Kathy DeBoer, Executive Director of our partner AVCA, visited our offices in Milwaukee last month. I asked Kathy to share her thoughts on where JVA was in 2006 and where we are now.

It is interesting reflecting on the transition from “renegade” to “respect”. Much of our time in JVA’s early years was trying to get out the message of what we are and what we do, rather than what we were against. I can’t agree with Kathy more that the junior volleyball world needs a voice for junior club directors and their programs. JVA wants to be the place where club directors of all affiliations can sit down at the table together and work on policies, programs and resources that will help us do a better job every season of giving our members the best program possible. We can band together to work with our national associations, AAU and USAV, to provide better services for our clubs.

There are still times when the message gets muddled but for the most part it is full steam ahead. It is our hope that you, as our membership, try to help get the message out that JVA is truly “Juniors for Juniors”.

Summer in the JVA office was jam packed with preparations for the season about to begin. You will see some significant changes.

New Website
Briana Schunzel, JVA Marketing Coordinator, spent most of her summer working with Flip11 to bring to you our new webpage. It is beautiful, inviting, AND best of all – mobile friendly. Please browse the site, both on your mobile device and your computer. We want to hear from you. Were you able to easily log in to view all your resource? Can you find what you need? Were you able to navigate through it easily?

Background Screening
We are now working with NCSI, National Center for Safety Initiatives, for our background screens. NCSI is providing us with a $20/screen rate that is good for two years and will provide an automatic re-screen the 2nd year. This will save coaches $2/year and the hassle of applying for a re-screen every year. Because the screen includes a county search in addition to state and national databases, in some cases the process make take a few days longer. We feel strongly this a better product for our clubs.

Member Development and JVA Program Assistant
Lisa Pierce, recently engaged and a new homeowner, will be working 4 days a week out of her new home in Darien, IL, and 1 day a week in the JVA office. Lisa will be focusing most of her efforts on building JVA membership. We are in the process of accepting applications for a Program Assistant to work in the office, helping with member services on a daily basis.

Insurance
We will now be handling insurance applications in-house. You will apply much the same way you have in the past. However, you will pay directly online, rather than wait for an invoice, which should speed things up. The JVA Program Assistant will be handling questions and insurance processing issues.

JVA Sponsor Program
We had a great World Challenge last year in Louisville, so we will again be able to give back $200,000.00 to our member clubs. We hope you will join us at the AVCA Convention and NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championships in Omaha. Don’t forget your JVA membership provides you with a convention registration discount. JVA will share space with Rox Volleyball again so stop by and say “hi” to our staff. I’m sure Jinx will be around as well. AVCA and JVA have some great sessions planned and you will hear more updates at our Annual Meeting on December 19th.