Policies and Procedures

AEMA Officers

Executive Director

The job description of the Executive Director is to enforce all policies on behalf of the Association. Make financial decisions, Maintain continual communications with the Associate Executive Director, President, and the Office Manager.  Submit a report on the progress of the Association at each Board and General meeting. Sign all Convention contracts. Work with host Hotels on Convention planning. Chair Convention Site selection committee.

The Executive Directors position is appointed by a vote of the Board of Directors.  An open verbal board review is done each year at the opening board meeting just prior to the vote.

Nominations for Executive director may be submitted by any District Director to the board each year.  These nominations must be submitted in writing 6 months prior to Convention.

Associate Executive Director

The job description for the Associate Executive Director is to assist the Executive Director in functions and responsibilities as necessary. Serve as chairperson of the Ethics committee. Should a vacancy occur in the Executive Director’s capacity, the Associate Executive Director would complete the term.  The Associate Executive Director is appointed by the Executive Director with the approval of the Board and reviewed each year.

President/Vice President

The job description of the President is he/she shall preside at all meetings of the board.  Call any extra meetings of the Executive Board as deemed necessary and advisable.  Serve as the official spokesman for the Executive Board.  Appoint all committee chairpersons with the approval of the Executive Board.

The President must be in direct communication with the District Directors, Executive Director, and Office Manager.  He/she must serve as ex-official member to all committees.

The President is elected by a majority vote of those cast by the Active and Retired membership.  Associates and Students do not have voting privileges.  Once a student has graduated and become a Full time Equipment manager he/she will then have the right to vote.

The Process for the nomination goes like this.  There is a nominating committee, which is selected by the board of directors and is responsible for providing three (3) names for the membership to vote on. The three (3) nominees will be nominated from a list of names of those members who have previously served on the Executive Board, or who are presently serving on the Board and have agreed to serve if elected.

The nominees are required to submit a bio and a picture to the National Office.  Each bio must be submitted on an official form. The reason we do this is to keep all information pertinent to the position and to keep a more even playing field for each candidate.

The office manager then copies the bios of all 3 candidates and mails them to the membership with a ballot.  The ballot is sent with a self-addressed stamped envelope-marked ballot.  Only ballots can be returned in the envelope.

These ballots are taken unopened to a specified location and counted by the Executive Director, Associate Executive Director and Office Manager or Treasurer or other certified members appointed by the current President or Executive Director.  In the event of one or more of these people on the ballot the current President or Executive Director can appoint another person to count the ballots.

The term of President is now a four (4) year term and no person may serve more than two (2) consecutive terms.  The new President takes his/her office at the General meeting at the beginning of new business.

The first runner up will automatically become the Vice President.

The Vice-president shall act in the place of the President in the events of the President’s absence or refusal to act. Should a vacancy of the position of the President occur the Vice President would fill in the term until the next presidential election is held. The Vice-president will serve as Parliamentarian at all meetings, in other words he/She will keep all meetings in order. The Vice-president should assist the Convention Program Chair person.

The Requirements for the positions of.  Executive Director, Associate Executive Director, President and Vice President. In addition to being an active certified member of the Association in good standing.  He/She must also be at least a 10-year member, and must have served on the board of Directors for least two years.

Certification Steering Committee Chairperson also known as CSC chairperson.

This position was made a board position in 2005.  The position is appointed by the President with the approval of the board of directors. Person must be a certified member in good standing.

Duties include Oversee the AEMA Certification Manual.

The Resource Center, National Convention workshops and seminars, the CEU Program, the development and administration of Certification examination. Coordinate, Organize and hold a meeting at convention prior to the opening board meeting, and take all action to the board of directors.

District Directors

District directors are either elected by their Districts or by appointment by the President and Executive Director, but only went the district neglects to hold an election.

District 1,3,5,7, and 9 shall hold election of District Directors in every even year.  Districts 2,4,6,8, and 10 shall hold elections of District Directors every odd year. Each District Director will serve a term of two (2) years, and may serve as many consecutive terms as elected.  The way a district director is elected is entirely up to the district.

District Officers

District Officers are elected only by the district and can include any position deemed necessary by that district.  Some districts have only a director, while others have Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Newsletter Editor, and many committee chair people.

Office Manager for the AEMA

This position was hired by the Board of Directors

Treasurer for the AEMA

This position is also hired by the Board of Directors

Membership

The membership consists of recreational, physical education, high school, college, and professional athletic equipment managers.  Currently our membership consists of 74% College, 10% professional sports which include the NFL, NHL, Pro Basketball and Pro baseball- 8% High School 3% retired, with the last 5% being made up of recreational, physical education and Associate members.

