2020 Policy Review
Last month Ultimate Victoria conducted a review of it’s published policies and enacted a number of changes. Read on to find out more about what changes have been made and what they mean to members.
Retracted policies
A number of policies were retracted as they were no longer relevant to how Ultimate Victoria functioned, or had been superseded by other policies or procedures.
The League Management Policy and League Fees Refund Policy were both retracted. They only related to Albert Park League and held no relevance to other leagues around Victoria. The function of these policies was replaced some time ago with the formation of the Albert Park League Committee and associated rules and procedures that the committee follows.
The General Drug Policy has been superseded by AFDA’s Anti-Doping Policy and Responsible Alcohol Policy. As all UV members are AFDA affiliate members by default, they are beholden to these policies in all competitions they participate in.
What does this mean for UV members?
- No change. These policies no longer served a function.
Communications Policy
This policy governs how UV communicates with members – through this website, by email or by social media. This policy was updated to reflect current practices – mostly to do with how staff now handle most communication rather than volunteers. It also allows for use of new social media platforms should we create accounts on them in the future.
What does this mean for UV members?
- From now on we now must get your permission to use your likeness for UV material. You will start to see Media Release waivers when registering for UV events, or you may be asked to sign a physical copy. You are not obligated to allow us to use your likeness, and you can withdraw the release at any time.
- More onus is now placed on UV to moderate comments on social media posts as our staff monitor feeds together with volunteers.
Privacy Policy
Just like every website you’ve ever used likes to let you know every few months, we have updated our Privacy Policy. This was mainly done to be reflective of the Australian Privacy Principles, but also allowed us to review how we collect and manage information we have on our members.
The policy provides transparency for members on what may happen to information they provide us when registering for events or filling out surveys. Most practical uses we have for data gathered is purely demographic – how many players we have and where they play.
What does this mean for members?
- We added this statement to Section 7 beyond what the Australian Privacy Principles needed us to – “Where possible, UV will make all efforts to ensure personal information shared with other organisations is not identifiable as being associated with an individual member.” This is our commitment to ensuring the privacy of personal information that you trust us with.
Events Policy
Previously named the Tournament Management Policy, the Events Policy lines our practices up with the Events Plan we published earlier in the year. It means we class events happening in Victoria based on the level of our support and involvement. It also mandates the use of Memorandums of Understanding for events we manage, support or endorse to allow greater flexibility for event hosts.
What does this mean for members?
- To members playing tournaments, there will be no noticeable change. The changes to this policy are just to formalise existing practices.
- For clubs and groups keen to host tournaments, contact us to see what support we can offer to help your event run smoothly.
Finance Policy
This policy was previously the Financial Management Policy and governed how Ultimate Victoria controlled money coming in and out of the organisation. The sport has grown significantly since this policy was last reviewed, so some of the controls have been relaxed to alleviate the burden on our treasurer so they can focus on future financial planning instead of day-to-day management. UV staff, board members and appointed volunteers still remain accountable for spending via the documentation that governs their appointment. The new policy also states that owing money to UV or affiliated clubs is grounds for having membership status reviewed.
What does this mean for members?
- While “having membership status reviewed” sounds daunting, it offers you greater financial transparency as a member. While it’s easy enough to see what you are paying for tournaments and events when you sign up online, it may not be as clear when you join a state representative team or a touring club team. The new policy requires those running the campaigns or clubs to take further measures to ensure you understand and can manage the financial obligations of joining up.
UV Association Rules
Otherwise known as our “constitution”, we need to update this after AFDA changed their legal name because UV membership is tied directly to AFDA membership. At the same time we are taking to opportunity to update some of the language in the Rules – specifically ensuring gender-neutral terms are used throughout. These changes are not enacted until the AGM later this year so more detail will be provided closer to then.
What does this mean for members?
- Nothing! Only language changes are being made. None of the Rules will change in structure or function.
Further changes to come
There are some policies we are still working on, including…
- Reviewing the Club Affiliation Policy
- Following AFDA’s policy review process to see if further changes are needed at a state level, particularly to our Anti-Harassment Policy
- Developing our Child Safety Policy
All policies can be accessed on our Policies page.
We will continue to keep you updated with any changes we make to policies.
If you have any questions or concerns about these policy changes, please contact us.