Welcome to sonomasoccer.org

7:00pm, April 1, 2009
At Common Bond. 172 West Napa Street, Sonoma

Directors Present (13): Lynn Abaté-Johnson, Jean-François Ducarroz, Vikki Griggs-Demmin, Rick Hicks, Sam Honey, Teri Miller, Edwin Richards, Dino Rossini, Stacey Schoeningh, Deidre Verdu, Mike Verdu, Jim Van Sickle, Phylis Wakefield. Not present: Antonio Alvarez, Karen Cline.

Also Present: Renée Caruso, Becky Jasperse, Greg Volker (part of meeting). Present for presentation and photographs Barbara Flajnik, Sam and Carol Morphy, Scott Walthard, Jim Witous. Mr. Witous stayed for some of the meeting.

Apologies for Absence:

Karen Cline

Public Comment

None. However, at the opening of the meeting Sam received checks from three businesses. In each case Sam thanked the donor, the board applauded and Lynn took photos. The generous donors were (in order of presentation) Scott Walthard ($500.00, Papa Murphy’s), Jim Witous ($200.00, Café Mac), Sam Morphy ($1,500.00, The Red Grape). Sam was accompanied by his wife Carol and Barbara Flajnik. Barbara is the widow of the late Joe Flajnik, who was very active in the Sonoma Soccer community. It is in Joe’s honor that Sam Morphy makes the donation.

Mission Moment

Lynn told of a recent scrimmage between Sonoma Rush U13G and Napa Olympico. She and others had been impressed by the sporting behavior of the Olympico coach. The coach not only shared his bench, but applauded whenever his opponents did something good and generally conducted himself in a commendable manner.

Approval of Minutes for March Board Meeting

The motion to approve the minutes was proposed by Jean-François, seconded by Phylis and carried without dissent.

President’s Remarks

Sam reported that he and his family had received a number of donations of food for Liz, his ex-wife currently battling cancer and staying at his home. These donations had come from the soccer community.

Lynn and Sam had both made appearances on the local radio station, KGO. Sam was invited back on again (as was Lynn). Lynn will be promoting the April 21 Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day.

Sam also thanked everybody for doing such a lot of work.

Vice-President’s Remarks

Vikki explained that she had been covering for Rick’s Fields and Insurance role. (Rick’s mother died recently, so Rick had been very much occupied.) Vikki reported that use of Prestwood and Adele had been approved by the schools, and was now awaiting the School District’s approval. She had requested additional use-hours for the Altimira field. The request to use High School fields had “disappeared,” but would be found.

Vikki met with Paul Tuohy (Assistant Principal at Sonoma Valley High School). Mr. Tuohy reminded her that visitors to the fields (players, parents etc.) should not park on MacArthur Lane, Davila Court, Eastin Drive or Denmark Street. He recognized Sam’s work ensuring that soccer people had not parked in these locations last year. “Park in the parking lots” was the conclusion. Mr. Tuohy also noted that soccer goals should be put back in the correct place after use. He also requested that the League use the new High School bathrooms (on the field, near the running track). Board members had reservations about this last request. Who would be responsible for locking the doors? Vikki said the High School would give us keys. This raised questions: how many keys? Who would have them? There were also concerns about being held responsible for vandalism and there was the issue of cleaning. The League currently rented portapotties during the season. Mr. Tuohy had suggested the League could donate to the school (some of) the money it saved by not renting portapotties. However, the League would still need to rent additional portapotties. Action items: Sam would find out portapotty rental costs (to help get a fair-market value of any potential donation for the High School restrooms). Vikki would follow up with the High School regarding responsibilities and cleaning.

Secretary’s Report

Edwin didn’t have anything to report as Secretary. However, he said that he had resumed checking the Soccer Hotline (telephone) messages on a more or less daily basis. He asked if the Select Committee wanted to continue to have their own (voice) mailbox: Apparently they didn’t check the mailbox much and didn’t have a use for it. Edwin wondered if the League should reduce their phone subscription to a single mailbox. He also asked if Anna Pier had received calls from Spanish speakers last year. Lynn said that Anna had. (Last year the main outgoing message on the hotline had a brief message in Spanish giving Anna Pier’s office number at Common Bond/ Sonoma Sol.) Edwin said he would reinstate the Spanish part of the message.

Registrar’s Report

Renée reported that since online registration had begun, in mid-March, 108 people had registered online and there had been some manual registration also. Total income from online registration to date was $7,730. From this, needed to be subtracted $439.11 for processing fees and LeagueOne fees. (LeagueOne provides the registration software we use.) No money had yet been deposited to the SVYSA bank account by LeagueOne. Some people also paid by check

Fees

Renée explained that the LeagueOne fee was $2.50 to $5.50 per player.

The credit card processing fee was about 3.75% of the total transaction.

It was suggested that next year we add a convenience fee for using a credit card. We could figure out the size of the fee based on this year’s costs.

Donations

The online form offered an opportunity to donate to the Field fund and to the Scholarship fund. To date $250 had been donated to one and $275 to another. However, as Renee only saw the donations as Misc 1 and Misc 2 respectively, she wasn’t sure which was which.

Other

Steve Piner District Registrar has announced there will be a training meeting for registrars.

Coaches can’t fill out form 1628 online, but they can download forms.

Tuesday April 7 was the first registration. Renee asked that people arrive at 5.30 p.m. with staplers and pens to help set up for the 6 p.m. start. Renee would bring a photocopier. The question as to whether we might be able to borrow Victor’s photocopier also was raised. It was also thought it might be useful to have a laptop with a broadband card to connect to the internet, but nobody seemed to have one of these.

Select Program Code of Conduct

The Code of Conduct wasn’t yet ready.

