Minutes of the USTA NorCal Junior Team Tennis Committee Meeting Friday, October 7 th 2016

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1 NOTE: All minutes are final after approval by the committee and all committee decisions are subject to final approval by the USTA NorCal Board Mark Fairchilds, chair of the JTT Committee called the meeting to order at 12:35pm and roll call was conducted. Committee Members Present: Mark Fairchilds (chair), Tim Sunderland, Caryn Cranston, Cris Bacharach, Judy Newman, Nathan Ganesh USTA Staff Present: Darren Wenger, Junior Team Tennis Specialist; Summer Verhoeven, Manager of Junior Play; Chris Samuel, Junior Team Tennis Coordinator. Committee Members Absent: Bill Weber, Rosie Bareis, Tan Truong 1. Approval of Minutes The committee considered approval of the minutes of the meeting held on August 25th, The following motion was duly made, seconded, and unanimously approved by a vote of 5 in favor, none opposed, and no abstentions: RESOLVED: That the minutes of the JTT Committee meeting held August 25th, 2016 be approved as presented. 2. USTA NorCal JTT Section Championships (Spring/Fall) Doubles Pairing Rule The committee discussed changes to the 2016 USTA NorCal JTT Spring and Fall Section Championships rules and regulations. Conforming rule changes were discussed due to the new Youth Progression system that governs 10U and 12U participation in JTT programs. After discussing all of the conforming program changes, committee felt it necessary to address the issue of the same doubles pairing playing multiple times during the same team match in a section championship event Following discussion, the following motion was duly made, seconded and approved by a vote of 5 in favor, none opposed and no abstentions: RESOLVED: Doubles pairings may be a mix of any two eligible team players, however the same doubles team/pairing may not play more than one time during each individual team match. Rationale: During past Spring/Fall JTT Section Championship events, there have been a number of situations where team captain/coaches have played their stronger players in the same doubles pairings multiple times during the same team match. Each team match has four doubles matches played over four rounds. This has led to uneven matches versus opponents and some team captains/coaches stacking a match lineup via doubles pairings. The rule will eliminate the opportunity for team captains/coaches to play the same double pairing multiple times in a team match at the Section Championships Section Championship Discussion Event Dates Dates for the 2017 JTT Section Championships were discussed. The 2017 Same Gender Championships will be played August 5 th 6 th.the Coed Division Section Championships will be played a date prior to that weekend. Further discussion will occur on the next call. Page 1

2 Local League Organizer Incentive Program Looking forward to 2017, the committee is focused on generating more local leagues and helping find additional local league organizers to assist in delivering the JTT program. Pending the Board of Directors approval of the 2017 budget, the JTT program budget will include money to establish an incentive program to help providers start new leagues and grow JTT participation. Following discussion, the following motion was duly made, seconded and approved by a vote of 5 in favor, none opposed and no abstentions: RESOLVED: Pass the 2017 Local League Organizer Incentive program as written (See page 3-5) Rationale: In order to continue to help provide support for local leagues, an incentive program was created to foster JTT participation growth and help with recruiting new stakeholders. An emphasis was placed on growing participation in High School/Middle School leagues as well as finding new league organizers to run multiple seasons JTT to increase the inventory of available leagues. Call Ended at 1:30pm Page 2

3 2017 JTT Local League Organizer Incentive/Stipend Program* (*Pending USTA NorCal Board of Directors 2017 Budget approval) In 2017, there will be $50,000 set aside in the Junior Team Tennis budget to help support local league organizers and JTT coaches providing that deliver JTT programs. Below is a breakdown of the allocation amounts: $7,500: Red Ball H.I.T.S. JTT Program $7,500: High School/Middle School Leagues $35,000: JTT Local League Organizers H.I.T.S. Red Ball JTT $7,500 is designated to help support H.I.T.S. Red Ball JTT leagues with stipends based on the number of players that participate in a league. Details of the program can be found below: H.I.T.S. Red Ball JTT Program Participation Numbers Stipend Amount Players $ Players $ Players $ Players $400 This stipend program is only available to programs that offer free based programs An organization may receive 1 program stipend per season For organizations that have multiple sites within the same organization structure, each site s participation numbers count towards the eligible stipend amount. o The maximum amount an organization with multiple sites can receive is $1,000 o For Example: The Boys and Girls Club runs a spring program at 10 different sites Each site has 20 players participate The organization would not earn $200 per site ($2,000) The organization would receive $1,000 maximum for that season Stipends will be paid at the end of the season based on participation numbers Rationale: The JTT committee goal is to grow H.I.T.S. Red Ball JTT participation by 10% in 2017 This is a USTA membership based program and many players may not have a USTA membership The USTA NorCal per player fee ($10) in addition to USTA Membership costs ($0-$20) may prohibit some organizers from running a program based on USTA fees Page 3

4 Local League Organizer JTT Leagues $35,000 is designated to help support Local League Organizers (LLO) by offering incentives on a per player basis in order to help keep registration fees relatively low and bring in new JTT players. Details of the program can be found below: LLO Incentive Program Participation Numbers Stipend Amount (Unique Players) Stipend Amount (Returning Players) Players $10 $ Players $12 $ Players $13 $ Players $14 $4 75+ Players $15 $4 Bonus Stipends Attend In-Person Training $350 Attend Webinar Training $100 Run Multiple Seasons $250 Local League Organizers (LLO) will need 12 players minimum to qualify as an official league LLO s will be required to attend an in-person or webinar training o LLO s will receive a one-time training bonus in 2017 The first season a LLO runs a league in 2017, they will receive a stipend amount (per player) based on unique participation numbers o A player is considered a unique player the first time they play in a local league in 2017 If the LLO runs a 2 nd season (or more) they earn stipends based on 2 categories: o Returning players: Players that already competed in that league in a prior season o Unique Players: Players that have not competed in that local league yet during 2017 If a LLO runs more than 1 season they will receive a multiple season bonus for each season they run in Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Stipends/bonuses will be paid at the end of the season based on participation numbers Rationale: Offer an incentive program to help recruit more LLO s to form leagues This would provide incentives for roughly 40 LLO s and 2,500 unique JTT participants Stipends will help LLO s keep their league fees low to attract more players to sign up The incentive structure is designed to incentivize participation growth by bringing in more unique players rather than running a league multiple seasons with the same returning players Page 4

5 High School/Middle School USTA JTT Leagues $7,500 is designated to help support the growth of USTA JTT High School/Middle School leagues. Details of the program can be found below. Each High School and/or Middle School level team to join a USTA JTT league will receive a $75 Tennis Warehouse gift card and 1 box of new Penn balls. This offer is available to the first 75 teams to sign up and participate in a league Teams must have a minimum of 4 players Coaches/Team Captains must attend an online webinar/training to receive the incentive Rationale: The JTT committee goal is to grow HS/MS JTT participation by 10% in 2017 In 2016 Roughly 1,600 players competed in the 18U division There are thousands of players that play on a HS or MS team that do not participate in JTT This will help bring in new JTT team captains/coaches by targeting the HS/MS player base Page 5