Meeting Minutes April 2009

Meeting Date: 
Saturday, April 25, 2009

 

Draft 5/20/09
 
WISCONSINSTATE CURLING ASSOCIATION
MEMBERS/BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETINGS
 
Date:     April 25, 2009
 
Place:    United States Curling Association Offices in Stevens Point,
     Wisconsin
 
MEMBERS’ MEETING:
 
     Members’ meeting called to order at 9:39 A.M. by President, Jeremy Roe. Roll call was taken of the clubs with updates from various clubs present.
 
     The following clubs were present at the meeting: Appleton, Arlington, Blackhawk (Janesville), Centerville, Clintonville, Green Bay, Kettle Moraine, Madison, Marshfield, Milwaukee, Portage, Poynette, Rice Lake, Stevens Point, Tri-City, Waukesha, Waupaca and Wauwatosa. The following clubs were absent. The number in parentheses represents the consecutive meetings missed: Alpine (8), Eau Claire (3), Loch Wissota (18), Lodi (3), Medford (9), Pardeeville (1), Racine (1) and Wausau (7).
 
     Appleton - Jim O’Neill reported. Break even year for membership. Installed dehumidifier this season. Difference between draws with dehumidification is that the ice has less frost, better playing surface.   Examining whether there is any energy savings. Had a successful raffle to pay for dehumidification. Next big project is remodeling of club room.
 
     Arlington - Bernie Dushek reported. See annexed report.
 
     Blackhawk (Janesville)- Aaron Richards reported. Membership steady at 160 members. Installed new roof over icehouse. Next looking to insulate walls. Hosted USCA Senior Women’s National Championship.
 
     Centerville - David Russell reported. Made approximately $5,000.00 from spiels hosted during the season. Examining heat recovery system for installation next season. Estimated cost of installation is about $3,450.00 with volunteer help. It is expected that this cost will be recovered through utility savings. To encourage bonspieling outside of the club, women curlers at club contribute money into a kitty. $100.00 is paid out to every team that bonspiels out of town. Looking to try to revive adult-high school students spiel. Mixed age spiel over two days.
 
     Clintonville - John Williamson reported. Dehumidification installed this season. Hard to quantify cost savings. Believes that the heat costs went down for the season. Electrical costs stayed about the same. Believes that the installation of the dehumidification increases the ease of maintaining the ice; snow is dry and easy to pick up. Ice quality stays more consistent throughout the game. Experienced some flooding due to a flat roof and snow push off problem. Next project is to install a sloped roof on the club house.
 
     Green Bay - Bill Wilberg reported. Green Bay hosted two rounds of the Women’s National Playoffs, both a qualifier and the challenge rounds. With the dehumidification believes that the electric bills stayed about the same and saved about $1,600.00 in heat. Dehumidification saves on moisture build up over time which eliminates a mold problem. Green Bay has been selected as the Curling Olympic Training Center for this summer. Plans to grind down the ice that has been built up over maintaining ice since fall of 2008. Green Bay hosting a summer spiel July 17th to 19th. Just about full. Also planning to host a Senior Spiel August 7th to 9th. Membership stayed about even. There will be curling in the Badger State Games for the summer of 2009. Green Bay to host.
 
     Kettle Moraine - Dave Lewis reported. See attached report.
 
     Madison - Kellie Krake reported. Madison continues have vibrant and dynamic membership with 502 members for the 2008/2009 season. New lighting system installed in icehouse. Tracking the electrical costs to determine whether any cost savings. Installed a vapor lock system between the icehouse and the club room. Hopes to control humidification issue. Hosted a number of spiels including International Cash Spiel, Badger Women’s, High School Spiel and Junior Spiel along with the Halloween Spiel. Announced that Madison has been chosen as the host club for the 2010 USCA Club Nationals. This is to be held February 20th to 27, 2010. Madison has also been chosen to host the 2012 Junior Nationals. Madison has undergone league restructuring. This season commenced a training/instruction league on Tuesday nights. This is in hopes to aid in retention of members by giving new and less experienced curlers more one on one instruction.
 
     Marshfield - Tom Krake reported. Holding the same for membership. Hosted two bonspiels, Men’s and Mixed. Will have a fund raiser in the summer. Continuing to work on paying off debt. The fund raiser for the summer is a raffle party similar to Poynette’s and Arlington’s. Earns between $4,000.00 and $5,000.00. Also run a beer stand at the County Fair and earned between $7,00.000 and $8,000.00.
 
