News

The IQA is excited to announce several changes to the Board of Trustees.  There are four new trustees who will join the board and help shape the future of the sport. The new trustees joining the organization are Andy Marmer, Negra Flores, Ariel Heiblum, and Marc Alcalà-i-Rams. They will serve for a term of three years and bring a wealth of experience and expertise to the IQA.

In March 2023, following the 2023 Annual Assembly, Chris Lau, Kym Couch and Borja Arbosa’s terms as Trustees ended. 

Andy Marmer is the Chair of the Board of Trustees and is very familiar with the IQA. Andy has held a variety of positions in quadball and has served as chair of the IQA Name Change Committee.  He previously served as interim executive director of the IQA from July 2018 until March 2019 and as a member of the IQA board of trustees from 2017 until the end of his term in 2019.  In 2022, Andy re-joined the IQA for several months after being appointed Interim Chief of Staff for a second time until Aaron Carroll took over as Executive Director in 2023. Andy has been responsible for several accomplishments of the IQA: legal incorporation and the drafting of the IQA constitution, creation of the new IQA branding, releases of a new rulebook, creation of a new IQA website and the list goes on. Andy has a strong vision for wanting to improve the IQA and the worldwide perception of the organization. 

Andy says: “I’m excited to join the board and for my position as chair. We have an exceptional group of new trustees who have been amongst the leaders in the sport for many years and I think will bring a great perspective and leadership to the IQA!”

Negra Flores will take on the position of Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees. She is also currently the expansion manager at the IQA, and is the former president (2020-2022) of the Federación Deportiva Peruana de Quidditch. She is an interior architect and is also skilled in graphic design. She has been promoting quidditch in Peru and has talked about its development and growth in the country. Negra is passionate about spreading the joy of quadball to new regions and communities. She works closely with local partners, volunteers, and media to organize events and tournaments that showcase the diversity of quadball. She also strives to promote diversity and inclusion in sports, by ensuring that everyone has a chance to participate and enjoy regardless of their background, ability, or identity. Negra believes that sports can be a powerful tool for social change and empowerment.

Negra says: “This sport is a "one of a kind" environment, with a contagious potential and which I have learned to appreciate over time. I value this opportunity very much, I worked hard for my NGB and now I hope to do it for the IQA.”

Ariel Heiblum is the Treasurer of the Board of Trustees. Ariel first discovered quadball in 2012 when he joined the team at Rice University in Houston, Texas. After graduating, he returned to Mexico City and played a key role in developing the sport there. He co-founded the Liga Metropolitana del Valle de México and served as vice-president of Quidditch Mexico from 2014-2017. In 2015, he worked as a Spanish Translator with the IQA. In 2018, he was the video producer for the World Cup in Florence, where he coordinated volunteers and equipment to film as many games as possible and uploaded the footage to YouTube. Currently, he is QMX’s IQA liaison and a consultant for their executive board. He is also the head coach for the Mexican national quadball team and has been involved with every iteration of the team as either a player or coach. In addition to his coaching and administrative roles, he produces quadball highlight reels on his YouTube channel, Alchemy Video, and has volunteered as a photographer for USQ. He has been an official player in both QMX and USQ, but never at the same time.

Ariel says: “Quadball has been an amazing and important part of my life, and I'm excited to help the sport continue to flourish.”

Marc Alcalà-i-Rams is the Vice-Secretary of the Board of Trustees.  Marc has been actively involved in the quadball community since 2016. He founded and served as president of the UAB Quidditch Club – Autònoma’s Ashwinders, a university club in Barcelona. In 2017, he joined the IQA as head of the Catalan Translation Team in the Communication and Technology Department. During 2017-2018, he also worked as an Administrative Assistant to the Executive Manager of Quidditch Europe. In addition to his administrative roles, Marc has also been an active player. He played for the Seoul Puffskeins - SNU Quidditch Team and the Korean national team in 2017-2018, where he helped with various tasks and met members of the Hong Kong Quidditch Association. In 2018-2019, he served as president of the Associació de Quidditch de Catalunya (Catalan NGB) and is currently its secretary.

Marc says: "Since I started playing I have witnessed some of the most important changes in the sport of quadball, and now I am thankful for the chance to take an active part in the promising developments that will come."

Luke Derrick, who was already a Trustee, will be taking on the position of Secretary. 