The types of membership to the AEMA are

1) Active member - Any Person who is currently working in the field of Equipment Management as a means of earning a living.

2) Student - Any full time high school or college student that has not yet earned at least a Bachelor’s degree and is interested in a field of Equipment Management

3) Associate - Any person who is actively engaged in a non-paid Athletic Equipment Management job. Or a person who is between Athletic Equipment Management jobs

4) Retired - Any active member of AEMA, age 55 or older, which retires from active employment.  Membership is Free of charge.

Election of Members. Applicant for any class of membership shall fill out and sign a membership application stating their desire and intention to become a member of the association.  All members must follow the by laws of the AEMA

We have a seat on the Board at NOCSAE.  Our very own Terry Schlatter is the Treasurer for NOCSAE.

Convention Site Selection

  1. Prospective hotels contact Jon Falk who is our current Convention Site Chairperson with a proposed contract.
  2. Jon decides which contracts are suitable for the AEMA needs.
  3. Site inspector (myself) is sent to suitable sites.
  4. Sites are narrowed to no more than five sites by the Hotel Selection Committee
    1. Up to, but no more than five finalists are invited to National Convention to present sites at their own expense.  Hotel presenter is responsible for their own travel, lodging, and expenses
    2. Site Inspector can give presentation if hotel does not wish to come to convention.

District Directors are encouraged to identify convention sites in their districts.  The sites are required to meet established AEMA criteria. In addition, they must submit their proposals to Jon Falk on or before April 1st of the selection year.

  1. Vote goes to the National Membership immediately following the presentations.
  2. Winner will get the next open year.  It will be the board decision to give runner up an option of the following year. To be determined at the closing board meeting.

Curriculum

The Curriculum committee was formed in 1998 by Will Rodecap now headed by Jerry Fife as a sub committee of the CSC Committee with the following specific objectives.

  1. Establish the Curriculum standards for the AEMA and revise as needed.
  2. Use the Role Delineation as the model for development.
  3. To administer the Curriculum development process for the AEMA.
  4. Search out new avenues of education for our association and supervise their development and application.

The plan was to develop a masters degree program in Equipment Management

Ethics

The Chairperson for the Ethics committee is the Associate Executive Director.  He has the responsibility to form a committee. The AEMA has a code of Ethics and when an Ethics violation is brought forth this committee has to discuss and relay a plan of action to the board, the board then votes on the action.  I am proud to say that since the beginning of the Association there have only been two Ethics violations brought to the board of directors.  The first violation was a member applied for a job saying on the application that they were certified when in fact they were not.  That member was given a one-year suspension of membership.  The other violation was a district director was charged with miss appropriation of district funds.  That member was removed permanently from membership to the AEMA.

Exam and Certification

The first Certification Exam was given at the 1992 convention in Phoenix Arizona.

When applying to take the Certification exam it is vital that you send in all of your documentation together.  You need to send in the application form completely filled out.  You need a check to pay for the exam made out to the AEMA.  You also proof of age.  Which is a copy of your driver’s license or a copy of your birth certificate.  You need Proof of Education, which is a copy of your GED, high school or college diploma.  And proof of Employment.  You need 2 years full time experience if you have a College degree.  5 years with a high school or GED, and 1800 hours if you are a college student.  You will not receive your Certification until you send proof of graduation.

You need proof of Experience.  This proof must come in a Notarized letter from the School or organization you worked for stating length of time of service.  I receive many letters that are not notarized.

All documentation must be postmarked by April 1 to avoid a late fee. After April 1, all documentation must be postmarked by May 1 and a late fee paid.  If exam application is received after the May 1 deadline they will be returned to the member.  These exams are given by Castle and have to be ordered way in advance.  The May 1 deadline is the last possible day we are given by Castle.

Maintaining Certification

Once a member has past the certification exam and becomes certified, he/she must maintain Certification with Continuing Education Units. CEU’s.  You must earn 6.0 CEU’s in a three-year window.  I won’t get into the ways of obtaining CEU’s as Kelly Jones has just given a workshop on that very subject.  If you did not get to Kelly’s workshop there is a complete listing of the ways to earn CEU’s printed on the web site or you can call me and I will send you out one.

Exhibits

The Job description of the Exhibits Chairperson Currently John Stone known to most as “Stony” is to

Select and contact manufactures to exhibit at our National meeting, with the help of the Treasurer, the Office Manager and The George Fern Company.

Obtain floor plan of the booth space. Assign Booth spaces to exhibitors

Be at Convention at least one (1) day prior to the National meeting, to assist with the set-up of exhibits and stay until exhibits are down.

