GOLDEN GATE WOMEN’S SOCCER LEAGUE
Minutes of the
General Meeting of the Board of Directors
Held on May 12, 2008
at Elks Club of San Francisco
450 Post St., S.F.
Teams Present: Adelante, Blackthorn FC, Bo and the Deelites, Celtic Ramblers, Chicas FC, Chaos, Cramps, Crux, Daruma, DC United, EB United, Finnegan’s Wake, Forte, Heat, High Tide, Killer Tomatoes, Las Brujas, Mad Dog, Marin Flash, Mavens, Mna, Nighthawks, Naomh Padraig II, Olympic Club, Orange Crush, Pirates, Pumas, Rip Tide, Shamrock Rovers, Sirens, SF Angels, SFC United, S.F. Eagles, SF Force, S.F. Fuego, S.F. Vikings, Sublime, The Edge, Trouble United, Underdawgs, Underdogs FC, Urban Legends, Voo Doo Dolls, Wakiza, Wasabi, Zephyr, Zia FC
Teams Absent: Academy of Art, Bay City United, FC Storm, Follies, Kismet United, Ireland’s 32, SF Cosmos, Spitfire, Talking Feet
III. The minutes from the February 4, 2008 General Meeting of the Board of Directors were accepted.
IV. Committee Reports
A. Treasurer Report – Madelyne Cromwell
· Net loss from the Spring 2008 season was $5,000, but cash reserves covered the difference. Recommends lowering the Fall 2008 dues to $1,190 per team, plus $350 for each Premier team to put the League approximately $2,000 in the black. Treasurer in June will update to let us know the financial status of the League.
· Craig: There are likely to be increases in field costs in the fall, including Merritt and possibly Gabe East.
· Lindsay: The San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department will have a meeting regarding fields on May 13, 2008. Barbara may be able to attend.
· Lindsay: Suggests tabling setting the League fee until the August 2008 meeting.
· Madelyne: Teams still need to be prepared to pay at the August meeting.
· Madelyne Cromwell (Urban Legends) moves to table voting on League fees until the fall meeting. Sylvia Pacheco (Mna) seconds. Vote and the motion passes overwhelmingly.
B. Vice President - Scheduling, Fields and Referees – Ian Clarke
· San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department had May 12, 2008 meeting on impact of artificial turf fields, one of three meetings, and is having a meeting about fields on May 13, 2008.
· Jill Lounsbury (Nighthawks): There will be another meeting regarding the golf course conversions on June 5.
· The Over 35’s Division schedule still needs to be set. The games for that division will go out to June 8.
C. Vice President - New Players, New Teams and League Liaison – Craig Settles
· “Our Friends” banner ads for organizations that support the GGWSL. Includes the Marin Women’s Soccer League (MWSL), the co-ed soccer league in San Francisco, San Francisco Seals (who we have deals with to build up their attendance), etc. These associations help get the League’s name out and help us recruit.
· San Jose Earthquakes promotions: Ideas include skills clinics for the League or specific teams with the Earthquakes players; a coaches clinic with the Earthquakes coaches; and having a game that the GGWSL can go to and get the League’s name out there, perhaps get the league name on the message board. The League is helping the Earthquakes develop their MySpace page by giving them an intern to put it together, which will be linked to our league’s MySpace page.
· Recruiting: People should put ads on craigslist, distribute flyers, and get college organizations to mention the GGWSL in their newsletters. Teams need to tell Craig if they need players because often he has players to place.
o Ian: teams should update their want ads
o Craig: the want ads are often out of date and are unclear to recruits. Ask Ian if you don’t know how to update. Craig will send out an e-mail to the teams about the things they can do to get the word out, including posting flyers, e.g., at gyms, and contacting employers, e.g., about putting information in a newsletter.
· Another Over 35 team contacted Craig about joining the League. Merger with one of the two teams with low numbers may be a better option.
· Challenge Match: There is a team planning to challenge in to the Second Division.
· Ian: Blackthorn will play the new team.
· Two teams are considering merging.
· Maria Murnane (S.F. Vikings): Knows the organizer of the Silicon Valley Soccer Association and can put the word out there
· Craig: Regarding the League’s Google visibility, Alison Pascuito is the website person, and can help with that. MySpace page will help with getting the word out. Teams should get a page up - it’s a good way to get new players.
· Lindsay: Team representatives are not forwarding e-mails from the Executive Committee. Perhaps we can create a list of individual players e-mail addresses for occasional e-mails.
D. Vice President – Discipline – Linda Colfax
· Has not been receiving all the reports from referees.
· No red cars were issued in the Spring, but there were over 40 yellow cards. Six Premier Division teams have 1 player with 2 yellow cards; 9 players in the League have 2 yellow cards. Players need to be aware.
