Ultimate Chicago Board Meeting May 7, 2008
Attendees:
Ben Cooper
Ben Davis
Steve Frankel
Erin Stafford
Mike Gwinn
Erin summarized the state of Spring League. She said that now that the league has returned to the original
format, things are going well. The commissioners are planning on using the same end-of-season survey as
last year. Field space is the looming issue. Should we over-permit, and reserve space we don’t expect to
use except in case of emergency or other issues? Should we permanently use the 3-round permit, which
may also allow for more teams to play?
Captain’s Clinic was run by Bill Finn and Marc Furiguy. Attendance was roughly 8 and 8 for the two
sessions. The clinic will be offered again in the fall, and will be made a requirement for 2009 summer
league captains.
Summer League registration opens Monday May 12. The commissioners have been tardy in getting things
done, but it appears that everything will be ready to go. Sean (sp) Wall has agreed to take over West
League.
Thursday League is going well.
Women’s League is a success. The league filled up, and there are considerations for expanding the league,
including allowing high school teams to sign up together, possibly resulted in tiered skill divisions. An end
of season party at Piece is being planned for the first Tuesday following the end of the league. Erin agreed
to help Cooper put together a survey.
Winter League officially lost ~$4500, and projects a loss of ~$700 for next season – mostly by reducing
our field time to 4.5 hours, from 5. Teams will be expanded to 14 players, from 11, and charges raised $15
to $115.
Bill Finn has agreed in principal to folding the Men’s Competitive League into UC, and has agreed to have
an open tryout for all-comers.
No headway on the bylaws committee.
Proposals were due on the website RFP on April 16, none were received. This, apparently, is not unusual.
UC will try to exert some more pressure to get proposals.
The board officially sanctioned the women’s hat tourney, spearheaded by Erin. They have permits, field
space, and time set. It will be a one-day tournament, with maybe 8-10 teams. Players will be charged $35
each; the league expects to break even.
Insurance was discussed. All the relevant fields/leagues/teams are currently covered. The board will try to
gain fuller control over the insurance policies. After a request from a club team, the board discussed
insuring club teams. Board members seemed to think it was a good idea, seeing it both as a possible
revenue source and a way to further bring club teams under the UC umbrella.
We discussed a financial model Davis put together trying to show our cash reserves and how much money
we make in a typical year. This led into some discussion about how to acquire more permanent field space.
It was decided that Akira Yamaguchi, who has expressed intense interest in the enterprise, would
essentially go on a large-scale fact-finding mission on the subject.
The most intense conversation was cut short for time. Davis suggested hiring a part-time employee to take
most responsibility for actually running the leagues, leaving the board to discuss larger UC issues – and
also reducing the board size to ~6. Mike had a significantly different vision, preferring to expand the board
to have more built-in volunteers for running leagues while shifting our meetings to a more procedural basis
focusing on pre-written reports and order.
The next meeting was set for Sunday June 15.
Ultimate Chicago Board Meeting
May 7, 2008
1) Leagues:
a) Spring Wrap-up
i) Schiller Permits
ii) Survey
iii) Next year
iv) CUJO results?
b) CUSL
i) Captain’s Clinic
c) Competitive
d) West
e) Open
f) Women’s
g) Winter
h) Sponsorship
2) Update –Other projects:
a) Bylaws
b) Website
c) Sandblast
d) Women’s HAT Tourney
e) Other?
3) UC financial projections & future projects:
a) Fields
b) Part-time help
c) Advertising