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WIAA Board of Control advances amendments to Annual Meeting and proposes to suspend school dues

03/18/2015, 9:15am CDT
By WIAA

From the WIAA -- 

The Board of Control gave first consideration of an Executive Staff plan to suspend membership dues and fees for two years, advanced a number of Constitutional amendments to the Annual Meeting for a membership vote and approved renewal of several partnership agreements at its meeting on March 6 in Madison.

The Board will take final action on a proposal to suspend dues and fees for all member schools at its April meeting. The plan is intended to further assist member schools in maintaining interscholastic athletic programs and opportunities. The Association returns nearly $2.7 million to its members through tournament host fees and partial reimbursements for State Tournament participation.

On other action items, the Board authorized an extension of the agreement with Select Sport America as the official soccer ball partner of the WIAA Tournaments through 2019. The deal idenitifies the “Royale” soccer ball as the official soccer ball of the WIAA and the “Numero 10” as the official practice ball of the WIAA. The “Royale” is the ball exclusively used for the WIAA sectionals and State tournaments.

The Board also approved a two-year extension of the agreement with Wisconsin Lutheran College in Milwaukee as the home of the State Boys Volleyball Tournament through 2016. Wisconsin Lutheran has served as the host site of the boys tournament since 2008.

The Board voted to advance 10 amendments to the WIAA Constitution, Bylaws and Rules of Eligibility. The membership will vote on the amendments at its April 22 Annual Meeting.

Two amendments advanced to the Annual Meeting without a position of either support or opposition by the Board attempt to address tournament competitive balance perceptions. The first is a competitive equity ad-hoc committee recommendation to implement a success factor plan that promotes programs, which have experienced significant tournament success over a three-year span, to a higher division. For more information on the success factor plan, access the Competitive Equity option within the “Schools” drop-down menu on the WIAA website.

The second amendment attempting to address competitive equity, which was advanced by membership petition, would utilize a reducer to member schools’ third Friday of September enrollment figure for competition, including the Tournaments Series where necessary. 

Related to Constitution amendments that are advanced to the membership through petitions, the Board advanced and supported an amendment that would designate the first Friday in January as a deadline in which amendments may be brought to the membership via petition to allow discussion and committee review prior to the Annual Meeting.

The membership will also determine the fate of amendment that will require member schools to sponsor and continue to sustain at least one sport to maintain membership in the Association, and another amendment that will eliminate the restitution option available to the Board of Control. Despite advancing the restitution option to the membership for a vote, the Board voted unanimously in opposition of the proposal.

A proposed amendment that impacts the membership’s Bylaws would require all coaches, whether paid or unpaid, to be certified and maintain certification in first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) certification and AED operation. Beginning with the 2016-17 school year, this requirement must be met before coaches start their second year of coaching.

Four amendments to be voted on would impact the Rules of Eligibility. All but one received Board support for adoption. The first would allow students to participate in skill contests during the season in the same sport, which the Board supported for adoption. A second amendment with Board approval would open unlimited non-school coaching contact to all sports except football for the period between the last day of school to the first day of school. The third amendment would allow an athlete to participate in up to two nonschool contests during the regular school sport season in the same sport. The allowance would require local school administration approval, and the contests will count against the athlete’s individual participation limit. This change would not alter the exceptional athlete provision or the restriction on nonschool participation during the WIAA Tournament Series. 

A fourth amendment that was advanced but did not receive Board support would allow basketball coaches to provide an hour of individual instruction for up to six basketball players at one time in the gym using school resources.

The membership of the WIAA oversees interscholastic athletic programs for 505 senior high schools and 46 junior high/middle level schools in its membership. It will sponsor 24 championship tournament series in 2014-15. For more information, visit the WIAA website at www.wiaawi.org.

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