About the UMCRA - Bylaws 2000

Coach: ?
Faculty Advisor: Cerry Klein, E 3437 Engineering East, 882-9566

Membership Requirements: The UMCRA is open to any undergraduate or graduate student of the University of Missouri-Columbia that wants to join. We have no limit on how many members we can have and have no skill requirement for joining. All that we ask is that you pay your dues and follow our rules. So if you know someone that likes playing racquetball, talk him or her into joining.

Purpose: To provide a forum for MU students interested in racquetball to interact and compete with each other.

Practice: We will have practice three times a week: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday. This year I am putting less emphasis on the Sunday practice and more emphasis on the Tuesday and Wednesday night practices. The new practice times will be from 7pm to 10pm. I do encourage people to show up at 6:45pm though, so that we can be on the courts promptly at 7pm. There is no such thing as a mandatory practice, so if you have a test the night of a practice or need to study for a test the following day, do not hesitate to skip practice, leave early, or show up late. Remember that school does come first. This year things will be a little different though, in regards to attendance. If you do not plan on showing up regularly, do not even bother joining the team. People who do not show up are wasting their money and our time. Those who do not show up ruin the challenge ladder for those who are here regularly. We will discuss the current challenge ladder, who people should play at that practice, upcoming tournaments, and all other relevant information every Tuesday. If you cannot make it on Tuesday, that is fine. Just be sure to call me, email me, or ask me on Wednesday if you missed anything. Even though I do not require you to attend every practice, please try to attend as many practices as you can. I know you are all busy, but there is no way you could possibly be busier than I am and I will be at practice regularly.

Practice Times: (how long you stay at practice is totally up to you)
Sundays 7:00-10:00
Tuesday 7:00-10:00
Wednesdays 7:00-10:00

Eyeguards: If you don’t have a pair of legal, lensed eyeguards, make sure that you go buy a pair right away. For challenge matches, according to USRA rules you will be given a technical and charged with a time-out the first time you are caught during the match without legal eyeguards on. If it happens a second time during the same match, you will be automatically forfeited. DO NOT PLAY CHALLENGE MATCHES WITHOUT LEGAL EYEGUARDS. This year this will be dealt with seriously. Non-freshmen players need to set a good example for the new members.

Court Reservations: 882-2067

Courts can by reserved up to one day in advance, by phone or at the equipment desk. Everyone needs to reserve courts as early in the morning as possible the day before each practice. If available, reserve courts 1, 2, 10, & 12 before reserving the dungeon courts. Hopefully, the team will make arrangements to have permanent court reservations on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. It is up to each individual player on the team to reserve a court in his/her name for practice. If this doesn’t happen, we will not have any courts.

Even if you have a court reserved you will need to go to the equipment desk and show them your ID in order to check-off the court. If you don’t check off your court within ten minutes after your court time starts they will give it away to someone else. ALWAYS RESERVE FOR PRACTICE.

Tournaments: This season the team hopes to be paying for any tournaments that we go play in as a team. This will not include a tournament you go to and play in by yourself and then mention to me on the following Monday. The team will not be paying for any gas to tournaments, food at tournaments, and most importantly the team is not going to pay for your USRA fees. As soon as I get my hands on a local tournament schedule, I will get copies out to everyone. I encourage everyone to play as many tournaments as they can. At the Tuesday meetings we will discuss who is going to tournaments on the upcoming weekend and what tournaments are coming up. This way we can watch each other and be aware of whom all is involved in the tournaments we attend.

    A.) Drinking Policy-- At tournaments where the team pays for hotel rooms, at no time will any alcoholic beverage be allowed in the rooms. It doesn’t matter whether or not you are planning to drink it, don’t bring it into the room or you will have to pay the consequences. No smoking will be allowed in the rooms either. You may not light a cigarette in the room or bring a lit cigarette into the room. In addition, at collegiate tournaments no one will be allowed to drink until they are completely out of the tournament and have no more matches that they can play. Punishment for breaking any of these rules will result in you having to repay the team for your entry fee and your percentage of the hotel bill. This is not a hard rule to follow. Just do not do anything in your hotel room and you will not annoy me.

