Through two decades, the NCAA’s annual Regional Rules Seminars have evolved into a “can’t miss” event that helps the Association’s membership stay current on rules and procedures.

Next year, the seminars will continue to build on their informative nature and pay more attention to such NCAA initiatives as going green — and give attendees a Saturday back, to boot.

The seminars will begin a day later next spring than in past years, in two cities that will be announced later this year. Rather than starting on Sunday, the seminars will open Monday morning and end by Friday afternoon.

So, more than 1,000 Divisions I and III attendees who previously have traveled on Saturday to arrive for the opening sessions now can wait a day to catch a plane or drive to the site. (At least that many more Divisions I and II attendees also attend sessions that begin during the latter part of the seminar week, pushing attendance at this year’s two sessions in Boston and San Antonio to approximately 2,500 registrants.)

“Sunday will be more of a travel day for participants and NCAA staff,” says Lynn Holzman, NCAA director of membership services. “That was done after feedback from the membership – people don’t necessarily like giving up their entire weekend.”

That doesn’t mean the seminars will offer less content – they constantly change from year to year to respond to attendees’ needs – or that the opportunity they offer to mingle and learn from colleagues will be slighted.

Through their history, the seminars have become an event similar in importance to the annual NCAA Convention – and arguably, for institutional and conference administrators who oversee such activities as rules compliance – more important.

Not unlike the Convention, they also offer another opportunity for the Association’s membership to gather together and share experiences and ideas. In recent years, seminar venues even have begun looking more like Convention sites, with NCAA signage and other “look and feel” touches.

“Since restructuring, as we’ve seen issues and concepts become more federated, our seminars have responded – particularly over the past couple of years in which we’ve offered division-specific tracks,” Holzman said. “But there also are opportunities to hit on Association-wide issues or divisional issues, like gender equity or this year’s Division III Town Hall Meetings on membership growth, that people who wear multiple hats on campuses need information about.”

In addition to enjoying a free Saturday, next year’s attendees also will see a more pronounced move toward saving paper as the Association begins offering more materials online to serve efforts to become more environmentally friendly. All session documents are being posted online in advance, permitting attendees to choose and limit the materials they might wish to print for use at the seminars (then drop off in handy recycling containers when they no longer are needed).

“We’re exploring other ways of providing that information through technological means,” Holzman said. “For example, rather than provide the binders we’ve given registrants in the past, we simply could provide them a page in a booklet with an outline of what we’re going to cover in a session – a place to keep handwritten notes. We may be able provide (online) access to some of our resources in the hotel ballroom, so you can bring your laptop and see the material on your screen as we’re talking about it.”