Minutes -Draft

Eclipse Board Meeting 9-27-2009, 4:00 - 6:00 pm

Girl Scout Office

 

Meeting Started at 4:03 pm by President Pips Veazey. All attendees introduced themselves.

 

Members present: Pips Veazey, Samantha McMorrow, Bev Luoma, Brian Luoma, Anita Simpson, Sue Signor, Rory O'Neill, Kara Swoffer, Tara Drennon, Howard Maxwell, John Cadigan, Mark Wilson, Gina Burgett, Carmen Frank, Warren Frank, Roy Collison, Steve Zanazzo, Bill McKenzie, Rebekah Cadigan, Annette Freymueller, Tom Benjamin, Natalie Mayer, Sarah Keller, Stefania and Larry Burke, Larry and Karla Bright, Michelle Steel, Steve Steel, Stephanie Clemons

                          

Review of Minutes: Howard moved to approve the 8-30-09 Eclipse Minutes. Sue seconded. All approved.

 

Financial Update: – Sue said the finances are in good shape. She added that the coaches travel per diem expenses will increase from $75 to $125. She reminded everyone that the $100 Coaching dues per team are and membership dues are all due by October 31st. Sue also mentioned that some of the money from the checking account will be transferred to the savings account. Lastly, Sue reminded the board to let their team treasurer's know that their team's end of the year reports are due by October 31st.

 

Old Business:

 

1.   FYSA Update: Brian Luoma said that State Cup did get moved by a half week starting August 5th through August 10th. Also Frank Trovato plans to offer youth modules possibly in January and May for coaches. He also added that FYSA is contemplating a co-ed spring season for U-14. Lastly, the Midnight Sun tournament has moved back to the regular date again for 2010.

2.   Raffle Closeout: Our summer closed out to be pretty comparable to last year.

3.   Registrar News: Tara is keeping the teams officers list updated. She asked that any team that has changes to send them to her.

4.   Prospective Coaches: At the previous August 30, 2009 meeting Rory O'Neill and Mark Wilson introduced themselves as prospective coaches and their desire to coach the 2000 Eclipse and Phoenix teams. Howard Maxwell made a motion to approve Rory O'Neill and Mark Wilson as Eclipse/Phoenix 2000 coaches. All Approve. Motion Passes. Welcome aboard Rory and Mark! Kara Swoffer was also acknowledged and welcomed as the 2000 Eclipse Assistant Coach, after spending 9 years playing as an Eclipse player herself. Thanks for giving back to the club Kara.

     

 

5. 92/93 Eclipse: Howard Maxwell stepped down as the 93 Eclipse Coach at the         August 30th Eclipse Board meeting and a motion was made for Bill McKenzie to                take the lead and coach the team. Howard made a motion to accept Bill                McKenzie as the 92/93 Eclipse Coach. Sue seconded. All approve. Motion           Passes. Congratulations Bill as being named the 92/93 coach.          

6. Tryouts Update: We had a very organized tryout earlier in the month. Tara was extremely on top of it and made it a very smooth two days. We had 228 soccer players tryout.

7.   Coaching/Goalkeeping Coordinator - Rebekah has worked very hard for a year to get these two positions moving. Rebekah said that we would like to get the word out and advertise these positions so that we can fill them as soon as possible and get the goal keeper training and academy kicked off as soon as possible. If you know anyone that is interested in these positions please forward your interest to Pips Veazey. Thank you Rebekah for the many long hours you spent putting these contracts together and working through mounds of edits to move these positions forward for the club.

8.   AGM - The AGM is scheduled for Sunday, October 11, 2009 from 5-7 pm at Randy Smith Middle School. We will have a potluck dinner with food assignments by last. We really want to encourage a large turnout so that players feel a part of our club. We are looking for donations of door prizes from teams and individuals. Please let Rebekah Cadigan know if you can donate anything. Also, coaches, for the good of the game will give a report back on their teams from the past year.

