There are a couple of misperceptions in this thread, and I'd like to clarify how the singles program works.
It starts at the local level, with a tournament involving 4-8 players. The winner can advance to the regional level, if the qualifier board is processed by the LO and sent on to the national office. The LO has about a month to process the board and send it in.
The money for the board can be collected any number of ways. Each player on the board could pay an equal up-front fee ($12.50 if there are 8 players, as much as $25 if there are only 4). Each player could pay a per-match fee ($7 per match with 8 players, around $16 with just 4 players). The winner could pay the entire fee, so those who do not qualify don't pay anything. There are many other ways to collect the money, but the important thing is to collect enough to cover what has to be sent to the national office. The fee is for the local qualifier itself, it is not an entry fee to the regional event. There is no entry fee at the regional or national levels.
Some LO's incorporate singles qualifiers into their MVP tournament. Some of those who do so will pay the entire fee from the Player's Fund as part of the MVP program, while others give the winner the option of paying. If the winner chooses not to pay, the board is simply discarded and not processed/sent. In some cases, the winner is given some period of time (less than a month) to decide. There is NO option to pay at the regional site, because it is not an entry fee to the regional.
Once the board has been completed and the fees collected, the winner is given two tear-off cards, one to mail to the national office and one to keep. The one that's mailed notifies the national office that this player has won a singles qualifier and they should expect the paperwork and fees within the next month or so. This protects the player's eligibility, in case the board gets lost on the way to the LO (often the LO isn't the one running the board), or gets lost on the way from the LO to the national office.
The second card is kept by the player, and is called a "Regional Eligibility Certificate." It protects the player's eligibility in case there's a snafu at the national office and the player is accidentally left out of a regional. I have never seen this happen, but if it ever does the player is guaranteed an opportunity to play in a regional. On the back of this card, in print that's NOT fine, are the requirements for remaining eligible. There are only four requirements. (1) Notify your local League Operator that you have won a singles qualifier, (2) Remain a current APA/CPA member (pay your yearly membership fee), (3) Remain on the roster of a team in the format in which you qualified, and (4) Contact your local League Operator if you haven't received a regional information packet 30 days prior to the event.
That's it - four requirements. Actually, just three, if you consider that staying on a team means you will eventually pay your membership fee if it comes due before your regional. There isn't even a requirement to play another match before your regional. When I'm running the qualifier, I personally hand the winner the card and tell them to make sure they read the back. I specifically point out that they must stay on a team to remain qualified. I also tell them that if they fail to remain qualified, they will lose the money they paid.
A couple of months prior to each regional event (there are two a year, and the qualifying windows for those events close three months prior), the LO gets a list of players qualified from his/her area and is asked to verify skill levels and eligibility. It is then that we discover a qualified player failed to remain on a team. An entire session or more may have passed, at which time it is too late to "rescue" a player who couldn't read and follow the four requirements. Sometimes, it's only a few weeks, and in those cases I personally contact those players and do what's necessary to get them on a team. Sometimes that simply means finding a team with an open roster spot and contacting the captain to make sure they don't intend to fill that spot with a player who is actually going to play. Though I am not required to do this, I do it because the player paid money and wants to stay qualified. I can't speak for other LO's.
When the national office receives a processed board, they bill the LO for the fees. They have no idea how the fees were collected or how much the winner actually paid. Often times, neither does the LO, if they were not the ones actually running the qualifier. Regardless, the national office received the fees for literally thousands of boards, so imagine the hassle they would have to go through to refund different amounts to the hundreds (not exaggerating) of players who can't follow four instructions. Not that I'm saying they should, as the money was paid for the local qualifier, which actually happened.
As for the requirement to stay on a roster, it's not there to make sure APA "continues to get your money" for some period of time. The singles program is a benefit for APA members, and the national office often incurs a deficit to provide the program (yes, they lose money on it when participation is down, because they guarantee the payouts at nationals). As such, do you really think they want their loyal members to be knocked out at regionals or nationals by players who don't even play in the league? In addition, players who are required to remain on a roster tend to show up and play occasionally, so we as league operators get some data with which to gauge whether a player has improved since they qualified and should be playing at a higher skill level.
To cuetechasaurus, I feel bad that the LO responded the way she did on the phone. I don't know if she was reacting to your tone or not, but in either case she could have been a little more sympathetic. On the other hand, when that call comes in, there's really not much I can say except "I'm sorry, but there's really nothing I can do. You were informed of the requirements when you qualified and the money was sent to the national office months ago. You're free to contact them if you feel you deserve a refund."
By the way, most players don't know (even though it's printed right on the board) that the actual fee for a singles qualifier is $120. The LO is supposed to keep a portion of that as an "admin fee". The vast majority of LO's forego their portion of the fee to reduce the cost of the board for their players. In my area, we qualified over 200 players for singles a couple of years ago, before the economy went south. That's over $4000 in income that I gave up to keep my customers' costs down. It's not always about making as much as you can.
