Unapproved draft minutes

UTAH YOUTH SOCCER ASSOCIATION
Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of Directors
January 19, 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 7:30 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
Scott Maxfield, Vice President
Jodi Wells, Secretary
Rick Henage, Treasurer
Debbie Haycock, Girls Competition Director
Kurt Cottrell, Boys Competition Director
Allen Jones, District 1 Chairperson
Eric Blommer, District 2 Chairperson
John Gygi, District 3 Chairperson
Dave Mills, District 4 Chairperson
Brandee Nadauld, District 6 Proxy
Delon Brower, District 7 Chairperson
Norm Williamson, State Youth Referee Administrator

Also present were Jodene Smith (State Cup Chairperson), Linda Kay Messenger (Tournament Chairperson), Cindy Barren (Protest and Appeals), Scott Olsen (District 3), Kim Smith (Rules Chairperson), Bill Bosgraf (Region IV Adult Commissioner), Shawn Hallowday (Referee Administrator), Allen Mendall (Inter FC Club).

Members who were excused or absent included Gregg Maas (Technical Director), Scott Harward (Executive Director), Bruce Cuppett (Director of Development), Mike Hall (District 5 Chairperson), John Lowery (Disciplinary Chairperson) & Teresa Ortiz (Risk Management 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 December 15, 2005 meeting, with the amendment of adding "Travel" to the freeze on reimbursements section. Minutes accepted.

REPORTS

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR-AGM

President Leisa Vineyard excused Executive Director Scott Harward, but reported that the AGM is coming up on February 4 & 5, 2005. It will be held at the Red Lion Inn in Salt Lake City. Friday night will be the awards banquet dinner; the guest speaker will be the Head Coach for University of Oregon Women's National Champion Soccer Team. Saturday Morning will be the General Meeting, John Ellinger, Coach of REAL Salt Lake will be the guest speaker at the luncheon, and then we will be having a break out session in the afternoon. We will have a Q & A with John Ellinger, Coaching the Recreation Player & Parenting Education with Diana Doty, Controlling sidelines with Scott Maxfield, Soccer Laws and Ethics with Norm Williamson and Sue from ADG will go over the Developmental Pass and work with Registrars and Administrators with the online system.

COMPETITION DIRECTORS

Boys Competition Director, Kurt Cottrell reported that they are getting the alignment together.

Girls Competition Director, Debbie Haycock reported that the boys and girls alignment will be held on February 22, 2006 at 6 p.m. at the State Office.

TREASURER

Treasurer Rick Henage reported that the audit is on the web site, taxes are being filed, and we are moving cash into money market accounts, where we will be able to gain about $20,000 off of the interest.

DISTRICTS

District 3 Chairperson, John Gygi reported that they had passed the new referee pay structure. Gygi also encourage the state to not do the U9 as part of the x-league, it has really cut into District 3 program, and we would like to still run a U9 District program. Gygi also expressed some concern on the developmental pass; the state is enforcing something that is not in place. Kids are able to play up but are unable to come back down and play in their own age group. Girls Competition Director, Debbie Haycock stated that the X-league was suppose to be only U10, but Director of Development, Bruce Cuppett and Technical Director, Greg Maas are over that, you will need to talk with them.

Haycock also stated that according to the Developmental pass, if a player is good enough to be playing up, they should not be able to play down. John Gygi stated that the writing needs to be there for everyone to better understand it. We don't want rules being enforced that are not there. Debbie Haycock stated that the Developmental pass is to be use within the same age group, not for playing up.

Gygi turned some time over to Allen Mendall from Inter FC Club concerning their affiliation. Allen Mendall stated that he has provided information showing that Extreme Club is now Inter FC Club, I was told I need to bring in these papers so that could be recognized as Inter FC Club from now on.

Vice President, Scott Maxfield made the motion to amend the agenda for the Referee Assigning, so that our visitors would not have to wait. Motion seconded.

DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS

REFEREE ASSIGNING

Referee Administrator, Shawn Hallowday stated that we are aware of the problems we had from this fall with all the assigning issues, we are working on them. Thank you for the pay raise, it is a step in the right direction, it will not solve the problem, but it will help. We have a lot of on going things happening. Ways to help improve, we have a lot of referees, but they are not getting out on the fields. We have discussed structural changes to get better service at all levels of the games.

Region IV Adults Commissioner, Bill Bosgraf stated that there is a lot of frustration of not having the referees out on the fields. By putting in a tearing system, you would tier the officials, adult and premier games 15 and up and lump them, and then assign an assigner to that tier. The rest of the competition games and make a 2nd tier and assign an assigner to them, and then after that you have the recreation, where you would have an independent assigner assign those games. Right now, there is very little control over the assigners; we would have more control if we were to bring it in house. Without the youth, we are unable to put it all together. We really want to see something happen with this. We need a system that we can monitor referees that we can mentor and develop them. We need a structure and we need help from everyone.

Vice President Scott Maxfield stated that there are assigners that are out there that make a lot of money. The kids that are refereeing have to move to several fields in a day, it is very difficult. The biggest problem we have is we are tearing ourselves apart.

There is an advantage for us to come together; I would support this so that we can utilize our resources. Some people that are making a living at this, may not like it, but something has to be done. Shawn Hollawday stated that we lose about 1/3 of our referees every year. With the tearing structure, the middle tier would keep everyone local.

Girls Competition Director, Debbie Haycock stated that there are referees that are trying to get into the little click that gets all of the good games, it is very unfair.

