UOA News revised 7/31/07
| 7/31/07:
It has been nearly two years since we last updated this news page. That was
after having promised regular updates in the very last entry we made in
August of 2005. So much for good intentions. All I can say is that we'll try
to do better going forward. We do, indeed, have news to speak about in this space. As probably almost everyone knows by now, we were not able to reach mutually satisfactory contract terms with the Forsyth County Youth Football Association for 2007. As a consequence, UOA will not be calling football for FCYFA this year. This has placed several of our members in an awkward position. These members generally live in the Forsyth County area and prefer to call ball at parks close to their homes. That is perfectly understandable in the era of $3.00/gallon gasoline. While we want all our members to continue to call with UOA if at all possible, we also recognize that this may not be practical for many of our members who were calling with UOA based upon their expectation that UOA would once again have the contract for FCYFA in 2007. If these members choose to leave UOA in order to stay within their geographic base, we will simply wish them well and go about our business. We feel much the same about FCYFA, as well. That is FCYFA has made a decision to not contract with UOA based upon what they feel is in the best interests of their association. Such business decisions are part of the mix in running any youth football program. Each program must balance a number of competing interests in order to operate as best they feel they can. FCYFA has made its decision in this case; all we can do is wish them well. As a vital part of the delivery system for youth football in the greater Atlanta area, UOA's role is to support all well-intentioned youth football programs whether we call ball for them or not. We know that FCYFA is just such a program. Though we'll miss calling games for them this year, we hope that they will find their decision suits their needs and that they experience another successful year in their fast-growing association. Meanwhile, our long-standing relationship with the Georgia Youth Football Conference remains intact. We'll be doing both D1 and Metro ball for GYFC just as in years past. We're particularly encouraged by the growth GYFC is seeing in its Metro program. This is a good sign for both GYFC and for youth ball in general. At the 7/29/07 general membership meeting we voted on the newly-revised set of UOA by-laws that the ad hoc committee of Joe Rice, Frank Reed and Theatis Anderson developed over the March-July time frame. In the end, the vote to accept the revised by-laws (July 29 2007 version) was unanimous. In the end, not too much actually changed. We fixed some obvious gaps in coverage of real-life opportunities for the association, particularly in the use of electronic tools and communications. We also fixed several minor contradictions between elements of the Constitution and By-Laws while consolidating these two important documents into one physical whole. To make the document more readable, we added an entirely new Definitions section. And we added various new powers for the board which will allow it to operate with greater flexibility - but without significantly reducing oversight by the membership as a whole. In short, this looks like it will turn out to be just what we wanted, a modernized version of our internal rules of operation that will enhance our ability to deliver top-flight service to all youth football programs for whom we provide service. Also at the 7/29/07 meeting, we voted in the annual Christmas party. Detail plans are not available as of this writing; but based upon the success of the 2006 party, we hope to have a similar set-up as 2006. Though Stone Mountain has not yet been engaged, all agreed that the setting we had last year was a good one and that is contributed in a very positive fashion to the good time had by all last year.
|