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Sonoma Valley Youth Soccer Association
Minutes for the Board Meeting

7:00pm, August 5, 2009
At Common Bond. 172 West Napa Street, Sonoma

Directors Present (12): Lynn Abaté-Johnson, Karen Cline, Jean-François Ducarroz, Rick Hicks, Sam Honey, Teri Miller, Edwin Richards, Dino Rossini, Stacey Schoeningh, Deidre Verdu, Jim Van Sickle, Phylis Wakefield.

Absent: Antonio Alvarez, Vikki Griggs-Demmin, Mike Verdu

Also Present: Renee Caruso, Jennifer Rochlin, Greg Volker

Apologies: None received.

Approval of Minutes

Motion to approve the minutes for the July 1, 2009 board meeting proposed by Lynn, seconded by Phylis. Carried without a dissenting vote.

Mission Moment

Lynn reported that she was inspired by the spirit of the Team Parent Meeting on 7.28.09. Team parents and coaches showed up, people asked and answered questions, filled out paperwork etc. all with aim of helping children play soccer. Lynn was appreciative of the whole process and said it felt good to be involved.

Vice President’s Remarks

Vikki was unwell, but had asked Phylis to bring a matter to the board’s attention on her behalf. Vikki had been asked to sign a check in excess of $2,000 for the purchase of shirts for coaches. She had been aware of the decision taken at the end of the last board meeting not to purchase shirts for coaches and wondered if the decision had been reversed. She did not sign the check. This brought up the first of two discussions on shirts for coaches.

Deidre said she thought the decision not to purchase shirts was based on the fact that we had enough shirts. However, the shirts remaining in the League’s possession were few and inappropriately sized for most coaches (either very small or very large). Jim and Phylis pointed out that the board had made the decision not to purchase shirts at the previous meeting on financial grounds.

Lynn said that she had ordered the shirts on Sam’s okay. She had wanted to make sure there were shirts to honor the coaches. There had been an email exchange and Sam had given her the okay to order the shirts. She did acknowledge that Edwin had emailed her and Sam to say that if somebody was going to order coaches’ shirts, then the purchase should be approved by the board (this had not happened).

Phylis asked if the shirts had been ordered. Lynn replied in the affirmative. The next question was whether the order could be cancelled. Lynn said she didn’t know, but could find out. Jim said that if we could cancel the order we should do so. If we couldn’t cancel the order, we would have to pay. Dino expressed discomfort with the fact that the board had taken a decision, which individuals had then changed. This seemed to defeat the purpose of having a board. Further discussion was postponed till the arrival of Sam, who had said he would be late to the meeting (and was).

Secretary’s Report

Nothing to report.

Referee Scheduler’s Report

Karen reported that there was another referee course starting Monday August 10 at 6 p.m. in the Notre Dame Room at Hanna Boy’s Center. 25 people aged 12 and above had signed up. This would be the last full referee’s course of the year, though there would be a two hour course for referees aged 10 and up who wanted to referee the U6 and U8 games.

Registrar’s Report

Renee reported that the League now had a total of 92 teams composed of 1221 players. The number of players was fluctuating due to ongoing drops and adds (players dropping out and signing up). 15 players still had some kind of documentation issue.

A common application mistake had been made by online registrants who had signed up, but then failed to print out and mail in their 1601s. Renee noted that if the online registrant has paid, it is possible for her (Renee) to print the 1601. If the registrant hasn’t paid, Renee has to call and/ or email them.

Renee was asked if anything could be done to make the online registration process clearer. She said that League 1, the provider of the registration software, claimed not to be able to change certain things about the form. However, Renee had been able to make some improvements, as a result of which she thought incomplete online applications fell from about 25% to about 10%.

Renee reported that registrants had made $985 in general donations and $1,205 in scholarship donations. The League had given $2,130 worth of sibling discounts and $10,145 worth of scholarships.

Collected income via registration was $108,116.

Renee reported that Rudy Bryson had told her that some Spanish speakers have contacted him with questions. Since Rudy was rather busy, he wondered if someone else was available to translate. Renee said that she had asked Rudy to continue, since the registration process was winding down.

Teri said that she could share a list of translators.

