USA Ultimate Board of Directors Approve Restructuring

The USA Ultimate Board of Directors approved a restructuring of the organization’s Affiliate and State-Based Organization programs at its quarterly meeting this summer, the national governing body for the sport of ultimate has announced.

The primary goals include increased flexibility for local disc organizations and new and enhanced benefits for affiliate organizations, including more financial incentives. The updated model also includes a new volunteer role that comes with a stipend: state representatives. These new state-level volunteers will be responsible for establishing and expanding relationships with local disc organizations in their territory and will act as a liaison between their constituent disc organizations and the national governing body. Their primary goal will be to increase collaboration and open lines of communication between local organizers and USA Ultimate.

The recently approved model will go into effect beginning with the 2025 calendar year. The updates comes following the approval of USA Ultimate’s 2024–2026 Strategic Plan, which was launched last year. One of the four strategic priorities outlined in the plan is to “enhance local disc organization success,” which includes a plan to redesign the national infrastructure model which is currently comprised of SBO and affiliate partners.

The most notable change to the program is the evolution of the SBO model, in which existing SBOs will migrate into the new structure which combines all partner organizations into expanded and tier-defined affiliates.

As part of its rollout of the restructure, USA Ultimate will host town hall-style meetings via Zoom on August 22 and September 4 to explain the details of the model and answer any questions. The meetings are open to all interested disc organizations, including those who are currently a part of the SBO or affiliate programs, as well as those who would like more information about potential avenues of collaboration with USA Ultimate in the future.