Secure Security Guard for the exhibit area.

  • In 1974 the booth rate was $200.00
  • In 1979 it went up to $300.00
  • In 1995 it went up to $600.00
  • Today it is $750.00, which is still well shy of the cost to exhibit at the trainer’s convention
Exhibit Chairs
  • John Daggett 1980-84
  • Ken Hart     1984-88
  • Tex Ritter    1988-94
  • John Stone  1995-present

Internet

The job of the Internet chairperson currently Jerry Fife. Is to maintain and update the web pages and Discussion Group.  This is a very large and important job.  Over the last 3 years we have gotten 1/3 of all new members from the web site.

AEMA Journal

Darryl Buente is the current the editor of our AEMA Journal; He asks each year for five or six 1500 word articles to be written by our membership for May publication.  The articles should be on topics dealing with our role delineation of accountability, management, purchasing, fitting, equipment maintenance, repair and laundry.  All articles need to be researched with resources and references attached.

To keep our members aware of our need for articles, Darryl annually asks our national office and our district directors to place a notice in their newsletters

At our national convention, a personal appeal is always directed at the luncheon for member to write.

After our convention, Darryl writes to members who presented workshops, telling them that they already have their article half-written

When each article arrives, I make needed changes in grammar, punctuation and understanding. Compose five questions, and type the article onto a disc, and then mail the printed copy and the disc to Momentum Media in Ithaca N. Y.  When the Journal is ready to print in April, I mail a CEU application to each of the authors so they can claim their 1.0 CEU.

Membership

The membership committee has a chairman listed on the Internet and in all of our publications, usually when a person wants to join they see that name and contact that person.  The current chairperson is Dan Glinski.  When Dan receives a name of a potential member he makes sure he obtains a complete address from that person and sends it on to me at the National office.  I in turn send out a new member packet to that person with many forms of information and an application for membership. When I receive a payment for new members I sent an e-mail out to Dan and the District representative. The District Representative will then contact that new member in some form or fashion and welcome them to the A.E.M.A. The Membership director Chairperson has charged each district with the tasks to come up with their own ideas on how to improve membership, whether it is mailings, speaking at clinics or local area schools.  When they meet in June they discuss what works and what doesn't work.  The committee shares ideas that make us all better in bringing members to our association.

Past Membership chairpersons were:

  • Jon Falk
  • Chris Sage
  • Kevin Bull
  • Dale Strauf
  • Dan Glinski

Program

Mike Hill was named the Program Chairperson in 1991 in New Orleans.  Mike’s job is to see that all of the Workshops are filled, he needs to collect Bio’s and release forms on all presenters.  He is also responsible for introducing and manning all workshops and obtaining all plaques to be given out the each presenter. Mike remains the head of that operation today.

Past program chairmen were:

  • Bobby Yarborough
  • Frank Young
  • Jon Phillips

Scholarship

Russell Athletics contacted the President Ken Hart in 1991 asking how they could help with a $1500.00 annual donation.  Ken took the proposal to the board of directors, who decided to turn the donation into three $500 scholarships.  Dale Strauf was named Chairperson of the Scholarship committee and charged with the duty of organizing the program.  Dale researched many other organizations came back to the board meeting of 1992 with a scoring plan.  Scoring for the scholarship is a point system based on Grade Point Average, Credit for deans list, Credit for writing skills from required essay on Equipment Management based on content, grammar, punctuation, and clarity. Years of service as a student manager, Credit for Community service, Credit for AEMA participation. Credit for AEMA membership.  Scoring is done by each member of the committee who consist of 4 people.  The top three scores win the scholarship.

The first Scholarships were given out at the 1993

Resource Center

The resource center was developed to add to the education of the AEMA members and contains all Tapes of workshops of past conventions 263 in all starting with the 1992 convention, and all of the AEMA Journals from 1995 to present.   We did lose a few due to age and shipping.  We still have those videos, however some of the audio was lost. Unfortunately during the 2001 scare of shipping all items were scanned with instruments that erased audio from VHS tapes.  The birth of the Resource Center was July1, 1989 and was started by Gary Boevers. Gary in turn passed it on in 1993 to David Littlejohn.  The Resource center was relocated to the National Office in 2001 and remains there today.

We are in the process of revamping the Resource center.  Many of the videos are out of date, and many others are of bad quality.  Dale Strauf and myself will be going over every video and pulling out all of the old material.  We will then write a short test on each video.  From now on members who purchase videos (DVD) will need to send in the test prior to receiving CEU credit for the video (DVD)