(NOTE: In fairness to Jim and Dino, they had told the Secretary the Code of Conduct was not ready before the meeting, but after the agenda had been sent out. However because the agenda needs distributing 72 hours in advance of the meeting and the Secretary had received Jim and Dino’s message less than 72 hours before the meeting, the item remained on the agenda. This is not a complaint against Jim and Dino, whose work for the League the Secretary greatly admires, just a reminder of the rules.)

There was an amendment to the “Select Teams Committee Guidelines” of 2.13.08. The amendment reads “The Sonoma Soccer Club can substitute other trainings or licenses to satifsy the F and E license requirements.”

Treasurer’s Report

Becky (Treasurer and Bookkeeper) had been able to distribute the Summary Report the day before the meeting and some Board members had taken the opportunity to contact her regarding items under the Income Division 1/3 section. The report showed some select teams had negative balances, however, according to Jim and Dino, these balances had all been taken care of and everybody was up to date. Becky invited people to contact her via email to sort things out.

The report was for the League’s fiscal year, which runs April 1 to March 31. Overall the report showed $90,601.89 in registration income, below the projected $116,000. However, the final loss was $1,668.33, better than many Board members had anticipated. It was agreed the issues concerning the select teams needed to be squared away and the report viewed by the accountant before any definitive observations could be made.

As of April 1, 2009 the League owed the registrar and bookkeeper about $2,300.

Becky’s contract had expired at the end of 2008. Due to work commitments, she did not want to renew her contract but had been filling the role until a new bookkeeper could be found. Consequently the Board needed to approve paying Becky for her work for the first calendar quarter of 2009. Lynn moved that Becky be paid for the first calendar quarter of 2009. Jim seconded and the motion was carried unanimously. Becky was thanked for her work.

Vikki reported that Kamala Abbott-Thompson was interested in the job, but was currently busy with taxes.

Youth Sporting Organization Update

Phylis, Vikki, Sam and Edwin had attended a meeting on March 18 along with Frank Lucchetti and Craig Martin. Attendance had been down on the previous meeting with numerous people giving Sam apologies close to the meeting time. In contemplating venues for a potential sports project, a problem attendees had faced was ignorance of property ownership in Sonoma. For example, who owned the land south of the Field of Dreams, the State or some other body? To address these and other basic knowledge and awareness issues, attendees had proposed a Sports Summit to which people knowledgeable about land ownership, past projects, the School District and local Youth sporting organizations, etc. would be invited. A date of May 13 had been provisionally proposed. There would need to be publicity.

Also of note, Craig Martin had suggested the group focus on one project that would bring the community together. Craig had suggested a swimming pool.

Any Other Reports

Coaching Coordinator

Mike Verdu announced he had scheduled an NSCAA (National Soccer Coaches Association of America) Advanced Regional coaching course for May 29-31. The intensive instruction would be at Hanna Boys Center and run from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday and from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The course was open to all coaches (and potential coaches) and they would have the opportunity to take the Advanced Regional Diploma. Mike said the course required a minimum of 15 attendees, but that there was no upper limit.

Mike’s initiative was greeted enthusiastically.

Mike asked if anybody would be able to host the course instructor (the instructor didn’t mind staying at somebody’s house).

Scholarship Guidelines and Applications
Lynn announced that scholarship guidelines and applications in English and Spanish were ready and circulated copies

Fundraising

Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day

Lynn talked about Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day, due to take place April 21. In this event, people are given free ice cream cones in the anticipation of a donation. The donation goes to the nominated beneficiaries, typically non-profits. This year SVYSA and the Stand By Me Mentoring Alliance are the beneficiaries. Ben & Jerry’s provides ice cream and cones, and organizes everything. The SVYSA just needs to supply scoopers and encourage people to show up. In addition there is an ice cream eating contest starting at 4 p.m. at the Plaza Amphitheatre. There are various team age groups, but basically the cost is $25 for a five person team. Lynn encouraged people to participate as scoopers, consumers, team organizers, team members, etc. They should also print and post flyers for the event.

Cinco de Mayo

This year Cinco de Mayo celebrations will take place 5.3.09. The SVYSA will have a table. Registration forms will be available, but the event was mainly an opportunity for outreach.

Balm Balls

Lynn announced that the lip-balm-in-a-miniature-soccer-ball-on-a-key –ring aka “balm ball” had arrived. There were 300 of them, priced at $5 each.

Any Other Business

U6 Practice

Deidre had been asked by a would-be U6 coach where the team could practice and when. The coach wanted to get started now, even though the teams had not been formed or assigned. The response was that at this time any U6 coaching activity would be not sanctioned by the League – the coach would just be a parent organizing play for some children and consequently should choose the field themselves and proceed under their own responsibility. The Board was impressed by the coach’s enthusiasm.

Photo Day

Photo Day will take place on Opening Day, August 29, 2009. We will use the same company as last year, because we have a contract with them.

Fingerprinting

Deidre asked if we needed more than one person from Livescan to take fingerprints for background checks on Opening Day. Edwin, who’d spent much of Opening Day last year at the booth next to the fingerprinting station, said he didn’t think there was a need for more than one person as there had seldom been a queue. Greg Volker said there had been a queue when he was there. Since it didn’t cost the League anything to have an additional Livescan representative present, it was agreed that Deidre should ask for two people (and two machines).

Also on the subject of fingerprinting, Phylis said she’d been asked by a parent who regularly drove children to soccer matches whether they (the parent) needed to be fingerprinted. The response was that the League did not have a specific policy on the fingerprinting drivers of players, but that the parent should be encouraged to be fingerprinted.

The meeting adjourned at 8.45p.m.