Without Limits Survey:: USA Ultimate Gender Equity Policy

Meagan again! When I started looking over survey data, the responses to the USAU gender equity policy questions immediately stuck out:

62% of women who took the survey were not aware of the gender equity policy before it was defined in the survey. This is pretty surprising given that 90% of respondents felt the policy either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “the USAU gender equity policy is important”.

And for the following question, “I know of a specific example when the USA Ultimate gender equity policy was used”:

I know of a specific example when the USA Ultimate gender equity policy was used

As a result, we thought we’d make this post a little more educational -

The USA Ultimate gender equity policy states:  

“In an attempt to strengthen the Ultimate community and ensure that the sport of Ultimate remains an inclusive and welcoming sport for female athletes, USA Ultimate endorses a policy of gender equity. USA Ultimate will ensure that USA Ultimate coverage and promotion of women's divisions is equal to that of the corresponding men’s division, and encourage outside partners and vendors to achieve gender equity in their coverage of and marketing to Ultimate. As long as the number of female players lags behind the number of male players, USA Ultimate will implement targeted outreach programs that strive to increase the number of female players.

USA Ultimate, in order to promote and encourage the growth of female play in USA Ultimate competition, recommends the creation of comparable teams of each gender. In situations of unequal opportunity, reasonable accommodations should be made to include female participants.” 

tl;dr: Both genders will receive equal USAU coverage, and USAU will encourage vendors and partners to do that same. This also provides language allowing for targeted female outreach programs, and allows USAU to make special accommodations to increase the number of female players if needed.

This has been in place since 2008, and on a policy level is considered fairly progressive. A few ways this has affected USAU activities:

• Rebate for female coaches and any gender coaches of female teams for Level 1 certification
• Conscious rotation of finals times at championship events to showcase different divisions
• Conscious rotation of the cover photo of the magazine
• Free kits/disc/manuals for running women's skills clinics

It is important to point out that the policy only ensures equal coverage for USAU activities, but can only encourage outside vendors to do the same. For instance, ESPN’s coverage of the US Open earlier this summer broadcasted both of the open semis, but only one each of the women’s and mixed divisions. On the other hand, the College Nationals had equal ESPN coverage for both the women’s and men’s divisions. Regardless of time on TV, these kind of decisions can also affect game scheduling, time on showcase fields, and on a larger scale, exposure to young players.

What this means is that although the policy exists and equity has historically been important to ultimate, gender equity is not necessarily a given. We will have a lot more to say on this based on your survey responses in the final report, but gender equity must be advocated for, by both women and those who support equity for women.

Any questions or comments? Feel free to leave them below. I can’t claim to be a gender equity policy expert, but I’ll do my best to answer them!

For more information regarding the policy and how it came about, I would encourage you to read through the 2008 board minutes and the 2013 board minutes when the policy was added/updated:

http://www.usaultimate.org/assets/1/Page/July%202008%20Board%20Meeting%20Minutes.pdf

http://www.usaultimate.org/assets/1/Page/USAU%20Jan%202013%20Board%20Minutes_Final.pdf

Without Limits Survey:: Quick Facts

Hi everyone, Meagan here! For those of you that don’t know, I’m the Without Limits intern this summer/fall and have been overseeing the female player survey. Over the next few weeks I will be analyzing the survey data and creating the report we’ll share with everyone later this summer. While you wait for the final results, I’ll be highlighting some of the more interesting data I find on the Without Limits blog.

When Michelle and I met up to discuss the final details of the survey in June, we talked about the number of responses we needed for the survey to be viable. I think during that conversation we decided at minimum 20 people had to respond, but that it would be great to get 100 responses. Imagine our surprise when on the first day alone 438 people took the survey!

As the responses kept rolling in, we realized this was important to many more people than we had initially anticipated. 15x the responses we were planning for certainly creates a lot more work on our end, but at the end of the day we are excited for the opportunity to share the collective perspective of so many players.

To get you started, here are a few facts and figures about everyone who took the survey!

- Number of survey responses: 1581

- Number of countries: 4 - U.S., Canada, China, and Germany

- Number of states: 46 and D.C.

- Over half (54%) were between the ages of 18-24

- Recreational League was the most common level played (66% of participants played), followed  by club (54% of participants played). People could check more than one level, so there’s likely a lot of overlap there.

- Nearly two-thirds have played on a team with a coach at some point in their Ultimate careers.

Let us know if there’s anything specific from the survey you are interested in hearing more about by leaving a note in the comments below!

Callahan Thoughts

There are a number of outstanding candidates for the Callahan Award this year, and I have many, many positive things to say about Lien, Reebs, Diddy, Claudia, Annie, Thud, Michela, Bailey, and others.  They are all great players deserving of their nominations and the many votes they are certain to get.  I could write pages and pages about these ladies and all of the amazing things I have seen them do on and off the field-- I am so grateful for the opportunity to have gotten to know each of them over the past few seasons.