     Milwaukee - Matt Goelzer reported. Continued focus on securing permanent home for club. There are two options. One is to renegotiate lease at current site at Ozaukee Country Club. Second option is to move to the Ozaukee Fair Grounds. The move to the fair grounds would entail a cooperative agreement with the Fair Committee on a new building that would have shared use between the curling club in the winter and the fair in the summer. There has been no vote of the membership to determine which option to pursue. Expects a vote in the fall. The goal for the new location, if selected, is curling at the new location in 2010 - 2011. Membership is steady to slightly down. The location issue has a continuing effect on the membership. The Men’s Spiel hosted by Milwaukee had 16 teams. The Kilty hosted by Milwaukee had 24 teams.
 
     Portage - Dan Brunt reported. Portage’s membership is up by 10. Hosted two spiels. Examining dehumidification of the ice field. Portage is the host of the USCA Senior Men’s Nationals in 2010, January 27th to 31st.
 
     Poynette - Jeff Koch reported. Membership steady at 85 to 90. Hosted the Wisconsin State Mixed Championship. Poynette had to deal with a sewer backup in December of 2008. Required replacement of the sewer line. Continues to host the Alumni Spiel sharing hosting with Arlington. Proceeds from the spiel are donated to High School Curling in Poynette. Spring league is ongoing presently. Starts in April and ends in May for an eight week season. Participants include curlers from Madison, Point and Janesville, as well as Columbia County. There are two spiels on tap for Poynette this spring. The Spring Spiel, May 15th to 17, 2009 and Sticks and Stones Spiel, May 29th to 31, 2009.
 
     Rice Lake - Larry Sharp reported. Membership steady at 230 to 234. Have a number of college curlers that are not paying full dues. Hosting a Summer Camp in August starting on August 15th. Also will host the Summer Spiel in August, the weekend of August 25th. This is an Open Spiel. Registration opens on June 1st. Did host over the season the Men’s Spiel with 24 teams and Mixed Spiel with 24 teams. Also hosted the WUG USA Championship. Also hosted the USCA Senior World Qualifiers. Planning to run a Golf Outing Spiel in September of 2009. Hosts a number of high school teams from the area as part of the physical education program. These include not only Rice Lake but also Barron, Cumberland and Bloomer High Schools. The dehumidification installed in Rice Lake at a cost of $15,000.00 is expected to pay for itself in five years. Also, the heat recovery system installed two years ago has paid for itself and then some. Believes that there will be a two year pay off for the heat recovery costs. Working with Superior in regards to their exploring a heat recovery system. Acknowledges that with an ammonia system, a heat recovery system would have unique issues.
 
     Stevens Point - David Garber reported. Point’s membership is 127 for the year. Installed emissivity barrier this season. However, additional work needs to be completed in boxing in the rafters. Also installed new lights in the icehouse which brightened up the icehouse. It is observed that if the new lights are zero ballast lights that the local utility may provide a credit or rebate. Stevens Point is exploring dehumidification system. Point hosted a Cash, Men’s and Mixed Spiels this season. Also hosts a University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point Phy Ed Teacher’s Education Class once a year. Club participated in a local radio show 5 to 6 times during the season.
 
     Tri-City - Jon Neidhold reported. Membership is steady. Installed new lighting system which was paid for by the local utility company. Believes the electric cost is down by one-third. Has two nights a week for league curling. Fund raiser with the loss of the Mixed Spiel was a five course gourmet dinner prepared by one of the club’s members. The Men’s Spiel continues to be a success.
 
     Waukesha, Greg Dunlop reported. Held on Fox Lake their Outdoor Spiel. This spiel is held in late January. Four teams participated in it. The stones used are the old Waukesha Curling Club stones.
 
     Waupaca - Dennis Girard reported. Waupaca looking to explore a new lighting system to take the shadows off the ice. Additional report is attached hereto.
 
     Wauwatosa - Scott Masloroff reported. There are about 200 members of the club. As for membership retention, they retain about 60% of the first year members who joined the second year. Out of the second year members, they retain about 30% into full membership.   Thinks that giving the newer curlers equipment in the form of a broom and a slider helps in the retention. Last season, hosted a Women’s Spiel, Men’s Spiel and USWCA National Spiel which consisted of 32 teams. Their project is rebuilding the clubroom. The clubroom continues to experience water damage. To alleviate the water damage working with the municipality. Has three high school programs and three college programs run through the club. Wauwatosa is on the 7th year of a 10 year lease with the City. Negotiating with the City concerning installing a video system for icehouse viewing. 
 
