The Department of Intercollegiate Athletics sought the leadership of a 30-person volunteer committee to develop a process for Comcast Center seat adjustment process. The University Seat Adjustment Committee consisted of Terrapin Club members from every giving level, faculty, staff and alumni. The Committee held three meetings (April 18, 2006, April 25, 2006 and May 23, 2006) as it worked to develop a fair process for seat adjustment.

The following goals for the seat adjustment plan were established as principles to guide the process:

(1) To treat all Terpoint Donor season ticket holders fairly by establishing a plan that applies the same rules and guidelines to all.

(2) To best ensure that Terpoint Donor seat assignments in the Comcast Center continue to be reflective of the loyalty, longevity and generosity of individual Terrapin Club members, as measured by the objective Terpoint priority system that was approved by the Terrapin Club Board of Directors.

(3) To enable the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics to fund the annual scholarship bill and other student athlete priorities through gifts to the Terrapin Club.

(4) To establish a process that can be clearly communicated to Terrapin Club members, and reasonably managed by staff.

As the Committee began its work, notification of the process was shared with Terrapin Club members by broadcast email on April 20th. Feedback from Terrapin Club members and season ticket holders was encouraged.

The Committee was notified prior to its deliberations that the Terrapin Club Board of Directors had recommended and the Athletic Department had accepted a change to the Terpoint formula that enhances the Terpoints given to members for longevity in the Terrapin Club. See "Enhancements to Terpoints Formula" for details about this change.

After the Committee's second meeting, the preliminary recommendation was presented to the Terrapin Club Board of Directors for their input. At that time, a summary of the preliminary recommendation was shared with Terrapin Club members, giving them the opportunity to provide direct feedback on the plan to the Committee prior to the final recommendation being made. The preliminary recommendation was shared by broadcast email to Terrapin Club members with current email addresses and by mail to Terrapin Club members without current email addresses. Feedback from Terrapin Club members and season ticket holders was received and reviewed by the Committee.

During the third and final meeting of the University Seat Adjustment Committee, the following recommendation was made to the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics for the seat adjustment process.

1) A recommended number of Terpoints will be established as a threshold that existing season ticket holders must reach to maintain their status as a season ticket holder (Terpoint Donors)

2) Donors who have seats in Comcast Center for the 2007-08 season can retain seats somewhere in the building for the 2008-09 season by meeting this threshold number of Terpoints. This would apply only to the same number of seats the Terpoint Donor had in 2007-08. This is applicable only to maintaining the opportunity to purchase season tickets, not to a particular seat location.

3) Seat holders who do not meet the threshold number of Terpoints will lose the opportunity to purchase tickets if Terrapin Club members on the Men's Basketball waitlist with a higher Terpoint priority request tickets.

4) Seat locations are determined and assigned in straight Terpoint priority rank order. A specific time will be allotted to individuals to choose their respective seats.

5) Seats will be selected by donors via an online system or in person from a chart of the Comcast Center.

6) Terrapin Club members on the Men's Basketball waitlist who do not have season tickets in the 2007-08 season or are eligible for additional tickets based on their giving level and desire to acquire tickets for the 2008-09 season, may be able to do so should seats be available for donors at their priority ranking, after accounting for all Terpoint Donors who currently have seats in Comcast Center who also meet the threshold number of Terpoints. In addition, a number of seats have historically become available for each men's basketball season through natural attrition in the building.

7) The threshold number of Terpoints will be determined and published to season ticket holders well in advance of seat adjustment.

8) A separate threshold number of Terpoints will be determined for Red-White and Faculty/Staff Terrapin Club members who are existing season ticket holders in the identified Red-White and Faculty/Staff seating sections in the building.

The committee recommended that the next seat adjustment take place in 2008 as scheduled. It was further recommended that future seat adjustments be conducted on a four-year cycle rather than the current three-year cycle.

The Committee's final recommendation will be used for the adjustment of seat assignments for men's basketball in the summer of 2008, and will be published as the Seat Adjustment Process for Terpoint Donors and sent to all Terrapin Club members minimally a year before the seat adjustment will occur. The threshold number of Terpoints for the 2008-11 seating period will be announced in the publication.

Other Options Considered

During the committee meetings, the Committee reviewed a number of different seating options. One option was to recommend a plan similar to that used during the 2005 seat adjustment process. As in 2005, this plan would allow donors who maintained his or her Terpoint priority rank to likely renew the same or similar seat location. Another consideration was a plan that would allow donors to maintain similar seats by reaching a specific Terpoint target

Given the knowledge that the Terrapin Club Board of Directors had enhanced the Terpoints awarded for longevity, the Committee believed a plan including self-selection of seats in straight Terpoint priority rank order provided the best possible seat selection plan for Terpoint Donors.

Enhancement to Terpoint Formula

Over the past several years a significant number of loyal Terrapin Club members have expressed concern that a member's longevity is not rewarded sufficiently through the Terpoint formula. The plan recommended by the Terrapin Club Board of Directors in February 2006 and adopted by the Athletic Department increases the relative value of longevity of years of membership and years of season ticket purchase in the Terpoint formula. This change will go into effect in late July 2006. In August 2006, all members will be mailed a letter detailing their new Terpoints awarded for consecutive years of membership and years of season ticket purchase while a Terrapin Club member.

Current (In effect through June 30, 2006)	Terpoints/Per Year
Consecutive Years of Membership	8
Years of Season Ticket Purchase (per sport/per year)	4

Adopted Recommendations from Terrapin Club Board	Terpoints/Per Year
1 – 10 years of consecutive giving	8
11 – 20 years of consecutive giving	12
21 – 30 years of consecutive giving	16
31+ years of consecutive giving	20
Years of Season Ticket Purchase (per sport/per year)* (Football, Men's and Women's Basketball)	6

*Applies to the years the member was both a Terrapin Club member and a season ticket holder.

NOTE: The Terpoint thresholds for consecutive giving apply to all years of donating. For example, a donor who has been a Terrapin Club member for 10 consecutive years receives 8 Terpoints per year or 80 Terpoints. Once that donor reaches 11 years of consecutive giving, he/she receives 12 Terpoints per year or 132 Terpoints.