Directors Minutes (Archive) Minutes of June 2009 Board Meeting
| Minutes of June 2009 Board Meeting |
 |
 |
 |
| Friday, 14 August 2009 06:13 |
|
Sonoma Valley Youth Soccer Association 7:00pm, June 3, 2009
Directors Present (10): Lynn Abaté-Johnson, Vikki Griggs-Demmin, Rick Hicks, Sam Honey, Teri Miller, Edwin Richards, Dino Rossini, Stacey Schoeningh, Mike Verdu, Phylis Wakefield. Not present: Antonio Alvarez, Karen Cline, Jean-François Ducarroz, Jim Van Sickle, Deidre Verdu. Public Comment None. Apologies for Absence Renee Caruso, Jean-François Ducarroz, Jim Van Sickle, Deidre Verdu
Mission Moment Phylis provided three mission moments. Firstly, she wanted to praise Vikki for her dedication to arranging playing field use issues for spring games. Phylis praised Vikki’s follow through and communication skills.Great at follow through, communication. Secondly, she wanted to praise Damian, U16B coach for his flexibility in dealing with a change in playing field “I just want the boys to play,” was his statement. Thirdly she wanted to praise Jean-François. His Rush team played on Saturday, and an opposing coach acted loudly to a refereeing decision. The coach followed this up “loudly” via email. Jean-François “stayed above the fray” in both situations, keeping calm during the game and responding graciously to the coach’s email. Rick wanted to mention the NSCAA Coach’s Clinic at the weekend. Mike deserved a lot of credit for organizing the event. The instructors, Andrew Ransome, assisted by Jack Hyde, had been excellent. The coaches had spent a great two and a half days together. Rick felt it would be a weekend he would remember for the rest of his life. Vikki also wanted to praise Damian. Santos coach Danny has a small roster and some no-shows. Damian had responded to a request to lend Danny some eligible players, which Vikki found to be a very generous and spontaneous gesture.
Approval of Minutes Motion to approve May 6 minutes proposed by Lynn, seconded by Rick. Carried with none opposed and one abstention (Phylis).
President’s Remarks Sam commented on the tremendously successful extra registration at held at La Luz on May 21. 70 more players had registered, easily justifying the $40 paid to rent the hall. There was a general consensus that the location had played a big role. Lynn remarked on a “great synergy” during the event and speculated that holding registration at a place familiar to many, took some of the apprehension out of the registration process. It was agreed that next year at least one registration session should be held either at La Luz or close to it. Sassarini school, used three times for this year’s registration, was also good because it was accessible and had a spacious hall. Commenting on the importance of location, Rick remarked that the Boys and Girls Club used to be on First Street West, but following its move to Maxwell Park, attendance had tripled. Sam also noted a referee’s class graduated 24 people.
Vice-President’s Report Regarding the open bookkeeper position, Vikki said she had attempted to contact the three candidates. One had withdrawn their interest, one had not yet replied and one had agreed to meet with Vikki on June 9. Vikki invited others to attend and said she would send an email to board members with the time and location of the meeting. Vikki also reported a voicemail from Scott Singer of Hanna Boy’s Center. He had told Vikki that although most of the teams would be able to practice at Hanna per their requests, the League would not be able to use the room again for a coach’s course, because the room had not been left the way Hanna had wanted it left and trash had not been collected. This surprised board members who had attended the course, since an effort had been made to leave the room as it had been found, and while they did not know they were supposed to empty trash, they had certainly not left a mess. Teams using the field at Hanna will defer to the Special Olympics session when that is in progress.
Vikki reported that Deidre had talked to Jeff of “We Print You” about his giving a talk. He said he would want $200, which would cover travel expenses from Sacramento and lodging. It was agreed we should invite League coaches and the coaches from other youth sports organizations to the talk. The title would be something like “Risk Management for Youth Sports Organizations.” Deidre was delegated in absentia to set things up.