     In stead of Beau Moore, Scott Masloff spoke to the Agenda item of membership for Shady Thicket Curling Club. He is withdrawing their request for membership at this time.
 
     Discussion was had concerning the bonspiel poster printed by John Stolp. About 100 copies were prepared at a cost of $224.00. The information was taken from the WSCA website. Therefore, clubs need to reference website and make sure information is updated and correct. The poster was sent out on or about the 17th of September, 2008. Comments were made that more copies of the poster should be prepared and provided to Directors. The key in preparing the poster efficiently and with correct information is that the member clubs of the WSCA provide the information over the summer in a timely and correct basis. There is a page on the WSCA website for each club. Through that club’s page a link to bonspiel flyers of the club’s spiels can be posted.
    
     There being no further business for the Members’ Meeting, upon a motion duly made by Greg Dunlop and seconded by Larry Sharp and carried by unanimous vote, the Members’ Meeting was adjourned.
 
DIRECTORS’ MEETING:
 
     Board of Directors’ Meeting was called to order by President, Jeremy Roe, at 10:37 A.M. There are two corrections to the September 27, 2008 Meeting Minutes. First on page 1 concerning Green Bay it should provide they paid approximately $1,500.00 per month in the summer and $2,500.00 per month in the winter for utility costs due to the heater not having to run as often. On page 8 of the Minutes under the President’s Report the correction was: “Following discussion, on a motion made by David Russell and seconded by David Garber to recognize said curling club as a nonmember for 2007/2008 curling season and accept them as a member in good standing for 2008/2009 season.
 
     With these corrections, upon a motion duly made by David Russell and seconded by David Garber, the Minutes of the September 27, 2008 meeting were approved unanimously.
 
TREASURER’S REPORT - Gerg Dunlop reported:
 
     Attached to these Minutes is a four page report identifying clubs who are members in the WSCA, their number of reported members and dues paid during the period ending April 30, 2009 and historically going back to 2003. Also attached hereto is a six page report including statement of revenue and expenses for 10 fiscal years, ending April 30, 2009 and income and expenses from Championships conducted by WSCA over a ten year period from 2000 through 2009. Greg noted that for 2009 fiscal year ending April 30, 2009 the associated operated at a $1,300.00 deficit. This was primarily due to the website expense incurred of $1,562.50. This included a hosting fee and the costs to rework the WSCA website. It is anticipated that this is a one time expense. Greg also observed that $0.80 out of every dollar of WSCA income is spent in playdown expenses. Of the playdown expenses, the largest expense is the $200.00 per day ice fee paid to the host club.
 
     Concerning dues, WSCA does not collect any dues for youth curlers, meaning individuals who are 11 and under. However, USCA does collect junior dues for these curlers. Bernie Dushek observed that Lodi paid for 30 members. Richard Maskel observed that Alpine also paid for 30 members. There is a correction needed on the dues report whereby Alpine with 30 members paid USCA dues of not $45.00 but $810.00. It is observed that if one deducts the ice fee paid to host clubs from WSCA championship expenses, then the costs of running those championships are 45% of the WSCA income. There was also observed that WSCA does pay one-half of the ice fee if the ice is reserved for a WSCA championship but that championship does not run or does not use all of the days which are reserved. This is to compare with USCA which pays an ice fee of $250.00 per day with a maximum of $1,000.00 per event. It is also observed that the cost to the hosting club is approximately the same whether the ice is used or not. A question was raised as to whether to increase the fees to the competitors in Wisconsin State Curling Association championships. It was observed that in regards to the ice fee, to date there has not been a problem finding Wisconsin clubs to host WSCA championships.
 
     With the correction noted above, upon a motion duly made by Jim O’Neill and seconded by Jeff Koch, the Treasurer’s reports were unanimously accepted. David Russell noted that Greg Dunlop’s service as Treasurer of the WSCA for the last 12 years should be recognized and applauded. Greg noted that there is no permanent address for the WSCA. Rather, Greg is using his home address both as the Registered Agent for State reporting purposes and for the checks. He invited any person interested in taking over the Treasurer’s position to contact him over the summer since new checks will need to be ordered.
 
