Attendees at this year’s NCAA Regional Rules Seminars will find themselves on the “A list” this year – in Atlanta and Anaheim.

Online registration opens Thursday through the NCAA Web site for the Association’s primary annual gatherings for campus personnel involved in rules compliance.

The seminars will be May 11-15 in Atlanta and June 1-5 in Anaheim, California, and each again will offer a mix of Association-wide and division-specific sessions – though this year’s events also offer a number of enhancements.

Most noticeably, the seminars will begin a day later than in the past, kicking off Monday morning rather than Sunday afternoon, allowing attendees to keep their weekend free.

The seminars offer distinctive tracks for attendees from all three NCAA divisions, but also feature midweek Association-wide sessions – including a symposium on the major-infractions process – that will bring some extra energy to the seminars by setting up Wednesday morning as a peak attendance time.

“We hope attendees in the first half of the week will stay until Wednesday afternoon and those attending in the second half of the week will come in early, so that we have some crossover between Divisions I, II and III,” said Lynn Holzman, NCAA director of academic and membership affairs.

More than ever, the seminars offer attendees an opportunity to mingle with and learn from colleagues from other schools – including not only institutional and conference compliance administrators but also faculty athletics representatives and personnel involved in areas such as eligibility certification, financial aid and academic advising.

Each location will again offer division-specific segments, including a choice in each city of two segments for Division I attendees: Monday morning through Tuesday afternoon, or Wednesday afternoon through Friday morning.

One session in each city for Division III attendees runs Monday morning through Tuesday afternoon, while the Division II session in each city runs Wednesday afternoon through Friday morning.

The week may be shorter, but that doesn’t mean the seminars will offer less content. This year’s seminars again will present many of the sessions that have sought in past years to help the Association’s membership stay current on rules and procedures, but Holzman believes much of the programming is better organized into “tracks” that target levels of experience or areas of expertise.

“We heard from various constituencies that they’d like to have their own tracks,” Holzman said, offering as examples a Division I track recommended for personnel who are relatively new to compliance responsibilities, alongside another track focusing on academic issues.

The introductory track for recent compliance hires kicks off each Division I segment with a “Welcome to the World of Compliance” session and then a session titled “A Day in the Life of a New Compliance Administrator,” followed by sessions focusing on financial aid, progress toward degree, playing and practice seasons, newly adopted legislation, transfers, awards and benefits, and recruiting.

Other Division I sessions focus on a broad range of topics, including multiple offerings of the segment on newly adopted legislation. A complete schedule for the seminars can be found here.

Returning this year is an invitation-only “advanced program” for Division I compliance administrators who have five years or more of experience. Similarly, Division II will offer for the first time this year an invitation-only “hot issues” session for administrators with three or more years of compliance experience.

“We are continuing to be responsive to the various levels of experience of those who attend the seminars,” Holzman said.

Both Divisions II and III also address an assortment of topics during their segments of the seminars. In addition, the National Association of Division III Athletics Administrators will host its annual summer forum featuring a variety of professional-development topics June 2-3 in Anaheim, following the Division III segment of the seminar there.

Association-wide session topics on Wednesday morning include collaboration between athletics and student affairs, NCAA drug policies and programs, student-athlete advisory committees and resources, gender equity and the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act, and life-work balance.

That morning also brings a new feature: A symposium on major infractions that will include sessions on how to investigate violations and what to expect at infractions hearings, as well as a session in which Committee on Infractions and Infractions Appeals Committee representatives will discuss trends of recent years.

There are also times and space available during the seminars for conferences and groups to schedule meetings, if they wish to do so.

This year’s seminars will also see further efforts to “go green,” by eliminating the binders and handouts that have been provided to attendees in past years. Instead, all session materials will be posted online on the NCAA Web site, giving attendees the option to print the materials or bring them along on a laptop computer.

“We are committed to making sure the materials are available online at least two weeks in advance of the seminars,” Holzman said.

Holzman noted that laptop-recharging stations will be provided for those who bring a computer, and a “cyber café” will again be offered at the sites. Attendees will also receive a printed program that includes the schedule grid, outlines of new sessions, and space for taking notes.

Dates for the Division I segments in Atlanta are May 11-12 and May 13-15, and the dates in Anaheim are June 1-2 and June 3-5. The Division II segments will be May 13-15 in Atlanta and June 3-5 in Anaheim, and the Division III segments will be May 11-12 in Atlanta and June 1-2 in Anaheim.

The host hotels for the Regional Rules Seminars will be made known when registration opens. Holzman noted that registration is occurring about a month earlier this year than in the past, to help attendees in making travel plans and obtaining the best available air fares.