    B.)-- In any division where the team has paid for your entry fee, you will be required to play all of your matches. You will not be allowed to forfeit any matches and you must play all consolation matches. If consolation matches are by sign up only you must sign up and play. If you break this rule you will have to repay the team for your entry fee in that division.

    C.)-- Tournament referees are getting worse each year it seems. If you are playing a match and feel you are getting nothing but bad calls find me or send someone else to find me. I will come watch the match and straighten out the problems with your referee if there are any. Also, if you are the ref for a match you are uncomfortable with, find me. I will not ref the match for you, but I will help you out. However, as in the past, if one of the players you are refereeing is being verbally abusive towards you or is trying to intimidate you, I will take over for you.

National Intercollegiate Championships: Going to this tournament is the team’s first priority. I am not sure where this five-day tournament will be scheduled this season. Only the top 6 men and top 6 women can compete at Regionals and Nationals. Only these 12 people will play. This group of players will consist of members of the team that have shown a good attitude throughout the season, have been willing to help the team when asked, and demonstrate the a high quality skill level on the court. Students who join the team second semester are still able to go to Nationals as long as they pay their dues and move up the challenge ladder. Do not let your skills decline over the winter break, or else you may lose you spot to a newcomer. In order to play in Nationals you must be a full time student, which is 12 hours for undergraduates, and 9 hours for graduate students. It is very important that you realize that you will have to miss 4 or 5 days of classes to go to Nationals. Professors and TAs are very willing to help you out if you come to them in advance. During the first week or two of second semester, everyone needs to go talk to their teachers and discuss scheduling around any tests, homework assignments, quizzes, etc. that you may miss. If I am able to travel on the trip with the team this year, I will be able to administer any tests to you, as I am a TA for the university.

Attendance Policy: Attendance refers to how many practices you physically show up for. The team views your commitment and dedication to the team strictly by how many practices you come to. If for some reason you will have to miss a long string of practices, you will be excused if you talk to me ahead of time.

Fees: Everyone is required to pay the Team Dues in order to join the team. You will not be put on the challenge ladder until you have paid your dues. Also, the team will not spend any money on you if you owe the team money. It is very important that everyone get his or her money in on time.

Before Tuesday September 29, $200 (Team dues) Make checks payable to: UMCRA

What you get for your Team Dues: Team T-shirts Team Jacket or Pull-over participation on challenge ladder friends tournament entry fees instruction/lessons

If you participate in team community service activities once a semester you will not have to pay $200 for your dues, the new rate will be $100. So you can feel free to pay $100 up front and if you do not do any community service first semester, you will owe another $100 next semester.

If you have any problems with dues, feel free to talk with me about it.

If are eligible for Intercollegiate Regionals and Nationals, there might be an additional amount in dues that will be payable second semester. This might be the only way we can afford to go to Nationals. Sorry. Remember that no one had to pay extra last year, so this may not be a problem.

USRA: This year the team will still not be paying for your USRA membership. It us up to you fill out the necessary paperwork.. Everyone will then receive a copy of the current USRA rules. Make sure that you read them at least once. They will expect you to know all of the rules when you have to ref at tournaments. Do not get mad about having to pay this. I could charge everyone $220 in dues and pay for it, but then you would have to find me to reimburse you, it is easier for all this way. Sorry.

Team Clothing: Sometime during the first semester we will give everyone two team T-shirts and a jacket or pull over. It needs to be obvious to anyone that walks by that the racquetball team is having practice. The best way to do that is for everyone to wear their team shirts to practice. We need to advertise our team as much as possible. Not many people even know that we have a team. The more recognized we are, the more money we will get from the school in the future. Try to wear your team warm-up as often as possible also. In addition, wear your shirts at any tournaments you play. At Intercollegiate Regionals and Nationals try to have a team shirt on in every match that you play. Don’t worry about coming to practice in something other than your team clothes, it is not going to bother me. I’m just trying to create a team atmosphere. Please do not buy the T-shirts or sweatshirts that are available at the Missouri Bookstore. We do not receive any of the profits on them and they say "Missouri Racquetball", not "University of Missouri Racquetball". They sort of appear to represent the state and not the school. We have a state organization known as the Missouri Racquetball Association that we do not want to be confused with at tournaments in St. Louis. This year I promise we will have T-shirts and jackets, so hang on to your money. That bookstore is overpriced anyway. Anyone with ideas or suggestions for patterns, designs, or color for the clothes should get in touch with me. I plan to order everything around the second or third week of October, this way we should have everything by Thanksgiving Break at the latest.

