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Sonoma Valley Youth Soccer Association

Minutes for the Board Meeting

7:00pm, December 2, 2009

At Common Bond, 172 West Napa Street, Sonoma

Directors Present: Lynn Abaté-Johnson, Karen Cline, Jean-François Ducarroz, Vikki Griggs-Demmin, Rick Hicks, Sam Honey, Teri Miller, Edwin Richards, Dino Rossini, Jim Van Sickle, Deidre Verdu, Mike Verdu, Phylis Wakefield

Directors Absent: Antonio Alvarez, Stacey Schoeningh,

Also Present: Renee Caruso, Jennifer Rochlin, Greg Volker

Apologies for Absence: Stacey Schoeningh.

Public Comment

None

Mission Moment

Sam reported that a student at Sonoma Valley High School, Sam Keechler, had written an email letter requesting a donation of soccer balls to send to Peru. As part of his social responsibility project for his Spanish class, Mr. Keechler would donate the balls to “a Latin American community who could use the balls for health and fitness.” That afternoon, Sam Honey had donated 300 old balls from the SVYSA. A copy of Mr. Keechler’s email will be attached to the hard copy of the minutes.

Phylis wanted to acknowledge the spirit and courage of the U13G Rush at a game in South San Jose on Saturday afternoon. Having played in Santa Rosa in the morning, Rush played a strong team in San Jose that needed to beat Rush at least 9-0. Rush had lost the game by an even heavier margin, but the players had never given up.

Approval of Minutes of November Board Meeting

The motion to accept the minutes of the November Board Meeting was proposed by Rick Hicks and seconded by Sam. It was carried without a dissenting vote.

Fields

Greg reported that he, Sam and Vikki had reviewed estimates for field repair of the High School complex (the High School, Adele and Prestwood fields). They felt the best estimate came from Scott Anderson Landscaping, the company that maintains the field at the Hanna Boys Center. Scott had researched the requirements for the fields and costed the job more thoroughly than other bidders. His estimate, over $19,000, was the highest, but included more items than the other submissions.

Jim asked whether Mr. Anderson would follow up after the initial work. Jim suggested that after the work was done, there be a walk-through at which point the board representatives would approve the work done (or not). Assuming initial approval, after 60 or 90 days, there would be an additional review to see if further work was needed. It was suggested that the payment structure be linked with the additional review.

Members were anxious to ensure that once the initial work had been done, ongoing maintenance should be carried out also.

Vikki and Greg noted that Scott Anderson’s bid for maintenance (after the initial work had been done) was quite expensive, including $722 to mow the fields. It was suggested that it might be possible to get donations of equipment and/ or labor for mowing, for example. Greg remarked that Scott Anderson was not placing a mark up on equipment that he proposed renting to do the work and would be amenable to using equipment from other sources.

The SVYSA has enough money in Certificates of Deposit to fund the project. However, the issue of maintenance was stressed as being important. Some wondered if other sporting organizations might contribute money. It also might be an opportunity to solicit grants and donations as it was a very focused project.

Motion: To accept the bid from Scott Anderson provided it not to exceed $20,000 with the understanding that there will be a meeting between representatives of the SVYSA and the School District to craft a memorandum of understanding. Proposed by Phylis, seconded by Dino. 10 in favor, two abstentions. Carried.

Action Items:

Rick, Vikki to draw up memorandum of understanding.

Vikki, Sam and possibly others to meet with Justin Frese and Erick of the School District. Work to start as soon as possible.

Additional maintenance and upkeep bids to be solicited.

Referee Coordinator’s Report

Karen thought the season had gone well from a refereeing standpoint. Alison, the Referee Scheduler, had put in a lot of work this year and had expressed tentatively willingness to the job again nest year. However, Alison had indicated that she would not be able to be present on every game day of the rec season in 2010, so some alternative arrangement would be needed, perhaps involving job-sharing. Karen said that though she (Karen) would not be able to serve on the board in 2010, she was willing to schedule the referee’s classes again. She also noted that the Treasurer/ Bookkeeper needed to make changes as the referees were not being paid on time.

Old Business Report

Edwin gave an update on the status of previous action items.

