#########

Texas Acro Minutes

2008

Return to top.

Texas Acrobatic Gymnastics State Meeting
September 27, 2008, 1:30 p.m.
Brown’s Gymnastics, San Antonio, Texas

I.Members Present:
Brandi Lewis, Vladimir Vladev, Ashley Eubanks, Radostina Lackova, Kylie McDonald, Ivan Ivanov, Lorna Spellman, Michelle Merwarth, Jennifer Banowsky.

II.Financial Report: Presented by Lorna Spellman

III.New Officers: 2 year term (2008-2010)

IV.Upcoming events and clinics:

V.Meet Schedule for 2009:

Motion to approve meet schedule – Motioned by MM, Seconded by JB. Vote passed unanimously.

VI.Regional Updates:

VII.Amendments

Adjourned meeting at 3:30 p.m.

2007

Return to top.

Texas Acrobatic Gymnastics Association

Sept. 29, 2007 State Meeting
Boerne Gymnastics Center

Present: State Director: Alex Douglas, Treasurer: Lorna Spellman, Secretary: Chris Westra, Members: Rumen Lachkov, Radostina Lachkova, Ivan Ivanov, Vladimir Vladev and Tony Lopez. Clubs represented: ASA, BGC, GOSA, Brown’s, USAAA & TSR.

Discussion : Should we keep the IRS non-profit status for Texas Acrobatic Gymnastics Association and its state affiliation current or dissolve it. Pros and cons of each were discussed.

Motion was made by Lorna Spellman to keep Texas Acrobatic Gymnastics Association alive and well as a non profit organization.

2nd by Chris Westra

PASSED – unanimous

Alex Douglas is at the end of his three year term as director and is not interested in re-running for the position. He is willing to keep maintaining the web site as webmaster until a new person can be trained. He asked for more input from the clubs with any and all information to keep the website new and fresh.

Nominations for State Director
Chris Westra nominated Lorna Spellman for director.
2nd by Tony Lopez

Rumen Lachkov nominated Vladimir Vladev
2nd by Lorna Spellman
Vote: For Unanimous for Lorna Spellman
Lorna Spellman is the state director for a three year term.

Nominations for State Treasurer
Lorna Spellman nominated Radostina Latchkova
2nd by Chris Westra
Vote: For Unanimous
Radostina Lachkova is the new state treasurer pro tempore for the remainder of the term one year.

Secretary will stay the same Chris Westra

A discussion was made to do we want to have a three or four local meet season the pros and cons was discussed on both. A four local meet schedule was agreed on. It was understood that clubs still only need to attend 2 locals for their qualifying scores. Therefore it is expected that the meets will be smaller and faster, since not every club will attend every meet. The provision is made with the additional two meets for extra experience, or reattempts to obtain qualifying scores.

2008 Calendar

Lorna Spellman advised us that the State fee of $50.00 for Region 3 has not been paid as she was unsure of where to send the check. The question came up as to what is the Region 3 money is being used for? Can this money be used to help athletes with international travel as is done in other regions? Texas did have athletes compete internationally this past season. The next question was does Region 3 have a set of bylaws available? These questions need to be asked at the Region 3 meeting?

2006

Return to top.

November 18, 2006

Article II.1.a – add: One voting member shall be allowed per participating club. The club must be current in their Texas Acro membership fee of $25.

Article II.1.b – add: Any athlete member must have a USAG Acro number

Article III.3.4 – change to: Two out of three board members must be present to create a quorum along with a simple majority of clubs represented.

Article IV.4.3.c. – add: The secretary will also keep the webmaster informed with current information for the Texas Acro Website so that the acrobatic community can be kept abreast of all relevant information in a timely manner.

Article V – change the word “newsletter” to “website”

All the above changes were moved on, seconded, and unanimously accepted for change by the voting members present.

Director, Alex Douglas

Secretary, Chris Westra

Treasurer, Lorna Spellman

March 3, 1st local in Houston as part of the Houston National Invitational

March 31, 2nd local in Plano hosted by WOGA

April 21, 3rd local in San Antonio hosted by Brown’s

May 20, State Meet in Boerne hosted by BGC

June 23, Regional Championships in Crosby, TX hosted by Texas Sports Ranch


These minutes respectfully submitted on November 19, by Jennifer Banowsky.

2005

Return to top.

2005 Texas Acro Meeting at GAT

The annual meeting of Texas Acrobatic coaches was held at the 2005 GAT Convention in the Renaissance Hotel in Austin on the weekend of September 3rd and 4th. The meeting was held as per the agreement of the 2004 suggestion to show our selves to the Texas gymnastics coaches.

