Attendees: Fred Wendelboe, Scott Huettel, Craig Lenniger, Karl Owen, John Boger, Amber Fulk, Marilyn Thompson, Charlie Yang

Staff Attendees: Chuck McCracken, Kevin Wendelboe

Guests: Betty Fox, Sandy Fox, Mike Fulk

Registered Proxies: Dale Hartough to Marilyn Thompson; Wade Brence to Kevin Wendelboe

Meeting Start time: 1:02 pm

1. Welcome - Karl welcomed everyone to the Koury Convention Center for the 2004 Annual Meeting of the Carolina Region Board of Directors.
2. Approval of May 4, 2003 Annual Meeting minutes - Motion by Fred, second by Karl to:

   Motion 1: Approve the minutes from the May 4, 2003 Annual Meeting of the Carolina Region Board of Directors. MSA

3. State of the Game:
   1. North Carolina - Operations - Kevin Wendelboe:
      1. Membership Totals - total increase again in 2004
         1. a. Adults - numbers rose but playing adults stayed about same

            	Male - Regular	Female - Regular	Male One-event	Female one-event	TOTALS
            2004	502	665	14	20	1201
            2003	483	568	67	54	1172
            2002	503	601	14	39	1157
            DIFF 04 to 03	+19	+97	-53	-34	+29

            Of the totals above, for 2004 188 were male coaches/chaperones; 332 were female coaches/chaperones. Similarly, for 2003 172 were male coaches/chaperones and 282 were females coaches/chaperones. So, for 2004 we had approximately 314 regular playing male players (311 in 2003) and 333 regular playing female players (286 in 2003).

         2. Juniors - continued growth in 2004

            	Male - Regular	Female - Regular	Male One-event	Female one-event	TOTALS
            2004	20	2580	0	5	2605
            2003	17	2149	17	94	2277
            2002	19	1959	0	33	2011
            DIFF 04 to 03	+3	+431	-17	-89	+328

         3. Teams - both Adults and Juniors grow

            	Male - Adult	Female - Adult	Junior Girls	Junior Boys
            2004	28	32	255	2
            2003	27	26	231	3
            2002	34	34	208	2
            DIFF 04 to 03	+1	+6	+24	-1

      2. Facilities - Even though we grew again in both adults and juniors, this season seemed to go very smoothly in regards to finding places to play for all divisions. Most tournament directors returned to host this season and had a few new ones. Had very few teams not get into a tournament if they entered by deadline. But, finding facilities to host will continue to be a problem if we continue to grow. Managing the division sizes will also be key as we have plenty of two-court facilities but not as many three-court or higher facilities. Juniors will need to discuss how to manage division sizes to accommodate facilities. Adults will need to discuss whether developing sites other than the SportsPlex is important as they are the only site willing to host adult tournaments at this time. We've heard from a few groups/individuals about potential new gyms being built that will have interest in hosting volleyball. One has also expressed interest in the Region moving our Office into the facility.
      3. Officials - Will let Chuck handle discussion of Officials program on a whole, but a few comments from operations side. Posting everyone's status in the system on the web this season was very helpful once we trained everyone to look there. Will need to improve communication at clinics so officials know to go online to view their status. Need to work on reporting system for merging the status database that Chuck keeps into the membership database that Kevin keeps. Online testing was a problem and we need to determine whether it's worth the hassle it created. Seemed to be much easier for players and Region when testing was completed at the clinics (we don't have the problems with Juniors that we did with adults since juniors test at clinics). Paid officials at Adult Regional Championships seemed to work well again this season. The 10 day entry deadline worked OK for regular season tournaments, but may need to be lengthened for Regionals to help us assign officials better (if continue to have paid officials).
      4. Inter-Region/National Performances - Since US Open is in Atlanta, we have 6 Adult teams going to compete. Most we've had in awhile. More of our Junior teams continue to play more and more National Qualifiers and are doing well. Some examples: Northeast Qualifier in Baltimore - CJV 14's finished 5th! CJV 18, CJV 16 and Biltmore 14 Black finished 9th in their respective divisions. Other teams attending WNC 17 (25th) Biltmore 16 (17th). Tampa Bay Qualifier - CJV 15 finished 9th. I.C. stars, PVC Mizuno 18, UVC 18, Charlotte Elite, and Triangle also attended. We even had teams at the Colorado Crossroads Qualifier - Triangle 18 (29th), CJV 18, CJV 16, Triangle 16 and Charlotte Elite 16 attended. We're seeing an impact in our play and High Performance program with the increased competition our juniors are seeing!
      5. Challenges - the challenges we face are about same as we face each year - recruiting and developing adults and junior boys; developing facilities and tournament directors to host; and identifying volunteers for Board.