As we conclude the term of our outgoing Trustees, we would like to express our sincere gratitude and appreciation to them. They have served our organization with dedication and excellence. We thank them for their valuable contributions and guidance, and we wish them all the best in their future endeavors. 

The IQA also warmly welcomes our new Trustees, who bring with them diverse skills, experiences, and perspectives. We look forward to working with them to advance our mission and vision, and to create a positive impact in our community. We are confident that together, we will continue to grow and thrive as an organization.

Changes to the IQA Board: New & Departing Trustees

The IQA Rules Department has open positions available on both the Rules Team and Rules Committee, and is specifically focused on candidates who will improve both gender and geographical diversity within both of these groups. 

These two groups are central to the process of amending the IQA rulebook.

Applications for the Rules Team are now open, and will be filled on a rolling basis, with a hard closing date of March 26th.

Members of the Rules Team will have the following responsibilities:

Review and debate external and internal proposals for changes to the rules for the 2023-24 rulebook, with approved rules being sent to the full Rules Committee.

Craft wording to apply approved proposals to the IQA rulebook.

Update the Casebook for the 2023-24 rules.

Serve on the Rules Committee (See below).

This team requires roughly 2 hours a week from the end of March through mid to late June.  Additional, less regular meetings in the second half of the year also occur, including any Rules Committee meetings. Regular attendance is required, but perfect attendance is not. Meeting times are scheduled on weekends around the availability of the full team.

There is a common misconception that the IQA Rules Team is only looking for applicants with officiating experience, or who are extremely knowledgeable of the rules, however this is not true. The Rules Team values a diversity of perspectives. As such, a volunteer does not need a highly detailed understanding of the rulebook to be a strong contributor to the process. While the rules team does need, and currently has, volunteers who have a highly detailed understanding of the rules, this is not required from all members. A basic working knowledge of the rules is sufficient to be able to judge what can help make the sport better.  Individuals who have played quadball for a year will have that level of knowledge of the rules. With this in mind, the following are the requirements for applicants applying for the rules team:

Have been involved in the sport for at least 12 months

Have a basic working understanding of the rules

Care about the rules generally and about the impact of the rules on the wider community

This team would ideally be fully staffed with 8 members, and represent a diverse range of experience levels, genders, and geographical regions. However, during the last two cycles, applications were lacking in diversity.  This was particularly true of gender diversity.  While efforts have been made in the past two cycles to specifically recruit more gender diversity in the applicant pool, these previous attempts have failed to meet the IQA’s goals, and the Rules Team has held positions open, running at its minimum size during the last two cycles, in order to ease future attempts at increasing diversity. In an effort to promote greater diversity in applications this cycle, the IQA is explicitly and publicly stating that the goal of improving gender diversity on the Rules Team is a primary focus in the application process, and directly calling for applicants who would improve the gender diversity of the team.  While applicants of all genders are welcome, the IQA will be showing strong preference for women, non-binary candidates, and transgender candidates of any gender.

Applications for the Rules Committee are also now open for at-large positions.  This will be a rolling application process and will close on April 16th.

The Rules Committee is a larger group, with a size dependent on NGB participation.  In the previous rules cycle, this group consisted of a total of 19 members, including the official NGB representatives.  This group has the following responsibilities:

Review the proposals of the IQA Rules Team.

Suggest revisions to IQA Rules Team proposals

Approve or block IQA Rules Team proposals

Approve or block the requests of participating NGBs for local amendments to the new rulebook.

During the last cycle, this committee met a total of 5 times for approximately 2 hours each time after discussing and debating the proposals in internal online threads in advance of those meetings, which occurred between June and August.  However adjustments to this committee’s procedures are expected to reduce the number of live meetings.

Due to the size of the team, meeting scheduling is not as likely to accommodate all members.  Meeting times will be adjusted to ensure as many members can access as many meetings as possible and meetings are held on weekends to avoid common work hours, but members are able to fully participate and vote without attending meetings, and meeting attendance is not required.

The IQA is also focused on ensuring a diverse range of genders and geographical regions are represented in the at-large portion of the Rules Committee.  Due to the number of expected positions available for this team, however, there are no specific stated preferences for applicants at this time. Nevertheless, people with historically underrepresented genders and geographical backgrounds are encouraged to apply. 

Applications to both teams can be submitted here.