Through Alex Douglas' reaching out to Group Gymnastics clubs in Texas by his attending the GG Nationals which were held in Dallas area June 10th-12th. Jodie Trnck of Byron's Gymnastics had asked Anna Smirnova to lecture at the GAT convention. Anna declined and referred her to Alex instead. So when he met her at the GG Nationals, she invited to speak on behalf of Acrobatic Gymnastics in Texas. Consequently, the goal of exposing the Texas gymnastics community to Acrobatic Gymnastics occurred because of the two lectures that Alex gave.

However, the 2006 schedule was not completed because of the early date and the absence of Brown's Gymnastics. The meeting was held at 11 AM in the San Saba room on Sunday, September 4th. In attendance of the meeting was Alex Douglas (State Director) from Trevino's Gymnastic School, Lancaster; Brandi Lewis from Highland ParK High School, Dallas; Chris Westra (Secretary), Anna Smirnova and Dave Rogers from Texas Sports Ranch, Baytown; Lorna Spellman (Treasurer), Rumen Latchkov and Radostina Latchkova from Boerne Gymnastics Center, Boerne; and Vladimir Vladev from Gymnastics of San Antonio, SA.

The first order of business was to review progress from last year.

1) Texas Acro has been officially recognized by the Texas government in Austin as an Association.

2) Texas Acro has been given a non profit status by the IRS for the promotion of acrobatics in Texas. This status, however, is not for contributions to send athletes to international competitions. That requires a different tax number. However, all money contributed to TAGA intended to promote the sport - athlete clinics, judges clinics, exhibitions, etc. can be given a tax deductible receipt.

3) The bank account has been established and a report from the Treasurer was given.

4) The IRS requested that we set up a website. The original domain from freewebs was abandoned when it went offline for a week. An original domain name and website was purchased . The new website is www.txacro.org.

5) Group Gymnastics clubs were contacted as Alex had recommended in 2004.

The suggestion was made by Alex to host an athlete clinic/party in the beginning of the season to correct skills and get the new kids familiar with one another. Dave Rogers volunteered Texas Sports Ranch as a host site. A tentative date of Saturday, February 4th was set. Confirmation will be made later when he determines operation costs and fees.

Likewise, a Judges Clinic was suggested. Alex suggested using Brown's Gymnastics if they are willing. The Judges Clinic has been held at Trevinos, then the last two years at Boerne Gymnastics, so rotating to another club seemed appropriate. The tentative date of February 18th was suggested. Confirmation with Brown's Gymnastic and further knowledge on the whereabouts of Linda Ocmand put the suggestion on hold. If Linda, as a clinician is not possible, then Jola Jones would have to be contacted.

A favorable response was made by the Group Gymnastics coaches in their interest in learning acrobatic gymnastics to use in the Show Teams, it was also agreed that another clinic would be held for them. GG coaches later suggested early January before their season begins. No date was set at the meeting, perhaps invitations could be extended to the GG coaches to attend the clinic at TSR.

The calendar did not get set. Rumen pointed out that the State Meet needs tobe late enough to hold onto the families that would otherwise quit when it is over. Possible dates suggested for competition given were:

A late March 25th Invitational by TAT. No other invitational meet dates were given.

Perhaps the State Meet May 20th, but no host was nominated. It was agreed that Memorial Day weekend of the 28th was a bad time.

Perhaps the Regionals would be about June 17th, but with Hurricane Katrina having destroyed much of LA acro, no further discussion could be made.

The invitational meet was a point of some discussion. Alex expressed his view of management. It is more effecient to allow local control than rely too much on top down management. Meet directors should have the job of assigning the judge's panel, then give that assignment to R3 Judges Coordinator for review in case there is some other matter to address. Management works best with delegation. The National office delegates to the Regional boards, and the Regional boards delegates to the State and local personnel. The local and state should send to the regional board the decisions for review, just as the regional board should send it to the national board for review as relevant.

Invitational meets should have flexibility and freedom. If a judges panel is approved regionally, the local meet director can invite whom ever, although none should be kept out. Texas is large. To keep costs down, clubs should be able to choose which meets they attend. If the two local requirements can be satisfied in San Antonio, for example, then they need not come to Dallas. The only requirement is that if qualifying scores are obtained in USAG sanctioned meets according to the rules with a regionally approved judges panel, they have to attend the State, Regional and National meets as the rules state.

Since it was too early to set the calendar, it was agreed to hold another meeting October 8th at Texas Sports Ranch in Baytown during the Freedom Cup team selections.

Since exposure to the Texas gymnastics community was accomplished by Alex conducting the workshop and JO lecture, it was agreed that the 2006 meeting would not be held at GAT, but that we would look into establishing some kind of vendor's booth and another speaking engagement, if they offer it again.

2004

Return to top.