Action Items from 10.07.09

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

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

23) Greg to find out which schools need some goals. [Pending, possibly send to Peru to help Sam Beechler’s project]

New Action Items From 11.18.09

1) Sam/ Vikki/ Greg to try to solicit one more bid for field repair and maintenance. [Done]

2) Sam/ Vikki/ Greg to get estimates from bidders for cost of annual upkeep and maintenance of fields in years following the initial work. [Maintenance bid received from Scott Anderson, additional bids to be solicited]

3) Having obtained the bids, Sam and Vikki to meet with Justin Frese (School District) [Pending]

4) Rick and Vikki and any other interested party to craft a memorandum of understanding between the SVYSA and the School District in the event the SVYSA undertakes to work on the fields. [Pending]

5) Sam to attend a Kiwanis Club Wednesday meeting as Conny Gustafson's guest (to be arranged by Conny and Sam for a mutually convenient Wednesday lunchtime) [Sam attended a Kiwanis Club meeting on 12.02.09]

6) Edwin to see if Pamela Wiley is willing and able to be an independent observer at the Annual Meeting. [Done – Pamela accepts. Eamonn Fay also approached.]

7) Edwin to invite candidates for the election to submit a short paragraph about themselves to be posted on the website. [Done]

8) Edwin to attempt to publicize Annual Meeting in local media, with Lynn helping as she is able (she is “swamped”). [Done – Sonoma Index Tribune 11.24.09, Sonoma Sun 11.26.09]

9) Jim and Dino to tell Soccer and Sport representatives that we would like them to make their T-Shirt presentation to the new board in the new year, please. [Done]

President’s Report

Sam reported with sadness that a U8 player, Aiden Maloney, had died in a tragic road accident along with three other members of his family (father John, mother Susan, daughter Grace). Deidre suggested that the SVYSA make a donation in support of the family’s memory. Two causes were suggested (i) the Sonoma Community Center, where Susan Maloney was a board member (ii) the fund being set up to help cover the college expenses of Molly, John’s daughter from a prior marriage.

Motion to donate $250 total, $125 to the Sonoma Community Center and $125 to Molly’s college fund. Proposed by Deidre, seconded by Teri, carried unanimously.

Action items:

Lynn to write a note to accompany the check to each fund on behalf of the Board.

Jennifer to issue checks promptly to go with notes.

On a lighter note, Sam thanked Board members for a great year’s work. “This has been a good year,” he said.

Vice President’s Report

Vikki said she seconded Sam’s gratitude for the Board’s work. She had loved the Board and Board Meetings. “Thank you for being who you are,” she added.

Secretary’s Report

Edwin said he had already covered Secretary items in the review of Old Business. The fact that notice of the Annual Meeting had appeared in a newspaper of record at least ten days in advance of the meeting was important, he explained. The By-Laws require 20 percent of the membership to be present in order for there to be a quorum. This requirement is waived if notice of the meeting has been widely published at least 10 days in advance of the meeting.

Registrar’s Report

Renee said that a quirk of LeagueOne software was that it gave three different totals for the numbers of players registered. Depending on which report she consulted, the number of registrations was either 1,270, 1,263 or 1,253. The last number was used by the CYSA.

She reported that Coach Figueroa’s U12B Division 4 team was going to compete in the Founder’s Cup at Morgan Hill on December 12 and 13. Since Coach Figueroa was new to the Founder’s Cup, Renee had had to explain a number of administrative matters, including the binder. She had also explained the process to Dave Diamond the U12 AGC. Renee noted that the CYSA website was not as clear in giving guidance as it might be.

About ten people had offered feedback regarding online registration with most comments being positive and negative remarks confined to the difficulty with printing out forms.

Outreach/ Volunteer/ Dora Lucatero Memorial Snack Bar Report

Dora Lucatero Memorial Snack Bar

Lynn reported on Stacey’s behalf that the Dora Lucatero Memorial snack bar, had raised $1,526.50 at the Halloween Tournament. There had been a good show of community involvement, both from volunteers staffing the snack bar and from donations of produce. Stacey had been very successful in soliciting donations from businesses.