Shawn Hollawday stated that we have to look at it as a business. We have a lot of kids that are not being used, and there is too much assigning in one place.

What Bill Bosgraf and Leisa Vineyard have been putting together would really help.

Treasurer, Rick Henage asked if there was an automation program out there that would help with doing this.

Shawn Hollawday stated that there are programs that exists, but is not being utilized. We want the assigners to submit their games, so we know who is doing what.

Debbie Haycock stated that more assigners are needed.

Leisa Vineyard stated that she and Bill Bosgraf will continue to work on this and put together a proposal for the March Board Meeting.

BOND PROPOSAL FOR LEAGUE PLAY

District 3, Scott Olsen stated that he has been working on this cancellation bond, and has taken ideas from various states. Basically if a game is not played, the referees are not paid. BY placing a cancellation bond, if the referees are not notified and show up to a game, the teams would need to pay the referees. $116.00 is based on 2 games of referee pay.

Enforcing the bond would be part of registration. You would put the money into an escrow account. Scott Maxfield stated that this would become a financial nightmare for the state, why not have each club or team be in charge of it. I agree that there is a problem, but it would be difficult for the state to maintain because of our numbers. It would be easier to have the leagues and clubs manage their own people. District 7 Chairperson, Delon Brower stated that District 4 has a good program going that because the district was able to contract with an assigners, the home team coach sends the to the assigner, and then the referees get paid. Those teams don't get any referees until they have paid the referees on the game that was not played, and the referees were not notified.

Scott Olsen stated that he would get with District 4 Chairperson, Dave Mills and we will get another proposal together for March.

REPORTS

District 1-No report

District 2 Chairperson, Eric Blommer stated that their district discussed the referee fees going up in the middle of the season, the smaller leagues are having a struggle with having to come up with more money in the middle of the season, but it is a good move. Blommer also stated that the X-league in the U9 age group has saved our girls program. I personally fill that there is a lot of interest in the U9 X-league and we should keep it.

Scott Maxfield stated that when you are passing a fee increase, it really needs to be done during the collection window.

District 4 Chairperson, Dave Mills stated that they feel the same as District 3, and we should not have a U9 X-League, because there are U8 players playing and it won't be very long before we have an all U8 team trying to play up.

District 5-No report

District 6 Proxy, Brandee Nadauld stated that their District AGM will be held on February 19, 2006, where they will nominate their new District Chairperson.

District 7 Chairperson, Delon Brower stated that they adopted the state referee fee increase. We also held our AGM, and I was re-elected, so we are now fully staffed with elected officials. My assistant Chairperson is Rod Anderson.

Brower concluded in stating that Saturday, January 21, 2006 is the start of our spring registration, which is always our biggest season.

We adopted the State Referee fee increase.

DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS

PRESIDENTIAL APPOINTMENTS

Motion was made and seconded to ratify the appointment of Mauricio Menjivar to serve as our Spanish speaking liaison by President Leisa Vineyard. Motion was seconded and adopted.

22 PLAYER ROSTERS FOR REGIONALS

State Cup Chairperson, Jodene Smith stated that we have two options. The first option is to go along with nationals and not allow the 4 alternates on the team bench, instead have them sit on the parent's sideline. The second option and the one that our State Cup Committee feels is the best option is to allow the 4 alternates to sit on the team bench in street clothes with their pass around their neck.

Vice President Scott Maxfield stated why don't we go along with what the nationals committee recommends? Jodene Smith stated that by allowing the 4 alternates on the team bench, they are able to watch and listen to the coach. A lot of coaches use game time to develop all the players both on and off of the field.

SYRA, Norm Williamson stated that despite what nationals do, we should let them be on the bench with the team. We should also set a dress standard for those alternates. Jodene Smith stated that she would take this feedback to Houston, and cast a vote in favor of allowing alternates on the team bench.

APPROVAL OF TOURNAMENT RULES Tournament Committee Chairperson, Linda Kay Messenger stated that we need an approval of the Tournament Rules. We passed individual parts, but not the whole section. Motion to pass the policy that we will later be able to develop additional criteria on. Motion passed and seconded.

FEE INCREASE FOR FIELD DEVELOPMENT

District 1 Chairperson, Allen Jones stated that if we were to implement a player fee increase to be used for development and maintenance of soccer fields, this would help to elevate a lot of our field problems across the state.

By pooling all of our money together, we would be able to attract large donors with matching funds. This would only be able to be used for field acquisition and improvement, the moneys would only be used within the district in which the funds were raised, and Districts could agree to share funds back and forth, but the investments must in the end be made within the districts that provided the funds.

District 2 Chairperson, Eric Blommer stated that District 2 wanted to keep money within their own district, and the leagues did not show much interest in wanting to raise fees once again.

District 7 Chairperson, Delon Brower stated that he did not bring it up at their last meeting, because of the referee fee increase that was a hot topic that needed to be dealt with immediately. Allen Jones suggested that the rest of the districts take this back and discuss with their boards, if the majority of Districts are in favor of it, I would like to bring this back to the table at the next board meeting.

RECESS

Call back to order after a 5 minute recess.

BUDGET PROPOSAL

Motion to accept the budget as outlined, seconded.

Budget accepted.

ADJOURNMENT

Motion was made, seconded and approved to adjourn at 9:25 p.m. There was no Executive Session. The next meeting of the Board of Directors of the Utah Youth Soccer Association is scheduled for Thursday, February 16, 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