Palo Alto Soccer Club
Board of Directors Meeting
2/19/2013
Agenda:
Review of monthly reports:
- Treasurer's report
- DoC report
- Fields report
- Referee coordinator report
- Registration
-Scholarships
Update: Team Snap for registration and communication
Procedural issues for PASC Board
Update: Soccer field scheduling and the City of Palo Alto
Long-term vision for club: Update
Other items brought by attendees
Attendees: Eric Verwillow, Peter Phillips, Birol Becan, Janice Galbraith, Alex Loktev, Kevin
Lanigan, Margarita Mendez, Solly Malchin, Guillaume Arnaud, Armando Luna, Bob Wachs, Ian
Drury.
Review of monthly reports:
Treasurer's Report: Club remains on budget for this fiscal year. Discussed the importance of
the Treasurer to coordinate with the Registrars on updated rosters of teams and players to be
sure that Club fees collection is accurately tracked.
Director of Coaching report: Armando reviewed the Winter Academy enrollment and the
financial information. Though the boys enrollment is high, girls remains low. Means of
improving this were discussed. The Goalkeeper Academy remains very successful and
discussion was made for program expansion. The Board reviewed that any profit from the
Academies will finance training or certification for coach advancement. The success of the
Junior Trees program was discussed. The Board is considering the use of any profit generated
by this program to purchase equipment to be dedicated to the Junior Trees program. In
addition the Board reviewed the importance of counting all players within the Club to track
Palo Alto residency. Ways to have YDP players added to the Club roster were discussed.
Field's report : Winter season will be over 3/8. Cubberly 1 South reseeding and maintenance
estimated to be completed in 4 weeks but certainly there is no guarantee of time frame. This
may well affect Spring season which officially starts 3/11. The City of Palo Alto has provided
some alternatives (Greer/Robles) which were discussed. Bob reported that Armando's efforts
to group teams of same age and gender together for practice has led to an increase in requests
for practice changes but that this has largely been accommodated.
Referee coordinator report: Deferred as Bernardo not present.
Registration: Registration is ongoing. The Board discussed the issue of teams which are NOT
playing games or registering with a league ...essentially practice only teams. Typically these
teams are small teams . Financial issues for these teams including the payment of Club, field
and coaching fees were addressed. These teams would be exempt from referee fees.
Scholarships: The scholarship deadline has passed. Evaluation of the applications is currently in
progress.
Update: Team Snap for registration and communication: The Club is quickly moving forward
on implementation of TeamSnap for registration and communication. About 90% of teams
have reported back necessary information and invoice to Team Snap already paid. All teams
will have "premium" package for first year, though Club is only charged at "basic" level. The
Board will discuss in future who will require access to TeamSnap at the Club level. Custom
fields for reporting school and utility numbers of players were discussed. TeamSnap is actively
working on improving calendar and field coordination capabilities.
Procedural issues for PASC Board: The Board discussed a variety of procedural issues:
1) Board vacancies: The current Vice President (Bruce Gee) has decided to step down.
Per the Club bylaws the Board can elect a new member to fill the vacancy, who would then
stand for approval by a vote at the next General Meeting (May 2013). An email will be sent to
managers calling for nominations, with intent that the new member would be elected at the
next Board meeting.
2) Contracts: Procedures regarding coaches contracts were reviewed. The Board
affirmed that the information needed to complete a 1099 Tax form (Social Security number
etc.) must be collected before any coaches fees could be paid.
3) Non-profit status: Updates will be filed with the State of California regarding new
contact information.
4) Calendar : Calendar for Board meetings and General meetings discussed. Motion
passed regarding potential calendar. Secretary will file with Cubberly Community Center for
room dates and time. Calendar of meetings will be distributed once finalized.
Update: Soccer field scheduling and the City of Palo Alto: The City Council of Palo Alto remains
revising the field user policy. Bob and Eric have worked extensively with the various
subcommittees involved. Happily both Bob and Eric reported that they are optimistic that an
equitable field distribution strategy will be adopted by the City of Palo Alto for fall 2013.
Long-term vision for club: Update: Armando reviewed his efforts to have coaches assigned to
various age groups, rather than to teams. A given team would have the same coaches for a
period of two years then advance to the next coaching level. This strategy is proven to better
develop player performance over time. Though this is moving forward on the boys side, the
girls teams have had more difficulty due to the loss of some key female coaches. Armando
stressed that though currently it seems there are many changes to practice schedules, his vision
would be to keep practice dates and times stable for a given team for up to six consecutive
years once the new strategy is in place. Overall this would be a huge benefit to parents.
Other items brought by attendees:
1) Solly has arranged a presentation by John Raftrey to discuss playing soccer at the collegiate
level. The Board recognized and thanked Solly for her efforts as this certainly is in keeping with
the Club long-term vision of promoting soccer excellence. Details are posted on website.
2) The Board brokered a discussion regarding a conflict between the director of coaching and a
team manager in terms of practice schedules. A compromise was reached.
3) Eric is working on analysis of data collected from team mangers to evaluate how the current
payment system for field fees is working.