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What are three aims of the UPA Strategic Plan that you personally would want to support? Also, name 2-3 aims of the Strategic Plan that you think should take a backseat to your most important parts. Why did you choose what you chose?

I found this to be a really tough question for me to answer. I think all the ideas for implementation that are listed in the UPA's Strategic Plan serve a beneficial purpose to at least one aspect of our sport, and I think that it is important that we tackle them all. However, deeply analyzing the strategy, I believe there are some of the issues we can put ahead of others.

The first aim of the UPA Strategic Plan that I am eager to see implemented is the strategy to make significant changes to the Championship Series. I think by addressing this issue first we can solidify the competitive base of our sport and increase the opportunities in which we showcase Ultimate.

One of the first tactic's that needs to be addressed is the re-drawing of the Club Series boundaries. This has been a hot topic here in the central region as travel scenarios are not always optimal for all interested teams. I'd like to propose the increase to eight regions just like in the college division. Along with the redrawing of the regions, I propose that we alter the bid allocation's and either give 2 bids per regions, or 1 bid per region and a strength bid to the previous year's quarter finalist regions. I think the size and growth bids are getting obsolete and don't provide any validity to our sport since we award competition opportunities based on recruitment.

I'd also like to focus on the tactic of implementing a Pre-Series for both the Club and College seasons, although probably only starting with one to test its effectiveness. I think the "Pre-Series" should be shaped like a regular season leading up to the Series, in order to provide teams more consistent and significant playing experiences. I think it's time the UPA gets more involved with the Ultimate tournaments themselves and provide more of a season for the player's UPA dues, than just 1-3 tournaments. This wouldn't be too difficult as the UPA could just provide a Regional Coordinator to preside over pre-existing tournaments. After establishing a regular season, then we could look at the possibility of adding a Division II Series. I think the Division II tactic could fall in perfectly with the implementation of the regular season, which could provide a standardized way of judging and dividing teams. There is a variety of ways in which we can go about implementing these ideas however, which is why it is very important for the upcoming board to come to an agreement on what they think would be the best way, and then actually get it done.

Another goal of the UPA Strategic Plan that I find a great value in addressing is the strategy of creating new membership opportunities and ways to interact with the UPA.

The one tactic the UPA has stated and I would like to help implement is the variety of membership levels that could be provided. I think a parent, retired player, and coach's level are all well-conceived ideas. However, if the UPA was to implement this notion, then the benefits one receives from being a member must be worth it. As I stated before, I think the best way to provide more for membership would be a regular season provided by the UPA. Along with that I think the UPA should put increased effort into the UPA Magazine as that should be the number one source of Ultimate news and information. An online edition and resource center should also be provided with the magazine to compensate for technological advances, so players can stay up-to-date on all the current news.

It's sad that the majority of us still rely on RSD to gather information, when it should be the UPA's duty to provide us with these amenities. I think the UPA should also continue efforts to revamp its own website and the score reporting tool to make rosters, waivers, and other necessities easier and more valuable. None of these things I'm suggesting are that difficult or expensive to implement; it will just take creative planning and initial setting up in order to be done right. It's time the UPA begins providing its members the resources and services they deserve.

The third goal of the UPA Strategic Plan that I strongly support is solidifying the UPA as the leader in Youth Ultimate. While Youth Ultimate begins to flourish in some parts of the country, others still need a lot of work. The UPA has begun work on many of the ideas that I would like to see come to life; however I don't believe they are as effective as they should be. Some of these ideas include increasing the number of academic articles about Youth Ultimate and our sport in general. I would then work hard to get them published in as many academic journals that will print them. A lot of administrators and teachers rely on these journals to stay up-to-date on current trends and issues. In an old edition of Parks and Recreation Magazine, I read an article about how to start Lacrosse leagues in a community. There is no reason why we can't have more articles like that. I would also like to solidify a youth Ultimate packet, one in which members could print off or order and then hand to PE teachers, Coaches, etc. The UPA has a few of these now, but I don't think any of them are effective as they should be yet. I think the key goal of a packet like this should be to make it informative yet easy to understand and to grasp the potential of Ultimate. I've had the experience of dealing with local PE coaches and having to explain everything about the sport myself with not much documentation to go on.

Along with this, I'd like to propose more studies, research, and survey's done among youth Ultimate. This would provide us with scientific data that can be presented to people who need more convincing before they implement an Ultimate program. Once we implement some creative ideas like these and more, then we can really focus on enhanced competitive opportunities and standard settings. For those already established Youth programs, I would like to see continuous effort to support and encourage them from the UPA by supporting and maybe providing more competitive opportunities for these programs and also encouraging parent's participation in the program.

Since the UPA cannot focus on all of these strategic tactics at once, it is true that some of these issues will have to be put on the backburner for awhile. One of these issues I believe that we can hold out on is the alignment with other organizations to facilitate international growth. I do believe that our sports growth around the world is important and beneficial to us all; however, I feel that that is something that can be put aside until we create a solid program here in America. Once the majority of players here are satisfied with the sport and the UPA, then we can afford to focus our efforts on international affairs. Along with the international growth, I also believe that we can wait on putting forth efforts to strengthen leagues. I believe that leagues are very beneficial to our sport and to their communities, but I feel this isn't a major task the UPA needs to handle. Every community has league sports that have no ties to any official or governing body, so why should Ultimate.

I know the UPA believes that by staying involved with leagues they can recruit more members as they say on their website that, "there are an estimated 800,000 people who play Ultimate in the US who are not UPA members." I feel that what the population needs out of a governing body for our sport is the competitive infrastructure. The UPA's focus should be with providing a competitive outlet for all those interested and upholding the rules and policies of our sport. Granted that more members will support the growth and recognition of the UPA and our sport, but I feel that this can also be accomplished with fewer members, but providing a more competitive outlet.