      Overall, the State of the Game in North Carolina continues to be strong. We are financially stable and in good shape heading into the future!

   2. State of the Game - North Carolina - Programs/Member Development - Chuck McCracken:
      Chuck has worked on getting a lot of our presentations on power point for use by our clinicians. The coaches meeting, officials clinic, and IMPACT clinics are all on power point presentations. In August, Chuck went to an adult league in Charlotte and presented a power point on the Region in addition to a clinic. There are several videos in these power points of national team play that are exposing the participants to our organization and volleyball. We need to do a better job of publicizing our history to our members as many have not even heard of "Karch Kiraly". Chuck has addresses for public schools in NC and all the YMCA's in the state. He has met with the Program Directors of the Winston-Salem YMCA and discussed volleyball programs with them. He is setting up camps and clinics now for adults and juniors with several YMCAs. The YMCA's have some of the best resources available to them on setting up a league and teaching the sport, but even they don't know the resources are available to them. He has met with the Greensboro SportsPlex and had a weekly youth clinic at their facility. Chuck has devoted some of his website to post officiating resources for the Region. There is a section for clinicians to get all their information for giving clinics. Online registration for clinics is up there. The latest version of the IMPACT manual is on the site so coaches that have already been through can get the latest version and updates. He experimented with having adult tryouts at the SportsPlex. e had many more problems with the adult club out of the SportsPlex than all their junior teams, but will probably do it again next season. The Region had over 50 officiating clinics this season. We did 12 IMPACT clinics this season. We have given 7 HP one-day clinics with just under 200 participants. Chuck supported the call for adding divisions for juniors to tighten the competitiveness in each division and help in finding additional smaller facilities. The evening re-cert clinics did not do well this season. Chuck is looking at changing those a little next season. Chuck is planning to recommend to Officials Division that to be a Provisional or Regional official, you have to get a certain score on the test in order to be rated at those levels. Chuck wants to get in touch with collegiate club reps to talk with them about the organization. He also wants to host a championship for them and bring them a little closer to us. Also, wants to meet with intramural directors to have a similar championship. One final idea is to have a social event tournament where players come in and are put in a tournament.
   3. State of the Game - National & International - Fred Wendelboe:
      USA Volleyball is in the best shape financially since probably 1984. The budget process is much tighter and staff is doing a better job. Some in organization are continuing to press for an endowment to fund the future. One concern in the Regions is the difference in the Regions about player movements. Adult membership is a concern in all Regions. Some regions are pretty liberal about player transfers and others aren't. Our Region needs to decide where we stand on that as it will be discussed in Atlanta during the ROD meetings. There is a proposal to split off parts of the Michiana Region to become the 40th Region. This raises the question of whether there is an upper limit on the number of Regions. This affects the bid process particularly for juniors. Adults will have to address how to accommodate adult entries at the US Open if it becomes oversubscribed (which it is approaching). There has been some growth in the Open division for Atlanta this season. For our National teams, we are favored for the Gold in Women's Beach (Kerri Walsh, Misty May). The Men's Beach will be more difficult to medal. For indoors, the women are a favorite for a medal, but not a certainty. There is a lot of parity in the women's game internationally. The draw will be a key for them. The Men can finish anywhere from first to last. They are a big question mark. They can be very good but whether they can sustain it is a question. There was very little interest in a U-Volley tournament in Atlanta. Also may drop the 30's and 35's men's divisions as they are playing more and more in AA and A divisions. Background screening will be in place next year for coaches so we will need to be ready to do it. Online registration will not happen this season.
   4. State of the Game - North Carolina - Karl Owen:
      It is very encouraging that we have added a second staff member to help run this region. The Operations part has been very well taken care of in the past. We now have the opportunity to undertake some outreach programs which we could not accomplish with volunteers.

