It's been another successful season for the Carolina Region. As I write this, we are preparing for the Adult Regional Championships and the April 8 Gold/Silver Regional Championships in all Junior age groups. The seasons seem to go by quicker and quicker each year. We'll have a full wrap-up of 2005/2006 award winners and Regional Champions in the next newsletter.
2006 marks the 25th year of operation for the Carolina Region. We had an 25th Anniversary logo designed that we are utilizing on our website, Regional t-shirts, and awards. We have also ordered static cling window stickers for distribution to our members. We're giving them out to teams at several of the tournaments. If you haven't received one after the April 8 tournaments, contact the Region Office and we'll get you one. We've had tremendous growth during those 25 years with many changes. We look forward to seeing what the next 25 years look like and we thank you for your continued support of North Carolina Volleyball!
Our junior members led the way again as our membership count continued to grow. We are currently at 4333 total members (1300 Adult and 3033 Juniors). We had 28 Men's teams, 30 Women's teams, 4 Junior boys teams, and 311 Junior girls teams. We'll be sanctioning some outdoor events this summer so our totals should continue to rise. The online registration system seemed to work well this season, and it should improve as members get used to it. USA Volleyball is continuing to upgrade it and improve it, so we look forward to many more capabilities in the near future (Event registrations for one).
The Board will have two important meetings coming up - the Annual Meeting on April 30 and the Board Retreat during the August 11-13 weekend. Our season ending surveys will be posted and distributed shortly. We invite everyone to give us your feedback as we begin planning for the future. Formats and Sportsmanship concerns are just two of the major issues that I see the board addressing this summer. We need your responses in order to best meet your needs while preserving the integrity of the sport in North Carolina. I've been disappointed with some of the reports back on behavior by spectators and coaches at Junior events. It's an issue that many regions and sports are having to address at this time (unfortunately). Look for big changes/announcements on this front next season. Leading into these meetings, send your ideas and suggestions about anything at all concerning volleyball in the Carolina Region to the Region office and I'll pass them along. Click on the links at the left for more information on the Annual meeting. We always need volunteers willing to help promote this sport in the state. The time commitment is minimal and we hope the rewards are many. Contact our Commissioner if you're interested in volunteering for the Board or one of the new Division Advisory Boards.
A preliminary 2006 Outdoor schedule has now been posted to the website. More dates will be added as tournament directors send in their information. I'll begin work on the 2006 Summer Camp listing for juniors shortly.
My main project for the summer will be improving the Region's website. The goal is to make more information accessible from the main page (drop down menus, etc). We hope you will like our new look heading into next season!
Thanks, as always, for your support.
| "The Official Ball of the Carolina Region" |