July - August 2003 Vol. 14, No. 4 | Contents
USRA Update The Board Report by Frank Taddonio Board President	The initial excitement of serving as the USRA's new Board President is quickly wearing off as I focus on the tasks ahead. I truly feel privileged and honored to serve at this particular time in our sport's history, since many developments are beginning to unfold, thanks to hard work by the national staff, board and committee members. As you will read in the highlights that follow, we are about to implement a national ranking system with greater logic and accuracy, an automated membership database (linked to the ranking system), and we're looking into a tournament software program that will not only make a tournament director's job a lot easier - it will also be integrated with the other new systems being established. A new membership card is also in the works. Our goal is to capitalize on all these great developments to bring the USRA closer to the state organizations. There isn't much that can be accomplished through autonomy, but if we all work together, the team can achieve goals never thought possible. The main focus right now needs to be back to the clubs and the recreational players. If we collectively work in that direction I firmly believe the juniors will follow.  Executive Director Jim Hiser has charted this course for us and we need to support his vision and goals. If you'd like to hear more about them, a great opportunity is coming up in September with the Summit in the Rockies [see facing page]. I hope we'll have a great turn out, with lots of good suggestions and ideas on how to implement them.
Meeting Highlights	Jim Hiser, Executive Director, presented his report to the Board that included his continued dedication to excellence and a challenge to everyone to improve the way we are doing business. He stressed the importance of our commitment to recreational players and club owners. Board members were briefed about the recent changes approved by the IRF to reduce the number of players fielded by national federations at Junior Worlds. The new procedures limit designated team players to two (formerly three) in the 18, 16, and 14 and under divisions, for the purposes of earning points for the World Cup. Other format changes include new competitive fields for younger and non-team athletes. A Rankings Task Force completed its research of a number of different systems for possible use by the USRA to establish a national rankings system, and recommended that a new system called Vantage Tech be adopted. The system will be demonstrated at Summit of the Rockies. In public forum, North Carolina's Lynn Stephens presented a proposal for recombining Age+Skill divisions, from five-increments of combined skill levels, to ten-year increments of single skill levels. The adaptation will be used at the upcoming National Doubles and U.S. Open events.  The USRA's new Marketing Director, Ivan Davis, presented an exciting new approach he plans to use for marketing our sport and seeking sponsorships. Membership Director Kevin Joyce outlined a new membership database that will be implemented soon. This automated system possesses many enhanced features for online memberships and the maintenance of data. The system is also intended to tie in with the rankings system and a proposed new tournament system. Randy Stafford announced that the "Players Helping Players" fundraising campaign had passed its established goal of $100K. He is already in the process of developing next year's campaign. The new Board ratified the following election results, for new members and new officers: President - Frank Taddonio; Vice President - Randy Stafford; Secretary - Jan Stelma; Treasurer - Lance Gilliam; New Board member - Lorraine Galloway; New Military Representative - Jeff Elder.
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