Sonoma County Alliance Soccer Club - SCA Board Meeting Minutes

SCA Board Meeting Minutes
June 12, 2006

I.   Call to Order at 6:13 p.m.

II.   Meeting minutes from David Rabbitt approved by Tony, Rick, Terry, Josh, Katja, Gina

III.   Treasurer’s Report - Terry Caton advised the Board the 96B White team has a situation with 2 players on PA that have not yet paid. Additionally, there are three families that don’t want to pay for Hoek Camp because they won’t be attending. Discussion on team management and protocol.

Several other teams have players who have either joined late and are behind in fees and/or players who are behind in fees including registration.   Need roadmap and milestones for players in arrears. Josh, Gina, David, Dana, and Eileen – PA Committee to discuss policy for next year and present to Board. Terry to provide list of players this year and the amount due and owing.

June 11, 2006 Balance   $95,895.00
“Old” Checking Accnt        7,425.00

Receipts from teams not timely. Equipment – 1st Aid Kits on Back Order. 95G – Checks holding, 89B same. Budget approved, as revised 5/23/06 (PA $23,350, $10,500 to U9/U10) Nor-Cal League reimbursement Question passed on to Dave Derby.

IV.    SCA Injury Policy & Procedure: Discussed new policy and procedure as outlined by Tony Behen. Amendments include – policy is retroactive to the beginning of the 2006-2007 season.   Player is not able to play until the committee receives a medical clearance – i.e. doctor’s note advising the player is fit to participate in the sport.   Added to the sixth paragraph : Team expenses are not part of the policy and the participant is still responsible for those expenses unless the team decides otherwise.
An email will be sent to all team managers asking that they inform the Board of any and all players that have been or currently are injured. Josh Sterling motioned that the Board accept and approve the new SCA Injury Policy & Procedure with amendments. Motion 2nd by Dave Rabbit. Motion carried by unanimous vote.

V.   Events/Special Committee Reports

   i.   KOA Day - June 4, 2006 (Danny Ortega) Danny reported that initially there was a lack of response until the last week before the event. The event earned $821.29 for the Club. Over all appears it was a good time and experience for those who participated.   Board commented that it was nice the coaching staff participated. The Coast Guard was fantastic as they served food, assisted with parking, and life guarding. It took the pressure off the parents.

The Board will send thank yous to Lisa, Coast Guard and KOA campground. Suggested SCA send a memento such as an SCA baseball cap to the Coast Guard participants. All would like event to continue in the future. Concerns were with the date and coordinating so does not occur same day as Human Race and/or conflict with game days. May want to give option for camp sites next year, although an over-night may take away dates for games.

   ii.   Hoek Camp - All team managers know the schedule for camp. Expecting a high level camp and experience for all participants. 6/24/06 – Saturday night – Coaches dinner. Approximately 75 people will attend. Tony Behen will host the dinner at his house. Club budget allows $500 for the dinner.   Board members and coaches may be asked to bring side dish.

   iii.   Fireworks Booth- Rohnert Park denied application for booth. They based denial on fact that SCA does not have permanent meeting space w/in the Rohnert Park city limits and the club does not use their fields. Trying to get 2nd location in Petaluma. If anyone knows of a location or is able to obtain a location, please let Cathy know.

   iv.   SCA – U9 / U10 Jamboree Date August 19, 2006 - Anticipating approximately 40 teams. One day event 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at M Park, Weisman, Prince, Casa, or Petaluma Jr. High. Fields have not been secured to date. Ideal location would be Casa. Need 3-4 fields.   Approximate cost $1500. Need one center referee per game only. Guaranteed 3 games per team. SCA U9 and U10 teams are not charged entry.

   v.   Sonoma County Classic (U11-U14 ages) Site announced and email sent out. No applications have been received to date outside of SCA. Two SCA teams have applied. District V and Mustang league notified. Josh is getting other data bases to send out info.

   vi.   DOC Contract Committee - Danny Ortega and Marsha Caprara working on the committee.

   vii.   SCA Social Barn Dance – Date of the event 9/23/06.

6.   Directors Reports – (not discussed in agenda order)

   Fields Needs Assessment – Dave Rabbit   More money is getting committed to the new field complex by the City. Currently discussing how others in the community can raise additional needed funds, i.e. large sponsors., foundations. Architect has been hired by the City. Current scope to include 4 full sized synthetic fields, 3 baseball fields. Discussed that grass fields would also be nice. Interests include: Softball, baseball, soccer, Lacrosse and Pop Warner, although not much participation by any groups in hearing and meeting except from soccer and Lacrosse.

   Fields - Managers sent email that field need to be kept clean. Still having problems with the school district and City double booking fields. Casa fields working out well. Gives players chance to experience grass.

   Player Assistance – (Gina) Gina trying to get as many fund raising opportunities as possible to meet diverse needs of participants in PA program. Includes cookie dough sales, daffodil sales in fall, etc. Is it possible to get booth at Kickin Chicken tournament August 12/13? Will follow up.

