November

NCSL Board of Directors Meeting- November 12, 2001

Meeting called to order at 7:35PM.

Roll call shows a quorum.

Clubs not present: Alexandria, Baltimore Football, Bowie, Chantilly, Falls Church, Frederick, Great Falls, Laurel, Lee-Mt. Vernon, Prince William, Reston, Savage, Takoma Park, Thunder, Virginia Blackwatch, VISTA, Winchester, and Washington Soccer.

Treasurer-Roger Ney- Not able to be here. Budget hand-out is available. If you have any questions, please e-mail him.

R&D-Ray Greenberg-The end of the season was not as good as the mid-season report, but had no problems with U9-U12. End of season carryover sit-out report will not be available for another couple of weeks. Ray will e-mail it to all club reps and have Demosphere post it on the web site as soon as it is available. He will also prepare a Summary of R&D hearings for the fall season and have it posted on the web site. He found some mistakes/oversights in the R&P manual and will be updating that over the next few weeks. If anyone has caught any errors or omissions, please e-mail the problems or fax me the pages that need fixes. We worked hard to include disciplinary points i.e. team behavior as a tie breaker. I reviewed each division and each standing 1-10th place. Unfortunately, in not one case did I need to go to the 4th tie breaker, disciplinary points, to determine positioning within a division. I believe that we should relook at the tiebreakers and consider moving disciplinary points to the 2nd, but no lower than the 3rd tiebreaker. If this would happen then team behavior would be much more important to our teams not only for trophies, but more importantly, to teams moving up or down.

President-Jeff Skigen- There was more interest in cards and points this year so we have gotten the message across. In the past, most of the problems were players, then it evolved to most being coaches, now most of them are parents. We need to get the message to the parents. This league respects it's officials without regard to competency level. We do require that they keep our players safe. When you have your coaches meeting, have coaches tell the parents. Outstanding job by Ray Greenberg and Dennis Quicker. Thanks to all the people who served on the R&D committee.

Registrar-Gloria Gallagher- Not here but asked that you remember that club reps call her, managers and coaches do not. Please relinquish player passes through the proper process.

Consultant for Player Development-John Ellis- It might be the end of the season, but it is not the end of soccer. Now is the time for planning. If a club wants to do a coaching course, they need to give the State Association 2 to 3 months lead time. He has watched a lot or games, NCSL is competitive, but technically they are still not doing well. If players want to do well, they need to improve their technical ability. In California, Florida, and places they can train year round, they are technically superior. There are a lot of winter indoor opportunities now and individual clinics for kids. Teams should be planning what tournaments they want to go to in the future and whether or not they want to tour Europe or go to summer camp.

Administrator-Kathleen Sessions-Trophies are ordered and on the way.

President-Jeff Skigen- Update on the Northern Virginia fields-specifically Lorton which is the same thing as Laurel Hills- once the feds transfer the title to Fairfax County, they will begin the process of how to allocate the land. VYSA set aside a million dollars for field development, Laurel Hills looks good for that. An effort similar to Soccerplex will be made with D.C. United, MLS, VYSA, Fairfax Co., USYSA, and corporate all working to make a premier complex. Capital Cup is Thanksgiving weekend with 64 of the best U17 & U19 teams, and approximately 250 college coaches. Come see soccer at a great location.

NCSL has a problem with the attendance at meetings. Five years ago everyone came to the preseason meeting to get schedules, and to the post season meeting to get trophies. How do we change when we have our meetings? Our mid-season meeting was 4 weeks ago, too close in time. We have discussed eliminating that meeting. Another option is a January meeting. We could then have accurate data on the season, on budgets and we could give out or collect our application for league play. The preseason meeting for spring is always important and would give us time to talk to coaches after the January meeting. In the midseason meeting in the Spring, we have tried to get the budget passed. May need to keep this or do it at the preseason meeting. We must have the AGM at the end of year. If you have any suggestions, e-mail Jeff at jskigen@aol.com. Consensus seems to be that people like the idea. We will keep it in mind when we do the next calendar. 
We want to do a clone of the seminar on college coaches for U17 & U19 for our U15 and U16 boys. Do you believe they are better served by an evening meeting, or a Sat. or Sun.? Discussion on meeting time follows. There probably should be two, one in Maryland and one in Virginia. Need to be assured that kids will come, they will be allowed to go to either one. Ask club reps to get to age group and give him some idea of numbers so they can know how big the meeting place should be. This is for parents and players to let parents know what they need to do to have their son watched by college coaches. Once the dates are set, please get back to him with numbers, if there is not an interest, then the meeting will be cancelled. Once the date is set, Kathleen will send the club reps an e-mail and give you a date to reply by. They will not send a follow-up message, you must respond. Thinking of doing this in January or February. SIAR's-comments please. Overall, comments are positive, some problems with communication up front. Would suggest that we continue the program, club reps please talk to the U11's and let them know this is coming. Club reps can change the mandatory grade from 10 to 8, but there is a big difference in the number of hours required for the course. Do we want to go up an age level and include U14?

Report on Website Advertising-Carol Peters-Not ready to make a report, will send e-mails between the seasons with recommendations. Have serious questions on the value.

Meeting adjourned.