NESSA News

MISSA E-MAILING LIST UPDATES
Please forward this message to anyone you think should be on our list, especially any new coaches and team parents. Anyone may add themselves to the distribution list for future emails here: tinyurl.com/missa-mail. If you want to stop getting MISSA emails, please just use the unsubscribe link at the end of the email.

TEAM REGISTRATION
Team registration for the 2025-6 school year opened August 1 at registration.hssailing.org. Team admins, please get your teams registered as soon as possible. If you are unsure how to register and pay the team dues, start by looking at the MISSA Team Admin Manual. It gives step-by-step instructions for getting your team info updated on both the ISSA registration page and TechScore.

ELIGIBILITY
The basic eligibility rule for high school sailing is stated in MISSA Rule 4.1: "Sailors must be full-time students in good standing in the 9th grade or higher, of the school on whose roster they are listed. Any exceptions must be approved by the MISSA District Director. By listing students on the official roster at hssailing.org, the team administrator is certifying their eligibility."  

• Home schooled students wishing to be added to a team roster must be approved by the new ISSA Eligibility Committee. Contact me directly if you have a home schooled student looking to join a team. The application deadline is September 1.

• 8the graders may only be added to rosters in accordance with MISSA Rule 4.3. Rather than emailing for permission, please use this web form for each 8th grader you would like to add to your roster.

• 7th graders and younger students may not be added to any team rosters and may not participate in any ISSA/MISSA sanctioned regattas.

PROPOSED SEASON FORMAT CHANGES
Since last year's annual meeting, the board had been discussing potential changes to the system of qualifiers used to determine which MISSA teams advance to the ISSA Mallory National Championship. The basic concept of a Gold/Silver series was shared through this email list back in May, and feedback was solicited by League Directors at local meetings, and by me through an open town hall meeting during the MISSA Mallory this spring. Based on feedback recieved in the spring, a subcommittee of your board has been working hard this summer on a proposal, seeking input from coaches and team leaders, and benchmarking best practices with other ISSA Districts.

While the proposed Gold/Silver system has many benefits and our consensus as a board is that would be a positive change overall, we decided at tonight's board meeting that more discussion, input, and lead time is needed to successfully implement such a significant change. For the 2025-26 school year, we will not be making changes to the Great Lakes/Shepherd Championships and Qualifiers Championships or to the MISSA Mallory Qualifier and Pre-Qualifiers. 

Your League Directors will be reaching out to host Q&A sessions about the proposed new format, and setting up meetings at each Great Lakes Qualifier to discuss. In addition, I am planning oh having an informational meeting on the  topic during the weekend of Great Lakes Champs, which will be available by zoom as well. 

FALL SCHEDULE
Our fall schedule is not yet fully set in stone, largely because we had hoped to roll out the new qualifier system but are now reverting to the old format. We are working  to finalize the key events in the next week, and once firmed up, the official MISSA schedule will be updated on our website. Our unofficial draft planning schedule is always visible at tinyurl.com/MISSA-schedule. Please stay tuned to more emails on this topic in. the next couple of weeks as we work to nail everything down.

LEAGUE CONTACTS
For all MISSA/ISSA related questions and concerns, your first point of contact should be your League Director. MISSA has four leagues, led by the following directors:
Northwest (MN, WI, SD, ND) - Sam Bartel race@lmss.us
Southwest (IL. IA, MO, NE) - Katie Tinder katie@sheridanshore.org
Northeast (MI) - Lynn Frikker frikkerl@communitysailingschool.org
Southeast (OH, IN, KY) - Jamie Jones jjone45@outlook.com

Additional board members include myself, Treasurer Jeff Hudson, and Directors-At-Large Whitney Kent and Mike McBrien. 

Again, please make sure that anyone who wants to stay in the loop an all things MISSA subscribes to thiese emails here. More to come soon, thanks for taking the time to read this!

Ted Anderson
MISSA District Director
sailingmissa@gmail.com