Regional Commissioner Report/Open Board Positions (Roger)

AYSO Region Meeting Minutes ~~ November 14, 2016

Attending: Roger Steele, Tom Norton, Kelly Watson, Pat Stanford, Mike Doherty, Michelle Wilkinson, VieraEwell, Kevin Johnson, Brad Puskas, Barry Gribbon and Ryan Wantz

Meeting brought to order at 7:04pm

Minutes: approval of Minutes for October– moved byKelly Watson, seconded byPat Stanford– minutes unanimously approved w/edits by the Board

Regional Commissioner Report/Open Board Positions (Roger)

Holiday tournament not hosted in West Torrance this year. Hawthorne will be hosting one this year instead.

US Soccer Policy Update/AYSO perspectives:

Age cutoff for AYSO will remain July 31; will be retitled 12U or 14U vs. U12 or U14
Most club programs will probably stick with a Dec 31 cutoff date (as will AYSO United program)
Coming changes to be phased in: U6 and U8 will be 4x4 with no goal keepers and ½ size field; reduced field sizes for U10 and U12 as well, and with smaller goal sizes
Additional mandates: build-out lines, no goal kicks (U10 and below); no throw ins - free kicks instead (U8 and below);

Roadshow – January 6-8, 2017 in Arcadia

Expo – March 3rd 2017 in Las Vegas – we need Board member attendance: region will pay for transportation to LV, standard level hotel room and meals; must go to either Roadshow or Expo for training – Roger will inform those who need to complete the training.

Website transition to Blue Sombrero (“BS”): AYSO national is driving a move of web hosting and website control to BS, likely by Spring of 2017. BS will be the engine that we’ll use to manage the region’s web presence going forward. National is hosting webinars on it regularly (see ayso.org for list of dates) and those that need to be part of the transition should participate in the webinar to be up to speed for Fall 2017 season implementation.

Region playoffs begin November 28th with championships concluding on Saturday, December 10th

League Championships/Tournament of Championsbegin January 8, 2017; we will have wildcard teams in GU10 & BU10.

Adult/volunteer league will start in January most likely

BOARD REPORTS:

Registrar: (Ted Shoepe)

No updates

Coach Administrator: (Kelly Watson)

U5 officially completed an awesome season; surveys going out to parents shortly; Challenger coaches were very helpful this year; many parents interested in continuing via coaching in U6

U6 and above player rating meetings will be happening this week and next

Coach issues: zero tolerance for yelling at refs – all Board members can help nip it in the bud; continuing to review game cards – still see coaches’ kids playing entire games while other kids are not; did suspend a coach for a game due to challenging a youth referee

Girls/Boys Programs: (Mike Doherty)

Ratings sessions are scheduled or being scheduled for the most part; All Star coach interest is also starting to roll in

Area Program: (VieraEwell)

Area playoffs will wrap up tomorrow (Tues 11/15); one of our U16 teams made it to semi-finals

Referee Administrator: (Pat Stanford)

Pat will be soliciting feedback from coaches regarding good referees from the season to aid in selecting referees for semi-finals and finals games

Referee Points update:

BU10: team 9 short 3 points;
GU10: team 2 has 0 points and team 5 needs 9 points;
Most other teams are within a few points of getting to totals

Certified 27 new refs this season that did two games or more; 5 new refs have not yet completed two games

259 games refereed YTD; 32 “points” lost (club linesman); 180 points generated by unaffiliated refs for donation and another ~100 points by referees that have exceeded their respective teams’ totals

Pat proposed that the Board consider utilizing coach and spectator conduct scoring to reward teams with standing points (up to two full wins or 6 points) – we will discuss at a future Board meeting

CVPA: (Ryan Wantz)

Updated player ratings policy, rating worksheet, all-star selection policy and all-star commitment letter

Rating worksheets comments: potentially reduce Coachability and Attendance to ½ point each, and add a new category (or combine with “technical ability”) for “soccer sense”

Player ratings policy comments: reference the expectation that there should be a distribution of ratings within a team in addition to the language that references an average score of 5 across a division, with a bell curve distribution

All-Star selection policy comments: clarify the player commitment – make sure it has teeth (“will be ineligible”); keep language in relative to exceptions for “sick or injured”; update the date range listed on the commitment letter to cover the beginning of official practices (e.g. the week school resumes in January)

Motion made to approve the player ratings policies and all-star selection policies and associated forms with modifications as discussed. Motion offered by Pat Stanford, seconded by Tom Norton and unanimously approved by the Board.

Safety:(Dean Dierks)

18 total injuries/incident reports; 3 players are currently out, with one that may be released to play this week

Treasurer’s Report: (Michelle Wilkinson)

Bank balance of about $219K. Under budget in many areas; light on player registration revenue, but we are managing expenses effectively