November 2013 USLRA Board Meeting Minutes

USLRA Conference Call Minutes

Tuesday November 5th

Present on call: Shayna, Shana, Mary, Polly, Marcel, Sam, Troy, Amber, Joanie

1.     Approval of October Meeting Minutes (located at http://uslogrolling.blogspot.com/2013/10/october-conference-call-minutes.html

Shana moves to accept meeting minutes from October – Polly seconds all approve.

2.     Nominations:

Term expires after 2013 (Thank you for your service!):

Shana Martin

Karl Buschhaus

Laura Batson

Marcel Scott

Term Expires after 2014:

Sam Hadley

Polly Pappadopoulos

Amber Scarborough

Joanie Davenport
Leah Stanton

Term Expires after 2015 (Nominees)
Mary Ogle – will help with writing
Troy Birdsong – will help with ranking
Shayna Magnone – will help with membership

Shana moves to approve board membership to the three nominees for 2014.  Joanie seconds – all approve… welcome to the board! 

a.     Approval of nominees

b.    
Executive Committee Nominations and Vote:

President: Troy Birdsong
Vice President: Sam Hadley
Treasurer: Shary Birdsong (non board member)
Secretary: Polly P.

All approve. 

3.     Rule Changes/Updates:

a.     “Rolling Up” Clarification and rewording.  Current Wording: 
U17 Athletes may only "roll up" if a Semi-Pro division is not offered or there are fewer than 3 athletes in U17.

New wording: “U17 Athletes may only "roll up" at a level three tournament in which a Semi-Pro division is not offered and there are fewer than 3 athletes in U17Boys/Girls.  If prize money or elite prizes (excluding medals or trophies) are accepted athlete will not be able to return to amateur status.”

Joanie Seconds- all approve.

l 
Semi- Pro Definition: Semi-Pro (no age limit) 
This is the stepping stone to Elite. These are serious rollers who want to improve and compete at major tournaments. Will roll in spikes when such equipment is available.  After two world championship wins, athlete must advance to the elite division by the following season. 
Polly seconds – all approve. 

b.     Round Robin Format Finalization (no current wording, will put this in tourney organization form) -   Troy will work on this with Joanie

c.      Log Time Limits:
Current Wording: Elite Men/Elite Women

#1 (15” dia 12’ long) 1 minute / #2 (14” dia 12’ long) 1 minute
#2 (14” dia 12’ long) 3 minutes / #3 (13” dia 12’ long) 3 minutes
#3 (13” dia 13’ long)* 5 minutes / #4 (12” dia 12’ long) until end of match #4 (12” dia 13’ long)* until end of match
*If 13' long logs are not available, 12' logs may be used.

Junior, Semi-Pro, Adult Sport and Masters will use the following time limits:

Amateur

#1 (15” dia 12’ long) 1 minute
#2 (14” dia 12’ long) 2 minutes
#3 (13” dia 12’ long) 3 minutes
#4 (12” dia 12’ long) 4 minutes
#5 (11” dia 12’long) until end of match*

d. Amateur Ranking
Currently: none

Discussion around pros and cons of set time limit.  Possibly having different option for amateur vs. pros.  Namekagon  and LWC need a #5 to shorten matches.  Decision was made to leave time limits the same, but to not necessarily close the door on this issue for the future.

Sam moves to leave these times the same, Marcel seconds all approve. 

4.     Fill out 2014 Plan of work and committee task form.
Communication committee members: Shana, Sam, Shayna, Polly
Rules, Regulations, & Officials committee members: Entire Board

Tournaments and Sanctioning Committee Members: Mary and selected tournament liaisons

Property Management: Leah Stanton and Chris Fischer
Membership Assistance: Shayna, Polly, Joanie
Program Development: Sam, Joanie, Mary

Finance and Legal Affairs: Shary and Joanie
Ranking: Tournament Liaisons (Katie Rick will do calculations but does not sit on committee)

5.    Schedule January Board Meeting.

7:30pm Sunday January 5th

2013 USLRA Membership Survey Results

Question #1: Below are the 4 nominees to fill the 4 vacant positions on
the USLRA Board. Please indicate you agree with these nominations by clicking next to each one of their names. If you have a new nomination, please enter
their name in the "comments" section.

Question #2: There have been many suggestions in regards to speeding up
the length of log rolling matches.
Please select the below option you believe is the most fair for athletes, spectators, and tournament directors.

Question #3: Ensuring our judges at competitions are knowledgeable, fair,
and of course appreciated is of utmost important to the USLRA. Please select one or more options from the below list, or leave a comment with your own ideas.

Question #4: Based on your experience during the 2013 season and your review of the current rules and ranking system, please provide any additional feedback to the USLRA Board for the 2014 season.

