Nazareth Soccer Club Board of Directors Report December 12, 2018 Bushkill Township Municipal Building 1114 Bushkill Center Drive Nazareth, PA 18064 Call to Order: 7:36pm Adjournment: 8:52pm Board of Directors Present: Rob Guroff, Jennifer Bennett, Brian Ransom, Jason Bettencourt, Todd Wismer, George Kline, Ron Xela Board of Directors Absent: Damian Beaman, Jennie Riccardi, Karen Janis, Marcos Pires Appointed Positions Present: Bill Fibick Rob Laubach Others Present: Rob Berkowitz NOTES Rob Guroff, President: Budget o Board Members: Do this if you haven t done so already o 25th anniversary $3K Audit o Ron hasn t received anything yet o Rob to follow-up AmazonSmile -- Continue to have it be top of mind Need to get Doug Myers' and Ziggy's winter registration posted o Rob and Jen to send information to Karen to get it set up Need to prep for March Ramp Up training at CrossFit for Classic players Mondays/Thursdays 5:30/6:30/7:30 (4 sessions / $25) o Rob is good for trainers o Cap at 16 Expecting to open Sunday afternoon Classic hard court training at Moravian with Jeff Ykoruk (women's coach) JAN20-MAR10 (8 sessions / $50) o Registration will go out Evaluation planning/schedule -- would love to roll out the rough timeline with Spring reg
o Rob Berkowitz to review available dates Need to finalize Adidas contract o George to send edited version to Rob Identify one Spring tournament so the Club will help cover cost o Consider an informal round robin type tournament o Maybe 25 th anniversary tournament? 25th Anniversary committee will meet the week of DEC 17 Plaques + Visits for Gold Sponsors / Recognition letter for Caulfield's Family Auto for winter LVU sponsorship Philly Union Rep will attend board meeting soon Fall Picture Day o More formal bidding process in the fall o Prepare RFP for JAN board meeting with decision at FEB meeting o Jen B. to lead this process o Ron to follow up on Club s revenue from pictures Fall season has gone well o No disciplinary issues o Mixed success on the field o BMYSL teams faced unpredictable levels of competition Garcia Cup cancellation was big disappointment but understandable given the weather o Tent did not collapse even given the weather and heavy rain Thoughts about fields -- going to need some extra attention given the Fall rainfall o Let's ask Butz / Bushkill if we can work on their back field at the Elementary School This location may get more use as the Club grows. Could be an alternative site for activities to let other fields rest Aeration, flattening and depressions all need attention o Let's see about how to address the depressions at Essroc Upper These are only going to get worse o Consider sod patching for Essroc Lower + Upper and the goal mouths at Lucas o How did Tuskes hold up? o Pursuing professional audit of finances: Kirk, Summa and Co, LLP o Parking lot expansion at Essroc Lower any ideas to spur the work to get done? o 25th Anniversary: Logo adjustment, video progress, meeting with Jen to discuss next actions Jennifer Bennett, Vice President: VP notes (I will be at the meeting, but may be a bit late) 25th Anniversary Celebration o Anticipated date of Sunday May 19 th o High-school stadium booked o May 12th as second choice date o Budget amount, will anticipate cost for prizes for kids, advertising, other unknown items Working on finding alumni interested in participating in "Where are They Now?" interviews o If you know anyone that is a NSC alumni, please let me know. I would like to start downloading coach clearances that are in my possession into blue sombrero Survey Monkey
EXTERNAL Re Nov minutes and Board Me Working on end of season survey for coach feedback/comments. Planning 25th anniversary events - meeting with Rob. o Would like to incorporate high school girls team - Ziggy is supportive o Forming a sub-committee: Rob, Jen, Damian, Jennie, Karen o Line item in the Budget? Brian Ransom, Secretary: November minutes approved: GK / JB October minutes approved: JB/RG Ron Xela, Treasurer: Started month: $146,012.90 Ended month: $128,429.36 Up ~12k over same period last year Budgets: o Equipment similar to 2018 o Fields similar to 2018 Budget will need to be approved at the next meeting Started month: $177,166.32 Ended month: $146,012.90 Up ~25k over same month last year Identify areas where greatest variances are occurring o Review all categories Ron to work on ways to better streamline the budget by category Uniform expense brand new this season o Identify ways to categorize this o Put this under classic (vs. micro) Checking account successfully transferred to Rob and Ron since last meeting Invoice from Blue Sombrero received Action item for Board Members: o Prep for 2019 budget Classic, Micro, Fields, and Equipment Todd Wismer, Fields Director: Find a date that Rob, Damian, Bill and Todd can sit down in Jan and talk about fields for Spring Holy Cross will need to be used for practice in the spring