 

New Business:

 

1.   Play Up - There has been a request that Samantha Clemons play up on the 1999 Eclipse team, although she is true-age 2000 with an early August birthday. She is in 5th grade, while most 2000's are in 4th. Howard Maxwell summarized the intent of the policy and why the club adopted to move forward with it and the intent to stand by it, and the clear intent to minimize play-ups in general. Her 99 Coach talked about Samantha's strengths to the 99's and the fact that the team has low numbers, while the 2000 has a vast player pool. Pips also emphasized the reason for minimizing play ups and diluting talent on teams through play ups anad that we strive to have true age teams. Bill McKenzie also offered his opinion on play ups and that generally they should not happen as a policy for the club. Larry Bright made some closing remarks as he came by to the meeting to say hello to everyone and good-bye as he and his wife Karla will be moving to Washington DC as Larry has accepted a new position there. Larry encouraged that as a club we make a decision as a group and that we stay together as a board always. He wishes the club the best in coming years and that he will be watching from afar! The board thanked Larry and Karla for their many years of dedication to the club, even when they did not have their daughters playing anymore! Thank you Larry and Karla!

     

      Michelle Steel made a motion to approve Samantha Clemons as a play up to the 1999 Eclipse Team for one year only. Rory O'Neill seconded the motion. All approved. The motion passes that Samantha will play on the 99 Eclipse for one year.

      Sue Signor added that she appreciated the discussion of how the policy of play ups works and received more background on why we have this policy

2.   2000 Eclipse Team Make Up: Quite a few Eclipse 2000 parents came to the meeting to voice their concerns regarding the makeup of the 2000 team and the policy around equally split teams when there are more than one team. Roy Collison asked about the philosophy around recreation versus competitive soccer and how the 2000 makeup is going against the competitiveness of playing higher level soccer for the kids. He asked why the kids are playing competitive soccer when everyone on the team trying out or not makes the team, and why we do not follow the A team/B team model for development of players. He made a motion to eliminate 3.6.1 through 3.6.4 in the effort to make the strongest true age team and stay competitive. It was mentioned that a board member needs to make the motion, so Howard Maxwell made the motion to delete 3.6.1 through 3.6.4 in the by laws, and strike the clause of U-13 and above. . Bill McKenzie seconded the motion. Pips Veazey read to the club what the objectives were and that normally we do not have two teams and is not an issue. Since the 2000's had over 20 tryout it became an issue of establishing two teams and following club policy of separating them equally. Howard Maxwell gave a background on why this policy was instituted by the club and assured the board that there was a lot of time and discussion before this policy was approved. Pips also shared her views and also views from Frank Trovato, State Director of coaching. Frank said that unequivocally teams at the U10/11 should be balanced and players should be developed. She also summarized US Youth Soccer's views on the top 10 reasons for motivating players to play soccer is to have fun and that soccer is a late specialization sport. Particularly in a smaller community such as Fairbanks, where the pools are not so big it is better to develop players at a younger age so that the team can stay together and roster a team of 18 when they go to the big fields. We have seen older teams falling apart and lacking players on account of this. Many coaches, parents had different views on this policy as it became quite an emotional discussion. Some comments were to the 2000's to feel fortunate that there is such a pool and that other teams would love to be able to draw from so many players.

      The 2000 coach Rory O'Neill made a few comments and said that currently he has 21 players and is still recruiting for more. He summarized the philosophy of the balanced teams and his intent to do that. Kara Swoffer also added that it is in the best interest of the team for the future to have as many girls developed possible because she knows what it is like when teams fall apart and do not have enough quality players. Rory also asked the board that when the teams order uniforms that the 2000's are approved to order number up to 34, because of the number of players.

 

After a long discussion of views at the meeting the board voted on the motion on the floor as presented by Howard Maxwell. The motion failed. Rory O'Neill will move forward with two balanced teams.

3.   Manager Training: AYSA's Kay Jones will be coming to Fairbanks for team          manager training around mid-November. The date is still to be determined.             Ideally all team managers will be at this meeting. All managers will be notified soon.

4.   3 vs 3 Indoor Tournament: Howard requested that his 96 team organize and run      this indoor tournament with another one or two teams. The dates would be January 16       and 17. Brian and Bev Luoma mentioned that they would be       interested in being a part of it along with possibly the 99 Phoenix as requested         by John Cadigan.

5.   Eclipse Board Calendar: Pips talked about the desire to have an Eclipse Club           Calendar with board meeting dates and upcoming events, so we can look ahead.

6.   Club Newsletter - Pips briefly added that she would like to see the club have a         quarterly newsletter and is looking for a volunteer who would like to take this          one. It would be great to provide current news, upcoming events and possibly a          player highlight each quarter. Please go to your teams to see if there may be someone interested in doing this for the club.

 

 

The meeting was adjourned at 6:10 pm by Pips Veazey. Seconded by Rebekah        Cadigan.

 

 

The next meeting will be November 15, 4-6 pm.