Unapproved Draft Minutes

UTAH YOUTH SOCCER ASSOCIATION
Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of Directors
August 17, 2006

CALL TO ORDER

The regular monthly meeting of the Board of Directors of the Utah Youth Soccer Association was called to order by President Leisa Vineyard at 8:00 p.m. at the State Office of the Utah Youth Soccer Association in Salt Lake City, Utah. The following Board members were present during the meeting:

Leisa Vineyard-President
Cindy Baron, Vice President
Jodi Wells, Secretary
Paul Brockbank, Recreation Director
Brian Smith, Proxy Competition Director (Via Phone)
Orden Yost, District 1 Proxy
Trish Roberts, District 2 Chairperson
John Gygi, District 3 proxy
Rich Egan, District 6 Chairperson
Delon Brower, District 7 Chairperson (Via Phone)
Norm Williamson, SYRA

Also present: Scott Harward (Executive Director), Greg Maas (Technical Director), Bruce Cuppett (State Cup Chairperson), and Linda Kay Messenger (Tournament Chairperson).

WELCOME

President Leisa Vineyard welcomed those board members and visitors in attendance and thanked them for coming.

ADOPTION OF MINUTES FROM PREVIOUS MEETING

Motion was made and seconded to accept the meeting minutes from the July 20, 2006 meeting. Minutes were accepted.

REPORTS

PRESIDENT REPORT

President Leisa Vineyard reported that this past month she had attended the National AGM in Iowa. There were no major policy changes only house keeping changes to the new National Board of Directors. However, there was a major leadership change within US Youth and Region IV. Larry Monoco was elected President of US Youth Soccer. Larry has served on many Youth and Federation boards and comes from a strong recreation background. He served as President of Virginia Youth Soccer for many years. Region IV elected a new Director, Jolene Woodhave who comes from, yours truly, Utah Youth Soccer. Jolene served in many positions within our state with her last position being Vice President. Jolene has served at the Region level as Deputy Director for the past 5 years.

Vineyard also reported that Region IV announced the hiring of Dave Lamb to run the Far West Regional League. Region IV is the only state who currently does not have such a program. Technical Director, Greg Maas is one of the 3 DOC's who will be serving on this Region Committee.

Vineyard also reported that Region IV, in their board meeting, voted to again include the parking fee into the tournament fee ($150.00 same as Boise) for FWR and to raise the referee housing fee by $75.00 a team. The $225.00 will be requested from each team that advances to FWR tournament.

Vineyard also reported that Region IV had a strong showing, as always, with six National Champions, including a three-peat for Arsenal FC BU17; first time ever for Region IV.

Vineyard concluded in outlining the following upcoming events:

Fall workshops which will be held in Seattle Washington, October 13-15.
Utah Youth Soccer AGM February 2-3, 2007, Salt Lake City, Utah
Federation AGM February 23-25, 2007 in Los Angles, California
National Workshops March 1-4, 2007 in St. Louis, Missouri
Farwest Regionals June 18-24, 2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada
Top Soccer Symposium March 31-April1, 2007, Salt Lake City, Utah.

TREASURER

Executive Director, Scott Harward reported that the financials are all included in the packet and that we are doing fine.

Harward also reported that the ODP financials are also included and are in good standing.

President Leisa Vineyard thanked Scott for his work with the budget.

STATE OFFICE

Executive Director, Scott Harward reported that the schedules are out, and the process had been improved. There were some miscommunications between the office and leagues, but we were able to take care of the resulting problems relatively quickly. Harward added that the office has received very few complaints from this season's schedule.

Harward also reported that some Districts are having a hard time getting fields secured in a timely fashion and the biggest remaining problem with the schedule is all of the TBD fields.

Harward concluded in reporting that the reconciliation for all the leagues and districts is complete, all districts with discrepancies have been contacted and we have balanced everything out. He concluded by adding that we are still waiting on some sponsorship money from Real.

COMPETITION DIRECTOR

Proxy Competition Director, Brian Smith reported that the pre-alignment went really well, there was only one District that was not represented. They experienced a few problems, but nothing that could not be worked out. The biggest problems reported, came from teams coming out of the X-League into the state program-a few of the teams did not get what they wanted.

Smith also reported that the posting of all the alignment results need to be done very quickly for everyone to review. That way, if there are any problems, they can be resolved before the schedules are done.

Smith concluded in reporting that overall we had good attendance, things went really well and all of the teams had their alignment forms filled out, which made it much easier.

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

Technical Director, Greg Maas reported that all of the summer coaching education courses had been completed and that we had excellent attendance. We currently have Youth Modules scheduled for Districts 1, 2, 6 and St. George.

The 2006-2007 coaching education calendar is set and we need spaces for these to be held, if any one is interested, please contact Corrine at the State Office to set this up.

Maas also reported that Utah will be hosting the US Youth National Youth License. It begins on Monday August 21st through Saturday, August 26th. We have 18 candidates registered for this course. Maas and Virgil Stringfield from Florida will be instructing the entire course from 7AM -7 PM, so Maas will not be in the office all week.

