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BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING AGENDA
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
ClubSport Fremont
46650 Landing Parkway
Fremont, CA 94538
Directions: Driving South on 880, take the Mission Blvd/Warren Ave Exit.
Continue on W. Warren and turn right on Landing Pkwy.
Driving North on 880, take the Gateway Blvd Exit. Continue on Gateway Blvd
and turn right on Bayside Pkwy. Bayside turns into Landing Pkwy
I. Food and Beverage—6 PM
II. Call to Order—6:30 PM
III. Introduction of Guests
IV. Public Comments-10 minutes, 2 minutes per speaker
V. Approval of Minutes
VI. Executive Committee Activities
VII. President’s Report
VIII. Delegate’s Report
IX. Executive Director’s Report
X. Treasurer’s Report
A. Monthly Financial Statements (Green)
B. Monthly Grants (Red)
XI. Committee Decisions/Reports (Yellow)
XII. Action Items (Blue)
A. Robert’s Rules of Order Bylaw Interpretation
B. TPI Business Plan
C. Use of TPI in 2005 Regarding League Data
XIII. Old Business
XIV. New Business
XV. Adjournment of Meeting
Next Regular Meeting: Tentatively scheduled for Wed., Feb. 16 at a site to be determined.
Mission: To Promote and Develop the Growth of Tennis
Vision: 30 Million Tennis Players by 2010
Action Item A: To interpret Article VI, Section G, Robert’s Rules and to allow the most current version of Robert’s Rules to be used at the meeting of the Association and all Board and Special meetings.
Action Item B: TENNIS PLAYER INDEX BUSINESS PLAN FOR 2005
Background
Tennis Player Index (TPI) is an Internet-based tennis-rating program that uses results from sets or matches to calculate singles and individual doubles tennis ratings. TPI calculates ratings for all types of matches, social and practice, single set or 2 out of 3 sets, USTA-sanctioned leagues and tournaments, and non-USTA matches. The inclusion of all types of matches differentiates TPI from the National Tennis Rating Program (NTRP), which at this time calculates only USTA-sanctioned matches.
Case
There are nearly 700,000 USTA members and only 350,000 of them may be linked together via playing levels through NTRP. There are 24,000,000 tennis players, both youth and adult, in the United States, and USTA members with NTRP playing levels account for roughly only 1.5% of those players. Therefore, nearly 98.5% of the tennis players in the US are not linked via playing levels and there is no quantitative method for assigning them playing levels. The rating levels of A, B, C from the past and other similar skill level assignment programs for tennis play are subjective and mean different things in different towns, counties, states, regions and areas of the US.
If a single rating program could be introduced to all tennis players, juniors and adults, that was calculated based upon the player’s results with other players, the tennis community would be connected and a more reliable rating would be available for assigning matches, teams, ladders, tournaments, pairings and so on. The rating program would create a common language tying all tennis players together that would build a sense of community and increase player retention.
The benefits would be a tennis community that was cohesive with a rating program that flows across the entire country. Because TPI is an Internet-based program that can be accessed from any computer with Internet access, players would be able to contact players in other cities and states to set up tennis when they traveled. Organizations would have an easier time of matching levels of players who wanted help setting up matches. Teams would have an easier time finding players in the correct level for all types of league play. Tournaments, ladders, leagues and socials would all run more smoothly with a nationwide rating system like TPI in place.
Implementation
USTA NorCal will continue to test TPI for broader use across the USTA and the US. The USTA NorCal staff provides ongoing technical support to our organizational members who are currently using TPI. This is a free member benefit for organizational members. Those organizations can determine how they will use TPI with their individual members. In November, staff provided 11 hours of support time to our existing users. In December, that total was 5 hours.
If approved by the Board, USTA NorCal would put all USTA members with an NTRP rating on TPI and assign each individual to a facility location in order to identify the player with existing player information in the NorCal database. USTA NorCal would post all sanctioned match results to TPI that have data compatible with TPI.
TPI ratings would be shown to the thousandths decimal place. To calculate 2005 TPI ratings, all players and all results for 2004 would be loaded. The beginning 2004 NTRP rating would be used and calculated forward. Players without 2004 matches would start TPI with their 2004 year-end NTRP rating.
The inclusion of all USTA members on TPI would promote the easiest use of TPI by having the maximum number of players in the pool for finding partners and opponents and for recording results of non-sanctioned matches. The USTA NorCal staff will also contact other USTA organizational members in Northern California and offer to provide TPI to those organizations and support them with training and ongoing assistance.
