One of the prime directives for Division I's newly created single annual legislative cycle was to re-engage the membership in the legislative process and ease the burden of tracking proposals and amendments. Though the new cycle just kicked off in July, speculation is that those benefits are likely to be realized.

But Division I members also hope a secondary outcome will be that the new legislative cycle re-energizes Division I's involvement with the NCAA Convention.

Division I Convention participation has decreased substantially since the Association federated its governance structure in 1997. At that time, Division I shifted its governance away from the one-school, one-vote system used at the Convention to a representative structure in which proposals were legislated at quarterly Management Council and Board of Directors meetings. While the representative structure streamlined the legislative process, it reduced the reliance on the NCAA Convention as a draw for the Division I membership to debate and vote on important issues.

Since 1997, the Division I Management Council and Board of Directors have included the Convention site in their quarterly meeting rotation, but since 1999 when the groups decided to consider legislation only at their October and April meetings, the January sessions took on less legislative luster. The new single annual cycle, however, positions the January Council meeting as the one in which members give initial consideration to the legislative proposals. That is followed by a 60-day membership comment period in January and February before the Council and Board take final action in April.

To take advantage of the emphasis on the January Council meeting, a new schedule of events that includes a logical progression of Division I membership functions has been established for the Association's 98th annual Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. The goal is not only to accommodate the Division I legislative cycle, but also to give Division I athletics "practitioners" an important role to play dur ing the NCAA's grand meeting.

"With the new cycle, the Convention becomes a terrific place for what people say they miss about the old system, which is an opportunity for conferences and institutional personnel to meet and share ideas," said Management Council Chair Chris Plonsky, director of women's athletics at the University of Texas at Austin.

A key piece in the Division I Convention puzzle is the Management Council's recently created legislative review subcommittee, chaired by Kate Hickey, associate director of athletics at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick. That group was established earlier this fall to help the Council manage the many legislative proposals in the pipeline.

Hickey's group takes on an added importance at the Convention since it will lead off the Division I "business" proceedings with an open, four-hour legislative review meeting Saturday, January 10, that also will be attended by Management Council and Board members. During that session, sponsors of proposals will have the opportunity to present their cases to the subcommittee and other Division I members in attendance. That alone should drive Division I attendance upward.

"The Saturday morning session triggers an important chain of events," said the NCAA's Beth DeBauche, associate chief of staff for Division I. "The idea is to get members from conferences that have sponsored legislation to present their cases in front of an open group. That should generate discussion that will help the legislative review subcommittee set the legislative agenda for the Management Council meeting the next day."

DeBauche also said that luring conference members to present legislative proposals should prompt more conference meetings Saturday afternoon to develop positions on legislation and inform Management Council representatives before the Council's Sunday meeting. In past years, not many Division I conferences have scheduled meetings during the Convention because they didn't believe there was any urgent legislative agenda to address.

Some Division I members have also said that Division I's participation in the Convention has waned because they no longer have a vote. But Convention organizers contend that the proposed schedule allows Division I members to at least be closely associated with the legislation and positioned to directly influence the Management Council's decisions.

"The process fits what people liked about the old system into the new," Plonsky said. She said conferences will receive the Official Notice (the printed collection of proposals) in November, be able to meet before the Convention to establish positions, then attend the Convention to hear debate and help steer the outcome.

"It will be important for conferences to have open discussion either during the Saturday forum or during informal sessions at the Convention," she said. "That will lead to a better understanding of the legislative issues that are before the Council. It also will give people a better understanding of what that legislative review subcommittee is in place for, since that group will serve almost as a clearinghouse for legislative proposals."

For Management Council members, the new schedule prompts them to arrive at the Convention on Friday since their attendance at the legislative review forum on Saturday is strongly encouraged. Previously, the Council met on Saturday, so the Friday arrival is not much of a change. But the new schedule has the Council meeting on Sunday. The Board of Directors will continue to meet on Monday.

The annual joint Management Council/Student-Athlete Advisory Committee session will be conducted as a luncheon this year on Saturday rather than the Sunday breakfast held in previous years. The joint Board/SAAC session will be held as a breakfast this year on Monday. The Council and Board will continue their joint meeting as a luncheon on Monday as in previous years.