Spearfish Soccer Association
Board Minutes
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
The Spearfish Soccer Association (SAA) meeting was held at the Spearfish Recreation Center and called to order at 7:03pm by vice president Jennifer Ness. Members present: Jennifer Ness, Leah Rafferty, Larry Gould, Rick Ellerton, Amber Johnson and Sarah Leiby. Members Absent were Aris Kragiorgakis. Others present: Erin Schaefer, Steve Overby, Shad Hunt, Ryan Fremont, Wes Fremont, Jessy Dietrich, Dawn Kennedy, Sara Freng, Jeremy Mailloux, Fitzgeralds, Steven Kline, Sherry Post, Brian Lucas, Grant Neff, Kassie Culver.
Minutes: The minutes were recorded at the last meeting but never received by Leah. Rob Blake has the recording.
Treasurer’s Report: With the Soccer Tournaments held in Spearfish this winter, we had $51K in and about $30K out, leaving about $21K profit. With these tournaments being the major fundraiser responsible for paying the High School for the High School Soccer Program, this winter left the account about $20K short. The board has other accounts that can be used, but we need to figure out a way to make a little more at the tournaments. The biggest expenses for the tournaments are the referees and building rental.
Scheduled/Unscheduled Guests
John Fitzgerald submitted a contract for the SSA Board to approve to mow the fields. This will be $4222 for 5 months of mowing. Amber moved and Rick Seconded to approve the signing of the contract.
Website/Email Correspondence: Steve Overby is looking at the options of emails to contact SSA Board Members. Steve looked into Google Suite, which allows emails be set up. This is a free service for nonprofit organizations, which SSA is. Amber will provide the ID number for SSA to Steve so he can get this set up.
Outdoor Report:
Spring Registration: There are 266 players registered so far. Our next board meeting will be April 4th @7pm at the Spearfish Rec Center in the party room. All SSA members are welcome and encouraged to come.
Coaches meeting will be Tuesday March 21st @ 6:30pm at Spearfish Rec center in the party room.
Scheduling meeting for coaches U10 and up will be Friday March 24th @ 6:30pm at Hudson Hall.
First games of the season are April 1st. Teams can begin practice after March 21st.
Outdoor Fields: All U6 kids will practice and play games at Ronnie Theisz next to the concession stand. All U8 kids will move to the Burger King Field, located across from Burger King next to the Skate Park and the High School annex buildings. U10 kids will practice at the field below the Softball Fields across from the Young Center Parking Lot. All U12 teams will continue to practice and play games at the Hillsview fields. U14 and U16/U19 teams will have practice and games at the BH Power Sports Complex.
Field Painting – Last year someone was hired, but that didn’t work well. Someone is needed to be responsible to either paint the fields weekly or find someone to paint the fields. It takes about 3 hours to do all the fields. Payment for this would be an option. Larry will be responsible for the U8 fields. Jeremy Mailloux offered to be responsible for the U14 fields.
There will be NO home games on the weekend of April 21st. BHSU is hosting a 5v5 and 8v8 fundraising tournament. There is also an Ultimate Frisbee tournament this weekend.
Uniforms—Parents will be responsible for ordering and paying for the uniforms. Coaches will let them know what to order but then the parents will order them. The order will be sent directly to the parents. This method will help lower the cost. Teams in U10 and up will need 1 dark uniform and 1 light uniform. Players must purchase 1 shirt of each color and can use any black shorts and socks. Warmups will also be available as an option is anyone is interested. After some discussion, it was decided that this option will not work this Spring because it won’t be set up and available in time. If the Competitive Teams need to get uniforms ordered, the coaches will need to get with Jenny to get things worked out. The coaches will be responsible for collecting money and delivering the uniforms.
Goalie Training—Sarah drafted a curriculum for U-10 to U-19 Goal Keeping Academy. She would like to offer a 1 time per week training and parents would pay for the academy. Steve will look into getting this added on the website as part of the registration page. Sarah will work on getting the cost of the Academy figured out.
Outdoor Season–Larry talked to several parents about the U6/U8 season. The parents did not like the idea of not having a specific coach for their child. He would like to continue the Academy Style practice, but assign each child to a team and specific coach. Looking at the current number of players registered, U6 will have boys and girls combined and U8 and up will have the boys and girls separated for teams.
Larry is continuing with the development of the curriculum at each level. He will work with Steve to get the curriculum and drill ideas posted on the website.
Indoor Report:
Volunteers – Next year an email needs to go out asking for help sooner. This email needs to include a list of volunteer needs for the season. The idea of a Parent Coordinator was discussed. We need more help with parent volunteers. One need that we know of is the painting of the fields. It doesn’t really take that long, especially if there are plenty of volunteers.
Another volunteer need is fundraising. Every year, SSA pays the Spearfish High School $44,000 to fund the High School Soccer Program. This money is raised by hosting our two indoor tournaments and Banner Sales. Banner Sales is a great way to volunteer. Jenny will send an email out asking for help and explaining more about the Banner Sales.
Winter Classic Sponsor – Please be thinking of an idea of a sponsor for the Winter Classic. This sponsor would be responsible for $2500. They would be allowed to pick a logo and have their name associates with the tournament. It would be nice to get a long-term sponsor. The idea of adding sponsors to the webpage was discussed. Steve will look into this.
Teams: Teams will be posted soon for the Spring Season. The coaches will be responsible for setting their team’s games and tournaments. Practices will begin as soon as the Coaches Meeting is done, which is scheduled for 3/21/17, and the Scheduling Meeting on 3/24/17.
At 8:53pm, SSA moved to go into Executive Session. At 9:03pm, SSA adjourned the Executive Session and moved back into the regular meeting,
Rob Blake has decided to step down from the President role due to his heavy travel schedule with the BHSU Women’s soccer team and family being in Wisconsin. He still wants to see the youth of our organization grow he plans on helping out where he can. Jamie Kruger has also resigned her position as Outdoor Vice President. This leaves 2 positions open on the SSA Board. Jenny moved and Amber seconded that Rick Ellerton become president and Larry Gould become Outdoor Vice President. This motion was approved. This leaves 2 open Member at Large positions available. The SSA Board will look into finding 2 replacements.
The next Spearfish Soccer Association Board Meeting will be Tuesday, April 4, 2017 at 7:00pm at the Spearfish Recreation Center.
With no further discussion, the meeting was adjourned at 9:05pm. Sarah moved and Rick seconded.
Respectfully submitted,
Leah Rafferty
Spearfish Soccer Association Board Secretary