To California Baton Council Members, Parents, Coaches, Athletes and all others:

The California Baton Council Board would like to welcome you to the 2011-2012 baton twirling season. We have a few changes and highlights for this upcoming season.

Contest Schedule

We are planning another full season this year starting with our December contest and clinic. Stay tuned for more information and an announcement for an exciting clinician – plan now to attend this kick-off competition. Below are important dates for you to update your calendar:

12/11/11 Council Contest & Clinic – Brentwood area
01/28/12 Revolution – Sacramento area
02/11/12 K & K – Fresno
03/3 – 4/12 National College & High School Competition (www.ncabt.com)
03/11/12 Buckeye Cuties – Redding
03/28, 29 & 30/12 US Trials (tentative)
03/25/12 K & K – Newark
04/14/12 Valley Baton Club – San Jose area
04/28/12 PHMC – Bay area
05/19 – 20/12 State Competition – Sacramento area
06/23 – 24/12 Regional Championships TBA
07/09 – 14/12 National Championships – Dayton Ohio

Event Line-Up at Competitions

CBC has changed the line-up at our local competitions to be more consistent with the National competition. Please note the change in the order of events:

  1. Teams
  2. Freestyle/Short program/Trios
  3. Body forms/Rhythm Twirl
  4. Foundation Events Compulsories/Movement Technique (may be scheduled at same time as foundation events – contest directors decision)
  5. 2 – 3 Baton
  6. 1.5 solo – (first contest, novice, beginner, intermediate flag, pairs and high intermediate solo)
  7. Advanced Solo
  8. PHMC Solo
  9. Strut
  10. PHMC Strut
  11. Dance Twirl & Pairs (new music – Artistic Twirl music)*
  12. Artistic Twirl (evaluation only)

* IMPORTANT UPDATE: The USTA Board has announced that the
Dance Twirl music will be replaced by the current Artistic Twirl music. 

Other Contest Changes/Updates

  1. Contest director will assign a floor monitor for teams to assist the team as they enter the floor. Teams will enter the floor immediately upon completion of the prior set. Coaches please make note of this change. 
  2. If a practice gym is available, warm-ups are optional at the discretion of the Contest Director. The Contest Director will announce warm-up opportunities throughout the competition.
  3. Processing entries through pay-pal continues to be successful. CBC will continue to accept pay-pal. It is the discretion of the Contest Director if pay-pal will be accepted during sponsored competitions.
  4. In 2011, the CBC donated $1,000.00 to the International Cup Fundraiser. Most of this donation was from you – the athlete – by entering the IC events. The IC event was an opportunity for all twirlers of all levels to perform their solo, 2-baton, 3-baton, dance-twirl and dance-twirl pairs for a judge to provide critique of their performance. Thanks to all of you and your participation in these events – it was extremely successful and helpful for the IC.
  5. We will continue this successful fundraiser this year. The events will be retitled to 2012 USA Team Fundraiser (in the program it will reflect WT). The critique will be audio in the same format as the team critiques. All funds received by entries in the WT events will be provided to the USA team attending the 2012 World Championship in Paris, France. We look forward to raising twice as much as we raised last year!

Contest Programs

Again this year, contest programs will be provided on the CBC website, Contest Information Page, by Wednesday before the competition. Please review the draft program immediately and report any errors, omissions, etc. to the Contest Director. A final program will be updated no later than Noon on Friday before the competition.

Donation Programs

There are at least two ways for you to donate funds to the CA Baton Council:

  • eScrip: Register your debit/credit cards and with every purchase at participating merchants a certain percentage of your purchase will go directly to the CBC. If you participate in the survey after your purchase (sent to you via email) you can double your E-Scrip donation. More information here
  • Employer matching program: Certain employers will match your donation to a non-profit organization. Kaiser is one such organization and the past several years the CBC has received a large donation from Kaiser. A big thank you to those CBC members who work and participate through Kaiser.
  • Got Trophies? If you have trophies (in great condition and clean) that you would like to donate back to the CBC, please bring to the contest and place in the trophy donation box. CBC will accept trophies or plaques that are clean and in great condition (acceptable to be awarded to another athlete). CBC will use these trophy and plaque donations for the CBC sponsored competitions. 

Membership and Booster Membership

Are you a member of the CBC? Well, this year we are announcing two additional membership types: 

Booster Membership – $8.00:

  • Recognition at each and every contest from the head table, Chit-Chat and the membership manned table. 
  • PHMC appreciation recognition in addition to a certificate of appreciation.
  • Listing of name in the 2012 USTA, California State Championships Program.

Professional Membership – $15.00 (must be a USTA current member)

  • All of the Booster membership.
  • Voting privileges at all CBC General Board Meetings. 
  • Participation at CBC meetings. 
  • Networking with all CBC members. 
  • CBC council handbook.

Corporate / Business Membership - $25.00

  • The business receives free on-line listings on our CBC website and free listings in all CBC sponsored Tournament programs (December, April PHMC and May State Championships). 
  • Recognition at each and every contest from the head table and the membership manned table. 
  • PHMC appreciation recognition in addition to a certificate of appreciation.

More CA Baton Council Membership Information – Click Here
Membership Challenge Information – Click Here

Entry Forms Once the USTA makes final decisions from their membership survey and Board Meeting, the entry forms for the regular season competition and the State competitions will be updated. Please remember the STATE ENTRY is not the regular season entry form.

Late Entries

Each contest – including State – will have two deadlines. All entries MUST be received by the final deadline. This year, late entries WILL NOT be accepted. In an effort to ensure that the contest program is correctly updated on Wednesday and the correct awards are available for our athletes, we MUST comply with the deadlines. This is consistent with the National and World competitions. Please mark your calendar now and ensure those entries are taken care of ASAP to avoid any sad – not entered – athletes.

Minute to Spin It

Following compulsories – we have added a fun event open to all athletes – Paige Campbell will orchestrate a minute to win it. Paige will announce the twirl/or “thing” to do – and every participant who completes the task will be recognized with a special treat! THIS IS A FREE EVENT OPEN TO ALL ATHLETES OF ALL LEVELS! I look forward to having some judges, coaches, parents, dads, grandparents, council members, etc. out on the floor to participate!

High School Seniors – Scholarship Program

Are you going to college next year? Would some additional funds assist you in your endeavor? The CBC is announcing a Scholarship program for high school seniors. All applicants will be recognized at State competition on Saturday. Included in this email is more information and the application. I am hopeful that every senior twirling this year will attend college and will participate in the inaugural CBC Scholarship Program. More Informtion Here

Communication

Make sure to check out our website at www.cabatoncouncil.com frequently for updates throughout the season!! (If you are new to our sport/organization, please check out our Parents section before our first contest.) If you haven’t done so already, “friend” us on facebook. Also, please visit our membership table at each contest for any new/updated information.

Please feel free to contact any one of the board members with questions, concerns, or ideas for improvement. We all have an open door (well open email at least). We look for forward to your feedback.

Before I sign off – I would like to thank Kellie Donovan-Perelman our former president for her leadership the past several years. I look forward to working with her, as well as all the other board members this year to bring our California athletes another great successful twirling season. 

Ready, Set, Twirl!

Always,
Kristine M. Rodrigues, President
California Baton Council