This amendment will allow more players to be seen and reviewed by our classifiers, while providing them additional opportunities to increase their skills before post season. The costs associated with hosting these panels will be shared equally between all teams within a region, with additional funding possibly being provided through USQRA sources. The full amendment will be distributed in the near future to all teams.

Other reports included the Wheelchair Specification Committee, which recommended the USQRA adopt Article 13 of the IWRF rules. After discussion, the membership agreed that the IWRF equipment spec's were acceptable and the rule change passed as written. All modifications to rugby chairs must be completed by February 1, 2004 in order to comply.

Wendy Gumbert announced that Blaze Sports will partner with the USQRA to host rugby clinics during the off season. The USQRA will provide instructors and equipment while Blaze Sports will support the clinics with printed materials and financial assistance. If you are interested in learning more about hosting a rugby clinic you can email Wendy at wgumbert@hotmail.com or watch this website for additional information soon.

Once all reports were completed a brief break was taken before moving on to the numerous proposals submitted by the membership. The topic to kick of the next session was a bylaw amendment that would allow a section to approve a transfer of a player to a higher ranked team and institute a player transfer fee. This proposal was rejected.

Moving on to international players, a bylaw amendment was passed requiring all players to play two games before December 15th, and play another two games before postseason begins, defined as February 1. A “team fee” of $500 per international player was instituted and must to be paid to the USQRA with dues. Fee's collected will be used to assist developing American players with items such as the purchasing of a rugby chair. Had this amendment been in effect in 2003 it was pointed out that approximately $7,000 would have been collected.

All proposals to limit the rostering of international players must be considered constitutional amendments, requiring two months notice to the membership. Because of this all such proposals were tabled and the membership will be notified of a special mail voting process on these issues by July 1, 2003. If any of the proposals are passed they would become effective at the start of the 2003-2004 season.

In an effort to increase exposure and awareness of our sport, an amendment was passed that requires each team in the association to submit at least one article per season for publication to www.quadrugby.com. Articles must be submitted prior to post season play and can be on any subject providing it is related to the sport of quad rugby. Articles should include photos whenever possible to be distributed to magazines, websites and other media outlets. Teams not in compliance will be subjected to a $100 fine so get your writing skills in order.

A proposal to allow the option of setting post season seven or eight teams pools with teams 1,3,7 and 8 in Pool A, and teams 2,4,5 and 6 in Pool B was adopted. This format will allow a sixth seed to compete with the fourth and fifth seeds for qualification. This format will be applied as needed at the discretion of the Commissioner.

The following proposals all were rejected and don't warrant further discussion.

The three division proposal was rejected.
The proposal to divide sections with an emphasis upon competition over geography was rejected, however, the portion of the proposal that allows a transferring team to force a Regional tournament and removes the possibility of transferring team receiving a bye through Regional's was adopted.
The proposal to seed teams at Nationals regardless of their sectional finish was rejected.

In elections Tom Hamill was re-elected Commissioner, Kevin Orr was elected Second Vice President, Joe Stanislawski was elected Treasurer and Charles Ray was elected Secretary. Big kudos to the new Board members for stepping forward to help our sport!

Big thanks to John Bishop for stepping in as our temporary Treasurer and for arranging the post season fundraising. Thanks also go out to Trisha Suhr and Cyndy Ellis for helping to take minutes during the AGM. The complete minutes should be out soon and will be available on this website.

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