If any non-USTA tennis organizations wish to join TPI, they could become a USTA organizational member and use TPI at no additional cost beyond the membership fee. Individuals who do not belong to a USTA organizational member, but want to join TPI, can join the USTA and be placed on TPI at no additional charge.
The USTA NorCal staff will call the organizational members who are not participating in TPI and offer to train a facility administrator for the organization and help him or her administer TPI if the organization wishes to use the program. The staff will control the flow of calls and addition of organizational members to TPI.
Our staff should be able to spend approximately 15 hours a week providing TPI support to new and existing users. An organizational member will be eligible to use TPI only if a designated facility administrator is available to take over from the USTA NorCal staff the assigning of codes, training its members and answering questions for the players. All USTA members will be able to be on the TPI system as a member benefit with the NorCal staff acting as administrator for them if their organizational member does not want to participate.
These hours would also include the time to help individual players who wish to use TPI even though their organizational member is not on TPI. The USTA NorCal staff would act as facility administrator for all USTA members for the organizations who were not handling their USTA members directly.
The inclusion of new junior and adult tennis players to the existing nucleus of USTA league players in TPI would provide an interesting insight into building a community of connected tennis enthusiasts. We owe it to our mission to see where TPI could take us for the growth of the game.
Expected Outcome
The USTA NorCal staff will continue to provide technical support to those USTA organizational members that are currently using TPI. If time permits in 2005, the staff will contact each non-TPI organizational member twice and offer to enroll the organization on TPI and to provide the necessary training to a facility administrator identified by the organizational member.
Through its newsletter pages in Inside Tennis, USTA NorCal will publicize the new use of TPI as a rating system for recreational tennis players instead of a requirement for league play. We will also put a story about the new direction for TPI on our webpage and send emails to individual and organizational members to explain the program. We will also send informational stories to local and national press explaining our TPI effort.
At the end of 2005, we will evaluate the TPI program by counting the number of organizations using TPI, the number of players on TPI, the number of sanctioned and non-sanctioned matches recorded on TPI and by the feedback from the facility administrators using TPI. The outcome of the evaluation would guide the decision making process for 2006: to market TPI to all organizational members in 2006 or only to provide technical support to those organizational members using TPI.
The following points summarize how the staff proposes that we implement TPI for 2005 in USTA NorCal:
1) Organizational members and individuals would use TPI on a voluntary basis.
2) The USTA NorCal office staff would support org members who are currently on TPI.
3) The USTA NorCal office staff would register new organizational members on TPI as the org members expressed interest.
4) Each organizational member would decide for its individual members what matches would be put into TPI; i.e., social matches-no, other matches-yes, to be determined by the organizational member.
5) The USTA NorCal staff would be the facility administrator for USTA members who belong to organizational members who are not participating in TPI and who want to be on TPI.
6) All sanctioned USTA match results available from leagues and tournaments will be posted to TPI.
7) USTA members will be associated on TPI with the facility site of their league play.
8) TPI would not be used as an entry system into USTA NorCal sectional or USTA national leagues. Players and org members would use TPI on a voluntary basis.
Action Item C
From: Philip Stromer [philip@stromer.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2004 3:15 PM
To: Bruce Hunt
Cc: Jean Hassoun; Bill Hansen
Subject: Board action
Hello Bruce,
Three board members (myself, Hassoun, Hansen) are hereby challenging a committee decision on the 12/2/04 yellow sheet. We are challenging two motions passed by the ALC on 10/27/04, referred to as "item #8 and #10" on the Yellow sheet.
We challenge both motions, wanting the full board to decide how/if TPI will be used in 2005 with regards to league data.
Please let me know if you have any questions or need clarification on this.
Thank you.
--
Philip Stromer
A. Adult League Committee
Oct. 27, 2004 Meeting
The Combo League survey and staff recommendation on "how TPI would be used for 2005" was distributed to the committee. A discussion on the staff recommendation was debated. Alvin reminded the committee that there were only two items in the recommendation that were league related. He directed the committee to item # 8 and #10 and the committee voted to support the recommendations with changes to some of the wording the items.
--A motion was made to amend item # 8 by adding the words "electronically by NorCal "at the end. - Motion Passed 3- 2 with 1 abstention.
--A motion was made to amend item # 10 by changing the word "as" to "for" and "a "to "any". So the sentence will read," TPI will not be used for any entry into USTA....."
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