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Hi all, Here
is the information I have received from USAG Member Services in regards to
the new Mandatory background checks. USAG is
now ready to begin the background screening process. The information will be
posted on the USAG website and the MD website will have info as
well. There will be links on the site in various places such as
women’s program pages. This will link back to the member services site.
I have attached several of the documents that USAG has sent out
regarding this subject. For
now it is important for you to know the following: Screening will be required
for all December professional members. The requirement will then continue
month by month. Ø Beginning Ø Every following
month the same rule will apply. That is Members who expire in January must
have the screening completed by January 31 and so on until we go through the
roll-out of all 12 months. Ø Any member may
go through the screening process at any time prior to their membership
expiration. If a member wishes, or their employer wishes, that they get the
screening done in advance, they may do so. Ø The anniversary
date of the background screening will be 2 years from the initial
screening. This date does not have to be tied into the membership
renewal date. However safety and screening must always be completed prior to
the membership expiration. Ø The screening
process will be made available to all clubs, for their employees, within the
very near future. Thank
you for your kind understanding and patience with this most important matter. Sincerely,
Jay
Barrows ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Novemebr
2, 2007 Hey all, First reminder is that the Club rosters and $50
registration fee were due yesterday. I have the following clubs are
outstanding: Rosters - American, Carroll, Flippers, Fees - ACPR, ACRO, American, Carroll, Flippers,
Clarks, Columbia, Delmarva, Elite, Frederick, Freestate,
Gym of America, Island, Maryland State, North Shore, Preston, Silver Stars, Sportsplex, Top Flight, TNT As a reminder, level declarations must be made before an
athlete can qualify to states. Thus, if your roster is not in before you
start the season, your kid can not qualify
regardless of their score. I know a lot of you are competing at Judges
Invitational this weekend. If you want the scores to count, get the roster in
tonight! Next announcement - the Level 9 & 10 State Meet will
be held at the new facility at Unique Gymnastics in Reminder - We are accepting submissions for a new state
logo. Entries are due by January 1. I've received a couple, and they look
nice! Keep sending them in, and let your kids know too. Some of them are very
creative! Last thing for now - USAG is finishing up all the stuff
for the MANDATORY background checks which will start. I will be sending
something out about this shortly. Good luck this season! Jay Barrows ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ October 22, 2007 Greetings all! There is still some confusion regarding level declarations
that I wish to clarify before the season gets under way. Allow me to dip back
in the past a few years so we can all see where we are. Back when we had
sectionals, these meets were not only qualifiers, but also used as final
declarations of intent for levels. As you may remember, once an athlete
competed at a sectional, regardless of whether they qualified to states or
not, they could no longer compete at any level below the level of
that sectional (per R&P, p. 21). A couple of years ago, the
overwhelming majority of pro members indicated to the board that they no
longer wished to have sectionals. Listening to the request of the membership,
the SAC voted to eliminate all sectional meets. However, we had to come up
with a new way of having a declaration that gymnasts may no longer move back.
So we came up with the "Declaration Date." This has been a very
confusing issue for everyone, and I am hop ing to
clarify it here. At the beginning of the season (by November 1), you must
declare a gymnasts level. Once they are officially declared, they may
not compete back a level unless there is a petition to the State
Chairman. They may compete up a level, but they can not qualify to states at
their new level unless they have declared their new level PRIOR to the
competition they received the qualifying score at. If you wish to declare at
the new level, you must notify the State Chairman and both the old and new
Level Representatives prior to the meet. Once they have declared, they may
qualify into states at their new level, but may no longer compete at the
lower level at any meets. Let's use a fictitious example here. Say a gymnast named Mary
is declared as a Level 7 at the beginning of the season. Mary may no longer competes as a Level 6. She may use any in-state meet to
qualify into states as a Level 7 gymnast. Assuming she has reached the
mobility qualifying score to compete as an 8, she may compete as an 8, but
she can NOT qualify into Level 8 states regardless of what she scores (she
may, however, use these scores to qualify for mobility into Level 9). Now,
let's say her coach declares her as an 8 to the State Chair and the Level
Reps after the meet. She still can not use the scores from the meet where she
had reached the qualifying score to get into Level 8 States. For all meets
from here on out, she can now use those scores to get into Level 8
States. However, from this point on, she can no longer compete as a Level 7,
regardless of whether she makes states or not. If Mary's coach
wants to move her back to Level 7, they must petition the State Chairman for
Levels 7 and below, or the Regional Technical Chairman (Myra) for Levels
8-10, and indicate what mitigating circumstances exist (injury, illness, etc)
to warrant a move back. I hope this clarifies this issue. If you still have questions,
please ask before one of your gymnasts gets stuck at the wrong level. Because
of this clarification, anyone who has already sent in their Level
Declarations may change their declaration before November 1. Regards, Jay Barrows ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Hey all,
Great to see everyone at the clinics and meeting
this weekend. A big thank you to everyone who helped make
the clinics a great successa again this year. All the
kids seemed to have a great time, and learned a lot. Special thank you to For those who missed the general meeting, here are some of the quick highlights:
- Announced Luanne McKenna will be taking over for Nica Sutch as Level 5 Representative, who has resigned due to time constraints. We thank Nica for her year of service. - We went over the club directory and made some changes (I should have those up on the web by the end of the week, I hope) - We went over all of the USAG rule changes for the upcoming season (if anyone has any questions regarding this, please don't hesitate to ask) - Reminded everyone of Regional Congress in PA next week. It looks like its going to be a great show! - We went over and answered a number of questions about Individual Event Specialists. I'll have all the rules regarding this up on the website by the end of the week, I hope. - Went over state rule changes: - Graduating seniors no longer get a free pass into states - Level 7 Judges cup team winner receives bid
to National Judges Cup in - Draw for state session assignments will now be done by level reps - Talked about Level 8 issues: - 8 States will be Saturday, Sunday will be a clinic for all qualifiers - Coaches please let us know what you want at this clinic. We have a rough draft, but we want this for your kids so let us know what you want - Talked about upgrading - We are putting together a unified warm-up for all Maryland Level 8s so at Regionals they will know what to do - Talked about possibility of having a State Congress next year, and got some great feed back. If there are things you would like us to discuss, please let us know. - We will be selling some of our old apparal (jackets, coaches shirts, t-shirts) on the website soon (again, I'll try to get that on the web this week) - State Meet assignments - Level 9/10 TBA; Level 8 - - Asked all clubs to encourage your local school athletic comissions to increase high school gymnastics. See what we can do to get this back on its feet again! - Announced a Logo contest open to all to design a new logo for Maryland USAG. Submissions are due by January 1. - Reminder that Rosters are due by November 1 to all Level Reps and State Chairman(you should have gotten the blank form yesterday via e-mail). $50 to the state for registration fee is also due November 1. IES declaration (for Level 9 & 10 only) is due by January 1.
I'm sure I probably left some stuff of inadvertantly, but if you weren't there, then I guess you missed it. Be there next time. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________
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