Saturday, October 23rd, 2004

The 2004 meeting was held at Boerne Gymnastics Center at 1 PM. In attendance were:

TAT Alex Douglas,
BGC Lorna Spellman, Rumen Lachkov, Radostina Lachkova
TSR Anna Smirnova, Dave Rogers, Chris Westra
AF Valere Binet, Sarah T Binet
GOSA Vladimir Vladev, Ty Hair

The following comments were made upon the meeting's agenda.

1. Review TX expense & income
Due to no bank account, funds have not been deposited. At the 2002 R3 meeting, the agreement was made for each Texas meet host to pay $1 per athlete for a Texas fund.

In 2003, these funds should have been paid:

1st Local TSR April 12, 2003 41 athletes $41 (TSR, AF, BGC, TAT & LAT)
2nd Local AF April 26, 200325 athletes $25 (AF, TSR, BGC, & TAT)
3rd Make Up TAT May 10, 2003 8 athletes $ 8 (TSR & TAT)
State Meet TAT May 24, 2003 32 athletes $32 (TAT, AF, TSR, BGC, NOAT)
   $106

In 2004, these funds should have been paid:

1st Local TSR April 3, 2004 38 athletes $38 (TSR, TAT, AF, BGC, & GOSA)
2nd Local TAT April 17, 2004 40 athletes $40 (TAT, NOAT, TSR,, & GOSA)
3rd Local BGC May 1, 2004 51 athletes $51 (BGC, TSR, AF, GOSA, & TAT)
State Meet TAT May 22, 2004 55 athletes $55 (TAT, NOAT, TSR, AF, BGC, & GOSA)
   $184

Alex has agreed to pay the filing fees of $200 to Austin for the Articles of Association, and $150 to the IRS for the 501 (c) tax exemption. He would be reimbursed by the host clubs paying these past fees with the exception of AF since they are no longer associated with Alamo Gymnastics. Collection of these fees will be renewed after we gain our IRS letter of determination. No membership dues will be included in the by-laws at this time.

2. Review Articles of Association and sign
The Articles of Association was reviewed. It was agreed that Chris Westra from TSR should be the Secretary instead of Anna Smirnova since english is Anna's second language. Otherwise the Articles were approved, but not signed since the Secretary change had to be made and an additional line for his signature had to be added.

3. Review TAGA Bylaws for any needed changes

The bylaws were reviewed.

It was pointed out by Ty Hair that potential purpose of the association has to be spelled out in the bylaws in case of an IRS audit. Therefore another line under Article I was added to include funding Texas acro athletes going to international meets, even if it is never done.

Dave Rogers suggested adding a 1 vote per club clause to Article II, (a) Voting Member description. Ty Hair further added that the board still gets 1 vote each in addition to each club, which meant 2 votes for clubs with the board members.

Dave pointed out the need to specify Article III board of directors qualifications must include Pro Membership in USAG Acro.

General discussion revolved around what is needed for a quorum under Article III, 3.4. It was decided that all board members and a simple majority of clubs represented would make a quorum.

The rest of the Bylaws was approved pending the above mentioned changes.

4. Form 8718 fee for exempt determination
The form was reviewed.

5. Employer ID Number
The ID number was recognized.

6. Form 1024 application for 501 (c) exemption
The IRS form was reviewed, page 3 needed changing since Chris Westra was voted as the Secretary.

7. TAGA website www.freewebs.com/txacro
The group was informed of the website being created, although it currently only has a holding page pending construction.

8. Vote on nominees for board
A vote was taken and uninamous vote was made for Alex Douglas to be the State Director, Lorna Spellman to be the Treasurer, and Chris Westra to be the Secretary.

9. Review info from 2003 meeting
The minutes from the 2003 meeting was overlooked.

10. Create competition calendar for 2005 - state meet in Boerne
Sarah Binet to the floor to direct the 2005 calendar.

She noted that January 15 was the Superclinic for Judges. Therefore we could not have a Judge's clinic until afterwards. It was agreed that Boerne Gymnastics would host the Judge's Clinic sometime in February pending Linda Ocmand's schedule.

After general discussion it was agreed that the 2005 Competition Calendar would be on these dates:

New Material

After general discussion it was decided that we needed to be involved more with GAT. Lorna suggested we join the rest of Texas in holding our 2006 meeting with GAT in September on Labor Day. It was agreed we need to petition conducting a coach's clinic in acro and provide a demonstration. It was also agreed that contacting Group Gymnastics in Texas was probable route of encouraging acro growth in Texas with clinics. Alex was given the task of contacting GAT to make these future arrangements. He was also asked to check on the cost of a room to hold a seminar at GAT.

The Meeting was adjourned with the next meeting being the Region 3 meeting at Texas Sports Ranch in Houston at 2 PM.

Return to top.