Secretary’s Report Edwin said that sometimes he added extra information to the minutes so that somebody not present at the meeting would be able to understand more easily what was being discussed by reading the minutes. His intent was to clarify, not misrepresent. Rick said that board members read the minutes and were able to approve them or not. So far all Edwin’s minutes had been approved, sometimes following amendments. Edwin wondered if anyone was interested in checking the Hotline. It was agreed that this was an activity that could be undertaken by a volunteer. The Scholarship committee would find volunteers.
Bookkeeper’s Report Lynn suggested that since we didn’t have a treasurer at present, the correct title for this section of the meeting was “Bookkeeper’s Report” rather than “Treasurer’s Report” which had been the title for the past few months, even though we hadn’t had a treasurer. Becky Jasperse (Bookkeeper) was not in attendance, but Edwin and others gave updates. (i) Money from the Halloween tournament has been disbursed to teams. Any teams with debts had the debt deducted from their disbursement (and thus received a smaller amount). There was about $300 left after the allocations. (ii) Vikki noted that Becky was being frustrated by coaches using “old” age groups when referring to a team. To refer to a team when communicating with the bookkeeper, people should use the age group the team will be in on August 1, 2009. (iii) Becky was going to be away from June 8 through June 21. She suggested (a) someone else could write checks (b) someone could download Quickbooks and takeover (c) everybody could get their requests for checks in prior to her going away. Sam said he would write any checks that need writing in Becky’s absence.
There was a question about what account Gaudencio (Field Liner) was paid from when he lined the field for US Club games. The answer was that per his contract he should be paid for from the benefiting team’s account (the home team he was lining for). If more than one team benefited from the same lining (e.g. had a game later that day on the same field) then the cost of field lining could be divided among the teams that benefited. Vikki would work to help Becky with this issue. (In a comment it was remarked that Gaudencio sometimes lined the fields late. Unfortunately, it was not always possible for Gaudencio to get onto the field the day before games (for example if the school was mowing the field) and in the mornings of games he had work to finish before he was able to mow.)
Registrar’s Report As of May 24 $42,975 had been received from online 563 online registrations. Online costs were $2766.72 (INCLUDING CREDIT CARD PROCESSING FEE?) An additional 571 players had registered manually (mainly through the walk-in registrations) for a total of 1134 players, about 200 more than this time last year. After scholarship deductions, about $99,600 had been collected. Our biggest period of registrations was between April 27 and May 10 when $12,400.00 had been received.
The period for regular registration had been extended to May 31, but was now over. Now, the $25 late fee would kick in automatically for online registrants. There was a discussion of late registrations. On the one hand, they added to the cost of playing, which might discourage late applications. Since the League wanted to ensure that all children who wanted to play soccer could play soccer, charging late fees was detrimental to this goal. However, on the other hand, if there was no penalty for signing up late, why should people sign up on time? Allowing late registrations without charging a late fee could increase the number of late registrations. Because of this, it was agreed that the late fee should stand. If there was a special situation, and/ or hardship the applicant could be referred to Lynn and the scholarship team. However, there were no more scholarships available and Renee should be instructed to charge the late fee. Phylis said she could help Renee with phone calls.
Outreach/ Fundraising/ Scholarships Lynn announced that the code of conduct had been translated into Spanish. Prior to printing signs and cards, she needed to get estimates on the cost. It was thought that “Wind Signs” might be purchased, though these were $200 per sign, including a stand. A sturdy stand was $80, $75 if purchased from Sonoma Sign and that company did the sign. It was estimated that a total of four signs would be good. It was thought it might be possible to get sponsors for signs.
Fundraising “Dine and Donate” would take place Monday June 15 at Mary’s Pizza, both the Boyes and downtown Sonoma locations. Lynn will prepare fliers and email them for people to download. Scholarships Scholarships are “wrapped up,” we came in just under budget. We still need to raise $5k more.