Still looking for open land for practices Lights and porta-johns were all picked up Working on vendors assessing field conditions Porta-Johns and Lights will be picked up 11/19/18 Need help Breaking down Fields and heavy lining on Sat 11/17/18 Lower Naz, Tuskes, Bushkill Rec and Lucas. Essroc Upper needs to stay open. (Still have makeup games) All letters have been sent out requesting fields for next year. (March 4th to July 7th ) Thoughts. Spring move U4 and U5 to Butz and U6-U8 at Essroc and move the fields the opposite direction to let the Goalie areas rest. Continue to look for new ground. Even if it is just an area to practice. As the club continues to grow practice and games on the same fields we will continue to tear them up. Come up with some sort of game plan for fixing the fields for spring. o Consider a plan for rotating fields Needs: o Work on budget for 2019 o Assess condition of all fields George Kline, Equipment Director: Creating questions re: uniforms for parents/players when signing-up for Spring o Did you purchase a uniform last season? o If yes, what s the number? Spring Registration: Jan. 1 Feb. 15 Please start planning any equipment needs outside of the ordinary for Spring o We discussed upgrading some goals, nets, flags etc. Special attention to goals with extra loop that holds back the net; currently, we don t have nets that fit these 12 goals o This will be part of the 2019 budget planning process o Assess all coaches equipment bags needs Drew Draper has been our contact at Soccer Magic for 18 years o He moved on and we have a new contact o The Adidas contract is with Adidas, so this does not affect anything there o Rob to sign the Adidas contract soon All coaches polos and goalie jerseys were provided by Adidas Jennie Riccardi Fund Raising and Special Events: Cannot attend; nothing to share Picture day discussion and feedback o Some first day bumps due to picture cards o New process established for Day #2 things went smoother 2 nd day o Actually ended early, ahead of schedule both nights o Not a lot of feedback from the Micro parents or coaches so far
o Some small hiccups with distributing pictures o Order form will be updated for Spring o Will update picture images too so they are not cut off o New bidding process will be conducted in Spring o Recommend having the pictures earlier in the season to allow additional processing time Halloween parade went great and the kids had a blast handing out candy and waving o We had about 100 people Spirit gear sales went great at Picture day but was a waste of time during Saturday games at Essroc o I have the cash to hand in to treasury tonight - $104 in Spirit Gear o Consider new opportunities to sell merchandise Let s discuss some 25th anniversary planning ideas and what the spring bbq actually entails o With 25 th anniversary, probably something will happen in place of it 25 th anniversary o Form a separate committee outside of the regular board Jennie, Rob, Jen, Karen, and Damian o Multiple events throughout the year Parent volunteer interested in helping with fund raising events o Get her involved and attending meetings Jason Bettencourt, Registrar: Planning for Spring Registration Will coordinate leagues when registration is final Nothing for registrar this month I would like to discuss is how we want to deal with illegal rostering issues from other clubs Karen Janis, Communications Director: Not present, no notes provided Amazon Smile o We receive 0.5% of eligible purchases by people who select us to be their organization of choice o Previously, it had only been applicable if you went to smile.amazon.com to shop. Now it also works through the Amazon app o Do we want to sign up and if so, who should be the admin? They will need the bank account number and routing number for the quarterly direct deposit. o Ron to move forward with next steps Google for Nonprofits o I am in the process of setting up an account for us o This will allow us to share docs and calendars, use Google Drive for file storage, set up Google forms, etc. o We should have it finalized in the next few weeks Spring Registration o Last year we used January 1 - February 15. Do we want to use those dates again?