Renee was asked how she’d found the process of being registrar. She commented that in July her work hours at her non-Registrar job had been cut to part-time. Had this not happened she wondered how she could have got the registration work done since most days she was working on registrations from 2:00 p.m. to 11.30 p.m. There was a constant flow of work, with data entry taking up a lot of time.

Deidre, U6 age group coordinator (agc), said she thought having and sticking to deadlines was very important. Renee said she was now only moving players to balance numbers or to please a coach.

Phylis suggested having a debrief on the registration process. It was decided that Renee solicit feedback from agcs via email prior to the next board meeting. Based on the response she received, a decision could be made either to meet with the agcs or to bring their comments to the next board meeting. In any event, a focused discussion on the registration process was needed to review what worked and what needed to be improved. Renee was thanked for her work. On being registrar, she observed “It’s so much more than I thought.”

Select Coaching Committee Report

The committee had drawn up its policies and procedures and was ready to present them. It was proposed to send the policies out via email for board review, and depending on reaction to the email, the Committee would either revise the documentation or propose the board vote via email to accept it.

Coaching Report

This year the focus would be on developing the skills of those coaching younger players. Dino and Jim reported that Coaching Coordinator Mike (Verdu) and Brian Wirick were working to put together a curriculum for coaches of younger players; it was very important that coaches of U8 and U10 players teach their players correctly. The curriculum will give them an outline of the basics and a few drills. There would be two nights of a development program for coaches of younger players. It was proposed the program take place at the High School on the last two Mondays of August (24 and 31), subject to confirmation. Dino said when things were finalized, he would put something on the web. While the development program would be aimed at coaches of younger players, coaches of older teams who sought mentoring would be catered to on a team by team basis.

Fields and Insurance

Rick reported that two teams would be able to practice at the John Mesa Field, Sonoma Developmental Center. Rick said he would post the field’s availability on the website, but that any coach seeking to use the field needed to talk to Rick first. This was because there were a number of special procedures that needed to be followed. Rick said rather than post these he wanted to make sure that he reviewed them with any interested coach. Sam reported the John Mesa Field had a well-locked porta-potty.

Rick also announced that he had applied to use fields at Maxwell, Ernie Smith and Larson Parks. These should also be available by Saturday and would be listed on the website by Friday 08.07.09. He reminded everybody that only approved fields (listed on the website) should be used for practices and games. Anybody using other fields might expose the League to financial liabilities.

President’s Report

Sam reported he had attended a District V meeting. The main theme had been that District V wanted member Leagues to promote TOPSoccer. TOPSoccer is for people with special needs. The main idea is that children with special needs should be given the opportunity to play soccer. Sam reported he had seen up to 50 people with special needs participating in sport at the Hanna gym. He said promoting TOPSoccer in Sonoma was something that he wanted to do. He said he would get some information out to board members.

Bookkeeper’s Report

Jennifer Rochlin attended the meeting in her capacity as the new bookkeeper for the League. She presented a financial report in the format that had been used in the past. She said that such was not her preferred style of report and offered some samples of alternatives. A number of board members indicated they too would prefer a different format for the bookkeeper’s report. Jennifer said that she would be able to itemize income and expense for each select team and also show the consolidated situation for rec teams (which don’t normally have individual accounts).

The issue of tracking deposits in general and donations in particular was broached. At present people depositing checks and cash for select teams did not document the deposits in a uniform manner. Some depositors offered detailed descriptions of each item, while others just deposited the money. Such variation posed problems for the bookkeeper. Teri proposed a motion which allowed Jennifer to introduce the changes that she felt appropriate to operate efficiently as the League’s bookkeeper. Rick seconded and the motion was carried unanimously.

Jennifer said she would create a form to be used when making deposits and circulate it via email; Dino suggested she send it to the Select Committee co-chairs and they would make sure it reached the appropriate people associated with the select teams.

Jennifer also needed guidance as to which team accounts needed closing out and which were ongoing. She said she would email the relevant parties to get the required information.

Regarding donations to the League which required letters of acknowledgement, for courtesy and tax purposes, it was agreed that these should come from the bookkeeper. Lynn said she didn’t want Jennifer to be overwhelmed with this task and offered to help Jennifer if she needed assistance.

Jennifer noted she didn’t yet have a copy of the budget.

