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Guide to Establishing a
Sport Baton Twirling Club

Third Intercollegiate Invitational

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Alyssa Kane, University of Conn.

Amy Galbraith, University of Washington

Brittany Jones

National Coalition for the Advancement of Baton Twirling (NCABT)
Annual Meeting
October 2, 2005    Chicago, Illinois

The meeting was called to order at 10:10AM by Sandi Wiemers.
Attending were; Jennifer Sipiera, Kathleen Krueger, Lee Callicutt, Jackie Stewart, Sharon Campbell, Diane Gunnels, Pam Irwin, Regina Moxley, Mike Walsh, Julienne Close, Kay Colen, Karen Cammer, Sandi Wiemers, Joanne Britton.

Treasurer's Report
There is currently a balance of $2,750 in our account.

Clubs on Campuses
Joanne Britton handed out some guidelines for forming a club.  It is important that there be an advisor from our group that athletes and coaches can call for advice on forming a club.  Joanne volunteered to be that advisor.  Also, due to money restraints, clubs need to be formed very early in the school year.  We must actively recruit people to initiate clubs on their campus.  Athletes who have graduated already will make great recruiters!

We need to write an article for the website that lists the value of being a club.  We also need to keep referring athletes and others to go to the website.

10 Year Plan
Mission Statement:
To achieve the acceptance of baton twirling as a scholastic sport at the High School and Collegiate levels.

Long Term Goals: To achieve our mission statement.
                                    NCAA Recognition
Short Term Goals: Establish Regional Directors who will:

Regional Directors
East (Virginia & North, Pennsylvania and Ohio): Lee Callicutt, Kay Colen, Diane Gunnels. 
Southeast (North Carolina and Southwest to Arkansas includes Kentucky): Ashley Clark, Shelby.
Central(All other Southern States, Texas & Oklahoma, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, North & South Dakota, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska): Lynn Dell Harrell will be responsible for Texas/Oklahoma, Regina Moxley & Joanne Britton will direct the rest.
West (All states west): Sharon Campbell

Title IX
Keep an eye on our progress.

OCR agenda
To date we do not have a case or issue for the OCR.  In the distant future we will readdress if the need arises.

Women's Sports Foundation
Sandi Wiemers and Karen Cammer will approach them again to see if we can get them to change their definition of baton twirling as well as continuing a relationship with them.
           
January Competition & Administration
Date:   January 21, 2006
Place: Cumberland University, Tennessee
Also:    Criteria Seminar January 22, 2006 in the morning.

Sandi Wiemers will create the contest entry.  Jennifer Sipiera will create an accompanying flyer.

Competition Co-Directors: Kay Colen and Cindi Jones
Announcers: Joyce Dalton and Kathleen Krueger
Athlete Seminar: Megan Britton and Sandi Wiemers
Awards: Pam Irwin
               Mike Walsh –Framed Certificates
Photography: Sandi Wiemers
Tabulation: Callene Derrick

Judges for January Competition: Karen Cammer will prepare an application for judges to submit to volunteer to judge. 

Other: Karen will create a Press Release and send to Regina Moxley for posting on the website.

Competition Format:

      College (3 team levels);
A)  College Line –no more than 2 spins, no more than 2 elbows, no 3 baton exchange work, single element under high toss
B)  College Team –anything goes
C)  College Fight Song/Marching Band music Competition for Groups
           High School
A)  H.S. Line –no more than 2 spins, no more than 2 elbows, no 3 baton exchange work, single element under high toss
B)  H.S. Team –anything goes

                 High School and College                           

College;
Solo, 2 Baton, 3 Baton, Free Style, Fight Song Free Style (for Line Twirlers & Featured Twirlers)
High School;
Solo, 2 Batons, 3 Baton, Free Style

NCABT membership
We will abolish “membership”but ask for donations

Web site & our “official”name

Everyone has their assignments for the upcoming season.  See you all in Tennessee.

Respectfully submitted,

Karen Cammer
On behalf of the NCABT

1. Updated Format for future format of NCAA Baton Twirling Competitions from changes/additions which were implemented at the October 2002 meeting in Chicago.
2. US Figure Skating Collegiate Skating Document on Skating’s Guide to Developing a Successful Collegiate Figure Skating Program
   An example of Michigan State’s Skating Club flyer to recruit student athletes to their club.
3. Chicago, October 2002 Minutes

1. February 2003 – A committee meeting in Maryland –
   • Tri-Fold created to send out to twirling professionals for membership support
   • Athlete Survey created
   • Collegiate Athletic Department survey created
2. Research Task Force:
   o Tessah Ivey, Florida; Diana Loomis, Kansas; Kay Colen, Maryland; Sandi Wiemers, Kansas compiled listings of all Division I, IA, and Division II athletic department contact information.
   o A survey was sent out all schools regarding their interest in establishing a baton twirling as a club sport on their campus.
   o Results indicate that there is an interest but most answers stated that Club Sports are established through the college recreation departments, not the athletic departments.

Kay Colen addressed the group and expressed her appreciation for everyone’s attendance. Kay has been researching colleges in the southeastern quadrant of the United States as the potential starting ground by contacting schools who have established twirling lines with their band departments. Because of her efforts, June Stroeber, Director of the twirlers at the University Florida and her two captains, Sarah Horowitz and Kimberly Register were in attendance at the meeting. To our most pleasant surprise, we found out that the University of Florida has actually already established baton twirling as a club sport on their campus. June stated that because of this, they had been able to get more access to practice facilities and that they were receiving some funding for competition, travel and uniform expenses.