Coaching Coordinator’s Reports Renee, Mike, Stacey and Deidre will have a pre-meeting prior to next week’s agc meeting. Mike said that if we were to do the same as last year, we would need to have teams ready to give to coaches by the middle of July, so coaches could call players and start practices soon thereafter. Following the agc meeting, there would be a single meeting for coaches. Mike reiterated that the NSCAA course held May 29 to May 31 had been a great course. It had been a lot of fun for the 18 participating coaches and a great atmosphere had prevailed. Andrew Ransome, the main instructor, had been excellent and very helpful. Jack Hyde, Head Coach of Women’s Soccer at San Francisco State University had also participated some of the time as an instructor. Mike felt there was a need to keep going with the NSCAA program. Others who had attended the course echoed Mike’s comments and thanked Mike for his work in arranging the course.
Select Committee Report The Select Committee met May 14. They had discussed the issue raised at the May Board meeting concerning how coaches notified players of their selection or otherwise after select team try-outs. Dino reported that the Select Committee didn’t want to make a set of rules regarding how coaches did the notification, but did want to make sure that coaches were accessible following their decisions. Regarding “playing up,” also discussed at May’s Board Meeting, the Select Committee said they would look at numbers from last year and evaluate them. They were encouraging coaches to have only two players playing up. U11G and U12G teams might need to be combined due to a shortage of players.. Discipline for coaches: If there are discipline issues, the Select Committee will notify the coaches of such and advise behavior modification. If the coach, once notified, fails to comply with the suggestion, the Select Committee will pull the coach’s pass. Dino urged people to let him know of any issues via email. He noted that Becky, acting bookkeeper, had sent an email out to each select team, containing details of each team’s account status. This had been helpful.
Referee Coordinator’s Report Karen had been unable to attend the meeting. In the week prior to the meeting, Karen had made an online proposal that would allow coaches to object to referees scheduled to officiate at their games. There had been some online discussion. Karen had subsequently withdrawn the proposal, concluding that as referee coordinator, if she felt a referee was unsuitable for a game, she would ask said referee to voluntarily withdraw. If the referee did not withdraw voluntarily, the referee coordinator would withdraw them. (In the past, the referee scheduler scheduled all the referees. As of last season, referees schedule themselves online. Although this in many ways makes easier the jobs of the referee scheduler and referee coordinator, it does reduce their capacity to make commonsense judgments about referee suitability.) In the discussion it emerged that certain referees had “problems” with US Club, for example. In addition, coaches developed attitudes about referees which spread to players. It was agreed that the referee coordinator had been appointed by the board and was able to make decisions which the board implicitly backed. These decisions included barring a referee from officiating a given game. Rick said that under the rules for the PAD Committee, the referee coordinator could refer any matter they wanted to the PAD Committee with no filing fee (as could the SVYSA President). This enabled them to give greater airing to any matter they wished. Since we had a system in place, we should use it. If a referee felt they had been unfairly treated, the PAD Committee was there for them also.
Other Business Phylis had had an incident with a referee which had involved the referee shouting at her (before the game had started). She had asked Karen what her preference was about following up on the matter. Karen (referee coordinator) had said that she preferred to receive a letter from Phylis. Also, Karen had written to the referee warning him if there was a repetition of the behavior he would be banned from refereeing. Phylis said she would be making a formal complaint to the PAD committee.
New Business Sam had attended the recent High School graduation of his daughter. At the graduation ceremony, numerous scholarships had been given out. It occurred to Sam that the League should consider awarding a Scholarship or two, perhaps totaling $1000 to (a) graduating High School student(s) who had been a League soccer player. The criteria of the Scholarship could be discussed, but it needn’t necessarily go to the best players, but perhaps to those who had shown the best attitude. It was something to ponder, he suggested. Board members responded positively to the idea.
Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 9.30 p.m. |
| Last Updated on Thursday, 27 August 2009 10:37 |
