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From the Hip: Perhaps no fireworks, but still a lot on the agenda at this week's WIAA Annual Meeting

04/24/2017, 11:15am CDT
By Travis Wilson

The following article was originally published in NOW Newspapers under the "State of Play" feature, a series of bi-weekly feature columns penned by WSN General Manager Travis Wilson.

The 2017 WIAA Annual Meeting is fast approaching, and while there may not be as many fireworks as we saw a few years ago during the height of the public/private debate, it remains an important event on the calendar.
 
The April 26th meeting will once again be held at the Holiday Inn in Stevens Point, just a few miles from the WIAA offices. There are currently six Amendments on the agenda, along with two editorial changes.
 
One item not on the agenda is the issue of competitive equity, which garnered heated debate, multiple petitions, and months-long study by an ad hoc committee several years ago. However, it has not gone away (see comments on Destiny winning the Division 4 boys basketball championship), and it doesn’t mean it won’t be addressed in some fashion. The WIAA commissioned School Perceptions to produce a member survey last year, and the results of that survey were first presented publicly at last fall’s Wisconsin Athletic Director’s Association fall clinic. 
 
There have been no concrete action plans to come out of that survey, but the WIAA is beginning initial conversations with key stakeholders around the idea of adjusting divisional placement based on location relative to larger population centers. Whether that idea is introduced or discussed at the Annual Meeting remains to be seen.
 
As mentioned, there are six Amendments to the WIAA Constitution however, and they each would impact high school sports in some fashion. Let’s take a look at each of them below.
 
NUMBER 1 – Membership Dues
 
This change would remove membership dues unless or until changed. The WIAA has collected membership dues to assist in operations for many years, but there was a fear several years ago that the Association could be open to legislative action as a state actor since public schools paid dues to the Association. In April of 2015, the Board of Control suspended dues collection until the 2017-18 year, and this change would make that a permanent adjustment, though there would be a Disaster Authority clause to allow the Board to levy fees in a membership emergency. Member dues accounted for around $420,000 in revenue, so this is not a minor change, but the WIAA has continued to operate efficiently and been able to absorb the revenue reduction.
 
NUMBER 2 – Powers of the Board of Control
 
We could call this the “Wausau East Amendment”. Last year, the school asked to leave the Valley Football Association, feeling they could not be competitive. The WIAA did not grant the realignment, but East pursued it anyway. There is existing language in the WIAA Constitution that says any school who withdraws from a conference without approval in a sport is removed from the conference in all sports, but because the VFA was a football-only conference, there was ambiguity about whether it would apply to Wausau East. This Amendment would clarify that schools that leave football-only conferences would be removed from their regular conference in all other sports.
 
NUMBER 3 – School Equipment
 
This change would provide a uniform date for schools to provide equipment to athletes for use during summertime, non-school competition. Many college camps, especially football, start earlier than the past, and the previous language would have prevented some schools from allowing athletes to check out equipment, depending on their school dates.
 
NUMBER 4 – Who May Participate
 
This Amendment would allow public schools that offer accredited virtual schools within their district to grant athletic participation to full-time students who open enroll into that virtual school. Currently this is not allowed.
 
NUMBER 5 – Amateur Stats
 
Currently there is a laundry list of items that the WIAA allows athletes to receive as awards deemed to be symbolic in nature, along with items that athletes cannot receive. The proposed change would simplify this rule and remove the accepted items list, to be replaced with a maximum monetary value of $100 for non-school organizations or $200 from the school. Schools would thus be able to gift a student a jersey for instance, where as in the past the student would have had to pay fair market value for it. It simplifies things and also brings the WIAA in line with most other NFHS members.
 
NUMBER 6 – Amnesty
 
This change would provide amnesty from Code of Conduct violations for victims of sexual assault or witnesses of sexual assault as long as they cooperate with investigations and do not falsely make such claims. This brings the WIAA Code of Conduct in line with state law regarding victims rights and amnesty.
 
It is likely five of the six Amendments will pass at the Annual Meeting, with Amendment 4 the only one receiving a no vote from the various WIAA committees. These items may not be as hot-button as the public/private debate, but they certainly can impact things. Will there be any new topics to come out of the April 26th Annual Meeting? Stay tuned.

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