A special thanks to Bruce Cuppett and Stephanie Kirtley for all of their help with this event.

Maas also reported the following US Youth September Soccer Month Clinics/Events:

September 13th, 6:30-8:30 pm District 2 Clinic and RSL player appearance
September 16th, RSL/UYSA Night
September 20th, 6:30-8:30 pm District 6 Clinic and RSL player appearance
September 24th, U of U/UYSA Day

Maas reported that ODP set a record for the 5th straight year, surpassing the previous year's record. ODP garnered 32 selections to this years Region IV ODP Pools, eclipsing last years record of 30. In retrospect, Utah had a mere 5 players representing Region IV ODP in 2001. Maas concluded in reporting that he has been appointed as one of three (Utah, Nevada and Cal South) Region IV DOC's to serve on the committee to develop and implement a Far West Regional League. The first committee meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 30th in California.

DISTRICT REPORTS

DISTRICT 1 -Orden Yost, Proxy

Nothing to report

DISTRICT 2 -Trish Roberts, Chairperson

District 2 Chairperson, Trish Roberts reported that the numbers are up in all of her leagues.

Roberts also reported that they are having trouble getting the signatures changed over on their checking account.

Roberts concluded in reporting that the Fusion club wants to become affiliated with the state, they do not want to join on with League 34, but that is whom they registered through this fall with out them knowing about it, Roberts asked the board how to handle that.

President, Leisa Vineyard stated that League 34 President needs to deal with the situation and work something out with the club until they become affiliated.

Vice President, Cindy Baron stated that the District registrar needs to be talked to about this, she does not have the authority to register teams under any league without that leagues officials knowing anything about it.

Recreation Director, Paul Brockbank stated that Fusion knows what they need to do to get affiliated; they just need to get it done. Maybe give them a deadline to get all of their papers put together.

Roberts stated that they have five or six teams already, and has encouraged them to get involved on the District level once they become affiliated.

Roberts add that she is still trying to learn everything and has a lot of open positions to be filled on her Board.

DISTRICT 3 -John Gygi, Chairperson

Chairperson, John Gygi stated that Allen Mendall from Inter FC has approached their District and they want to host a tournament. Gygi also reported that District 3 congratulates the State Office on getting the schedules out two weeks before the season stated. Unfortunately, for various reasons, District 3 was unable to get field assignments to the State, so they now have to get all the assignments done after the fact and notify all of the opposing teams.

Gygi also reported that most of the District 3 Board members and many coaches are expressing dissatisfaction with the fact that teams are scheduled to play 2 games per week thought out the season, and that the season is so short. Some teams are done on September 30th. Most believe that player development is best served by having one game and two practices per week. His District thought that the main purpose for going to 11-team divisions was to get as close as possible to having one game per week. Even having three games in two weeks would be preferable to having two games every week. Some questioned whether the motive is to get more people to enter President's Cup. They understand wanting to be done before State Cup, but that doesn't mean that the age groups not involved in State Cup can't be scheduled through October or early November.

Executive Director, Scott Harward stated that the State Office has never scheduled games over the UEA weekend, and that they have always made sure that the Premier Division teams are done with league play before State Cup.

Competition Director Proxy, Brian Smith stated that he would take back to the Competition Board about the amount of games per week.

Gygi also stated that we should look into moving the start time of games back to 6:00 PM. especially for the younger teams.

Smith stated that he would also take that back to the competition board, and asked that they e-mail their concerns on this, to Kurt.

Gygi also reported that District 3 is losing its long time referee assignor, Elaine James. They have interviewed three interested parties for the position, and will make a decision by the end of the week. Part of the new assignor's responsibilities will be to enhance the accountability and professionalism of referees in the district to match the increased pay they are receiving.

Gygi also reported that the new cancellation/reschedule policy which was passed in May has yet to be updated in the bylaws on the website. Also the state is behind in posting the minutes from board meetings as well.

Gygi concluded in reporting that their District has nominated several people to serve on the various committees on the State level.

DISTRICT 4 -Dave Mills, District Chairperson,--Absent

DISTRICT 5 -President Leisa Vineyard reported that Mike Hall, District 5 Chairperson, resigned as District Chair last night at his Board meeting.

Brian Smith reported that nominations were held, their were two people nominated but both have chose to wait one month to decide what to do.

In the mean time, Mike has appointed Smith to oversee the District functions.

Smith also reported that he was nominated for the Chairperson, as well as Scott Card from Springville. Smith stated that he has been hearing that maybe there would be a conflict of interest, for him to run as District Chairperson, and also be one of the Assistant Competition Directors.

Smith stated that their District will be voting for a new Chairperson on the 20th of September.

Smith concluded in reporting that they have shown an increase in District players, there was an issue of a new club, Champions FC, having problems with their coaches that needed waivers and that they need to get a lot of coaches out to the clinics, to solve this issue.

Mike Anderson has also stepped down as Director of Coaching. He will continue to help out, until they are able to find someone else.

DISTRICT 6-Rich Egan, Chairperson

District Chairperson, Rich Egan reported that they are having some issues about waivers as well. He was told that the alignment went well. His District has also had some of the same scheduling issues as District 3, and a later start time for the younger age groups would be nice. He has already sent an e-mail to Kurt concerning this issue.