USCA DIRECTORS’ REPORTS:
 
     Mark Swandby reported. Financially USCA is scheduled for a break even or modest deficit budget for fiscal year end June 30, 2009. The Potomac club continues to makes its payment on a WCF/USCA guaranteed loan on schedule. The stones obtained through WCF and lent to the various curling clubs/arena clubs throughout the States continues Clubs are now in the first year of making payments. The Curl T.V. agreement is in review. The USCA paid for subscriptions for each individual curler member. The curling game content available through Curl T.V. was down for 2008/2009 season. This was an issue of T.V. rights which foreclosed Curl T.V. from broadcasting a number of events.
 
     Alan Ashley from USOC spoke to the USCA Board of Directors at their April, 2009 meeting. Alan is the team leader for Sports Performance for all winter sports including curling. Alan was formerly with the United States Ski Association. The Ski Association approach was to focus on competitive excellence at the highest level. This success was believed to then have a trickle down effect for membership growth. USCA is focusing on a high performance plan for its two Olympic teams. Scott Higgens is the Coaching Development Director. The Olympic teams will be training in Green Bay this summer and fall.
 
     Revenue development continues as a focus of USCA. 2008/2009 was a difficult year for the donation/fund raising programs. With the unfortunate loss of the USCA President, Chris Moore, this resulted in the creation of a Chris Moore Legacy Fund. To date there is approximately $10,000.00 collected in the fund.
 
     A reminder by way of athlete recognition, nominations need to be in by June 1, 2009. 
 
     As for championships, Garland Legacy is the new USCA ice maker for championships. Due to the loss of the availability of championship rocks which the USCA has rented in the past, the USCA is purchasing five sets of stones for use in championships. There are a number of local sites hosting championships. Portage will host the USCA Senior Nationals; Madison will host the 2010 Club Nationals and Madison will also host the 2012 Junior Nationals. The summer camp previously held in Eau Claire will be held in Green Bay this year. The dates are July 24th to the 26th. Rice Lake will be holding a team camp for juniors, August 13th to the 16th
 
TRAINING AND INSTRUCTION:
 
     Kellie Krake is the regional coordinator for training and instruction for Wisconsin. She also helped out with programs in Illinois. 204 people were trained through USCA program this past season.
 
     Membership conferences are being revamped to look to hold mini conferences throughout the various regions in the country. These mini conferences would be tailor made to topics as requested by the regions. If Wisconsin is interested, we should contact the USCA office.
 
     Fall mailing of USCA materials will be going out in September. These fall mailings go to the President of the local curling club. This last year a survey was put in with the materials asking for completion and return. Out of the 150 surveys sent, 20 came back. Of the 20, on a random drawing, four clubs were selected to receive curling banners from the USCA. None of these clubs were from Wisconsin.
 
     Curling has now been nominated to be the official winter sport of South Carolina. 
 
     The fall meeting for USCA Directors is set for September 25th to the 27, 2009.
 
T.V. BROADCASTING:
 
     Universal Sports has broadcast a number of U.S. curling games on cable and on the internet. In China, with one national sports channel, there were over 70 million Chinese watching China play in the World University Games. Also there was wide exposure to the Chinese audience with the Women’s World Championships.
 
YOUTH WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES:
 
     As sponsored by the IOC, there will be contested Youth Winter Olympic Games in Innsbrook, Austria. The dates are January 13th to the 22, 2012. This is an event that will be completely funded by the IOC. The USCA will be charged with selecting a team. This will be a mixed team representing the United States.
 
WCF:
 
     Commencing with the next World Junior Championships, WCF will be requiring the World Junior Championships to be conducted alcohol free with zero tolerance. This will be similar to the USCA policy concerning U.S. Junior Nationals. Violations of the alcohol free policy will result in fines to the offending nations.
 
     Turkey has become the 45th member of the WCF. They will host the 2011 World University Games.
 
     The WCF will entertain suggestions as to rule changes through the 2009/2010 season. Comments are due in April of 2010. These rules will then be finalized for the next four years. Some proposed rules that have been discussed are as follows:
 
     1.   To reduce the championships to eight ends, although the consensus appears to be 10 ends. The focus is to keep the games at three hours or less in duration.
 