Meeting Room

Lynn said that Anna Pier of Common Bond had indicated that the Board might not be able to use the Common Bond meeting room in 2010 due to a scheduling conflict. This would become clear next year. Lynn suggested that in the event the Board be unable to use the Common Bond space, another organization or business might be willing to donate a meeting area.

Lynn’s Report

Lynn had submitted a report (SVYSA 2009 Recap) to the Board via email summarizing some of the many activities she had been involved in throughout the year. (Copy attached to the hard copy of the minutes.). She felt that Outreach and Communications had done a good job and could do more.

She felt that greater solidification of the SVYSA brand could be achieved.

Fundraising for scholarships went well. About $7,500 had been raised. Lynn recognized her fellow Scholarship Committee members Teri, Stacey and Deidre for their work in introducing the changes to the scholarship program. Perhaps the biggest innovation had been to end full scholarships and to equate scholarship dollars with an obligation to offer volunteer hours in return. People had been understanding of the change, Lynn reported, and very willing to offer volunteer time. There were a lot of volunteers who still had hours to be used up and some of these could be employed in 2010 registration sessions, Lynn suggested. She added that while some people had not been called upon to use up all their hours, others had donated their allocation and then gone beyond. She and Teri noted that people were willing to volunteer, the difficulty was contacting people and scheduling them to do work, training them etc. in short, harnessing their willingness.

Treasurer’s Report

Jennifer reported that she had now reconciled the SVYSA bank statements from 2004 through October 2010 “though the October bank statement was reconciled 20 minutes ago.”

She distributed a balance sheet (attached to hard copy of minutes). Sam noted that it looked like the SVYSA might be slightly profitable at the end of the fiscal year (March 31, 2010).

There were a number of issues still to be resolved. Jennifer said she had only just received a budget, which would obviously be helpful in her work. One of her quandaries was how to match the accounts in Quickbooks with the budget categories. Rick wondered if it would be compatible with the SVYSA’s financial reporting obligations to the IRS to close out the year and start with a new set of books (account categories, etc.). Jennifer said that it was. Edwin said that it was important to be able to understand what was going off by looking at the books, since while everybody involved with the SVYSA at the moment seemed honest, examples of embezzlement involving non-profits were legion.

Earlier in the evening, Board members had remarked that there were a number of checks that needed to be issued and some said they had sent emails to Jennifer and had not received replies. It had been remarked that Jennifer had been ill.

It was resolved that Sam and Vikki would meet with Jennifer to discuss the various matters arising and to help iron out things that needed ironing out.

Vision Discussion

Phylis had brought some materials relating to a vision discussion. She showed the materials, but the general consensus was that this would be a discussion about how to go about discussing a vision for the SVYSA, rather than an actual creation of a vision document.

One of Phylis’s items gave a definition of a vision statement, another was an example that Phylis had found online of a soccer club’s vision statement. Phylis also summarized some of the ideas Lynn had presented in her Recap email sent to Board members earlier in the day (see above). In addition she noted some of the items that had been submitted earlier in the day online by Michael Mulcahy. Michael, a member of a previous SVYSA Board had submitted a copy of the “SVYSA Core Ideology and Vision Statement” prepared in 2006. (A copy of this will be attached to the hard copy of the minutes.)

It was generally agreed that an actual vision discussion would be more appropriate in the New Year, for example on a Saturday morning, rather than at a Board meeting.

Examples of what the Board might do included to form short- and long-term vision guidelines, perhaps suggesting areas for the board to focus on. Jim and Dino said that such goals set by the Select Committee had been helpful in shaping that body’s progress.

Rick commented that the Boys and Girls Club went through such (vision) exercises every two or so years. He thought the exercises were helpful in fostering the long-term sustainability of the organization. In addition, he noted that the Boys and Girls Club fundraising for their new building had largely relied on a committee composed mainly not of current Board members. It was a question of pulling in expertise to help where it was needed.

It was also suggested that goals could define committees and encourage non-board members to get involved. Teri noted that there were 232 players awarded scholarships. All these players had parents/ guardians who willing to volunteer hours, but organizing them required a lot of work.

Phylis suggested having tables at registration where people receiving scholarships could go to sign up for a specific volunteer activity

Adjournment c. 9.35 p.m.

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