October Conference Call Minutes

USLRA Conference Call Minutes

Tuesday October 1st

In attendance: Sam Hadley, Amber Scarborough, Joanie Davenport, Polly Pappadopoulos, Laura Batson, Marcel Scott, Leah Stanton, Shana Martin.

Before meeting: review of e-mail from Jay Hoeschler.  Recap of the Key Log Open provided by Board Member in attendance: Leah Stanton.  Floor opened for questions or discussion in regards to points brought up in e-mail.  Tabled for ranking section of meeting.

1.     Approval of July Meeting Minutes (located at http://uslogrolling.blogspot.com/2013/07/uslra-e-mail-meeting-minutes-july-2013.html ) Shana moves, Marcel seconds. All approve.

2.     2013 Issues/Ideas Review:

Issue #1: LWC Judging

Potential Solutions:
-Meet judges meet judges day before tournament. 
- Possibly look at moving the ILRA World Championships to a different venue
- 2 Volunteers at matches with score cards ensuring matches are running correctly

Issue #2: Amateur Ranking

Potential Solutions:
- Super series can be updated after each tournament to count toward official ranking of juniors.
- Set up an amateur ranking committee?
- hard to rank when they are changing divisions
- Could do an amateur ranking but if they age up, they will not have a rank

Issue #3: Membership

Potential Solutions:
- Log Rolling Applications could go through a USLRA person
- More reminders to people who don’t pay
- Have LWC provide e-mails of all competitors
- At dinner night before
- Have somebody in LWC office during entire check-in (Bonnie might need the help!) ALA does this
- Hand out T-shirts at World Championships as incentive

Issue #4: “Rolling Up”

Potential Solutions:
- Level 3 only (when semi-pro is not offered)
- Athletes should pick one division or the other
-Can “declare pro” anytime throughout season but cannot go back once officially declared pro.

Issue #5: Elite Log Time Limits

Potential Solutions:
- set time limits on all logs (issue is some may feel forced into starting on smaller logs)
- Leave it the same
- La Crosse Log rolling Association Log Ranking System

3.     Board Nominations for 2014:
- Mary Ogle (accepted)
- Shary Birdsong ?
- Troy Birdsong (accepted)
-Shayna Magnone (accepted)
- Emmaray Einstein (pending)

4.     Committee Updates:
a. Rules, Regulations, and Officials  

2014 needs?  Judge training, time changes?
- Log Time changes
- Possible judge payment per hour for those who have gone through a “training”
- online test? 

b. Communication:

2014 needs?
- More facebook involvement?

c. Super Series (chair- Donna Burns)

- Have current super series

Donna will order awards for presentation at

d. Sanctioning, Tournaments

2014 needs?
- In order to be sanctioned tournaments need to follow USLRA Rules and Tournament guidelines.

e. Property Management

2014 needs?  Website listing?
***Add available items to USLRA Website 

f. Networking and Membership

2014 needs? 
- ALL COMPETITORS must be members.  (See above)

g. Ranking:

Review and approval of Elite submitted Ranking Document. 
- Cannot vote on ranking document until December 1st (in case of another competition announced). 
“Should the Key Log Open be included in the 2014 Elite Log Rolling Rankings”
- 8 “No” Votes
Reasoning:
- In February board meeting board voted to approve 2013 rules
- Advance notification was sent in regards to rules
- USLRA Board Member present did bring up issue and DID NOT vote and agree on “new rule”.
- Longview competition was also not included due to time limit issues.

h.  Legal Affairs  

2014 Needs? 
- World Championships Renewal DONE

i. USLRF
- Funds Transfer done by Laura
- Shary Birdsong manages this

j. Program Development
- 2014 Needs?
- Postcards – Sam on 1,700 of 5,000 addresses  BREAK UP THIS JOB

5.     2013 Membership questionnaire questions
***Send out reminder middle of October
-Only send survey to paid USLRA Members
-Nominations
- Log Time Limit Question
- Ideas for certifying judges

6.    Schedule November 2014 Planning Meeting.
Tuesday November 5th 7:30pm Conference Call. 

2013 WORLD LOG-ROLLING CHAMPIONSHIPS

The International Log Rolling Association/United States Log Rolling Association was proud to support the World Lumberjack Championships

holding the ILRA's 

2013 WORLD LOG-ROLLING CHAMPIONSHIPS

in beautiful Hayward, Wisconsin, USA.  

Congrats to our winners!