     2.   Exploring moving World Seniors and Mixed Doubles to be competed for in the first half of the year. This is to lessen the congestion of the various World Championships contested in the last part of the year.
     3.   Review whether to keep time outs.
 
     4.   Considering changing the timing system from how it is currently to thinking time. Therefore, the clock would not be running when the stones are in motion. Rather, the clock would run only after a shot has been completed and run until a shot has crossed the near T line. The idea is that it is not to penalize teams who play a draw game versus a take out game. For an eight end game, thinking time would consist of 24 minutes.
 
     5.   Considering eliminating tie breakers for play offs at World Championships. The goal is to be able to set specific schedules for T.V. as to when the page, semis and finals are to be run. It also would eliminate one additional day of scheduling.
    
Richard Maskel - no report.
 
Judy Maier: report attached.
 
     Attached to these Minutes is a list of sites for the USCA championships for the 2009/2010 season and sites for additional competitions in seasons thereafter. Also all sites for the 2009/2010 season have been approved but for one Women’s Qualifier. 
 
     Devils Lake reported that through sponsorships they grossed between $28,000.00 and $30,000.00 before the start of the 2009 Junior Nationals. Utica reported that as a result of hosting the 2009 Nationals, they make about $7,500.00. Judy has announced that this is her last year as Chairman of Site Selection. She thanks all who have helped her in acquiring host sites.
 
     There will be no Wheel Chair Worlds in 2010. Rather, the Para Olympics will be competed in 2010. World University Games occur every other year. Thus, there will be none in 2009/2010 season.
 
     The formula for travel reimbursement for athletes has been changed. It has been changed from as a crow flies to based upon Map Quest mileage.
 
     The USCA is exploring the possibility of hosting a golf outing at Kohler as a fund raiser for USCA. Beau Welling is chairing this effort.
 
     Columbus, Ohio Curling Club is moving to dedicated facilities.
 
     There is a scheduled Elite Junior Camp in St. Paul. The camp will be conducted May 29th to the 31, 2009. Kevin Martin is a guest instructor. 
 
     U-18 Optimists team competition took place in Regina, Saskatchewan. There was a boys and girls team from Wisconsin at the event. There were 3 junior men’s teams, one each from Washington, Minnesota and Wisconsin and two junior women’s teams, one each from North Dakota and Wisconsin. 
 
     Any and all adults working with juniors do need to go through a background check. Check with USCA as to what needs to be completed.
 
     The USWCA has approximately 2,900 members. There will be a Senior Women’s Canadian Friendship Tour which will start in Wisconsin on November 4, 2009. Senior National Bonspiel at Grand Forks, North Dakota will be held December 2nd to 6, 2009. USWCA National Bonspiel will be held at Schenectady, New York on February 10th to 14, 2010. In addition, the Women’s Scot Tour will be in the States January 6th through 31, 2011. USWCA continues to provide funds to develop curlers both juniors and adults.
 
David R. Carlson:
 
     Report attached. 
 
     David Garber commented in regards to the dues issue that there is strength in curling by having all curlers be a dues paying curlers registered with the USCA. An example Garber gave was the subscription base for the U.S. Curling News as contrasted with the Canadian Curling News. For both newspapers the subscription base is the same. Garber found that rather amazing given the fact that there are a million plus Canadian curlers. Garber believes that if USCA went to individual curler membership that the membership would drop to 1,000 to 1,500. Therefore, continuing the current governance structure causes there to be unity in strength of numbers of individual curlers as part of the USCA. As for championships, an option is to go to a select team model such as China or Scotland is using. This, in turn, would have a negative effect on the competitive curling opportunities for the grass roots curler. Furthermore, with a significant reduction in membership the Curling News may go away as well as there being no Stone Program for start ups.
 
Walt Erbach:
 
     Walt is the Vice President of Competitive Programs. Competitive Programs has a substantial budget from the USOC. Competitive Programs needs to be sufficiently organized to meet USOC approval that the program is geared to win medals at international competitions. The current focus is the preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics. The theory is by selecting the curling representatives for the 2010 Winter Olympics well in advance that these teams will then have more time for training and preparation. This is to be contrasted with selecting the representative teams one or two months in advance of the Olympics on the assumption that they would be the “hot team” at that time.
 
     USOC, through the USCA, funds an Athletic Development Director. This position is focused on strategy and techniques. The USOC also funds a Coaching Development Director. This focuses on coach development and coach directed training. There is also funded a sports psychologist and competitive intelligence.
 
