President’s Note
Hello everyone! It is my pleasure to offer you the January 2012 edition of the EUPA newsletter. The intent behind a monthly update is to keep you informed on current news and events in Ultimate and allow volunteer members to share with you some of the exciting projects they are working on for the association.
Since their fall election, the EUPA board has met several times. Thanks to the almost 250 of you who filled out the membership survey, we were able to gain a better understanding of what’s important to you as a player. Luckily, our board members share many of those same ideals. I couldn’t begin to summarize all the enthusiasm and ideas that have poured out during those board meetings, but I can assure you that progressive change is planned for almost every area of EUPA. Hopefully, by sharing our successes and challenges with you, you’ll feel more engaged than ever, and help us reach our lofty goals through input (both online and in person with EUPA reps), as well as through volunteering in the association.
On that note, let’s get on with the updates!
Summer League (Brett Stefura & Ray Hjelmeland summer@eupa.ca)
It’s our biggest league and we can definitely confirm that it’s happening in 2012! We were happy to hear from the surveys that, overall, you’re happy with summer league. Coordinators Brett and Ray are already working on incorporating some of your feedback from the survey to continuously improve, including tweaking tier rankings. They’ve also heard you loud and clear on fields! One of the common comments in our recent survey was the desire to have our fields more centralized within the city. Rest assured that organizers are actively pursuing all avenues. We also formed a committee to rewrite the criteria for player self-assessment (Stanine!) Look to see a new format coming soon!
Hat Leagues (Alain Chicoine al-c@eupa.ca)
This year, EUPA has created a new position to oversee all hat leagues (Women’s Ultimate, League of Extraordinary Ultimate, Fall League and Winter League). Posted below are the current standings for Winter League. In case you’re wondering, registration for LOEU and Women’s Ultimate is planned for April 1st, so you’ll hear more about that in the coming newsletters.
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Thursday Standings
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(as of January 22, 2012)
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Team
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Games Played
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Points
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W
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L
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T
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+/-
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Avg. Spirit Score
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Received
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Yellow
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11
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18
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9
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2
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0
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41
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8.0
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Orange
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11
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15
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7
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3
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1
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21
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8.4
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Pink
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11
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15
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6
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2
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3
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26
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8.2
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Green
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11
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11
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4
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4
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3
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1
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8.0
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Red
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11
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10
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5
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6
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0
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-12
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8.0
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Black
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11
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9
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4
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6
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1
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-3
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8.2
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Blue
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11
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8
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4
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7
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0
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-1
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8.1
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White
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11
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2
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1
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10
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0
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-55
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8.4
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Juniors (Chris Reid and Tasha Caron juniors@eupa.ca)
Two of our dedicated members, Chris Reid and Tasha
Caron are working hard at establishing a legitimate and fun filled juniors
program this year. They have conducted two clinics at the request of the
William Lutsky YMCA and are working with them to establish a schedule for
sessions in their summer camps this year. They are also in contact with
schools across the city that are interested in using the EUPA to teach some
phys ed classes. Finally, they will be establishing a juniors hat league that
will run alongside LOEU and Women's League. In order to make all of this
happen, we need the help of volunteers. If you can help with anything from
folding brochures, to helping at summer camps, to coaching a summer league
team, please email juniors@eupa.ca.
Coaching Certification
Some exciting news to come out of Ultimate Canada: Having recently
completed the development of a Community Stream Coaching Course for the sport
of Ultimate, our national parent organization has now trained their first batch
of Master Learning Facilitators. EUPA
will be sending a member to Victoria in February to be trained by as a Learning
Facilitator. This person will then be
able to deliver the coaching course in Edmonton to interested people (We're
looking at you leaders and captains!). It
will be an incredible boost to our player development and we'll be proving more
details as they become available.
The EUPA is going to form a social committee to organize various events
throughout the year. If you are interested in joining the social committee
please email sarah-m@eupa.ca.
Thank you to all who participated in the survey, we
now have a better idea of our demographic and what our membership would like
out of sponsorship partners. We are working on a new sponsorship format and
will be able to approach potential sponsors with more information for a more
mutually beneficial relationship. The year-end party is being relocated this year and
a new format introduced. Stay tuned for more details to follow in the future.