Side note: If you still do not have last years clothing call me and make arrangements for me to give it to you.

Second side note: If for some reason you would just want t-shirts and no jacket, tell me about it. This way I will know not to order you a jacket. This will not decrease your dues, however.

Racquet Stringing: If anyone wants me to string their racquet for them, I will do it for $15

Equipment: First, talk to me before calling any of theses places. I can get you whatever you want at a better price. But if you can’t get a hold of me, make sure to get the latest mail order catalogs before you buy anything (i.e. racquets, gloves, eyeguards, bag, etc.). They sell for a lot less than you will find in stores. You can get a free catalog from the following companies:

Vincent Fitness Products: 1-800-241-1136 Pacific Sports Warehouse: 1-800-835-1055 Courtesy Sports: 1-800-729-1771 Court Sports: 1-800-352-1042 Still, you should come to me first.

Lessons/Instruction: If anyone needs additional help with particular parts of his or her game, please let me know. I will be able to help you with any facets of your game. I do not have a real flexible schedule, so if you want individual help away from practice, let me know and we will schedule something. Plus, feel free to ask me to help you at practice if I am not in the midst of a match.

Sponsorships: Everyone on the team is required to endorse and use any equipment and clothing that we may receive from sponsors, as long as it doesn’t directly affect your on-court performance. (This includes wearing patches and putting a company’s stencil on your strings.)

Donations: Every member of the team should be constantly looking for potential sponsors to provide us with equipment, clothing, or money. Any player that secures a sponsorship for the team will be given special consideration. Anyone who gets a donation of $200 or more for the team will be reimbursed for their dues. (Potential sources for a donation are your parents, alumni, parents’ businesses, past members of the team, friends of the family, area businesses, etc.) This year we will be assembling a phone listing of local companies. I will be forming a sub-committee to divide up the phone list and call local companies for sponsorships. Those on the sub-committee will not be reimbursed their dues; they just will not have to pay as much to go to Nationals.

Funding: All of the team’s money comes from the SOAC funding we get, membership dues, money we make from running a tournament, and from private donations. This season they did not reward us with as much as in the past. We still are the highest funded student organization on campus, so no one should whine about having to pay for part of Nationals. Most schools have always had to pay for all or most of their Nationals costs on their own. We are lucky.

Your positions on the team will be determined by me based partly on your challenge ladder results, your weekly playing, as well as your attendance and attitude. Your position on the ladder is not necessarily the position you will play at tournaments. The primary goal of the challenge ladder is to provide you with a weekly tournament situation type match.

Challenge Ladder Rules:

1. I will set your initial position on the ladder.
2. You will be required to play one match per week. (The ladder starts each Tuesday at practice and ends the following Tuesday at 8 p.m.)
3. Each week it will alternate between odds playing down and odds playing up.
4. The current ladder will be available each Tuesday at practice. You may play your match at any time during the week up until the following Tuesday meeting. At each Tuesday meeting I will make up that week’s ladder. If a challenge match from the week before hasn’t been played by then, it is too late and their positions will stay the same.
5. There will be two challenge ladders; one for the women and one for the men.
6. All matches will follow the current USRA rules. You may have another member of the team ref your match if so desired.
7. If you play your matches on a day we do not have practice or it is a practice I am unable to attend, please feel free to call me with your scores.

8. No one can play on the challenge ladder until they pay their dues. This includes dues that were not paid from last year. I may not have been president last year, but I know who owes money.