ODAC Student-Athlete Advisory Committee Meeting

Randolph College – November 18, 2007

 

Welcome:

The meeting was called to order around 10:50am. 

 

Commissioner Bankston welcomed all the participants.

 

Sara Rechnitzer asked the group to pair up with someone from another school and “interview” them.  Each member then introduced their partner to the group.

 

Rechnitzer distributed the conference directory while Bankston explained its purpose and answered any questions concerning the directory. 

 

Rechnitzer passed around the current roster and asked the participants to make any necessary changes. 

 

Old Business:

Rechnitzer went over the need for SAAC Constitutions and Bylaws and asked each participating school to send an electronic copy to the conference office so that it could be put up on the website.  Bankston explained why Bylaws are important:  they establish SAAC as an organization with a purpose.

 

Bankston briefly walked through the website with the participants and showed them where they could find up to date SAAC information on the NCAA website.

 

Bankston talked about the conference wide food drive.  He has been pleased with the fact that each year the number go up.  He set a goal for the conference to collect 20,000 cans in this year’s drive.

 

New Business:

Bankston mentioned that the ODAC has a National SAAC rep this year (Isaiah Goodman from W&L) and went over what his role would be and how to utilize him.

 

Bankston briefly went over new NCAA legislative proposals for the 2008 NCAA Convention.  There was some discussion among the participants concerning the issue of Male Practice players. 

 

Rechnitzer handed out an NCAA/ODAC IQ Quiz and then the answers were discussed after the participants took the quiz. 

 

Bankston talked about the Regional Leadership Conference that takes place in Dallas from January 26-28th.  Rechnitzer shared her experiences from attending the conference two years ago.  Some participants already knew they were going, others were excited to go talk about the opportunity with their ADs.

 

Role of SAAC on Campuses:

Following lunch, each school spoke for 3-4 minutes about what their SAAC is doing on campus, including events for athletes, fan events, community service events.

 

Most schools seemed to have functioning SAAC with lots of new ideas for the upcoming academic year.  The few schools that were rebuilding their SAAC programs were taking notes in order to return to campus with a plan. 

 

Many SAACs seemed to meet on a monthly basis. 

 

Some SAACs implied the need for more administrative support.  Many also implied that they had newly assigned SAAC Coordinators on campus that were excited to help them get things done.

 

Bankston and Rechnitzer both emphasized that SAACs should seek support from Student Government, as that sometimes proves to allot funds to the organization.

 

Guest Speaker – Dr. Joel Fish

 

Dr. Fish came to speak to the participants about sportsmanship.  He provided a definition of sportsmanship and allowed the participants to speak openly about their views on what is considered good sportsmanship and what is considered bad sportsmanship.  Many participants recounted their own first hand experiences in the conference.  Dr. Fish helped them to notice that there are many different views on the topic and some can tolerate more then others.  Post-talk evaluations were submitted with positive feedback to Dr. Fish’s talk.

 

Closing:

Bankston and Rechnitzer thanked everyone for coming to the meeting and made everyone aware that if their SAACs needed anything, our office would be more then willing to help out, answer any questions, or attend campus SAAC meetings.