Austin Tennis League By-laws
I. ADMINISTRATIVE AND REGULATORY JURISDICTION
A. The Austin Tennis League (ATL) shall consist of teams of tennis
players based in the Central Texas area. All players of any playing level are
eligible to participate in the league.
B. The Austin Tennis League is subject to all ordinances, policies,
and rules and regulations applicable to the programs of Austin Parks and
Recreation Department (PARD).
C. The League Administrator, with the assistance of ATL Committee,
shall promulgate such rules and regulations as appropriate to provide an effective
program for league play that is open to all persons in Austin at all skill levels.
D. There will be no discrimination by race, creed, color, age, or sex
in any ATL activity. The use of masculine pronouns in the ATL rules
is for the sake of brevity and is not meant to exclude female referents.
E. The ATL Committee shall consist of the League Administrator
and ATL Members. Method of selection shall be at the discretion of the
League Administrator and the ATL Committee. The Committee shall consist
of no less than six members.
1. The ATL Committee shall be headed by a President selected by
the Committee every other year in for a two-year term to commence in January.
The other officers shall be the Treasurer and Secretary.
2. The Committee President or any other officer can be replaced by a two-thirds
vote of active members.
3. A Committee member's term of office runs from January 1 of each year
to December 31. To continue serving on the ATL Committee, a Committee
member must affirm membership on January of each new term.
4. Absence from two regular meetings in succession without contacting
the Committee Chair or the ATL administrator is grounds for forfeiture
of Committee membership.
F. The duties of the ATL Committee shall include the following:
1. To advise and assist the League Administrator relative
to ATL matters.
2. To establish league rules and upon request of league captains to
clarify and interpret league rules.
3. Upon referral by the League Administrator, to act on any grievance
or protest properly filed by or on the behalf of any team captain or
league participant.
4. To formulate such regulations governing the Committee's own
functions as are needed to accomplish its legitimate ends.
5. To conduct meetings as needed.
G. The duties of the League Administrator shall include
the following:
1. Advising and assisting the ATL Committee relative to ATL matters,
2. Handling the administrative functions of the ATL,
3. Interpreting ATL rules and regulations to team captains and team
members,
4. Responding to ATL inquiries or having a designated backup to respond
to inquiries during normal business hours,
5. Cataloguing, Posting and mailing league standings,
6. Working with the ATL Treasurer to ensure all financial obligations of the league are met,
7. Providing ATL team captains with Match Schedules, and important information about the league; and,
8. Promoting and advertising each upcoming season by sending timely email communications to captains.
II. FINANCES
A. The League Administrator and the ATL Committee shall establish
a fee schedule which, when applied equally among participating teams, will make
available enough funds to provide for awards for each first and second place
teams in each division, court rental fees, supplies, and other expenses
necessary to conduct activities of the Austin Tennis League.
B. In addition to meeting other requirements set out in
these rules, each team shall pay all scheduled fees on or before a deadline
set by the Austin Tennis League Committee.
C. The League Administrator and the ATL Committee shall
prepare a budget and financial statement for the spring and fall leagues.
D. Team fees will be paid in the form of checks, money orders,
cash, or Paypal. Fees must be paid by the deadline or a late fee may be assessed.
After the deadline, there will be no refunds.
III. LEAGUE AND TEAM STRUCTURE
A. During any season, the league shall consist of as many
teams as are permitted by the availability of courts.
B. The league shall be divided into as many divisions as
necessary. Normally, each division shall have not less than four teams.
This requirement may be waived to ensure that a fair and equal distribution
of teams occurs.
1. Each team shall be assigned to a division according to the skill
level of the team as a whole relative to the skill levels of the other
teams in a division. Captains are encouraged to recruit players of
equal skill level.
2. Each season, the ATL Committee shall be responsible for preparing a
list showing the level assignment of all teams by division. This list
will be communicated to team captains by the League Administrator. Timely
protests will be considered by the ATL Committee and may result in changing
the final division team assignments.
3. Normally, the first place team in a division is required to move
upward and the last place team in a division to move downward. This
movement depends upon the makeup of the individual divisions, and
this requirement may be waived to ensure that a fair and equal distribution
of teams occurs.
C. Austin Tennis League shall be organized as follows:
1. Any group of not less than ten nor more than nineteen
persons may apply to the ATL for season play. A player must be listed on the
team roster to be eligible to play in a team match. A player can only be listed
on one team roster each season. The exception to this rule is that a player may
be listed on two teams if he is the captain of one of those teams.
2. Each team roster shall reflect the name of the team captain or co-captains.
It is not required that the team captain be a playing member of the
team; however, the official roster must clearly indicate any non-playing
captains.
The term team captain in the ATL rules is meant to include both the
person so designated on the team's application for season play and a
designated substitute appointed by the regular team captain to serve
in his absence.
3. EITHER THE REGULAR TEAM CAPTAIN OR A SUBSTITUTE CAPTAIN MUST BE PRESENT
AT ALL MATCHES.
2. Each team roster shall reflect the name of the team captain or co-captains.
It is not required that the team captain be a playing member of the team; however,
the official roster must clearly indicate any non-playing captains.
The term team captain in the ATL rules is meant to include both the person so
designated on the team's application for season play and a designated substitute
appointed by the regular team captain to serve in his absence.
Player(s) being added cannot have been on the official roster of another
ATL team during the current season. The procedure for adding players
is to submit the names to the league administrator by the mid season
deadline. The ATL Committee will meet and review all requests. Upon
notification, captain's attendance may be mandatory at this meeting
so that they may respond to questions. A decision will be reached and
the administrator will in turn notify team captains as to whether their
request was granted. The approved players will then be eligible to participate.
Rosters will continue to be limited to 17 active players at all times.
IV. GENERAL RULES
A. After divisions have been established for a season, the
League Administrator will prepare a schedule of matches showing dates,
time of day and locations, and shall distribute this schedule to all captains.
B. All matches shall be played at the courts and times designated
in the official ATL schedule. Other court space may be used only with
mutual consent of the team captains or by special arrangement of the League
Administrator.
C. There shall be two separate seasons of play each year.
They shall be referred to as "spring" and "fall" season.
1. The season shall consist of each team playing all
other teams in its division through two rounds of competition. Exceptions
may be made when the number of teams in a division is not six.
2. The season championship for each division shall be determined by
computing the ratio of sets won to total sets played, rounded to the
nearest thousandth of a point. The team having the highest average at
the end of the season shall be the division champion, and the team having
the next highest average shall be the runner-up. In the event of a tie,
of the two teams, the team having the best head-to-head result shall
be declared the division champion
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