Finally, Jennifer announced that she now had an office at 103 East Napa Street, Sonoma, above Maya Restaurant. There was an entrance on East Napa Street that was open during office hours. Also, there was the possibility of entering via the backdoor of Maya Restaurant and climbing the stairs to access her office’s in and out box. This back door would be open while Maya was open (i.e. later than most office businesses). Jennifer was urged to layout a protocol to guide people in their dealings with her and to communicate this to the select committee chairs for onward dissemination.

Jean-François reminded Jennifer he needed her logo and address to post on the website. Jennifer indicated this would be forthcoming.

Team Parent Meeting Report

Stacey reported that about half the teams were represented at the 7.28.09 meeting for team parents. The date had clashed with a street party and opening day of the Sonoma County Fair. She added that team rosters hadn’t gone out early enough for the 7.28 date to make sense, but the meeting needed to happen when it did, particularly since Opening Day for the League was 8.22.09. Packets for the team parents had been distributed, lots of useful questions had been asked and answered and fingerprinting also took place (see below). Stacey suggested that next year agcs should assign team parents to teams, that way the coach would know who the team parent was immediately on receiving the roster.

Lynn asked if there was any way to communicate with people who were unable to make the meeting. Stacey said a number of packets for teams not represented at the meeting had been left at Renee’s house. Renee reported that most of these had been picked up. Some agcs had also taken packets to give out. Team parent meeting is a great place to give out 1601s to coaches.

It was stated that the team parent meeting was a good occasion to give out form 1601s (which contain player emergency contact and medical information, among other things).

An added feature of the meeting was that scholarship volunteers had been deployed as helpers. It was suggested that if the names of the volunteers hadn’t written down, somebody should do so. The assignment fell to Deidre. Stacey was thanked for her work.

Risk Management

Deidre reported 30-35 people had been fingerprinted for background checks by “We Print You” at the 7.28.09 team parent meeting, where information on the risk management program had been handed out with the team packet. She had already heard back from the company: the background checks had raised no issues. Deidre noted that this early feedback was possible partly because fewer organizations were doing fingerprinting at this time of year, speeding up the processing time. By Opening Day it was likely that the feedback from “We Print You” would be slower.

It had been hoped to have Jeff, owner of “We Print You,” give a talk on risk management and identifying predator behavior before this board meeting; however, he had been unavailable on the suggested dates. It was decided to try to get Jeff to come out on September 14 and encourage attendance from members of other local youth sporting organizations. Stacey thought she would be able to get use of the Pfeiffer Gym at the High School for the talk, provided the facility wasn’t already booked. Deidre was asked to contact Jeff again and to ask him if he could make September 14 work. In case he couldn’t, Deidre was encouraged to ask Jeff to provide dates close to then that did work for him.

Deidre said she needed a list of select coaches and rec coaches to track who needed to be fingerprinted.

Equipment

Greg reported that the first equipment handout had gone well, though he needed to reallocate some balls to U8 teams, which had been given the wrong size. Another issue was that handout day had coincided with Relay For Life. Stacey said that if that happened again it would be good to notify the Relay For Life organizers.

Other matters:

Greg had sent a hammer and stakes to Altimira to secure goals. He reported that he needed to buy a lock box (for storage) and more stakes and hammers for the securing of goals.

The board was pleased to hear that replacement of equipment (goals and flagposts) after use by select coaches was improving and only one coach had failed to observe protocol. This coach had apologized profusely for his error.

There were worries expressed about the usability of the Adele field for play. Jim and Dino said they would assess it on 08.06.09 and report back to Greg.

Greg’s contact at the Sonoma National Golf course had expressed willingness to help with field improvement. Water was the limiting factor for major improvements, so some actions would have to wait until there was rain.

Stacey suggested that goal nets should be numbered to avoid confusion during set up.