     Green Bay, Wisconsin will be providing ice for summer camps. There has been developed an intense program for the two Olympic teams in preparation for the 2010 Olympics. The theory is that competitive success on international and Olympic stage produces positive publicity. More publicity can then be leveraged by the local clubs to generate membership. The higher the profile of the sport of curling, the easier it is to also obtain sponsorship for regional, state and local events and the curling clubs hosting the same. Over the course of the last several years, due to the higher profile of curling on T.V., the USCA has gone from having to buy time to broadcast curling on T.V. to media outlets seeking to broadcast curling events. In keeping with this development, the USCA has gone with using an arena model for hosting Nationals rather than local clubs.
 
PRESIDENT’S REPORT - Jeremy Roe reported:
 
     Annexed hereto is the President’s Report. Jeremy recognizes Judy Maier’s contributions as USCA Director. Judy was elected in 2002 and prior to that time was President of the USWCA. A round of applause from the Directors recognized Judy’s contributions.
 
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
 
RULES - Richard Maskel reported:
 
     Two years ago WCF had an overhaul of the Rules. One of the changes included the installation of a courtesy line. Richard is concerned that there is not nationwide compliance with installing this courtesy line. The next revision of Rules will be at the end of the 2010 season. Thereafter, the Rules will be reviewed and revised on an every four year cycle.
 
DIRECTORY/WEBSITE - Mark Hartman reported:
 
     Website is now fully functional. Continued relationship with the website development company. Enhancements will almost immediately be up and working due to responsiveness of the website company. Anticipates that the hosting charge going forward will be in the $150.00 to $200.00 range. The challenge is keeping the website current. Looking for any and all suggestions for content for the website. One enhancement to explore is archiveability of calendar information.
 



     Suggest that the data collection for clubs by way of officers, spiel dates, etc. be made more efficient by coordinating the same with the USCA. Badger Women’s Spiel rotation information needs to be added to the website.
 
BY-LAWS - David Carlson reported:
 
     By-Laws Committee met in August of 2008. Current By-Laws have been unchanged since 1998. Proposed By-Law changes were sent to the Directors with the meeting’s Agenda. David Russell explained the changes proposed to Section 7 concerning Executive Committee. Changes would provide that the Executive Committee could take action on behalf of the Board of Directors but said action would be subject being ratified by the Board at its next meeting. A question was raised as to why increasing the requirement that a curling club must have at least eight dues paying members. Russell explained that was to at least have enough members to play a game. Carlson reported that the reason for adding Section 6 concerning distribution of assets on dissolution is to position the WSCA towards 501(c)(3) status application in the future. The USCA By-Laws call for any dissolution proceeds of the USCA to be distributed only to those states and regions which are 501(c)(3) entities. Neither Wisconsin nor Minnesota are a 501(c)(3) entities.
 
     Upon a motion made by Dan Brunt and seconded by Bill Wilberg, the proposed By-Laws are accepted. This motion was carried unanimously.
 
     Carlson reported that the new By-Laws with changes will be provided to the members through the WSCA website.
 
JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP - Mark Hartman reported:
 
     Attached hereto is Mark’s report. A discussion was had concerning a rule or procedure regarding time outs. This is in the context that all junior teams have coaches. The current rule/procedure through the USCA calls for there being no time outs if no time clocks are used. Another rule provides for one time out for eight ends, two for ten ends. The third rule permits only the coach of the team calling the time out being allowed to consult with the team. Mark believes that the no time outs permitted if no time clocks used needs to be reviewed. It was suggested that President Roe appoint an Ad Hoc Rules/Procedure Committee to review this issue and report to the Executive Committee.



MEN’S CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP - Jeremy Roe reported:
 
     Eleven teams competed at Kettle Moraine for the State Club Championship. Jeremy thanks Tim Kaschinski for his excellent job in hosting the event. There was significant discussion about the format for the championship. For the past three years the format has been a triple knockout format. The other option is a pooled round robin format. There are pluses and minuses with both formats. Jeremy inquired of the competitors in the last State Men’s Club Championship as to their format preferences. Jeremy will continue to review the format responses over the summer. Jeremy does acknowledge that the USCA uses the pooled round robin format for their National Championships.
 