I wanted to write some thoughts about three players on this year's list of Callahan nominees whom I have gotten to know in a special capacity-- one as a collaborator and two as teammates.  My intention is not to endorse players because I think there many outstanding candidates, many of whom I simply don't know as well.  Instead, I want to express my gratitude to these three players for the positive impact they have had on my ultimate experience.

Kayla Ramirez (Texas)
I still remember the first time I saw Kayla play in Fall 2010.  I was helping at Texas tryouts and my job was to throw floaty hucks to rookies in a drill.  Kayla had absolutely no idea how to read the disc, but she was so fast and athletic that she could run in circles around the disc (and other players) and somehow still come down with the frisbee.  It was a no brainer to put her on the team and it was pretty evident to all of us that she was going to be a special player.  It has been a privilege to watch Kayla develop as a player and leader over the past three seasons.  One of her Showdown teammates called her the best short deep she has ever played with.  Not many players can be a contributing player on a semifinals level club team after only 2 seasons of college experience.  

Off the field, Kayla's contributions to Centex have encouraged me greatly-- she has a "whatever needs to be done" attitude and leads the team by example with her commitment to running a quality event for the entire college women's ultimate community.  I am sad that I have never had the opportunity to play with Kayla, but grateful for the fact that it feels like we've been teammates.  She has been an outstanding collaborator, and I am thrilled to see her as Melee's Callahan nominee this year.

Amanda Good (Colorado)
Amanda is one of two current college players with whom I have been teammates, and I am thankful for the year I spent playing with Amanda.  Our friendship began when Amanda gifted me a dead bird (she's done so twice), and there is no other college player who keeps me on my toes as much as Amanda does.  When she's not making me freak out about dead animals, Amanda is a great friend.  She took me under her wing in Colorado and went out of her way to make me feel at home with the team.  

Amanda's highlight reel playmaking ability makes her a fun person to play with, but one of the things I appreciate most about Amanda is her enthusiasm for life.  "What a dream!" is Amanda's standard reaction to most things that happen, and that is because of the way she approaches life-- she makes her dreams a reality.  I've spent hours watching ultimate footage with Amanda and discussing strategy with her, and her love for the game far exceeds obsession.  That's what makes her a great player and person.  Her whole heart is in it.

Claire Chastain (UNCW)
Claire is the other current college player with whom I have been teammates, and our trajectory to friendship has been unlikely.  In Fall 2010, Claire reached out to ask me to help with Easterns.  I politely declined, but got talked into Skyping with Claire to hear her out.  The conversation was brutally honest and I told Claire my reservations about working with Wilmington, a team who was not known as a spirited team at the time.  Claire respectfully listened to what I had to say and asked me to give them a chance.

At first, I was discouraged by my relationship with Wilmington-- Claire would "joke" about unspirited behavior and I feared that I was wasting my time with them.  At QCTU that spring, Claire got a layout D on someone and the player called a foul.  (In my opinion, it could have gone either way.)  Claire's first reaction was a look that said "no way."  Then she picked herself up off the ground slowly, looked over to the sideline and looked me in the eye, turned back, and said, "no contest."  My respect for Claire has only increased since that moment.  I persuaded Wilmington to get a team Twitter, implored them to build relationships with other teams, and pushed the team to pay their debts and take care of administrative tasks.  I asked a lot of Claire, and she far exceeded my expectations at every turn.

During the 2011 club season, my team was playing Phoenix at Labor Day and I had the unfortunate task of trying to guard Claire.  That was one of my favorite games that season because as an opponent, Claire is one of those players who makes you play your best game-- there isn't a moment to relax or focus on anything else but the battle at hand.  Six months later, when I was deciding where to move, I chose North Carolina.  Claire was one of several people I knew I wanted to be teammates with.  As a teammate, Claire is beyond impressive.  She was a rock on our O line and her vision of the field and knowledge of the game are far beyond what I have seen from even the best college players.  Getting to play with her last season allowed me to fully appreciate how much she has matured.  I saw top level club players playing physical defense on her and trying to push her buttons.  Not once did I see Claire so much as react to these players.  Claire played fairly and with great spirit, and dominated nearly every single one of her matchups.

Though I am years older than Claire, she is someone I have consulted for ultimate and life advice on numerous occasions.  In many ways, she's the reckless little sister I never had, but when it counts, she's a loyal, smart, and thoughtful teammate, friend, and person.


Best of luck to all of the candidates, and congratulations on being nominated by your teammates for an award that recognizes players "who combine superior athleticism with outstanding sportsmanship, leadership and dedication to the sport of ultimate."  The nomination itself is a huge honor.  Thank you for representing our sport so well.