Shirts

The Board returned to the issue of shirts. The situation was recapped. Vikki was wondering why she had been asked to sign a check for shirts after the board had decided not to purchase shirts at the last board meeting. Lynn elaborated on her earlier statements. She thought it was important to “honor” the coaches by giving them shirts. Anticipating the team parents meeting, Lynn said she remembered the board’s decision, but thought that it had been taken based on the fact that there were enough shirts in stock. She approached Mike Verdu, who said (correctly) that he was not responsible for buying shirts (traditionally it has been the equipment manager who orders shirts for coaches). Lynn said she then contacted Sam to see if we had enough shirts to give out to coaches. Sam said we did not; shirts were last ordered in 2007. Lynn had then contacted Edwin to see if he had a copy of the budget to review whether the shirts were in the budget. Edwin had forwarded the copies of the budget which he had received as Secretary. These indicated that an allowance had been made for shirts (however, post-budget purchases of goals meant that the equipment budget was already overspent). As noted above, in his email reply to Lynn and Sam, Edwin had opined that any decision to purchase shirts for coaches should be ratified by the board since they had decided not to purchase shirts at the previous meeting. Lynn said she “got carried away.” She felt strongly that it wasn’t good if coaches weren’t given shirts, adding that Picture Day was approaching (implying coaches needed shirts for Picture Day). Lynn researched online suppliers of T-shirts, Mike supplied a design. The supplier could supply shirts for $10.71 per shirt. Lynn asked Sam for approval to get things done. Sam gave his approval. Lynn said she then ordered and paid for the shirts. She stressed she felt very strongly that coaches shirts would be of great benefit to the League, since they provided recognition for the coaches and reinforced community presence, they provided good will for good expense. She said that she was willing to fundraise to pay for the shirts and cover any shortfall from her own pocket.

Sam noted that providing shirts for coaches was “traditional.”

Jim said that the issue was not the shirts, it was that the board made a financial decision which had been ignored.

Deidre said she thought the board shouldn’t cancel the shirt order.

Greg noted that at equipment handout some coaches had asked about shirts. When he had told them there weren’t any this year “nobody raised an eyebrow.”

Phylis stated that the (board) process had been usurped. The issues were did the board want to order shirts. If so, how were we going to pay for them. She re-stated Vikki’s unwillingness to sign the check for shirts, since purchasing the shirts went against a board decision. Sam said this was a genuine mistake on his part and said he hadn’t seen Edwin’s email.

It was stated that if a board decision was being reversed, the board needed to be the reversers of the decision.

Edwin noted that while some coaches wore their shirts at games, others didn’t, so that while the image of all coaches being smartly and uniformly attired was a nice one, it hadn’t been the reality.

Greg said that everybody thought shirts were a good idea, but it was a question of money.

Dino suggested that since money that had been budgeted for player development would not be used, that money could be reallocated to cover the shirts purchase. (Last year, shoe bags with the SVYSA logo on them had been purchased and given out to the players who attended the player development sessions; this year the development focus was to be on offering training for coaches, rather than players, so money that had been allocated to cover some sort of player memento would not be used.)

Motion: to use money from the development program to pay for coaches’ shirts. Proposed by Dino, seconded by Jim. Carried.

It was suggested Mike Verdu contact coaches and tell them to wear the shirts once they had received them. Stacey joked that coaches who didn’t wear their new shirts should be fined, with fine money going to cover the cost of the shirts.

Karen pointed out that if coaches did wear their shirts, it would help referees to identify them.

Other Business

Sam wanted to know if the League wanted to hold the Honey tournament this year. If they did, he would help, but his difficult personal circumstances made it impossible for him to take the leadership role in tournament organization this year. If the tournament was to go ahead, somebody else would have to do the bulk of the work. Apparently only six teams from outside the League had so far applied to the tournament (although this is not abnormal since most Leagues have only just formed their teams at this stage of the year). It was suggested that the Board search for someone to lead the tournament and set a deadline of a week for that person to be found.

Edwin asked Sam whether, even if someone could be found to lead tournament organization, whether he wanted the tournament to go ahead. Sam replied that he did not, because he feared that he would end up having to run the tournament in any case. This being made clear, Jim proposed that the Honey Cup for this year be postponed until next year at the earliest. Phylis seconded. The motion was carried unanimously.

PAD Committee Report

The Board went into Closed session to review the decision of the 7.20.09 PAD Committee meeting. Rick presented the board with copies of the PAD Committee findings. These were read by members at the meeting and then returned to Rick.

Rick said he thought the PAD process had worked well and was proud of it. In reviewing the CYSA guidelines, he came to appreciate the thoroughness of thought that had gone into compiling them.

Sam thanked PAD committee for their work.

Phylis thanked Rick for his thoroughness throughout the PAD process.

The meeting adjourned at 9.40 p.m.