A NOTE FROM THE SECRETARY

This meeting, especially the Open Forum portion, was very unstructured and different topics and ideas came out at various times. To those that were there: I apologize if I didn't record things quite as you intended. Please let me know if there are any big omissions or misquotes.

Thanks, Sue

MUFA Sectretary

MUFA public meeting minutes:

January 22, 2007 - Wilmar Center at 953 Jennifer St. Madison WI

14 members of the MUFA public present

MUFA Board

Brad Wendt - president
Robin Davies - vice president
Matt Merrill - treasurer
Sue De Cicco - secretary
Dan Raabe - juniors chair
Kris Stepenuck - at large, womens
Kevin Johnson - at large, juniors

1.Intro - Brad Wendt gives brief introduction to the structure of the meeting - all board members present

REPORTS

1.Matt gives financial report

MUFA spent 54k over the year, took in 65k, have been making profit for past couple years. Profit for 2006 was ~ 9k.

Fall league - breaks even
Spring league - profit ~ 3k
Summer league - profit ~ 9k
Winter league - front 6k

2. Dan gives junior's ultimate report

7 HS have teams
Last year had coaches clinic - all HS got a coach from the clinic exceptA Middleton
Mud Bath in its 6 years for men, 3rd year for womens
Have no womens teams except for Memorial
MUFA subsidized coaches clinic - will do it again and Robin encouraged people to sign up

3.Sue talked about leagues

Current ideas for leagues 2007

Spring league -
don't use Swan Creek this year because it was in bad condition last year
Womens - same as 2006
Mens - same but add a 1x per week mens league on Thursdays, men may play in both leagues

Summer league -
Same as 2006 except add a Rec 1c
Will have '06 Rec 2 captains vote on whether to start with 2 equal pools or split into 2a and 2b right away, and whether to have a midseason switch like rec 1 does

Fall league -
Highly dependant on what fields we can get from the city - we hope to add Tuesday nights Demetral 1 and 2

4. Robin talked about Goaltimate

Started an unofficial league last spring
Robin is going to have another spring league this year

OPEN FORUM

Stressed that this is a forum for the board to listen, not to make any final decisions.

Item 1: MUFA leagues

A once per week league and/or masters league

no input

B how to deal with rec leagues

Rec leagues -
Rec 2 - if we do the pools, split into rec 2a and 2b sooner
split into rec 2a, 2b, 2c

competitive league - ringer rule - was the change a good thing (been in effect for 2 years) - this has made for 3 or 4 really good teams, which is leading to a very small competitive league - tweak the ringer rule in some way - possibly take into account how well your team did at regionals, not just whether or not they made it there

Fall league - women in fall league shortage - make sure captains are aware of the sub rule

C more or cheaper indoor

Dan Bock in running indoor - it costs Awhat it costs, Dan negotiated a better deal with Breakaway, and it is mostly full. About 60 people play overall, with 20 - 40 people playing per night (at 10 pm!). Playing earlier would triple the field costs.
Saturday at the Golf Dome on PD from 7 pm onwards - if someone steps up, we could have a league there.

D MUFA support Goaltimate

MUFA has been unofficially supporting goaltimate
Do people want to expand? No input

E Men playing in more than one league for summer -

Argument for allowing it

Arguments against

- Any MUFA-registered man (or woman) can play in any game if the opposing captain is OK with it.

FINANCES

What MUFA has done with our money over the past couple years and ideas for what to do with it in the future

Currently have 47k in the bank

Sponsorship - concerns about the type of companies we might get
Kate volunteered to help look for a good deal on shirts

Jeff - we should look into the future - what is the grand vision for MUFA

Pete - the fields we have now are workable

Maintenance agreements with the city to get our "own" fields

Robin read the Mission Statement - what do we need to do to do more?

Spirit of the game - what does it mean, and how has it changed

Frisbee is becoming a viable HS sport, MUFA can aid in developing ultimate with youth - MUFA can develop a complete system - starting from T ball age all the way through Masters

Involve the MUFA community more in the schools - e.g. had MUFA women come and play against the HS girls since the girls don't have enough to scrimmage themselves

Develop Frisbee under the umbrella of MUFA rather than under the umbrella of 'school'.

Brad went into some middle schools working for MSCR doing Ultimate classes

Ideas to help promote ultimate

Structural issues with MUFA

Are there other ways to structure MUFA than the status quo? Have an elected board? Other ways? Have the board hire a league chairs?
Should we have more open meetings? How much is too much of time commitment from volunteers?

A strategic planning committee to give MUFA an objective and a timeline? Could have people from the board and the mufa public.

How many of the MUFA public should any money given out affect?

If there's some sort of structure in place, policy can be made with more confidence since there is some input from the public

Having more information meetings?

ADJOURN

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Proposal: Club and College Sponsorship 1/22/07
Submitted by Kate Arnold

The ultimate Frisbee Community in Madison is enormous and diverse, ranging from new recreational players to elite national caliber athletes. The college and club teams in Madison actively participate in most of the MUFA leagues and events, and the entire community benefits from their dedication and expertise to both competitive and recreational ultimate. In recognition of the contribution of the college and club teams, I propose that MUFA sponsor those teams in the following way.

1. MUFA will sponsor the Men's and Women's College teams at a rate of $1000 per team for the 2007 and 2008 seasons to pay for tournament fees. This sponsorship may be renewed at the January meeting in 2009 contingent upon funds and the will of the MUFA community. Total cost: $4,000 over two years.

Justification: The UW Madison has built a dominant Ultimate program which has produced teams that compete at the highest levels. Competing at this level requires both teams to spend huge sums on transportation, lodging and tournament fees for events around the country where they will have the opportunity to play other high caliber teams before the National Championships. Many of these other high caliber teams benefit from close proximity to good competition, and significant sponsorship. Although $1000 hardly puts a dent inA the total cost of the college season, the support of the MUFA community will be appreciated, and will further strengthen ties between the college and MUFA players.

2. MUFA will sponsor up to three club teams (open, women, coed and masters) for the club season at a rate of $1000 per team. Teams should apply by June 1 to be eligible for funds. If more than 3 teams apply, the funds will be disbursed based on the merits of the application. Total cost, $0-$3,000 per year.

Justification: A strong Club program in Madison helps recruit more MUFA players, maintain interest in the sport, and injects both enthusiasm and talent into the MUFA community. Providing sponsorship for club teams will encourage them to form early in the year, and help cover tournament fees so that players will have more time an experience together before the fall series.