MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL MEETING OF
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
OF
TEXAS RACQUETBALL ASSOCIATION

The special meeting of the Directors of the above Association was held on 18 August 2007, at 9:00 A.M. at the Maverick Athletic Club in Arlington, TX.

It was determined that a quorum was present based on the presence of the following Directors:

• Lance Gilliam
• Robert Sullins
• Leo Vasquez
• Jere Luttner
• Soly Kor
• JoAnna Reyes
• Mike Fitzsimmons
• Jennifer Allen
• Paul Lowe

Lance Gilliam, President of the Board of Directors, then formally called the meeting to order and Jere Luttner, Secretary, recorded the minutes of the meeting (until 12:30 PM). Each member was distributed a notebook containing information on agenda items and TXRA Board matters. Lance Gilliam then welcomed all Board members to the meeting.

Election and Membership
Leo stated that the TXRA membership has exceeded California and is now the number one state in USAR memberships. One major issue is not having persons keep their e-mail information up-to-date. There was a general discussion of the number of board members and the need to have representatives from all regions of the state. It was noted that although persons may not be elected board members, they could still serve as committee members, supporting the various programs/initiatives lead by the board members. The election method for 2008 needs to be addressed and the balloting procedures should be updated to use current electronic methods. Various opinions were expressed on how to achieve both the email address issue and the balloting procedure. Jennifer Allen accepted the position to lead the effort to address Membership issues and balloting procedure.

Responsibilities/Overview of 2006 Annual Meeting
The board reviewed the status of the programs that were assigned in 2006. The Junior Program, lead by Lance Gilliam, was implemented. The Junior Camp was held at the Maverick Club in July. Although the camp was a great success, the association lost approximately $900. A lot was learned from running the program and lessons learned will be addressed in the upcoming year to make it a self-sufficient program.
There was no effort/progress in the High School Program area. However, it was noted that Leo Vasquez worked with Arlington ISD to approve racquetball as an “off-campus PE credit” for Arlington High Schools. Although there were good proposals submitted for the College Program, there was not any implementation. Since Jeff Norblade is no longer a Board Member, this position will be reassigned. The Newsletter was released quarterly last year by Soly Kor. The Board of Directors complimented Soly Kor on the newsletter.

Communications/TXRA/USAR Overview
Soly stated that he is striving to have a consistent format and structure for the Newsletter. He is always looking for feature articles and wants to include what the TXRA board is doing for the membership. Action Item #13 was assigned to Jere Luttner to send old Newsletter advertising structure to Soly. In addition, Soly was assigned an action item to contact manufacturers in regards to advertising in the Newsletter. For the Awards Program, Jere Luttner had prepared a draft proposal to the board to be reviewed later in the meeting.

The Board agreed to keep the current TXRA website. It has provided clear information to the membership in a logical format.

There was considerable discussion on whether to keep the TXRA rankings on the website or to defer to the USAR rankings. One issue is that there are no doubles rankings in USAR. Another issue is that there may be a disconnect in reporting results to USAR; it was noted that none of the Maverick Tournaments are stated to be included in the ranking results – but the Maverick uses the R2sports software, which is suppose to supply the results to USAR. Lance Gilliam made a motion to “Adopt the USAR rankings for singles”. The motion was seconded by Bob Sullins. The Board voted 3 in-favor and 4 opposed: Motion failed. Jere Luttner made a motion to “Establish a committee to determine the steps needed to move toward the USAR ranking system”. Bob Sullins seconded the motion. The Board of Directors voted in favor of the motion. The following persons were assigned to the USAR Ranking Committee Evaluation:
• Dave Ragsdale
• Jennifer Allen
• Soly Kor
• JoAnna Reyes
The committee was assigned Action Item #14 to make a report at the next teleconference meeting.

Awards Program
Due to Jere Luttner’s need to depart early from the meeting, the board discussed the Awards Program. Paul Lowe moved to adopt the document submitted by Jere Luttner; Jennifer Allen seconded the motion. The Board voted and unanimously approved the motion. Action Item #15 was assigned to Jere Luttner, to provide a timeline for the Awards process.

Tournament /Sanctioning
Leo Vasquez proposed to develop and conduct a survey to the membership regarding tournaments. Soly stated that he will send Leo the Longhorn Open survey questions. The survey should provide feedback as to what the general membership prefers and is a valuable tool to tournament directors.

Jere Luttner brought up the issue that a number of the membership was dissatisfied with the way that seedings have been done when combining age divisions. After this discussion, the board adjourned for lunch and Jere Luttner could not continue to attend the meeting. Ensuing meeting minutes were assigned to Jennifer Allen.

/s/ /
Jere Luttner, Secretary

Attachments: (1) TXRA Board of Directors Action Item List
(2) TXRA Board of Directors Program Summary Status

TXRA BOARD OF DIRECTORS ACTION ITEM LIST

Description Date Assigned Assignee Status
Comments

1 Evaluate potential web communication options 07/22/06 Leo Vasquez Completed
Using teleconference and e-mail

2 Develop a checklist for tournament directors 07/22/06 Mike Fitzsimmons Open
In-work 8/18/07

3 Write TXRA Modified Mixed Doubles Rule 07/22/06 Jere Luttner Completed

3a Post Modified Mixed Doubles Rule on Website N/A Leo Vasquez Closed
Board voted not to use rule on 8/18/07

3b Add TXRA Modified Mixed Doubles Rule to Tournament Guidelines N/A Mike Fitzsimmons Closed
Board voted not to use rule on 8/18/07

4 Determine appropriate values for tournament levels for the TXRA ranking system 07/22/06 Bob Sullins Completed
Evaluation determined that current method was the most acceptable.

5 Newsletter Draft prepared by August 15 07/22/06 Soly Kor Completed

6 Add policy of providing equal prize money to men and women 07/22/06 Mike Fitzsimmons Open
In-work 8/18/07

7 Add recommended ball usage to Tournament Guidelines 07/22/06 Mike Fitzsimmons Open
In-work 8/18/07

8 Add links to TXRA.org for the two other web sites and to explain what is available on the various websites 07/22/06 Leo Vasquez Completed

9 Provide New Referee Certification Program information on the TXRA web site 07/22/06 Leo Vasquez Completed

10 Add New Referee Certification Program information to the tournament guidelines 07/22/06 Mike Fitzsimmons Open
In-work 8/18/07

11 Include New Referee Certification Program information in next Newsletter 07/22/06 Soly Kor Completed

12 Obtain email information on expired memberships from USAR 07/22/06 Lance Gilliam/ Jennifer Allen Open

13 Provide old Newsletter advertising rates to Soly Kor 08/18/07 Jere Luttner New

14 Report on steps to move to USAR ranking system 08/18/07 USAR Ranking Committee New

15 Provide Timeline for Awards Process 08/18/07 Jere Luttner New

TXRA BOARD OF DIRECTORS PROGRAM SUMMARY STATUS

Program Lead Date Status
Juniors Lance Gilliam 08/18/07 Active Program. Junior Data base, shootouts, and one week camp.
High School Eddie Vann 07/22/06 None
Collegiate 08/18/07 TBD.
Newsletter Soly Kor 08/18/07 Fully implemented - released on quarterly basis
Awards Jere Luttner 08/18/07 Award procedure draft approved by Board of Directors.
Women 08/18/07 None
Membership Jennifer Allen 08/18/07 New assignment.