4. Election of Directors - Karl Owen:

   Karl went over the positions open for election and the nominees that had expressed interest in running. Nominations, including any from the floor, were accepted for the following positions:

   1. Women's Player Representative - Amber Fulk
   2. Men's A Division rep - Stephen Shepherd
   3. Women's A Rep - Jami Oleskewicz
   4. Men's BB Division Rep - Wade Brence
   5. Junior Boy's Rep - Brian Magee

   Everyone present was reminded that only team reps can vote in the election. Motion by Fred, second by John to:

   Motion 2: Close the nominations and approve all nominees by acclamation for positions that had a candidate who was running unopposed. MSA

   Karl asked for suggestions on how to fill the still vacant positions of Commissioner, Treasurer, Secretary, Women's BB Rep, and Women's B Rep. Karl indicated he was willing to run for Commissioner but will depend heavily on staff and does not have the time to devote to it as the previous Commissioners have had. Karl was nominated from the floor for the position of Commissioner. Motion by Fred, second by Charlie to:

   Motion 3: Close the nominations and approve Karl Owen by acclamation for Commissioner. MSA

   Question raised as to whether it was more important to fill the Executive Committee positions or have vacant positions in the Representative positions? It was felt that we should not have vacant spots in the Executive Committee positions since they directly oversee staff. It was pointed out that the Player Reps will not have any duties at the National meetings as they used to. With that in mind, Amber stated she was willing to move to Treasurer if the need was greater for her there. Amber Fulk was nominated from the floor for the position of Treasurer. Motion by Marilyn, second by Scott to:

   Motion 4: Close the nominations and approve Amber Fulk by acclamation for Treasurer. MSA

   Fred stated he'd be willing to be Secretary with the understanding that he has a conflict of interest with current staff and would step aside voluntarily if another willing candidate is identified. Fred Wendelboe was nominated from the floor for the position of Secretary. Motion by Charlie, second by Marilyn to:

   Motion 5: Close the nominations and approve Fred Wendelboe by acclamation for Secretary. MSA

   Women's BB and B Reps will be filled by appointment when we identify candidates for the positions.

5. Meritorious Service Awards - Karl Owen
   The Region can recognize up to Five Individuals or Groups for outstanding service to Volleyball in North Carolina. Individuals/Groups may only receive the award once under current regulations. The 2004 Carolina Region Meritorious Service Award Winners are:
   1. Presented to Marty Woods - Marty is a team rep, coach, and club director with the Pannix club in Mayodan. She has also been a tournament director for several years. She is always willing to try to find sites for tournaments whenever the Region has needs.
   2. Presented to Allan Haseley - Allan founded the Carolina Juniors in Charlotte several years ago. Owns and operates the Sports Warehouse in Charlotte providing multiple volleyball-playing opportunities to adults and juniors in the area. A willing tournament host for many seasons.
   3. Presented to Craig Janak - Craig served as Men's A Rep since 2002. Craig still plays in the Region and is being honored for stepping forward to serve the Region on the Board when asked!
   4. Presented to Jessica Keenan - Jessica served as Treasurer for the Region since 2002. Jessica immediately asked the Region how she could help when she moved into the Region and with her financial background, easily moved into the Treasurer's role. Her analysis of the financials for the Region was very helpful at board meetings.
   5. Presented to Dale Hartough - Dale first got involved with the Region as the parent of a junior player. He volunteered for the board in 2000 and has served as Secretary since then. Although a new job and extended travel took him away recently, Dale was always willing to help the Region in whatever capacity was needed.

   The Carolina Region is proud of our 2004 Meritorious Service Award Winners and appreciates their service to volleyball in North Carolina!

6. Old Business - Craig wanted to mention the accomplishments of one of our junior members - Megan Hodge of Triangle Juniors has made the Youth National team this season. Her parents are doing a good job of keeping her grounded and she is a credit to our Region.
7. Next meeting - May 1, 2005 at Koury Convention Center in Greensboro.
8. Meeting adjourned - Motion by John second by Fred to:

   Motion 6: adjourn the May 2, 2004 Annual Meeting at 1:50 pm. MSA

Maintained by Kevin M. Wendelboe office@CarolinaRegionVB.org

Last Updated: Monday, 9-May-2005 13:32 EDT