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Sonoma Valley Youth Soccer Association

Minutes for the Re-Scheduled Board Meeting

7:00pm, November 18, 2009

At Room 212, Sonoma Community Center, 276 East Napa Street, Sonoma

Note – the November Board Meeting originally set for 7 p.m. November 4, 2009 was re-scheduled to enable Board Members to attend the first round of High School North Coast Section Championship games which had also been scheduled for that evening. Most Members had attended either the boys’ game at Arnold Field or the girls’ game in Eureka.

Directors Present: Jean-François Ducarroz, Vikki Griggs-Demmin, Rick Hicks, Sam Honey, Teri Miller, Edwin Richards, Dino Rossini, Jim Van Sickle, Deidre Verdu, Mike Verdu

Directors Absent: Antonio Alvarez, Karen Cline, Lynn Abaté-Johnson, Stacey Schoeningh, Phylis Wakefield

Also Present: Conny Gustafson, Greg Volker

Apologies for Absence: (Board) Lynn Abaté-Johnson, Stacey Schoeningh, Phylis Wakefield; Registrar: Renee Caruso; Treasurer: Jennifer Rochlin.

Public Comment

None initially, though later Conny Gustafson, President of the Kiwanis, did speak to the Board (see below).

Mission Moment

Teri spoke about Emma Forsythe and her U14 girls rec team “We Are Heroes.” The team had lacked a coach, but Emma a 16 year old Junior at Justin-Siena (and U19 G Select player) stepped up to take the role. The team had “had a blast,” said Teri, and ended up winning the Valley Cup. Emma had been the feature of an article in the Sonoma Sun.

Approval of Minutes of October Board Meeting

The motion to accept the October minutes was proposed by Jean-François and seconded by Jim. It was carried without a dissenting vote.

Old Business – Report

Below are the action items from the October Board Meeting with their status. (Edwin read most of the items out during the meeting and recorded the status, which appears in parentheses after the item.)

1) Vikki to send out calendar for board members to sign up to be an "SVYSA presence" at the fields.  [done]

2) Phylis to draft letter to everyone about game snacks/drinks/nutrition, circulate to board for approval.  [done]

3) Sam to send out final version of Phylis's letter to all. [done]

4) Dino and Jim to assign Select teams their duties for the Halloween Tourney.  [done]

5) Greg to try out nets on the goals at Maxwell. [done]

6) Lynn to re-send the wish list for the Dora Lucatero snack bar to Stacey. [done]

7) Dino and Jim to talk with Soccer and Sports, get samples to show us and prices for shirts. [done, see also below, presentation of items postponed]

8) Lynn to get permission from the four (? so far) people who sent testimonials (about the things we are doing right this year) to post those letters on the website. [done]

9) Mike to send out email reminding coaches to save their banners and explain that we will have a "Banner Swap" next year. [done]

10) Edwin to set aside time in the November agenda to discuss the issues around the idea of a paid Director position.  [re-scheduled, discussion to focus on general “vision” for SVYSA future, see below]

11) Phylis to provide pizza for the November board meeting.  [Postponed to December – Phylis absent]

12) Scott to send out schedule of Halloween Tourney to Dino and Jim. [done]

13) Jen to finish reconciliations back to 2004. [unclear]

14) Vikki to make notes about changing Bookkeeper's contract in 2010 so that it includes keeping everything reconciled and up-to-date (so that whoever is VP will know to include that). [done]

15) Renee to send Jen the amounts that should be separated out of the registration income and delineated in two new accounts as scholarship donations and field development donations from online registration. [done]

16) Lynn to follow up with Jen to "find" the 5K that has already been raised for scholarships this year. [done]

17) Jen to merge Jimenez U14B and Jimenez U15B into one account. [unclear]

18) Karen to coordinate with Jen so that Jen knows which games are US Club (otherwise Jen does not know which account to take ref pay out of). [done]

19) Dino to get photos of Select teams from Sam, bring to Coaches' meeting. [done]

20) Mike to let all AGCs know that they need to pick up their photo packets from Sam. [done repeatedly]

21) Greg to figure out the plan to collect equipment this year and send it to Sam; Sam will send it out to all the coaches. [done]

22) Lynn to communicate with the Sun/Sol people to let them know that, as a gesture of gratitude from the Board for the meeting room, they will be in the Souvenir Program. [done]

23) Greg to find out which schools need some goals. [pending]

President’s Report – Including Valley Cup Report

Sam said that he couldn’t believe the season was over for most teams. It had been the fastest three months of his life. The season seemed to have gone very smoothly, with Alison Johnston’s role as referee scheduler being especially helpful. The Valley Cup had been one of the better ones and $212 profit had been made from T-Shirt sales there.