Egan also reported that he has had a couple of responses from people willing to volunteer to the various committees on the State level and will get those names sent in, once confirmed with the individuals.

Egan concluded in reporting that things are going well, their registrar is back, and they now have Teresa Ortiz working in the office.

DISTRICT 7-Delon Brower, District chairperson

District Chairperson, Delon Brower reported that their Kohl's Cup tournament had over 40 teams, and they only got half of the money that was given to the State to put on this tournament. Is there going to be another tournament elsewhere? The issue they have is that the last Kohl's cup held by the state only had 12 teams register and they are not getting the same participation. District 7 feels that they should get more of the money to be able to do more for all of the participants that they get.

President Leisa Vineyard stated that St. George is looking into doing one in November, but the State will look at it next year and address that issue.

Vineyard also stated that District 7 had not gotten all of their Code of Conduct papers turned in; if they are not completed they could be put into bad standing.

Brower stated that he would look into this matter and get things taken care of.

Brower concluded in stating thanks for getting the schedules our two weeks before the season started this fall.

STATE CUP COMMITTEE

State Cup Committee Chairperson, Bruce Cuppett reported that State Cup will be played 16th - 28th of October in Orem, at the Lakeside complex. The application deadline is September 15th. Any play-ins will occur the September 18th - 30th. Rosters freeze on October 2nd. The alignment seeding will take place on October 3rd, and schedules will be out on October 6th. Team check-in will occur on October 10th from 12:00 noon to 6:00 PM. at the State Office. Tournament play will start on Monday October 16th.

The entry fee this year is $550.00 fee. There will also be a $225.00 fee that will be assessed to the Regional Tournament participants to cover the parking and referee housing fee increases.

Cuppett concluded in stating that the State Cup Committee is in need of more volunteers to help out. He gave thanks to the Districts that have submitted volunteer names, concluded by stating that for Spring State Cup, it has been suggested that we have ODP players that are on scholarships to help out where needed.

President Leisa Vineyard stated that we have had several tournaments release their participant's information out to Real Salt Lake. We do not have a rule against this, but we need to require that Real Salt Lake fill out a confidentiality report. We do allow Real an e-mail blast and two mailings a year. We have had some parents that are really upset that they are getting calls about buying tickets. We highly encourage tournament administrators not to give this information out.

TOURNAMENT RULES

Tournament Committee Chairperson, Linda Kay Messenger reported that a Tournament Committee meeting was held, on the 9th of August. This was going to be a one time thing, but the committee expressed an interest to meet twice a year.

Messenger reported that there were some issues that were brought up. There were eight tournaments represented, and they were all willing to work together.

Messenger also reported that if we started tournaments at the end of May, we could have enough weekends for everyone to have a tournament, but nobody wants to play in June. If we try to hold an additional three tournaments, we do not have enough weekends. It was suggested that we might designate whether it is a premier tournament or not. At this time we have only three tournaments that are rated nationally; They are State Cup, Sparta Cup, & Mayors Cup. Messenger reported that the next meeting will be on October 11th, to work out any problems of tournament dates.

Messenger also stated that it was brought up to extend the deadline to get in all paperwork to 45 days. She added that we can not have a policy that conflicts with a rule. The committee will also discuss the issue of canceling a tournament, and what should be done. According to the schedule we have had three tournaments cancel this year.

Messenger also stated that we really need to have someone who is policing these tournaments to make sure they are following all of the rules.

Motion was made to accept the changes to the tournament rules that could be made. Seconded.

Motion passed.

Linda Kay will post these changes as soon as possible.

Messenger concluded in stating that it was a good positive meeting.

VOLUNTEERS FOR COMMITTEES

The following are the volunteers so far that have been submitted to the following committees:

DISAPLINARY/PROTEST AND APPEALS COMMITTEE

John Butler
Mark Gibb
John Johnson

STATE CUP

Miguel Nunez
Troy Cude

RULES

Mark Gibb???

President, Leisa Vineyard stated that we will confirm all the volunteers at the next board meeting, so let's get more people to volunteer for these committees.

RISK MANAGEMENT

Risk Management Chairperson, Bruce Cuppett stated that when we get a report back, and there is a problem, the burden of proof lies with the individual. They need to bring in documentation to clear their name. We have had some people get upset with us over this. It is not the Board's responsibility; we will keep in contact with the District Chairs and League Presidents to keep them in the know. President, Leisa Vineyard stated that we are trying to get a policy put together on how the reports are being done, but right now, we have to go off what is reported.

EXECUTIVE SESSION

Revisit website issue.

ADJOURNMENT

Motion was made, seconded and approved to adjourn at 9:50 p.m. The next meeting of the Board of Directors of the Utah Youth Soccer Association is scheduled for Thursday, September 21, 2006 at 8:00 p.m. at the State Office of Utah Youth Soccer Association.

These draft minutes were prepared by Secretary Jodi Wells.
Please direct any corrections or clarifications to ewells@networld.com