Season Recap

It feels nearly impossible to recap the whirlwind that has been the past few months, but I think reflection is a huge part of learning and growing, and I want to try to capture some of what I have been reflecting on with all of you.

On many levels, this was a great season.  My partner teams were excellent, the teams attending my events were overall very well behaved and respectful, and the relationships (both old and new) that I built with players this season were extremely rewarding.

This was my 5th (official) year of partnership with Texas (only counting the years after I graduated), my 5th year of partnership with Wash U, and my 3rd year of partnership with UNC.  These teams are all incredibly special to me, and I am grateful for their loyalty, their leadership's vision for their events, and the way that they embrace their responsibility as leaders in the college women's division.  Plain and simple, I love these kids and would do anything for them.  Thank you.

This season was the first where I did not overlap with any current players in college ultimate, and I thought that I would feel very out of touch with teams.  While an age gap is clearly beginning to emerge (What is Snapchat?  What does "ratchet" mean?), I am deeply appreciative of all of the teams who allowed me to be part of their journey this year.  Thank you to all of the players who shared their struggles, worries, dreams, and victories with me.  The hours spent talking strategy, building season plans, working out team issues, and discussing challenging life situations reminded me that organizing events is only a tiny part of what I do, and that the most important and meaningful work is what happens long after games are over for the day.

Real Talk
For the past few weeks, I have been feeling like I am suffering from a stress induced concussion.  It's the result of an entire season of bad weather and bad luck, an introvert being stretched thin for 2.5 months, and perhaps a few too many challenging situations being thrown my way.  The past few seasons have been challenging, but this one in particular took quite a  toll and will necessitate a bit of self-reflection.

And perhaps most importantly, the time spent on the road away from family, friends, and teammates who I love, and who deserve my time and energy, is very difficult.  I want to be my best self-- and that self includes being a daughter, sister, teammate, captain, and friend, not just an organizer.

Season Take-Aways
A few life reminders that I'll be taking away from the season.

Be available.
There is always time to listen, talk, or lend a helping hand.  The times when I (think I) made the biggest difference were during the busiest, most stressful stretches.  Those situations, while not the most convenient, were huge opportunities.

Be kind.
On Saturday of Centex, a tough situation arose after a week of challenges and Brittany, a RecSports Supervisor (who happens to be teammates with one of the Melee girls on the UT Club Soccer team), was a huge blessing to me.  Filling water with her that afternoon and having the opportunity to talk with her reminded me that a little kindness when we are "just doing our job" can make a big difference, even to a stranger.

Be excellent(...)
I can be be amazing at putting out cones and providing ample water, but at the end of the day, being excellent at what I do only matters because it is a means to an end.  I don't want to be excellent just for the sake of being excellent.  Being excellent is my way of showing players and teams my investment in them, and that opens the door for building community, cultivating meaningful relationships, and making a difference in people's lives.  And because of that, I will gladly give my all toward being excellent at putting out cones and providing ample water.

As the season winds down, I have been receiving some amazing emails from college players.  I am so appreciative of these emails as they have come from some of the players I respect most in the division.

This short email encapsulates what I hope every player takes away from my work. (It is being shared with permission):

"I appreciate what you have done for women's ultimate and most importantly the mindset you have modeled and encouraged in leaders and players--that we are here to love and serve our teammates and our community and that our teammates are far more important than any competition goals."

Best of luck to those of you who have advanced to the next stage in the Series.  Work hard, love well, and I hope to see many of you soon.

Thank You

"Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle." - T.H. Thompson and John Watson

I apologize for the delay in posting this.  I've been struggling with how to express my gratitude to all of you.  "Thank you" hardly seems to be enough...

Shortly after my stuff got stolen at Layouts, a few of my friends enlisted the help of the ultimate community in raising money to replace my stolen belongings and to buy me a bed.  (Yes, it is true that I have not owned a bed in over a year.)  Their goal was to raise $3,000 for me and I was told that they met that goal in < 24 hours.  Wow.  Knowing that I could afford to replace my stolen items made a very stressful situation much more manageable.

I cannot even begin to thank you for the kindness and generosity you all have shown me.  Thank you for alleviating the financial stress of a terrible situation, for reminding me that there are amazing people in the world, and for all of your kind comments and encouraging words.  I don't yet have a full list of everyone who contributed to the fund, but I have been overwhelmed by the list of names I do have.  The list includes current and former teammates, collaborators, friends, opponents, college players I've invested a lot in, newer players on teams I've been on, co-workers, people in my home ultimate community, alums of teams who have attended my tournaments for years, college players' parents, customers I've worked with through VC, college players I've never spoken to... the list goes on and on.  I have cried multiple times reading people's comments (and laughed reading the funny ones, and shuddered in fear reading the ones about birds).  It means the world to me to hear from so many of you the impact I have had on your ultimate experiences and on your lives outside of this sport.

