The USA Gymnastics online services allow our members to register and renew memberships, change addresses, verify member numbers, and obtain the entire club's athletes' numbers all at a time convenient for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In the future, we will continue to add new services that will assist our members such as registration for safety courses, KAT and MELPD courses, National Congress, and other educational opportunities offered by USA Gymnastics. In addition, you can also download any of the forms that you may need. We have added these services with our members' suggestions in mind. We have added these services to help assist our members not only in the crunch time of August and September but throughout the rest of the year as well. And speaking of crunch time, we are looking to the future and are working towards a design for this new software that will allow the registration and data entry of the new 2001-2002 season to begin in June instead of the end of July. More updates to follow on these enhancements to the online program.

Due to the vastness of this undertaking, there will be, and there have been, some "bugs" and problems. We thank those of you who have helped us correct these issues by alerting us and working through some of these glitches. Once again the months of August, September and October have proven to be extremely busy months for all of us. USA Gymnastics is closing in on a 100,000 membership mark. With this terrific growth, follows the challenges of maintaining and improving the level of customer service as well as the upgrading of the hardware and software systems. We realize that many of you have experienced a busy signal upon dialing the Member Services line. This is due to the fact that all of our representatives are busy on the telephone assisting your fellow members. Please note that our telephone lines are answered continuously during normal business hours. We understand that this doesn't make you feel any better about not getting through to us, but we are on the phones and we do want to assist you. The lines are busy not just with our members, but parents call us for information, individuals call to order merchandise, plus the general public calls with questions on services, events and membership. We are fully staffed and we have even brought in temporary help to better serve you.

You do matter and you are important to us!

The Top Ten reasons why you should try the online service at www.usa-gymnastics.org

MEMBER SERVICES UPDATE

This in-office and online membership/accounting program is being specifically designed for USA Gymnastics. This is no easy task considering all of the factors that go into most of our memberships and procedures. For example, the fact that a person must be eighteen and safety certified to be a professional member must be programmed! This is neither simple nor inexpensive. As we all know, we have a wonderful yet complicated sport. More than 32,000 records have been completed with the online registration.

We continue to make changes and revisions to the directions and procedures in order to make the whole process more " user friendly." These changes and updates often require that the program writers out of Chicago make programming changes. We are in direct contact with these individuals every day. We constantly strive to make this new system work for you. As you can certainly understand, this program is not just a matter of flipping a switch or putting a new diskette or CD-ROM into the computer. The process is far more complicated and time consuming. This project is contracted to an outside company.

Through the continued communication with you, our members, we learn what is working and what is not. Corrections to the new system are being made on a daily basis. Your help and understanding with this huge project is moving us all toward success in its completion.

To find this information online you should go to our www.usa-gymnastics.org site and click on Member Services. You will see listed on top the Membership "How To…" page. This page will give you a listing of the many online possibilities. For example, how to change your address or club affiliation. How to obtain your club's athlete roster or individual athlete's member number, how to add and renew athletes online, how to renew your professional membership and more. Please read the instructions as outlined.

Safety Instructors
Safety instructors can access the names of the people signed up for your course online. Go to - Instructor Course Lists

Educational Updates
The new MELPD (movement education and lesson plan development) pilot courses will be conducted in December of 2000. You will find information in this edition. You do not have to hold any prior certification to attend this course. However, attendance and certification in the KAT (kinder accreditation for teachers) is highly recommended in order to begin building a strong base for preschool and elementary school gymnastics/physical education training.

Effective immediately, an individual may purchase the entire PDP (professional development program) Level 1 program. This will include the Rookies Coaches Guide and exam, the Sequential Gymnastics book and exam, and the PDP Level 1 video and workbook. This will allow any person to begin the coaches certification program on his or her own. This PDP Level 1 program will remain a Member Club benefit so that the club owner may have the ability to instruct all of his/her staff at his/her convenience. When all parts are completed, the individual sends in all parts, (two exams and workbook verification) with the appropriate fee. A certificate of completion will be mailed to the individual and the course certification credits will be added to the person's record.

This Membership Update appeared in the Nov-Dec 2000 issue of Technique magazine, Vol. 20, No. 10.