Mark your calendars for this summer's big events!
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Our first annual EUPA Cups Tournament is looking
like a real possibility and is sure to be a ton of fun! It will be held
on Father's Day weekend (June 16) so bring your fathers out for some beer
drinking action. Check the website regularly for developing details.
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Stubble Jumpers was a huge success on its new date
last year, so we will be holding it on the same weekend this year (July 14-15).
Even if you cannot play, be sure not to miss the party! Those that attended the
party last year can attest to its epic awesomeness with beer pong, cups, an
endless supply of meat, and wicked beats.
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Prefall Brawl will again be held on September long
weekend and we are back home at the Druids' Rugby Club, with much cheering and
sighs of relief from last year's organizers!
If you are super strong, great at pouring drinks,
or want to get in the good books, email tasha-c@eupa.ca and she will put you on the Superstar Volunteer list.
Competitive Ultimate (Graham Troughton: graham-t@eupa.ca)
In February we will be releasing a revised Touring Team Funding
Agreement. If you are on any teams based in Edmonton that go out to the
tournaments in the prairies and interior BC, and you care about how your league
is run, want to see ultimate grow, and don't mind helping out, this might
interest to you. Opportunities to help the EUPA exist throughout the summer and
participation will be a key part of the new agreement.
Website
I think we can all agree that the website needs an overhaul. In fact, many
of the comments we received from the survey ultimately related to ease of use
and functionality on our website. We have recently contacted a company used by
several other leagues across Canada and will be testing their product over the
next three months. We want to be sure it meets as many of our needs as
possible, so please be patient with us as we establish the right web solution
for EUPA.
Sponsorship
The EUPA is excited to announce that VC Ultimate will be our
league's exclusive apparel partner for this year! As part of VC's sponsorship,
they will be providing our league with:
- Support for league merchandise
- Gifts for our amazing volunteers
- VC Green Program support for recycling
efforts (http://www.vcultimate.com/pages/green_program)
- A free gift for the captain of every
team
- 20% discount on youth teams associated
with our league
- 10% discount for any club touring
teams associated with our league
- An Early Bird Special on any team
uniforms league teams purchase (10% off base jersey and shorts prices)
Please
check out our friends at VC at www.vcultimate.com and on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/VC-Ultimate/131225375740.
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inquiries on VC's partnership programs, contact Michelle Ng at michelle@vcultimate.com
- For
all team order and other inquiries, email info@vcultimate.com
- Stay
tuned for information on VC's Early Bird Special, offered exclusively to teams
playing in partner leagues, on all orders placed before April 15th,
2012.
Design Contest
Don't
forget that we're currently looking for a logo to represent EUPA! This call is
NOT in relation to the annual call for swag designs, although the design
selected this year will be featured on 2012 swag as a way of launching the new
logo.
The
logo will be used in all branding of EUPA, including web pages, print material
(letterhead and business cards), apparel and promotional item. We are calling
for quality vector based logo designs
that are re-sizeable in both full colour and black & white.
Each
person may submit up to 5 unique designs. If a designer chooses to submit a
paired design in which one thumbnail features EUPA typeface and the other does
not, that will be counted as one design. The deadline for submission of all
logo designs is Jan 31, 2012.
Relying on the good nature of our membership and those who love Ultimate, we
are offering $250 to a winning
design, to be selected by our Board of Directors during the month of February.
Questions
and submissions should be emailed to Robyn Auld at president@eupa.ca.
Rule of the Newsletter
This is our first regular feature brought to you by the newly formed
Rules and Spirit Committee! To start
things off, they've chosen a general approach to Spirit of the Game: The golden rule: treat others as you would want to be treated.
Spirited games result from mutual respect among opponents. Assume the
best of your opponent. Give him or her benefit of a doubt. You would want the
same for yourself. But if you are thick-skinned, do not assume that your
opponent is. Maybe you should think of this rule as, "treat others as you
would have them treat your mother."'
- From USA Ultimate http://www.usaultimate.org/about/ultimate/spirit_of_the_game.aspx