Women's World Log-Rolling Champion Gretchen Greene of Madison, Wisconsin

Men's World Log-Rolling Champion JR Salzman of Menomonee Falls, WI

Women's World Boom Running Champion Abby Hoeschler of Minneapolis, MN

Men's World Boom Running Champion Charlie Fenton of Hayward, Wisconsin

USLRA E-mail Meeting Minutes July 2013

1. After 2013 Shana will step down at President of the USLRA. Sam has some interest in taking over.  Shana will continue working on the website and newsletters.

2.  Both the Midwest Log Rolling Championships and Three Rivers Roleo are taking advantage of the 2013 USLRA Grant.  

BOTH APPROVED.

Midwest Log Rolling Championships secured $4,000 in sponsorship dollars:

$1,000 from Lundbeck 

$1,000 from Duluth Trading Company

$500 from Oak Bank

$500 from Advocare

$500 from STIHL

$500 from Madison Log Rolling

Three Rivers Roleo secured $4,000 in sponsorship dollars:

Dear Board of USLRA:

The directors of the Three Rivers Roleo are writing to request the $1,000 grant for our tournament to move from a level three to a level two tournament. I have attached our request form and sponsorship form to this letter.
 We have secured the following sponsorships:

• The Waterfront Restaurant & Tavern $1,500

• Kwik Trip $750 with a matching donation of $750 for a total of $1,500

• Fowler & Hammer $250

• Entry fees & Remaining Funds from 2012: $750

3. We have had a big year of expenses (trailer, brackets, USLRA Grant, etc.) and our bank account is down to $7,000.  We do have sufficient funds to get through 2013, but will not be able to spend as much in 2014.

4. Tournament Presence- Just a reminder we need to ensure 1-2 USLRA board members are available at tournaments to hand out T-Shirts to those qualified, collect registration forms from late folks, and be able to answer USLRA questions.  Please familiarize yourself with the rules and regulations.  

Midwest- Shana & Amber
Go Fourth Festival-
La Crosse Open- Polly & Shana
Namekagon River Roll Off- Sam & Shana  CHANGE TO JULY TBD
Lumberjack World Championships- Sam, Marcel, Shana, Joanie, Karl
Washington County Fair- Polly
Squamish- Shana Martin
Morton Loggers Jubilee-
Three Rivers Roleo- Leah & PollyKey Log Rolling Open- Shana & Sam

5. LWC Timing System: Jon Berard is unable to run this for 2013, but it looks like Troy Birdsong has stepped up.  We are working on a way to get him trained up.

6. Charitable Fund: It looks as if Shary Birdsong will be able to manage the charitable fund.  We will put her in touch with the Charitable fund board.

7. Program Updates: We are still in need of somebody to contact all of our current programs on the USLRA Programs page and ensure they are still running, and to see if they need any assistance.  We also want them to know about our program resources on the "Starting a New Program" page.  

Polly Pappadopolous will handle this.

USLRA Spring Newsletter

Click HERE to enjoy the Spring Newsletter!

USLRA March Board Meeting Minutes

USLRA Conference Call Minutes

March 24th, 2013 8pm

On call: Amber, Sam, Joanie, Marcel, Laura, Polly

1.     Approve Previous Meeting Minutes

Shana Moves, Marcel seconds, all in favor! 

2.     Committee Topics (view excel doc for specific assignments):

a. Communication –

-       Program updates for website (Sam will lead)

-       Updated rules document for website (no changes, just better wording)

b. Rules, Regulations and Officials:

Retype rules document (no changes, just rewording)

c. Tournaments and Sanctioning  

2013 Tournament Liaisons:

Capitol Splash- Shana

Rusty Ankle- Polly

Harold Fischer- Joanie

Kaslo-
Midwest- Shana & Amber

Go Fourth Festival-

La Crosse Open- Polly & Shana

Namekagon River Roll Off- Sam & Shana  CHANGE TO JULY TBD

Lumberjack World Championships- Sam, Marcel, Shana, Joanie, Karl

Washington County Fair- Polly

Squamish- Shana Martin

Morton Loggers Jubilee-

Three Rivers Roleo- Leah & Polly

Key Log Rolling Open- Shana & Sam

d. Property Management

Get quote for spike logs set

e. Membership Assistance –
Joanie will look at T-shirt design
Shirts will include USLRA website, logo and ???

f. Program Development  

Generate YMCA Mailing List- Sam will get going on this

g. Finance and Legal Affairs:  

Shana needs to renew the World Championship Trademark

h.  Ranking

Get final list from Katie and put on website

3.    2013 Tournament Grant-

$3,000 total funds available.

Up to $1000 per tournament.

Must have proof of $4000 in additional sponsorship raised.

Must apply no later than 2 weeks before contest date.

Shana will write up a letter to tournament directors about this grant. 

4.    Next Meeting.

Call 8pm Sunday May 5th.