3 days left for summer

Only three more days to register for Summer Leagues. Registration closes May 17. You may not make it in, so register right now!

grada.leagueapps.com

GRADA Insurance Fee Explanation

There have been several questions since GRADA instituted a separate Insurnace Fee last year. We understand frustration with the requirement to pay $20 for insurance for GRADA leagues and hope that an explanation will help to reduce confusion (although it won’t do anything to reduce the $20 pain).

GRADA has a requirement to buy insurance…this is not an optional cost. The required insurance is not to cover individual players, it is LIABILITY insurance to cover the field providers. ALL field providers (Monroe County, Town of Gates, Town of Brighton, various indoor facilities, RIT, …) require us to provide a proof of liability insurance coverage in order to grant us access to rent their fields. In prior years, only the Towns and private field providers actually asked us for proof of coverage, which we provided for the leagues playing on those fields. Monroe County, which provides the fields at Crittenden Rd., Genesee Valley Park, and our summer league fields at Ellison Park, may have always had this requirement but only recently started enforcing it. Since summer league is our biggest population, this change had a significant financial impact.

The GRADA board explored several options for acquiring insurance, including per team policies and per player policies. We looked at different sources, including our current provider (Salder Insurance) and USA Ultimate (the governing body for Ultimate in the US). Team policies were extremely complicated to administer because our teams change from spring to summer to fall to winter. USA Ultimate requires all players to join the organization or deal with per-event fees. After considering the different costs (including both direct financial premiums and indirect paperwork and effort costs), we decided to use a player-based policy from Salder Insurance. Sadler charges us a per player cost per year, and it requires that ALL players in the leagues are included, since their risk increases with the number of players.

We also considered different options for paying for insurance, including baking it into the league fees or charging players an annual fee. We looked at squishing the costs around so that new or single-league players did not have as big of a hit, but that requires multi-league players to pay more. It also required us to be able to accurately estimate the distribution of players and how many leagues they would play in. After extensive discussion, our decision was to be straighforward and transparent as possible and to collect it as a separate fee which we then send to the insurance broker. You can follow the dollars in the annual GRADA budget, which is open for anyone to see.

While it wasn’t required by the field providers (they only care about their own liability issues), the policy that we selected also provides a small player medical insurance benefit. It is only “excess” or “secondary” coverage (any other insurance that a player has must be used first), and it has a per-claim deductible, but it is there in case one of our players needs it.

Regarding the necessity for a waiver…our insurance really only covers our field providers, it doesn’t cover the GRADA personnel that coordinate the leagues. The waivers are needed to a level of protection for GRADA as an organization and the individuals who run the leagues by having the players state that they understand and accept the inherent risks.

We hope this explanation helps…please let me know if you’ve got other questions (or suggestions for a cheaper alternative for insurance coverage). Feel free to contact me directly, Josh and the league coordinators have more than enough work to do.

Dan Bell
GRADA Board Member

Summer Signup is Here!

Hi GRADA! Snow in the forecast can mean only one thing: IT’S TIME TO SIGN UP FOR SUMMER LEAGUE ULTIMATE!

Signups are open right now at grada.leagueapps.com. There’s much exciting news to share:

* Earlier Deadline means Jerseys on-time: We’ve listened to the frustrations regarding jerseys and GRADA has taken action. The registration deadline for summer leagues will be May 17th. This allows enough time to order jerseys and have them delivered in early June. We are using a new distributor and are very excited to offer tech-wick jerseys for only $12!

* Summer’s End Free Hat Tourney: The old Playoff Party is no more. All leagues will resolve their playoffs on their assigned nights. Most leagues will run through the end of August. In the place of the old Saturday playoffs will be a FREE Hat Tournament. Anyone playing in a Summer League will be eligible to play in this tourney. All players will also be welcome to attend the traditional post-tournament smorgasbord of food and ale. More details, including the date, time, and how to signup for the tourney will come later in the summer.

The Leagues you Love on the Nights you Remember:
Intermediate A – Monday nights – Fairly high level of Coed play. Baggage (two players drafted together) will only be honored in cases of express need. $30
Recreational League – Tuesday nights – Relaxed level of play meant for vets and newer players looking for a fun and learning-based atmosphere. Baggage will be honored in most cases. $20
Women’s League – Wednesday nights – Ladies only league. Baggage will be honored at the league coordinator’s discretion. $20
Advanced League – Wednesday nights – High level of play. Players are encouraged to form Cores of 4 or 5 (with a woman) players. $20
Intermediate B – Thursday nights – Highly spirited Coed play fitting somewhere between Rec league and Int A. Baggage will be honored at the discretion of the league coordinator. $30

Insurance – All players will be required to have paid the annual $20 GRADA insurance. This is a one-time fee that covers players for all leagues in the 2012 calendar year. Insurance can be purchased at grada.leagueapps.com .

Women!

Check out the women’s page by clicking the link in the upper right hand corner of this page to learn more about RPS women’s club tryouts and the WUT UP NY?!? hat tournament.

Spring Open Free Agents

Registration is now open for Free Agents in the GRADA Sunday Open BYOT league. This league plays on Sunday mornings at 11am or 12:30pm. Games begin mid-April and run through mid-June. Here’s what you need to know:

* Signing up as a Free Agent does not guarantee you a spot in the league. Free Agent teams will be formed only if enough players register. Roster spots will be given on a first-come first-served basis.
* Free Agent cost of $30 per player. All players must also have paid their annual $20 GRADA insurance fee (a one-time payment).
* Players who do not gain a spot will have their league fee fully refunded.
* We are looking for two teams; a minimum of 26 players.
* Free Agent sign-up deadline will be April 5.
* Sign-up now at grada.leagueapps.com

Any questions? Just ask.

Spring Fling BYOT Team Registrations Due by March 21

GRADA is accepting team registrations for the Spring Fling 2012 Open and Coed divisions.
Team fee is $375, payable through Paypal.

Email Josh Nellist (jnellist@gmail.com) for more info and to sign your team up!

Spring Draft 2012… Registration is Live!

Signup for Spring Draft League is here! Games are Wednesdays at 6pm starting on April 4 and running through the end of May. League fee is $20. Registration Deadline is March 23rd so register now! We have a new registration system so read on to see how it works:

Go to grada.leagueapps.com
At the top-right click on “Sign Up” You can click on “Log In” if you already have an account.
On the navigation bar click on “Leagues”
Find “Spring Draft 2012” and Click on “Register”
Choose “Free Agent”. It should be your only choice.
Fill out the registration info and pay your bill. It’s that simple!

Don’t forget that all players must pay the GRADA Insurance Fee ($20). This is a one-time fee which covers all GRADA leagues for the year 2012. If you paid for insurance for our Winter League then you’re all set. If not, then you must have paid for your insurance by the close of Registration or you will be removed from the league.

Go to grada.leagueapps.com
Click on “Insurance” on the navigation bar.
Choose the appropriate insurance choice and click on “Register”.
Follow the on-screen prompts and pay your bill. It’s that simple!