Sam thanked everybody on the board for their work, offered good luck wishes to teams still in tournaments and said he was looking forward to next year.

Vice President’s Report

Vikki reported that many teams were now practicing on Sonoma Developmental Center fields (which have floodlights). She thought it appropriate that we give them a donation. Rick and Jim said that the SDC staff had been extremely helpful and concurred that a donation was appropriate. Rick suggested donating a sum of $1,000. Jim and Dino said they would look into whether there was money still available in the Developmental Fund and if so how much. It was also remarked that the contract with the SDC stated that their fields were not to be used within 24 hours of rain. Dino said he would send an email warning team coaches to respect this stipulation.

Vikki also suggested that it was time to take action regarding the state of the High School field complex (the High School, Adele and Prestwood Fields). Some parents of the High School Varsity Team had complained about the poor condition of the fields to the Sonoma Valley Unified School District. The fields had not had any maintenance work done on them since late 2005 and that work had largely been negated by the flood on New Year’s Day, 2006. Vikki had met with Justin Frese (the District’s Assistant Superintendent for Business) along with Pamela Wiley and a parent. The School District was under severe financial constraints, but had expressed willingness to let the SVYSA move forward with field improvement. (As an aside, Vikki noted she had found four mentions in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat that disparaged the quality of the Sonoma fields.)

Sam, Vikki and Greg Volker had reviewed the work that needed to be done with contractors and had received two bids. It would cost about $20,000 to do the necessary work now, less for maintenance in subsequent years.

Board members expressed concern that if the SVYSA was to pay for field repair and maintenance, then any actions taken would have to be sustainable. For example, there was little point in performing work this winter if the fields were not going to be properly watered in drier months. Similarly, other users of the field complex needed to cooperate to ensure that any work performed was ultimately successful. The cooperation of football teams was felt to be critical.

Rick suggested that any work carried out be subject to a memorandum of understanding between the SVYSA and the School District, so that expectations and responsibilities were clear to all parties. He said he would work with Vikki on the memorandum.

The next steps were outlined. It was agreed that at least one more written bid be solicited. In addition to bidding on the field restoration process, bids would be solicited for ongoing maintenance. Sam and Vikki would go with the bids to the School District. A memorandum of understanding would be drawn up and signed. Work would be done.

The manner of financing the bid would be discussed at the next board meeting. Sam reminded the board that it had some money in the bank in the form of low interest bearing CDs; perhaps these could be used for the initial payment. It might also be possible to levy a $10 field improvement fee on next year’s players. Also, Vikki reported that Justin had suggested the SVYSA charge for parking in school parking lots during tournaments. Teri said charging for parking was common practice at tournaments and Dino thought that so long as people knew in advance that they would be charged for parking, they would accept the fee.

In summary, the general consensus was that the state of the fields was too poor to be ignored, but it was important to make sure that any action taken would be an efficient and ongoing solution to the problem.

Public Comment

Conny Gustafson, President of the Kiwanis Club of Sonoma said he had come to the meeting because he wanted to give the Board the opportunity to make Kiwanis members more aware of the SVYSA. As the largest philanthropic organization in Sonoma, the Kiwanis had the potential to help the SVYSA, but the League had been very quiet, Conny thought, and many Kiwani members were unaware of what the SVYSA was doing. (The organization had received many solicitations, but none from the SVYSA, despite the fact that the SVYSA had by far the biggest membership of youth sports groups in town.) The Kiwanis met weekly at Wednesday lunchtime at Meritage between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. Each meeting had a speaker who spoke for about 20 minutes and answered questions in a fairly informal atmosphere. Conny invited Sam to attend a meeting as his guest, with a view to perhaps addressing the group in January (additional Board members could attend and participate). As a piece of general advice, Conny suggested the Board publicize the SVYSA more in the local newspapers and let more people know what it was doing.

Sam expressed eagerness to meet with the Kiwanis and Conny was thanked for his visit.

Secretary’s Report

Edwin reported that he had provisionally booked room 110 at the Sonoma Community Center to hold the Annual Meeting on December 7. He said that he had not looked for other locations and that the Sonoma Community Center would cost money to use. He asked if anybody wanted to investigate other locations. Nobody did and there was general satisfaction expressed with the Community Center as a venue for the meeting. Edwin noted he would need to liaise with the Registrar to organize the vote. He also wanted an independent observer to be present and said he hoped Pamela Wiley might be able to help in this capacity, as she had done last year.

