Unofficial Meeting – Quorum not met

VSA Board Meeting

2/15/2010

Officers in attendance:  Dave Milne, Alice Riley, Bill Strachan, Dave Fitz, Kevin Driscoll and DeAnna Lindonnguyen

Others in attendance:  Kevin Miller, Gus Donolo – Technical Director and John Wagoner - Fundraising

Meeting was called to order at 6:30 pm.

Motion was made to approve minutes from Board meeting held on 1/17/2010.  Meeting minutes were approved.

Registrar:

• VSA has 1869 children registered for the spring season and 58 children on the waitlist.  There have also been 8 scholarships awarded.
• The breakdown is:  222 players for SFL with 13 teams

                                           426 players for U5 with at least 54 teams

                                           1211 players for U6-U12

                                           10 players for TOPS

• On April 10 there will be no recreational games on turf 6, games on this turf will only be SFL and travel games.
• For the coaches meeting, Allison is looking at either Saturday, March 20 or Sunday, March 21.

President Report:

• The Prince William County Board of Supervisors approved an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan Land Use Chapter that will remove any county requirements that would hinder the lighting of ball fields in Prince William County.
• VSA will submit an application to the county for permission to use temporary lights at the turf fields.  Since we will be missing field 5, these lights will help with practices until the turf fields get permanent lights installed.
• Dave M. has received a bid from Beitzell Fence for the steel fencing instead of nets to be placed behind the big goals.  The fencing was $43K for field 5.  For just a 4’ high fence around the new field it would be $24K.  The board agreed that we need to get more bids.
• Dave M. signed the note for the new turf field 5 last week, because the offer was going to expire.
• Dave met with officials to firm up the permits for the turf field.  He was informed that we may need to get another engineering study.  If this happens, it could cost another $10K - $15K along with more time.  Dave is trying to get a meeting to get pass this issue and to get the field started quickly.
• With the new loan, instead of VSA paying the bills, the bank would like us to provide them with the invoices and they will pay them.  The first three months will be interest only on what has been used plus the amount of the old loan.

New Business:

• The Nike contract is back to negotiations with a fixed fee instead of a percentage.  The new fixed fee would be $8,700 up from $5,000. 
• The contract for the Fundraising Coordinator has been signed.
• Since the installation of the new turf field has been delayed, the girl’s U15 team has asked if VSA could advance the team monies against the in kind contribution savings they received for the field.  This advance would be a loan and paid back with the in kind contributions.  The board agreed that VSA would advance the monies.
• It was asked if the coaches meeting for the recreational league could be moved to another date during the week of March 22-25.  This was asked since most of the board members that need to be at the coaches meeting will be unavailable on the proposed dates.
• For members that notice groups on the turf fields when they should not be, they need to call the non-emergency police number and tell them that they need a park ranger.  The non-emergency Prince William County police number is 703.792.6500.
• The next board meeting will be held on March 7 at 6:30 pm at Evergreen Country Club.

Fundraising Director:

• John presented the board with fundraising ideas for the spring.
• For the spring, VSA will hold another car raffle.  Each team, both recreational and travel, will be given an allotment of tickets to sell for $10 each.  The raffle ticket sales are to start in April and the cut off date would be May 15^th.  The actual car raffle would be on the last day of recreational games.
• Teams would also be given ten (10) Papa John cards to sell for $15.  These cards would be, buy one pizza get one free for carryout orders and they are good through July 2011 at locations in VA, MD, and DC.  Travel teams would receive their cards in March before the recreational teams and would be given the opportunity to earn money.  Once a travel team sells their allotment of 10 cards they would receive $4 per card sold.  A recreational team would earn a pizza party for the most cards sold.
• The golf fundraiser was also discussed.  It was said that this should be open to all teams, both recreational and travel.  Also, communication needs to be better than years past and travel teams should be provided an incentive.  This incentive may be that they receive 25% of the net proceeds that they bring to the tournament.
• John presented his proposal for sponsor levels to the board.  The board recommended that there should also be an a la carte option and instead of an email blast to VSA members there should be a sponsor tab on the VSA website.

Travel Commissioner, Technical Director and Director of Coaches:

• Bill, Gus and Dave F have discussed and made changes to the academy program. 
• Information on the academy program is up on the website.
• Changes made would be meeting more often with the coaches and the teams, they have set up a standard amount for the academy teams and for next year, there will be a centralized contract with VSA instead of individual team contracts.  This would mean that the team would pay VSA and VSA would pay Gus. 
• There will be better communication with the academy teams.
• Being able to make payments through Demosphere is also being considered.
• VSA will be bringing back the All Star program for the recreational league age groups U8-U12.
• They discussed the budget dollars for the spring season being used on travel coach education sessions, coaching clinics for both recreational and SFL, and having a trainer at the fields for recreational practices.
• Gus will be making one week of his Madeira camp a VSA week.  He will offer a special price for VSA members and this will allow players to get the over night camp experience.  VSA will send out an email about the camp and maybe Dave M could come the first day of the week to speak to the members.
• VSA is working with Ewing Sports to supply VSA Fan wear.  An email will be sent out to members with pictures and an order form.  VSA will make $5 per item ordered.
• Dave F has sent out an email to the travel teams about new mandates and uniforms.  Coaches will now need to be in Nike apparel.

Director of Referees:

• Kevin will send out an email with his recommendation on the definition of the ejection rule(s).  This will need to be voted on in the next board meeting.

Meeting was adjourned at 9:40pm.