   PR (Eileen) Eileen will write upguidelines for all teams for writing and submitting articles. Up coming tournaments should be advertised and articles written for local papers.   Suggested that SCA attempt to get article in the paper about how local soccer brings in money for the City and local merchants. Josh will send email to all managers and team PR people every week to remind them to write up articles. Player of the month program no longer done. Execution was not working.

   Referee Report (Dana) 2 classes have been given so far for referees. Over 300 referees on roster, but only about 15 who actually do the work.

Website Report (Tony) – Club store up and running. Unable to get electronic
payments at this time, but it is coming.

None Agenda item – Terry Caton motioned that Karla Woerner be admitted to
the Board as Secretary to complete the term for Stephanie Derby. Motion 2nd by Rick. Vote unanimous.

   PYSL and United representatives – discussion about keeping relationship open with PYSL and United. To facilitate relationship Tony will attend PYSL Board meetings. Would like to get a voting SCA member to attend United meetings. Danny is chairing committee with SCA/United. Untied guidelines calls for SCA representative. More beneficial for Tony and Ed Gomez to appoint representative. Tony will follow up to get candidate.

   Photo Day – the day will be sometime in the summer. The date will be put on the club calendar.

   Alert to teams via email that things are getting “stolen” from practices – in particular from Lucchesi. Part of the problem is other teams showing up early for their start times. Tracy will follow up with the City and tell them other teams are encroaching on SCA play time. The other leagues and teams need to know they can’t get on the field until their assigned time.   Also, instruct coaches to tell other teams they can’t come on the field even though they ask, if it is not their time. Email to go out to all managers to be aware of stealing, but also the teams and players need to watch their equipment. Many kids leave items at the field. Coaches may want to isolate their kids’ bags to a “team area”. Tracy will put up yellow tape with sign that reads, “SCA Players Only until 8:30 p.m.”. She will also talk to Don and ask that he call other leagues and advise them that on Monday and Tuesday they cannot come on the field until 8:30 p.m.

   Evaluations – should be out to all U14’s and below. By mid July all evaluations should be done.   Dutch will also complete evaluations on a +/- system. ¼ of evaluations with coaches done by Josh. He grades coaches and they will grade themselves also before face to face discussion.

   Cal Cup – June 10 and 11. U11 Boys did great, learned great lessons, how to keep a lead. U12’s went on to semi-finals. U13’s tougher group and some kids involved in other sports so not all teams complete. U14’s and U15’s did well also.

   Goal Keeper Program – getting many requests from other leagues to be able to attend. They’ve been told “no” as this is a specific program for SCA participants. However, might consider having a day where they could offer the program to other leagues

   Homework program – very successful. Suggested that the homework sheets be turned in weekly rather then monthly. Juggling contest now between individuals and teams. Will look at not only the individual improvement, but the team’s as well. Will calculate the over all team improvement and take an average. Winners get awards.

7.   New Business

   Registration Discount (Terry) – some families have 3 players in SCA. Should the Board consider requesting from PYSL that they give a discount for the third child? $100 registration waiver given to PA already. Maybe PYSL would consider giving same discount to families with 3 players. Or perhaps they would waive a portion and SCA could pay the difference.   Recommended if 3 players in SCA that PSYL waive $95 registration fee for the 3rd player. Tony will bring the issue up at the PYSL meeting.

   Referee Proposal (Dana) – current issues are qualified getting referees for higher age levels. Suggestion for improving system presented by Dana. This includes: (1) Pay rate increase; (2) new assignment system for referees to games. Dana presented information about referee pay rates in comparable leagues. All have higher rates then PYSL. Suggested that we present to PYSL that they change the fee structure for CYSA before District V playing season. Danny said that a road block would be the fee differential has not been added to the PYSL budget. They may not be able to afford a rate increase this late in the season and SCA may have to consider paying out of their budget.   Discussed assignment systems “Refscheduler” and “ISOCS”. The systems allows referees to say when available and also takes care of 1099 info.
Ideas for improvement to system for scheduling and to get and maintain quality referees will be introduced to PYSL. Suggested that SCA request a meeting between SCA, United and PYSL referee coordinators to discuss and get buy in. Then bring to the various boards. Also, Dana will contact US Club soccer and So Cal to see what assignment program they use.

   ODP Grant Requests (Rick) – Costs for ODP camp very high. This year two SCA players have made state ODP. Letters were presented on behalf of the two players for assistance in attending the camps. Danny motioned that the Board approve $500 assistance per player (Humphrey and Farazmand). Motions 2nd by Terry. Motion passed unanimous.   Josh suggested the Club have a position on assistance for the future as this is a very good program, but expensive.

KOA Day – equipment borrowed from United and one pop-up tent broken. Needs to be replaced. Board should consider SCA Banner and pop-up tents for tournaments.

Meeting adjourned at 9:45 p.m.