What Badger Region Controls

What the Badger Region controls

• Price of a Badger Region Membership which goes toward programming opportunities, coaching clinics, officials education, administration, grants and other opportunities in the state of Wisconsin
• Cost of Badger Region-hosted tournaments such as the Badger Region Power League, Championships, Qualifier and Dale Rohde Memorial
• Policies that affect club volleyball — Badger Region has an active board of directors that takes its fiduciary duty seriously. There are at least four board meetings a year where members discuss needed or requested policy changes to further the mission and the sport in Wisconsin. The board handles policy, and the staff handles operations. 
• Schedule of our Region-hosted tournaments (to an extent) — we must balanced our desired schedule against conflicting events such as national qualifiers, available facilities, holidays and other conflicting sporting events.
• Opportunities to communicate with our members and fans of Badger Region — we want to highlight your stories, your results and your community in our social media channels, website and Badger Beacon newsletter.
• Our customer service to you — we work hard to provide timely and accurate responses to legitimate e-mails, phones calls and social media messages directed toward Badger Region.
• Ref-training for junior work crews — the Region requires clubs to hire a clinician to train their coaches and athletes to be competent work crews (line judges, scorers, R2s, etc.). Or they run their own clinic or require families to watch online modules. The Region WILL NOT withhold playing time if any athlete fails to watch modules or attend a clinic. Only the club will be put on probation if its junior ref training requirements are not met.

What the Badger Region does not (or cannot) control

• Club dues –– the only money you pay directly to the Badger Region is for membership. The Badger Region does not cover the cost of your practice time, uniforms, travel costs or coaches salary. These are all club-based decisions.
• Your club’s tournament schedule — while we encourage clubs to attend all of our Badger Region-hosted events, it is the decision of the club to attend the tournaments it feels are best suited for its athletes and coaches.
• Determine the price of club-hosted tournaments or the spectator entry fees at events outside of Badger Region-hosted events.
• Tournament formats or policies at events that are not approved by Badger Region. This also means that events run outside of Badger Region do not have to adhere to the same child protection standards or spectator standards as Badger Region events. It is the responsibility of the club and individuals to understand when they are going to an event that is not approved by the region, and to determine what their formats, policies and child protection standards are, if any.
• Any ranking systems that are operated by third-parties including AES Rankings, USAV rankings, Prep Dig rankings, PrepVolleyball rankings, etc.
• High school eligibility rules or schedules — in Wisconsin, all education-based athletic policies are governed by the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (not the Badger Region)
• Third party software programs — while Badger Region requires Sports Engine for membership and AES, SportWrench and other software for tournament administration, the Region does not have power to control most of the look and feel of these third-party sites
• Club staff — All coaches must be certified through USA Volleyball with a baseline coaching education curriculum, a yearly background screen and SafeSport training. All other coaching decisions (personnel and philosophies are set by the clubs)
• The cost or time of a background screening — the Region cannot control how long it takes to process a background screening for coaches or administrators. The Region makes $0 on each background screen.
• What is required by your club — Does your club require adherence to a parent handbook, 24-hour rules, playing time philosophies, etc? These are set by the club, not the Region. Each club can set its own policies for its athletes, parents and coaches that go above and beyond the requirements set in the Badger Region membership purchase agreement.
• When and where a club holds tryouts — While the Region sets the “start” date of tryouts, it must be noted that it cannot tell a club what time or what location it can use for its club tryouts. The Region encourages clubs in the same geographic area to work together to not overlap when it comes to tryout times.
• Insurance claims for injuries — we submit all incident reports (when filed in a timely manner) to our insurance company for processing, but we do not control if a claim is granted, the amount of the claim or the process by which a claim is granted or denied. The Region does not file claims for injuries that are not at Badger Region approved events. It is the responsibility of the club and individuals to understand when they are going to an event that is not approved by the region, and to determine what their insurance and injury policies are, if any.
• USA Volleyball policies, the policies of other regions, or the policies of other regional or national event directors – While Badger Region is under the umbrella of USA Volleyball, and the Region has a voice in the discussion of USA Volleyball policy, their policiy is ultimately decided by the USA Volleyball Board of Directors, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee or the United States Congress, as in the instance of the U.S. Center for SafeSport. By the same measure, each of the 39 other regions have their own boards of directors to determine their policies and operations. Tournaments approved by USA Volleyball or other regions fall under those same governing bodies for policy and operations.