Dear USASF Coach and Owner Members:
We’re approaching the time of year that USASF posts an early release of the Cheer and Dance Rules and Age Grid and Membership Policies for the following season. We’re carefully watching how the current season’s Age Grid and Rules are helping our members as any new updates are considered. At the same time, the USASF Rules Committees are monitoring changes that other national and international cheer and dance rules organizations are making, and they’re weighing whether or not those changes would be in the best interest for USASF members to adopt. Likewise, the Membership Team is reviewing the member policies and guidelines of other youth sports National Governing Bodies to ensure we are fully supporting our Athletes 1st initiative, aligning with best practices and being compliant with the law.
Additionally, every two years is a cheer rules change year (as is 2019-2020) which makes for a much more involved process of reviewing two years of submissions and feedback from our members. The USASF Cheer Rules Committee has been meeting and working for months on the rules and age grid and we are excited to share with the membership the updates for the 2019-2020 season which continue to encourage athlete safety, longevity and growth.
Here is the timeline for communication of all of the above:
Next week: The Membership Team will host and record a webinar on February 5 at 12pm Eastern to review updates to the Professional Responsibility Code for the 2019-2020 season. The recording will be available for members who were unable to attend live, and supporting documents will be posted in The Connection. Click here to register. Not sure you can make it? Register anyway and we’ll send you the recorded session.
Later in February: The Cheer and Dance Rules Teams will host and record webinars outlining updates for the 2019-2020 season. The recordings will be available for members who were unable to attend live, and supporting documents will be posted on the rules website and in The Connection on Thursday.
Please attend the webinars if at all possible so that you can ask questions during the discussions as time permits. The webinars will also give you a first glimpse at Membership Policies, Rules and Age Grids before the documents are posted. We hope the webinars will help with interpretation, understanding and clarity.
If you can’t attend live, you’ll have access to the recordings, followed by the documents posted on our websites. We look forward to connecting with you in February!