Improving the gender diversity of these teams is a priority for the IQA. Although efforts have been made in the past to increase diversity, these have largely been unsuccessful. As such, the IQA is making its interests known publicly in an attempt to draw more interest from a more diverse range of people. The IQA encourages readers of this article to share it with anyone they may know who may be interested in working on the rules of this sport.

If anyone has any questions, please email gameplay@iqasport.org, or reach out to the rules manager, Michael Clark-Polner.

Rules Team & Rules Committee Open Positions

The rules tests for the 2022-23 rulebook are now available.  Along with the new tests, there have been some changes to the nature of the tests and the testing system.

The most significant changes are in the recertification tests. First, recertification tests will now only offer a single attempt to pass.  If any recertification test is failed once, the referee candidate will need to go through the normal initial certification tests.

Additionally pass rating has been increased to 85% for the recertification tests only.  Initial certification tests will remain at 80%.  This is in part due to the fact that the focus of the recertification tests is completely on the changed rules.  While not every question will have an answer that has changed with the new rulebook, every question will be related to changes.

Finally, there will be no recertification test for scorekeeper/timekeeper certification.  This certification will be held separately, is a shorter test, and rarely has enough changes to run its own test just on changes.  Therefore, members wishing to recertify as timekeepers or scorekeepers will simply take the original test again.  The IQA Officials Team will review the need for continued retesting on scorekeepers and timekeepers in the future.

Please note that as the site works now, any official who currently has 2020-22 head referee certification will only be able to see the recertification tests after they pay the head referee testing fee.  Any 2020-22 head referee who would like to take the recertification test but would only like to certify as an assistant referee or flag referee this year, should reach out to the gameplay department directly so that their 2020-22 certifications may be adjusted to allow access to the AR or SR certification tests.  They may also simply take the initial certification tests instead up to their desired level.

On the initial certification tests, there are fewer adjustments.  However, the focus of the tests have been adjusted to remove cases where the information would be easily and appropriately checked in the rulebook in real time any time they would reasonably come up.  This largely consists of the removal of field setup related questions from the tests.  While our officials may at times assist with field set up, and may be required to check a field, these would generally occur prior to the event.  It is appropriate to consult the rulebook to double check the dimensions during field setup.  So while it is useful to know such information, it is not necessary to memorize it to be able to officiate a match well.  Therefore such questions have been removed.

Candidates will have 6 total attempts at each level of the initial certification tests, and will continue to need to take the assistant referee, flag referee, and head referee tests in that order to progress (paying the testing fee is also required to access the HR test).  However, the scorekeeper and timekeeper test is no longer a prerequisite for taking any of the other tests.  If a candidate fails 6 tests of a single level (SK/TK, AR, FR, or HR), they will not be able to attempt to gain that certification again until the tests for the following rulebook come out.

The tests are currently only available in English.  However teams are currently working hard on translating them into French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese, and will become available as soon as that work is finished.  The tests for the 2020-22 rulebook will remain available in each language until the equivalent 2023 test is officially released for that language.

The IQA is aware of the fact that these tests have been significantly delayed.  This is largely due to the fact that shortly after the rulebook was released, there were no volunteers left in the IQA Officials Team.  Volunteers from other departments and from outside the IQA came together to make these tests happen, and will maintain the testing system for now.  However, the IQA would prefer to have this department fully staffed again to ensure efficient and effective operations of certification and the resumption of officials training.  If you are interested in joining the Officials Team to help with future testing and training, please apply to join the IQA here.

Rules Tests Available Announcement

The IQA is happy to announce that Aaron Carroll has been appointed as Executive Director (the former Chief of Staff role)!

Aaron has been with the IQA since 2020, and has held numerous roles such as Deputy Director of Human Resources, Director of Human Resources, Director of Operations and Human Resources, Finance Manager, and Deputy Director of Operations. He has also been involved in several committees such as Harassment Complaint, Event Bidding and Selection, and Finance.

Prior to joining the IQA, Aaron served as the Chief Administrative Officer of the Quidditch Post from 2016-2020, and has also volunteered with US Quadball as event staff at the Midwest Regional Championship. He brings a wealth of experience in non-profit management from his involvement with organizations such as the American Public Health Association, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Future Business Leaders of America – Phi Beta Lambda, and the March of Dimes. He is also a holder of a Master of Public Health (University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Class of 2015) with an emphasis in health policy and management, and has an extensive background in quality and process improvement activities that improve clinic workflow and patient outcomes.