WOMEN’S CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP - Jeremy Roe reported:
 
     Two years ago the Women’s Championship was hosted concurrent with the Men’s. However, for the 2009 Championships the date conflicted with the Badger Women’s. Therefore, the date needed to be shifted for the State Women’s Club Championships. Portage agreed to host. Jeremy thanks Ken Ryczek for chairing the event. Two teams signed up to play. They played three ten end games in one day. The winning team from Centerville declined the berth to Club Nationals and gave their entry fee reimbursement to the runner-up from Madison to help pay their Nationals’ travel expense.
 
MIXED CHAMPIONSHIP - Jeremy Roe reported:
 
     The 2009 Mixed Championship was hosted by Poynette. Two teams played. Jeremy thanks Kurt Marquart for chairing this event.
 
     Greg Dunlop raised the question of whether the WSCA would be purchasing time clocks for competition. Mark Hartman shared that for the Junior’s they used kitchen timers with clip boards showing the time. Bill Wilberg commented that there were programs that can be used with laptops called curl clock. You just need a laptop and then an external monitor. That way, both the timer and the competitors are able to see the clock on a continuous basis. 
 
     The overall concern is having enough volunteers at the host clubs to run the clocks. It was commented that Wisconsin is the only region not using time clocks at their State Championships.
 



SENIOR CULING - Bernie Dushek reported:
 
     Wisconsin continues to be strong in its participation and its level of competition. There are five Wisconsin Senior Spiels. The State Senior Spiel was hosted by Waupaca this year. Larry Sharp’s Rink won the event. In 2010 Kettle Moraine will be hosting the event; 2011 Medford; 2012 Appleton; and 2013 Wauwautosa. The WISCA Seniors had 20 teams this year. There were 15 teams playing in the Columbia County day league. There were eight teams playing on a Senior Friday Mixed League in Columbia County. The National Senior Men’s Bonspiel was held in St. Paul this year. Sixty rinks participated. The 2010 National Senior Men’s Bonspiel will be hosted by the Columbia County clubs. Dan Brunt is the Chair. A question was raised as to paying sales tax on membership and bonspiel fees. This topic was addressed in a recent U.S. Curling News article. Bernie announced that he is retiring from Senior Curling Chair. Jack Baker from Wauwautosa will be the new Chair.
 
HIGH SCHOOL CURLING - Vicki Griepentrog reported:
 
     Vicki’s report is annexed hereto. It was observed that on the WSCA website there is a link for high school curling. This is under the club directory site.
 
OLD BUSINESS:
 
     None.
 
NEW BUSINESS:
 
     Nominations for USCA Board to replace Judy Maier.
 
     David Carlson, as Chairman of the Nominating Committee reported that the committee is proposing Kellie Krake as the Director from WSCA to the USCA replacing Judy Maier. Upon a motion made by David Carlson and seconded by Bill Wilberg, Kellie Krake’s name was placed in nomination as a Wisconsin Director to the USCA Board. Upon a motion duly made by Jim O’Neill and seconded by Larry Sharp, Rich Lepping’s name was placed in nomination as Wisconsin Director to the USCA Board.
 
     Each candidate was given an opportunity to speak to their candidacy.
 
     Kellie Krake spoke to the directors. Jeremy Roe read a statement from Rich Lepping.
     David Russell commented on the history of the organization of the USCA in 1986. It was at this time that the men’s organization and the women’s organization were combined towards the end of positioning the USCA to be the national governing body for Olympic Curling. The solution of combining the two organizations was to double the size of Board to include both men and women on the Board of Directors of the USCA.
 
     Upon a motion made by Jim O’Neill and seconded by David Lewis, the nominations were closed and said motion was unanimously carried.  Paper ballots were passed out to the Directors and the Officers qualified to vote. Upon a vote of the directors and officers, Kellie Krake was elected as Wisconsin Director to the USCA Board. Upon a motion made by David Carlson and seconded by David Garber and unanimously carried, the paper ballots were directed to be destroyed.
    
     The next meeting of the WSCA is set for Saturday, October 3rd. Jeremy will explore the availability of the USCA offices in Stevens Point to host the meeting. Upon a motion duly made by Larry Sharp and seconded by David Lewis, the meeting was adjourned upon unanimous consent. Said adjournment was at approximately 2:10 P.M.
 
     In the absence of Mike Dry, David Carlson acted as recording secretary.
Stevens Point