Purpose
The purpose of the International Top Spinners Association (ITSA) is to promote the sport, game, art and hobby of playing with spinning tops, a universal toy.
In addition to organizing the World Spintop Contest and the World Spintop Online Contest, ITSA supports with grants and sometimes judges national contests and spinning top festivals around the world.
The bylaws can be found here:
http://spintops.org/public-docs/ITSA_bylaws.pdf
History
ITSA was first organized informally in 1990 by a group of US players, some of which had been playing for decades, lead by Walter Watts. In 2000 a new generation of players joined after a resurgence of top trick play. This coincided with the first World Spintop Contest organized by Dale Oliver, who had also started the World Yoyo Contest a few years prior. In 2015 ITSA was completely revamped under the impulse of Jim Boehm and Jorge Alcoz and incorporated in Texas as a non-profit organization (file number 802129823). That year it officially took over the organization of the World Spintop Contest from the International Yo-Yo Federation (IYYF). The World Spintop Contest has taken place every year uninterrupted since 2000 (during the covid pandemic it was done online).
Board of Directors
The directors are elected for 2 years at the General Annual Assembly. The current directors are:
- Chairman: Takahiko Hasegawa (Japan)
- Vice-Chairman: Jim Boehm (France)
- Treasurer: Dr. Jorge Alcoz (USA)
- Director: José Angel Simón (Spain)
- Director: Jorge Armando Giraldo (Colombia)
International Board
- Canada: Dr. Mark Leithead
- Colombia: Jorge Armando Giraldo
- Czech Republic: Jakub Konečný
- France: Ludovic Petit
- Hungary: Attila Oláh
- India: Dr. Sandeep Kate
- Japan: Takahiko Hasegawa
- Mexico: Open
- Spain: José Angel Simón
- USA: Mark Hayward