Last year people had been allowed to vote prior to the start of the meeting, during which candidates had given short speeches introducing themselves to the electorate (voting had opened at 6 p.m. and the meeting had started at 7 p.m.). It had been pointed out following the election that this undermined the idea of having candidates present themselves. Edwin said that this year he advocating not having voting in advance of the meeting. Rather, voting could start at 7 p.m. when the meeting started. This would enable people who just wanted to vote without listening to candidates to do so, but would also perhaps encourage people to listen to the candidates. Some Board members said they didn’t want to give speeches. It was decided that candidates could submit a short paragraph to the Secretary, which he would forward to the webmaster for posting on the website. This could be used to replace or supplement the speech as the candidate chose. To publicize the event Edwin had compiled an initial email notice to give notice of the Annual Meeting. Sam had sent the email to all members that he had email addresses for. Edwin said that Lynn had offered to help publicize the Annual Meeting and that he would be taking her up on her offer, particularly with regard to contacting local media.

Hotline – Edwin reported that Lynn had found a volunteer to check the hotline. Sherri Ammann is checking the hotline using up her volunteer hours.

Regarding the “vision” discussion, which, at the last Board Meeting, Phylis had offered to facilitate, Edwin reported that he had exchanged messages with Michael Mulcahy, former Vice-President of the Board who had been centrally involved in the long-range planning discussions for an earlier SVYSA Board. Michael had expressed a willingness to look for notes on prior discussions and attend the “vision” meeting. Phylis having notified the Secretary that she would be absent from today’s Board Meeting, the “vision” discussion had been postponed. Edwin asked those present if they wanted to have the discussion at the final meeting of the current board on December 2. There was general consensus that this would be appropriate. Board members, if they wanted, would have an opportunity to talk about how they envisaged the future of the SVYSA.

Note:

The following reports were scheduled on the agenda. By-laws require the agenda be posted 72 hours in advance of the Board Meeting. This has the advantage of preventing issues being placed on the agenda at the last moment. It has the disadvantage that Board members may be scheduled on the agenda to speak, yet may be unable to do so.

Registrar’s Report

None (the Registrar had sent her apologies).

Treasurer’s Report

None (the Treasurer had indicated she might be unable to attend and this turned out to be the case).

Halloween Tournament Report (see below)

Outreach Report

None (Lynn had sent her apologies)

Dora Lucatero Memorial Snack Bar Report

None (Stacey had sent her apologies)

Any Other Reports

Jim and Dino reported they had scheduled speakers from Soccer and Sport to give a presentation regarding T-Shirts for the League for the November Board meeting when it was originally planned for November 4. The speakers were willing to address the next meeting. It was agreed that the speakers could be invited in the new year, since this was not an urgent matter.

Coaching Coordinator Mike Verdu reported that he was receiving player evaluations from coaches. Those he received had been “great.” The meeting went off the record to discuss a personnel issue with which Mike said he would deal. Sam thanked Mike for his exceptional work as Coaching Coordinator.

Teri wondered if the (blank) player evaluation forms could be put online for coaches to access. Jean-François said that it would be possible, but he would require access to the database to link everything. Sam remarked that coaches often altered the format of the evaluation form that he sent out via email.

Halloween Tournament Report

Scott Miller (Tournament Director) said that he would like to do the same job again next year as he had “a lot of fun” in what had been ”an interesting experience.” 62 teams had entered the tournament, (51 applicants had been rejected). There had been 107 games on nine fields and only four reportable injuries (two at the High School, one at Adele, one at Maxwell). Scott had received two complaint emails. These had two themes: field conditions and young referees. Although some bills remained to be paid, Scott said he was hoping there would be $12,000 to $14,000 profit which could be divided among the select teams.

Sonoma Select teams, on the whole, had helped a lot in the running of the tournament.

Fund-raising activities (T-shirt sales, snack bar sales) seemed to be down in revenue. Jean-François noted the photo booth had only been present on Saturday afternoon, but he thought that most purchases were made on the final day of tournaments.

The entry fee had been $475 per team. Some members thought this should be raised to $500 next year, while others opposed any increase.

Scott said he would ask for a 64-team Halloween Tournament on the next application.

Dino suggested that holding one or two additional tournaments could be a significant source of income for the SVYSA.

Rick thanked Scott for organizing a successful tournament. The Board gave Scott a warm round of applause.

Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 8.53 p.m.

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