Board Meeting Minutes November 2016

Bethlehem Soccer Club

Board Meeting at PJ Whelihan’s

November 17, 2016 at 8:00pm

Minutes of the meeting taken and transcribed by Kristine Blake (Secretary Bill Blake absent)

Meeting called to order at 8:14pm

Present: Bill Horvath, Stephan Ohl, Joe Russo, Kristine Blake, Rob Taniser

President Report – Stephan Ohl:

Outstanding Items from the Last Meeting:

  • There are no outstanding items from the last meeting

Fall Success:

  • The Club had three teams that were Division 1 champs and, if the U12 and U13 boys’ teams win this weekend, both will finish in 2nd place

Open Positions:

  • We currently have two open positions:
    • Website Manager
    • Field Coordinator: Responsible for training schedules, field setup, collecting equipment from coaches

Tryout Participation (Add-on topic):

  • The Club wants to increase the number of new players trying out for BSC teams
  • One suggestion for how to do that is to walk in the Bethlehem St. Patrick’s Day Parade on March 11, 2017 to get some exposure for the Club:
    • We could get a bunch of players from different age levels to walk in the parade holding a BSC banner
    • It could really get the Club name out in the community more and it is essentially free, or there is possibly a very small fee
    • It is on a Saturday in the Spring so there shouldn’t be any conflicts with practices or games
    • Rebecca Daley will hopefully be able to look into getting us into the parade

 

 

Vice President Report - Bill Horvath:

Championship Shirts (Add-on topic):

  • Whenever a team finishes in first place, the Club wants to start paying a certain amount for a t-shirt or sweatshirt for each player (possibly $10/player) so that each player gets a championship shirt at a reduced cost
  • Nassim’s dad, Ahmad, will do the t-shirts and sweatshirts

Indoor Gym Space:

  • Lehigh Valley Academy indoor practices will start on January 9, 2017
  • The Club has started working on the schedule but it is not done yet
  • The Club will have use of two gyms at LVA every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday for 3 hours
  • There is no fee being charged to the Club by LVA for use of their gyms
  • The Club tried looking into using gym space at the Catasauqua Charter School, but they were not interested and would have wanted some type of fee for the use of their facility

Tryout Dates:

  • Bill Horvath suggested waiting a little later for tryouts, but we must be careful not to do them too late or else it will be after all the other teams
  • This past year, tryouts were in early May, but then there was almost a month left of the previous season going into the beginning of June
  • Maybe consider doing early and late tryouts, to keep options open longer
  • Possibly open up a link in January for tryout registration, so the Club can gauge how many players it is likely to have trying out
  • A lot of Bethlehem residents are playing on teams like LVU, St. Thomas More and Western Lehigh, but they could just decide to stay closer to home and play for BSC, so we are hoping to attract some of them
  • Briefly mentioned how teams would likely do individual team tryouts rather than club-wide tryouts

Field Break Down:

  • Will take place the weekend after Thanksgiving
  • Sunday was decided as the better day to do it, weather permitting, so Bill Horvath will send out an email asking for volunteers for the Sunday after Thanksgiving
  • Breaking down is pretty simple and doesn’t take that long
  • The Club still has goals at the HTCC fields as well that will need to be transported back to Crawford

 

 

Keeper-Training (Add-on topic):

  • Discussion about whether there are enough players signing up for keeper training to make it worth continuing to pay for it
  • Jos Russo indicated that there is only a charge of about $75 per session so the total cost is @$750
  • Originally, it was believed that the charge was $75 per player per session, which would have meant closer to thousands of dollars to pay
  • If it really is as inexpensive as $750, the keeper training will continue to be provided

Outdoor Training Space (Add-on topic):

  • The Club needs to find somewhere else to train
  • Discussion about looking into Hanover Elementary and/or Asa Packer Elementary:
    • Either school would only charge $100/12-week session for use of their fields
    • One issue might be whether or not we can leave the nets/goals there all the time
    • Lacrosse teams practice at Hanover Elementary, but we believe their practices are from 3:00pm-5:00pm, so we could use them after 5:00pm
    • We have a contact person who may be able to get us into one or both of these locations and we are going to try to do that ASAP
  • Hanover Township Community Center is getting more expensive and we have to compete with flag football teams for the space:
    • Field rentals for HTCC and Crawford went up by about $3,000
    • Hopefully, we can eventually move away from using that location at all or only use it one night per week
  • The new Airport Road fields have not opened yet, but hopefully, the Club can eventually do all games there
  • A possibility to decrease the cost for rental space for outdoor training would be to have coaches give blackout dates and then coordinate so that more games can be on the same days, thus requiring less rental days

Treasurer Report – Joe Russo:

Bank balance/Expenses to be Paid:

  • Bank account currently has approximately $43,000:
    • Should have about $46,000 once some checks clear, as there are some outstanding reimbursements
    • Most winter leagues are paid for already
    • Still need to take into consideration that we have not paid spring registrations and field rental fees yet

Golf Tournament (Add-on topic):

  • Rich Koerbel is planning to run a golf tournament for the Club:
    • Possibly will take place in June, most likely June 17th/18th
    • Must work around the ODP Tournament on June 2nd-June 4th and the Lehigh Valley Soccer League Tournament on June 10th/June 11th
    • It will be a great way to raise some money for the Club if we can get enough people to sign up for it

LVYSL Representative – Rob Taniser:

Update:

  • The Club needs to tell the coaches to stop yelling at the refs:
    • LVYSL is going to start cracking down and coaches will receive a 3-game suspension from coaching for yelling at the refs
    • The Club’s concern is that the refs don’t know the rules, but LVYSL claims that they train all the refs on the rules
  • By the second week of January, the time line for Spring should be posted
  • The Lehigh Valley Soccer League Tournament will be the weekend of June 10th/June 11th (already discussed earlier in the meeting)
  • There will only be a 5-point differential given in games. For example, if a team wins 10-0, the score will only be recorded as 5-0
  • EPYSA has decided that starting with the 2017-2018 season, there will be no standings for U12 and younger age groups, only for U13 and older age groups:
    • LVYSL is going along with this and there is no room for discussion about it!
  • There is some consideration to having a national database in this area for ODP players
  • ANCHOR THE GOALS to avoid injuries!
  • If a player receives 3 yellow cards in a season, the player is given a one-game suspension:
    • If the third card is given during the last game of the Fall season, then the suspension carries over to the Spring season
    • That carryover should not apply from a Spring season to a Fall season, though, because that would be a carryover to a whole new registration year, players could switch teams, etc.
  • When scheduling, try to schedule all games so they don’t conflict with State Cup:
    • Consider blacking out the first four weeks of the Spring season, so when the State Cup is scheduled, there will be no conflicts

 

 

Sponsorships/Fundraising – Rebecca Daley absent/Stephan Ohl reported:

Spirit Wear/30th Anniversary Shirts:

  • The Club did not make much on this fundraiser at all, possibly $200

Latest on Sponsors:

  • We have no new sponsors

Academy – Nalisha Tahir absent/Stephan Ohl reported:

Update: Nothing to Report, except that Nalisha will continue to do Academy this coming Spring, but will no longer be doing it next Fall

Social Media Coordinator – Susan Ohl absent/Stephan Ohl reported:

Update:

  • Facebook page should be updated soon to include pictures of this season’s winning teams

Field Coordinator/Equipment – OPEN POSITION – Stephan Ohl reported:

Update:

  • The Club does not need any new equipment

Club Registrar – Stephan Ohl:

Update: Nothing to report

Next meeting: PJ Whelihan’s on February 23, 2017 at 8:00pm

Meeting adjourned at 8:53pm