"I'm confident that Aaron has all the tools to succeed in this role and am delighted to be able to pass it off to him", Andy Marmer (former Interim Chief of Staff) said. 

We are looking forward to Aaron's leadership in this new role, and are confident that he will bring his many talents to the table in order to further advance the mission and goals of the IQA.

IQA announces new Executive Director

We are excited to be releasing the Roster Eligibility Exceptions for IQA World Cup 2023! If you have any other questions about eligibility or other event policies, please don’t hesitate to reach out through events@iqasport.org.

RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT - The IQA will be waiving the Residency Requirement from the Events Roster Policy for all national teams participating in the IQA World Cup 2023. As such, no rosters for this event will have a required minimum number of athletes who are full-time residents. The Minimum Roster Size and Gender Balance provisions of the Events Roster Policy, as well as the National Team eligibility criteria for athletes as outlined in the Events Eligibility Policy, still apply. Following this World Cup cycle, the IQA Events and Membership departments will be reviewing the policy further in consideration of lasting changes to the Residency Requirement.

MULTIPLE NATIONAL TEAMS UNDER AN NGB - As the only national teams previously approved under this provision of the Events Eligibility Policy, the IQA is approving the requests from England, Scotland, and Wales to continue competing separately at the IQA World Cup 2023. The eligibility of these national teams for this event will be evaluated independently from one another and the IQA Events department will be reviewing the policy further in consideration of allowing for the approval of a Multiple National Teams application to last beyond a singular IQA event.

NON-MEMBER NATIONAL TEAMS - The IQA currently has 19 Full Members and 15 Associate Members, all of whom that are in good standing are eligible to send national teams to compete in the IQA World Cup 2023. The IQA Membership department is currently evaluating the Membership Status System, including exploring a formal process for how the IQA recognizes entities in the process of developing a governing body. As it stands, no other entities will have automatic eligibility to participate in IQA events. If any entity that is not one of the IQA’s 34 members is interested in participating in the IQA World Cup 2023, an application form will be released alongside the full registration for the event later this month; all submissions will be considered by the IQA Events department. If at the end of the registration period, multiple entities have submitted an application to represent the same group, the IQA will determine if one, multiple, or none of the entities will be allowed to compete

The Roster Eligibility Exceptions can also be found here and under Documents & Policies. 
Translations of the document can be found here: French, German and Spanish.

IQA World Cup 2023 Roster Eligibility Exceptions

The International Quidditch Association (IQA) is looking for new trustees to serve on its Board. Interested persons should read the below carefully and make an application by 31 January 2023. 

A trustee election will be held during the Annual Assembly, tentatively to be held in March 2023. The Chair of the IQA is now inviting applications to facilitate the election.

Currently, trustees are expected to exercise oversight and set strategic directions for the IQA, while day-to-day management of the IQA is delegated to the directors. However, trustees are elected by the Full Member NGBs and have the power to decide how best to divide roles and responsibilities within the IQA in the future.

NGB representatives or members of the public who have questions, comments, or feedback are encouraged to send an email to trustees@iqasport.org.

Applicants should email trustees@iqasport.org with the following information:

Cover Letter, addressing:
What is your motivation to apply as a Trustee?
What do you see as the future of the IQA and quidditch in general?
How do you want to achieve this?
What skills would you bring to the role of Trustee?

OPTIONAL: Letter of recommendation from an NGB/quidditch organization itself or from person(s) who served or is serving in an NGB/quidditch organization
Candidates may apply directly without an NGB/personal recommendation.  
An NGB/person may recommend more than one candidate. 
Any NGB may recommend any candidate, regardless of their country of residence.
The recommendation must be sent in by the recommending party (e.g. NGB or person) directly. Recommendations forwarded by the candidate will not be accepted.

Interviews with candidates will be conducted (if deemed appropriate) on a rolling basis as applications are received.

The CV, motivation letter and NGB recommendations of all candidates that applied will be shared with NGB representatives and other candidates.

NGB representatives are welcomed to propose questions to the candidates. We will help forward those questions to the candidates and forward their responses to the NGBs.

During the trustee election at the Annual Assembly:

Candidates are welcomed to attend the Assembly Meeting to answer any questions that NGBs may have. NGBs are strongly encouraged to send in advance to us the questions they want the candidates to address.

To officially enter the election, an applicant must be nominated by a Full Member NGB at the Special Assembly. 

Full Member NGBs of the IQA will by voting elect the new Trustees, in accordance with the Constitution.