So, now we have 1 Sport Baton Twirling Club !!!!!! 19 more to go!!!!!!!

Cindi Jones, Tennessee will be continuing to help Kay Colen with the recruitment of schools in the southeast area. Kay will also be working on recruitment of schools in the Pennsylvania, Virginia, Delaware, Maryland area. It was stated that everyone should contact Kay with any other possibilities.

Sandi Wiemers stated that in roads were certainly being made on this project but she felt there needed to be a catalyst of some kind to keep the interest in this project alive and hopefully spark it to the next level. She suggested that we consider recruiting college twirling lines and soloists by enticing them to come together to have an Invitational Collegiate Competition and Clinic next year. This event needs to be simplistic in nature so that everyone will feel they could attend and participate.

Hopefully, by bring the schools together, we will be able to fully explain our goal of establishing sport baton twirling clubs on college campuses to the student athletes and our future goal of making baton twirling.

A long discussion ensued on this subject and it was agreed by all that this would be a very good idea. It was established that this competition would be held in January. 1st choice is the 3rd week-end in January and we are going to pursue a facility in the Atlanta area first. Brandi Martin, from Georgia volunteered to research facilities there. Everyone was encouraged to look for facilities. We will need to utilize the “best offer” – hoping that we might be able to acquire a
free facility somewhere.

Committees were established for the College Invitational Competition:
June Stroeber volunteered to be in charge of creating the Invitational Flyer.
This will be mailed to all Colleges in the country who we know have twirlers and that we have addresses for. Please send any contact information to Kay if you know of someone we do not have listed. We will distribute this information this semester that schools will have time to financially prepare to attend the Invitational Competition next January.

Kay Colen, Maryland; Cindi Jones, Tennessee; Julienne Close, Indiana will be in charge of setting up and running the competition. They will be in contact through email to establish a list a tasks and responsibilities.

The following guidelines were agreed upon for the College Invitational Competition:

All participants may present a performance of their own choice.

Individual Performances: Not to exceed 3 minutes

Group Performances: Not to exceed 5 minutes

No penalties will assessed for overtime

This will be a rating competition / evaluation & comments given

Special Awards will be given (to be determined yet) These will be framed certificates.

Awards: Each school represented will receive a plaque

Entry Fee: $ 25 per soloist, $ 50 for Small Groups (Less than 5 members), $100 for Large Groups (5 or more members)

The entry includes the clinic and the NCABT Meeting

It was agreed that we are asking all NCABT members, judges, and staff to volunteer their services to make this event happen.

Jennifer Lujbli, AAU, suggested that we look into a grant for the facility and volunteered to use some her contacts to look into a facility.

Sandi Wiemers stated the importance in spreading the word on the importance of joining the NCABT with the $30 membership so that we have an operating capital to communicate and to run the Collegiate Invitational Championship next January 2005.

LONG RANGE PLANNING:

Sandi Wiemers reviewed the dossier on the format for the NCABT Sport Baton Twirling Competitions and asked for any input, additions, or changes as we covered the document.

The following changes were made:

Page 7 - 10.0 – To add that is not required to used rosin or magnesium powder on the hands.
Page 8 – 12.0 – To add Pairs to Item # 1 - To change the Freestyle Time Limit to read 2 ½ minutes maximum - To include CD’s a choice for performance music in addition to cassette tapes

To include an additional event called “Multiple Baton Freestyle”.
This event would allow athletes to utilize their band tryout routines in the
competition. The criteria and concept summaries will now need to be added to
the dossier.

Page 10 - Team Competition: The time limit to read 3 minutes maximum.

All events which utilize music of the athlete’s or group’s choice will have a 10 second leeway in the timing due to the difference in tape players, electric currents, etc.

Page 13 - Change the scoring scale.

Scoring Scale Established:

• 10 Point Scale will be utilized for all events
• An Overall Degree of Excellence Score will be given. (No caption scoring).
• Scale of proficiency established:

0.00 – 3.99 = Fair
4.00 – 5.99 = Average
6.00 – 7.99 = Good
8.00 – 8.99 = Excellent
9.00 – 10.0 = Superior

Penalties Established:

Drops = .05 per infraction
Fall = .05 per infraction
Overtime = 1.0

Penalties to be deducted from the total score.

It was agreed upon that Technical Merit and Artistic Expression should be given equal credit
We will remove the boxes from the score sheets to reflect that philosophy

Next NCABT Meeting:

Will be October 2, 2005, in the Chicago area. Email JoAnn Britton for information.

Sandi Wiemers thanked everyone for sacrificing their time to attend the meeting.

Meeting adjourned.

January 2004 Meeting Attendees

Kathy Butera, VA
John Chamberlain, FL
Julienne Close, IN
Kay Colen, MD
Joyce Dalton, OH
Nancy Eisenhower, TX
Sarah Horowitz, FL
Cindi Jones, TN
Jennifer Lujbli, FL
Brandi Martin, GA
Regina Moxley, KS
Kimberly Register, FL
Kelli Russell, NY
Joanne Schlueter, SD
Claudette Sisk, TN
Jackie Stewart, TN
June Stoeber, FL
Sandi Wiemers, KS
Lou Willis, KY
Patsy Willis, KY