A few days after my stuff was stolen, Adriana gave me a pair of headphones (the free kind) and a phone charger.  I was teary eyed because I could listen to music and charge my phone again.  Needless to say, I cannot describe how I felt when Adriana presented me with a BIG (both in size and amount) check and an iPad just a couple of days later.  When you can fit everything you own in your car and you are as nerdy as I am, getting your iPad stolen is crushing.  Having a new iPad handed to me was a tangible reminder that there are good people in the world and that kindness goes a long way.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for rallying around me and helping me so tangibly during this rough patch.  I am grateful to know such amazing people, and I hope that we all continue to pay it forward and take good care of each other.  The world will be a better place because of it.

By The Numbers

Number of...

Solo miles driven: 9,908

Events run: 9 (+ coaching Swarthmore on their spring break trip)

Events impacted by weather: 7
Oil changes: 3

Total teams at spring events (not unique): 245

Clinics organized: 8

Nights sleeping in my car: 2

Nights at home since January: ~5

Other places (hotels or friends' houses) crashed at: 14

Teams that dropped out mid-event: 1

Dead birds received: 0

Pieces of identification stolen (from me): 4

Credit cards stolen (from me): 5
Autographs requested by college players: 1
Trips to Costco: 9

Times my car broke down: 1

Breakfast tacos eaten: 2
Text messages from college players asking about the weather forecast: 1

Trips to the Genius Bar to swap out my iPhone: 2

Portapotties ordered: 18

Mix CDs received: 3

Former co-captains a meal has been shared with: 2
Jars of Nutella purchased: 64
States visited: 14
BIG checks received: 1 (still owe you all a post on this!)
Times I begged my way into buying spray paint without identification: 2
Emails received about future projects in the past 24 hours: 4

Too many to count:

Bags of garbage picked up

Emails received

Emails sent

Hours spent on Score Reporter

People who have told me I'm the unluckiest person they know

Comments received about how crucial brownie bites are to Without Limits events

College players who now know that I don't own a bed

Servings of Diet Coke consumed
Items printed at Kinko's
Tanks of gas filled
Meaningful conversations with college ultimate players
Tears cried (happy and sad)

College players asking me to get Snapchat

Emails from my mom asking if I am alive
People who have pulled me through the past two months

Surround Yourself With Good People

To give some background for this post, my stuff was stolen from a meeting room at the Layouts fields on Saturday.  I've been compiling a list of what was stolen for the police, so I thought it necessary to balance that by compiling a more positive list to share with you all.

Last week, I wrote a post that has a lot of relevance to life outside of ultimate.  It's been an especially challenging week to be my best self, made easier only by this point in my last post.

Surround yourself with good people.

"I am who I am and I strive to be better because of these people."

- Naomi Trang (Texas) for shouldering a large share of the burden for making Centex happen these past few days.  Please find her and thank her this weekend.

- My teammates, co-workers, and friends for keeping the show going at Layouts while I frantically tried to cancel credit cards and file a police report.  I am not sure I would have made it through the weekend without them.

- My co-workers at VC Ultimate, especially my boss Adriana, for taking on most of my workload this week so that I can focus on everything else.  I am blessed to work for a company who believes in what I am doing.

- My teammates and family for supporting me even when my work takes me away from them for weeks and months on end.  You all deserve more of my time and attention, and that is on my immediate list of priorities.

- Emily McAfee (Swarthmore) for spending hours with me Saturday night trying to help me figure out how to begin recovering my identification documents.

- Lien Hoffman (Northwestern) and Rebecca Enders (Wisconsin) for their messages which reduced me to tears.  I am so grateful to have known both of these outstanding players and people since they were freshmen.  Players like the two of you, and teams like yours, make what I do worthwhile.

- Kate Wilson, Angela Lin, and Katherine Wooten (Ozone) for housing me and helping me try to get a same-day passport in Atlanta.  It is humbling to have your regional rivals respond so resoundingly to an email of desperation.  I am grateful for my friendship with the three of you, and with Ozone.

- Rachel Johnson (Phoenix) for finding me a place to stay in Jackson, MS.  Thanks for being relentlessly positive.

- A group of Pleiades players (and Shellie's mom) for taking shifts at my apartment yesterday to make sure someone was there when my replacement credit cards were delivered.  It is embarrassing to have to ask for this kind of help, but I am so grateful for you.

- Ohio State Fever for all of their help in trying to make next week easier for me.  It has been such a privilege to see y'alls path to the elite level.  Thank you for being a team who does things the right way, on and off the field.

- The many other people who have texted, emailed, and called to check in.  Thank you.

I will be driving the last 10 hours to Austin today.  I am feeling challenged to be better because of all of you.  I can be more kind and more generous because at the end of the day, nothing that was stolen matters more than the good people I have around me.

See you in Texas.