o We can open the waitlist for all players from then until we're ready to close it (Classic can be closed separately from Micro). o Do we need to ask any specific questions concerning uniforms, numbers, team name, etc? George to work on this o I plan on asking questions that will help us determine the best way to communicate with parents for field closings (email, text, social media, website, etc). Website o I will be putting together notes/instructions on different aspects of the website that we're really not using that could be beneficial to us (such as tracking coach's clearances) and things that will be changing as I updated the website in the next month o I will have these out before spring registration Garcia Cup o I have my notes typed up to pass on to whomever takes over next year along with suggestions/ideas o Donations will be converted to designated donations to help cover expenses for families in need Marcos Pires, Classic League Director: Few coaches answered my request for info (mostly had good experience) Budget for classic o Send to Ron in advance of next meeting Previous Meeting (not present, notes provided): Thoughts on starting a classic WhatsApp group to share thoughts/ideas during the season? It has (in my opinion) really kept the board very flexible and able to respond real time. From the coaches' side, it's still less so. Of course, this would be optional. o Rob OK to proceed if he wants Email will go out to classic coaches to ask about Winter soccer. I am hearing of pockets of interest but not enough to secure whole time slots. I may use a Google doc to join up various parts of teams to see if we can move on this. Thoughts? o Good Micro slate so far o Decent opportunity in March for Classic o Crossfit provided remaining options to Rob o Potential option for YMCA space o Limited Classic interest to date Email will go out to all coaches to ask about what worked, what didn't, suggestions, thoughts, strategies, parent complaint, etc. Debating weather to extent to assistant coaches? o Jen B. has already created a survey for this / Marcos to review Team placement in league needs some more thought and discussion o Ongoing thing to address season by season Damian Beaman, Micro League Director: Winter Sessions o 2 wks in and going well o focusing on skills/fun o Attendance o 1st week full
o 2nd week 4's/5's ~ 9-10 : 5's/6's ~ 17 (will keep watching) Budget o Will be staying the same except for uniforms, bumping that to $5,000 Spring Season o About 20 coaches have committed to returning (hopefully more come in during registration) o Tentative schedule is attached (will post after final approval) o Spring overview is attached (will post after final approval) o Where are we going to put the U4's? Thought is that 4's and 5's go back up to Butz (front field)? Possible to move them to upper essroc and move the 7v7 field to Butz (parking still a problem) o Does Tuskes have the room to put all of Micro? Todd: too challenging with other sports o Flyers to the elementary schools? Rob to follow-up with Karen NSC-MicroProgram-Spring2019-Summary.docx (70K) NSC-MicroProgram-S pring2019-summary.d Calendar.xlsx (36K) Calendar.xlsx Tournament was a success in spite of the weather Thanks for the use of the Garcia Cup donations, think it made a big difference in the reactions of those out in the cold for the day Handful of coaches have already reached out about returning in the fall No replies in the way of feedback from the end of season email Rob sent last week Was approached about maybe trying throw-ins and goalies in the Spring for U7 Winter Training o Over 50 participants registered as of this morning o Would like to have a discussion about what it should look like o Any previous coaches to talk with/do we want it to look a certain way o Taylor Blake will be helping as well as Patrick Boran and maybe Tyler Hodson o Would like to use parent volunteers as well to try and recruit future coaches - those new to the league especially o Equipment available? o Storage? Rob to provide some guidance. New/Other Business: Rob: o Can use Moravian facility at no cost o Available time: Sun 2-4PM starting JAN20 for eight sessions o Will build into January Registration o Final approval pending
Rob B. o LVU and Keystone merger Taking over LVYSL More of a tiered structure, similar to EDP No big changes for Spring 2019, likely fall 2019 Looking to expand and open to all clubs in the valley Good opportunity for NSC Classic Teams o Is there an opportunity to more closely align with LVU and Keystone? What would it provide NSC? Training support Access to facilities Most of the better players will continue to transition to this group (vs. clubs like ENCO) Guarantee work for their trainers able to recruit the best ones o Continue open discussion around this topic o Feel free to reach out to Rob B with any questions League Reps: Pat Crivallero BMYSL o Not present; did attend latest meeting Todd Wismer NVYSL o No notes Rob Laubach LVYSL o Next Meeting: Feb o League will have new leadership Pat Crivallero BMYSL o Notes from Paul: o Garcia Cup was canceled due to weather. Many clubs were upset about this, BMYSL sent out statement on safety of players and asked Commissioners to act in a professional manner o There was a serious incident the week before Garcia Cup that caused a coach to have his card taken from a different club o Spoke with other Clubs with HS teams and they recommended we make one team next year as there is no limit on roster for HS team That will eliminate the need for double rostering There is no rules against an all boy team in a coed league (Latin Union) if there are concerns about safety of players, just forfeit It s not worth injury, the other clubs agreed o Next meeting is first Thursday of December o Confirm who s taking over BMYSL so we can let them know Pat Crivallero is interested; is looking for some help Todd Wismer NVYSL o No notes Rob Laubach LVYSL o Meeting started with a presentation by Eastern PA Youth soccer
Spoke about grassroots coaching levels, training and improvements to items on their website Unfortunately did not have enough hand outs but promised to email his presentation to all o Announcement made that LVYSL has entered into a sponsor agreement with Capelli for equipment Keystone/LVU mentioned at meeting it is also their new sponsor also o Was a discussion about using the 3 referee system for all U12 games below top league level but it never passed by majority o Although fall coming to close asked again to be sure coaches all have 3 separate copies of lineups and exact money for ref so they do not have to make change at game time o Presidents Day indoor tournament announced at Lou Ramos Center for U8 to U18 February 16th and 17th 2019 o 40th Anniv. tournament at Keystone fields Memorial Day weekend May 25th & 26th 2019 o Last item of note not really involving club but announced today that Bethlehem Steel is leaving Lehigh Valley because Goodman Stadium does not have lights to meet USL requirements o Next meeting Feb 12th 2019 o P.S. My personal observation seemed in this meeting that all things discussed seemed to funnel through the new merger between Keystone/LVU. Will have to see in future meetings where that leads.