Held at Aggie Invite between morning and afternoon line PEAP Building.
Open Meeting 11-8
Kat Davis
Ross Elliott
Michael outlined the grant system, as proposed by USA Archery, and contrasted it with the current system, which pays State Associations a fixed amount based on membership within the state. USA Archery insists on the grant system moving forward to remain associated with USA Archery. The details presented to the State Associations have been vague and the deadline to accept the grant system and submit a proposal is the end of November, 2025.
Kat followed up with details regarding the grant proposal process. USA Archery sets a base amount which will be provided if the application is timely and is accepted. The base amount is roughly half what is currently provided on a yearly basis under the present system. Funding above that amount must be justified through essays explaining how it will be used. Grant money is disbursed at the beginning of the year and must be used by the third quarter of the year. There are new and additional accounting requirements tied to accepting grant money.
Outside of the grant system, USA Archery will require all sanctioned tournaments to follow new guidelines under the Minor Abuse Prevention (MAP) policy. Complying with MAP requires all event personnel to be SafeSport certified and imposing tracking and reporting requirements on the host for all event personnel. The field of play and event venue are also subject to additional regulation under MAP, which will force hosts to set up venues in a manner similar to national events.
The board has decided to follow the grant procedure for a year to determine whether our current organization is viable with grant funding. At present, all board members and committee members are volunteers – should the grant system prove too burdensome, the board will ask the membership to determine whether to remain associated with USA Archery or switch to an independent state association.
Notes from the President.
There will be added burdens to host events. All tournaments going forward in 2026 have additional requirements and documentation to host an event.
Review from Kat Davis, JOAD Coordinator
Here is a breakdown that Kat Davis, our JOAD Coordinator, was able to gleen from the USArchery’s new guidelines and policies on the new program.
Grant Program Hot Take:
State will continue to receive 50% of previous rebate amount if:
* Base & Additional Grant Application complete by Nov 30
* Base Includes 7 essay questions on how money will be spent and tracked. A big job for year one but answers can probably be tweaked for future years for quicker completion
* Grant Report complete by Sept 30 if grant money was received that year
* Starting 2027 – auto bonus $1,000 for member growth of 100 or more, $225 for club growth of 5 or more
* Grant decisions are supposed to be announced to states by Dec 15. (Money distributed in March of following year.) I do not see how they will go through grant applications from all the states and make decisions on granting money to them all in 2 weeks. It takes Texas Parks and Wildlife over 4 months to process grant applications.
*Additional grant money broken into 3 categories: Event Development, Sport development, operations
* There are again essay questions on how money will be spent
* There is a spreadsheet that must be completed with the application which asks for the specific items requested along with the vendor and cost.
* The spreadsheet (toolkit) lists what kind of expenses are allowed in each category.
*Example: Event Development: Grant funds will only be provided for equipment, technology, WiFi Routers and/or other equipment needed to support live scoring), or other first-time investments to support event quality growth and/or expansion. Will NOT cover site rental or judge/personnel costs
* All funds must be reported on the grant report form due Sept 30. All funds must be spent or the state may not be eligible the next year.
* No information is given on how much money is available or if grants for partial amounts will be awarded (and if partial money awarded, what in the grant proposal would it fund)
* There is no indication on which category or type of spending request would get highest priority in awarding grants. If we ask for money to pay an accountant and AZ asks for money to buy bales for their state events, which would more likely get the funding?
* It feels like states are shooting in the dark asking for money this year with very little info on parameters. If I tell you I will give you money to go to the grocery store to get me food but do not tell you how much you can spend or what kind of food I can eat, how do you effectively shop? And if you make a grocery list and I then don’t like what you have planned, I just tell you too bad, take a hike.
* Although I read in one of the previous emails that grant funds could be used to pay for a person to manage the grant (writing, administering, and reporting), there is no mention in any of the toolkit tabs any approved types of funds to pay an individual. I think this ask would be denied, but worth checking into ahead of time. The number of hours I spend writing, doing admin, and reporting on the grants I get is substantial and it is a big ask for a volunteer and it is important that it be done well to ensure the state continues to get grant money.
* I do believe we can roll the scholarship money into the grant request so we can continue to offer this without taking a financial hit.
*I would like to know if partial grant requests will be offered. If so, I think we should ask for the moon (within reason of what we can actually spend) and then see what sticks. This would give us the best gauge for applying again next year.
*If not, I think we should make sure to request just over the amount that is being lost by the 50% reduction in revenue with the new base grant.