A meeting of the Board of Directors of the Wyoming Racquetball Association (WRA) was held on Saturday, October 25, 2003 at the Casper ProAm tournament.

The meeting was called to order at 0900 by board President Mark Smith. Those in attendance were: Janice Vosika, Doug Roe, Kim Ryan, Roger Cureton, Matt Hall, and John Licthy.

John presented the Treasurer’s report. The general operating account has a current balance of $2,179.39. The Junior scholarship account has a balance of $2,112.41. WRA is financially solvent with limited spending activity over the last twelve months. Sources of income are limited and the majority of our income comes from USRA/WRA dues.

WRA articles of incorporation need to be updated. John will take the necessary steps to update our Articles of Incorporation and make sure our tax exempt status is secure.

WRA bylaws need to be reviewed, changed if necessary, and brought to the board for approval. Tom Neibauer has been working on the bylaws and will get copies to each board member as soon as possible. Once reviewed and approved a copy will be sent to USRA for filing.

The board will consider attaching a ballot to the State Singles tournament registration form to aid members in annual election voting. Mark will get with Clint Johnson at the YMCA in Casper, who will be hosting State Singles, to get ballots on the registration forms.

Bulk Mailing

The use of a bulk mailing permit by the association was discussed and it was decided that it would not be cost effective at this time due to our low member base. We are making every effort to get WRA members email addresses in an effort to communicate via email with all of our members.

USRA Changes and the effects on WRA

1. Beginning January 1, 2004 all tournaments wishing to be sanctioned will need to pay a $100.00 sanctioning fee. Half of the fee will be refunded after the tournament results have been posted with the USRA. Tournament Directors have 14 days after the tournament is over in which to file the results with the USRA.

If a tournament Director decides not to sanction a tournament then no points will be awarded players, players will not be able to improve their ranking, the tournament will not be insured under the USRA policy, and the Tournament Director will not have access to tournament software designed to aid in running their tournament.

The procedure required by the USRA to get a tournament sanctioned is as follows:

The Tournament Director(TD) contacts the WRA President and requests that the tournament be sanctioned. The state President fills out the sanctioning application and submits it to the USRA for approval. The application must be accompanied by a $100.00 sanctioning fee. Once the tournament is approved for sanctioning by the USRA the TD is allowed access to tournament software online that will aid in doing the draws, tracking tournament results, and in reporting and filing results with the USRA. Upon completion of the tournament, the TD has 14 days in which to file the results of the tournament with the USRA at which time a $50.00 refund will be paid to whoever paid the sanctioning fee. The WRA board will make every effort to get all tournaments already established for this season sanctioned prior to December 31, 2003 to avoid the $100.00 sanctioning fee this year and will discuss at a later date who should pay the sanctioning fee.

2. Tournament fees. The USRA board of directors have ruled that no tournament can charge additional fees to out of state players who show a current USRA membership card. This means that any player who is a valid USRA member can travel to any state and play in that states tournaments without having to join that states association. The benefits and privileges of being a USRA member are universal across the country and give that member the right to play in any sanctioned tournament, anywhere in the country, without having to join each states association.

3. USRA is going through a name change. In the future will be known as USA Racquetball. They have hired a Marketing Director and have secured a major sponsor, IAB. IAB is a company specializing in benefits like Health, Dental, Life insurance. They also sell legal benefits. Look for their logo on USA Racquetball correspondence.

4. The USRA has been diligently working to upgrade their website, make it more user friendly, and add services for members. A new national ranking system is in the works. A player will be able to log onto the website, look up their profile, make changes, check standings, rankings, upcoming tournaments, register online for tournaments, and much more.

WRA tournament fees

It was decided that WRA would not ask Tournament Directors for a $3.00 dollar fee for each player entered in their tournament. We will try and manage the affairs of the organization through enforcement of USRA membership and the monies received from national dues and other revenue generating ideas and project.

JR. Scholarship Program

Lisa Maes has devoted a lot of her time to the Jr. Program. The board asked John to get with Lisa and see how we can better promote the program and look at ways to expand and grow the Jr. program.

WRA goals short term

Need to help get more juniors to tournaments.
This year we have scheduled State Jrs. to be held with State Singles.
Need to keep Tournaments affordable for Jrs.
Focus on running the best and most fun tournaments around to attract players from other states as well as within Wyoming.
Tom Neibauer lets his Jr. players enter Sheridan tournaments for free to generate interest. Rest of state should consider doing same.
WRA needs to have a representative at each tournament to assist Tournament Directors with making sure players are USRA members and to sign up new members.
The board looked at a prototype of a new logo for WRA. It is similar to the one used at State Doubles in Gillette a few years ago. Roger will look into costs of making patches, screens, pins, etc. WRA would make these items available to the membership.
Other income generating ideas were discussed and included silent auctions, speed gun hitting contests, 50/50 tickets, donated racquets for raffle, and other ideas. WRA should coordinate with each Tournament Director when planning an event at a tournament. Proceeds from such events would go to grow the Junior program within the state.
WRA currently has 83 USRA members. We know there are more than that number of players playing in tournaments. We need to get players current on their membership and then focus on getting new members.
Local leagues can be sanctioned by USRA and players will get points earned from league play that apply to their national point accrual and rankings.
Need to strive to get racquetball approved as regular part of Jr. High and High schools.
WRA needs to align with national group, like Boys and Girls Clubs. USRA has done this and all states need to follow suit.

Open Forum

Choice Hotels offers great discounts to all USRA members. They are also the major sponsor of the US Open and we should support them when traveling.

WRA would like to sponsor a statewide demo program where contract players would all get together and take a demo night to communities not normally exposed to new products. This would satisfy contract players obligation to hold demo nights as well as get new equipment in the hands of the players.

Would like to see a statewide informal tournament schedule where towns play towns. Travel teams would be organized in each town and Friday night/Saturday morning play would be scheduled. Bragging rights at year end along with a traveling trophy perhaps.

Mark will look into the possibility of paying USRA/WRA dues for more than one year at a time. Currently there is a lifetime membership, annual, and two year option.

Website update

We need to continue to get all the clubs in the state to put their information on the website. Each club should know that they get their own page on the web along with links from WRA to their site. There is also a link to the national site. Players can look up their player information, rankings, tournament results, WRA newsletter, meeting notes, entry forms to tournaments, tournament schedules, instruction tips, and more. WRA will try to use email as much as possible but will still forward hard copies of correspondence to all clubs for posting.

No further business was discussed and the meeting was adjourned at 11:00 a.m.