· Jill Lounsbury (Nighthawks): Referees need to reminded of what the rules are for giving out yellow cards
· Linda: She’s aware of some disparate refereeing. Also some teams have fans that are rude or there are issues with obscenities - teams should remind fans to behave.
· Gillian Clegg (Mad Dog) asks to whom to report the yellow cards.
· Linda: They should be reported by the teams; tell Linda if you do not see the cards reported because the referees do not always turn in the reports.
· Susan Mayo (Zephyr) asks for clarification of what the rules are regarding multiple yellow cards.
· Linda: Get 2 yellow cards and are put on probation for the current season and the next and have to write a letter explaining them.
· Academy of Art has no names on the website so Linda cannot update the cards. No one present for Academy of Art.
· Olympic Club does not have names and cards cannot be updated.
o Kristin Balauo (Olympic Club): Olympic Club does not publish the names of its members because it is a private organization. The team cannot list the player names on the website.
o Allison Vigil (Olympic Club): Olympic Club team is willing to give the League the player information, but not publish the information on the website
o Ian: will provide a list of CSAN numbers with the names for Olympic Club.
E. Member at Large, CSAN Representative – Barbara Elliott
· No CSAN meetings since the last GGWSL meeting.
· The April 26 meeting was postponed.
F. Secretary – Cecilia Ogbu
· No report.
G. Committee Reports
1. Tournament Report
· Cass Hamann, Tournament Chair: 4th Annual GGWSL. The date will be late July, probably still in the East Bay. Possible locations include St. Mary’s, Dublin, and Merritt (not the first choice).
· Jill Lounsbury (Nighthawks) suggests Gabe East
· Cass: The fees will be $150-200 depending on field costs. We’ll know within a month. An e-mail for volunteers will be sent out within a month. 7 v 7 field, 15-20 minute halves, approximately 5 games per team.
· Maria Murnane (SF Vikings): suggests charging more money, $300
· Lindsay: Can we sell concessions?
· Cass: Depends on the field
V. New Business
· Dogs at the fields
o Lindsay: We are getting reports every week about dogs at the field. Lots of time and money is spent securing the fields and we don’t want to lose them over this issue.
o Craig: Either people need to be more aggressive or we have to set a fine so we don’t lose fields.
o Katryn Wiese (Sirens): A fine is easier to enforce because it gives a strong basis to tell people to not bring dogs.
o Linda: What is the level of culpability for the teams, e.g., the dog belongs to a friend of a fan?
o Siobhan: If the penalty in losing fields, then a fine is reasonable.
o Susan Mayo: Teams might wrongly attribute a dog to the other team.
o Craig Settles: He’s send e-mails to players to send e-mails to their fans to let them know how serious it is. The contracts that we have with the people we rent fields from do not care who brings the dogs. At certain fields there may be people we can ask to kick off non-affiliated dogs, e.g., Oakland Tech, Merritt, Mills.
o Lindsay makes a motion that when there is a dog at a field, a $50 fine is applied to the team most closely related to the dog. Barbara seconds the motion. Vote and the motion passed by an overwhelming majority.
· Porta potties - We need volunteers to manage the porta potties for Hayward and Jefferson
o Lindsay: 4 phone calls to waste management a season. Call at the beginning of the season for each field to schedule the delivery of the porta potties and call to take them away at the end of the season.
· McDonald’s potential sponsorship
o Barbara: CSAN is getting a sponsorship. On May 10 there was a Toyota/McDonald’s giveaway at the Beach Chalet fields. They also want to put a Toyota banner at our games. We have not previously been interested in the partnership because the tournament they sponsor is all-male. She noted that having McDonald’s as a sponsor is a concern because of the health issues, ethics
o Lindsay: A McDonald’s sponsorship goes against the health aspect of the league
· Premier Division first place tie
o SF Vikings and Olympic Club scheduled tiebreaker game at Boxer at 11:00 a.m.
o To accommodate SF Vikings’ difficulty fielding a team at 11:00 a.m., with Olympic Club’s agreement, the Olympic Club/SF Vikings game will be moved to 9:00 a.m. at Boxer. Rip Tide/SF Fuego will be at Boxer at 11:00 a.m. because we have Boxer all day.
· Forfeits and team suspensions
o Lindsay: 9 forfeits this season
o Craig: 3 last season. Bylaws call for a $50 fine per forfeit. If there are 2 forfeits, the team is supposed to be suspended and pushed to last place. As an act of mercy, the Executive Committee did not enforce the suspension. Each game has sunk costs of about $200, but forfeits are also inconvenient because everyone still shows up.
o Darcy Fields (High Tide): Asks about enforcement of the rules against the team with 2 forfeits.
o Lindsay: Executive Committee did not want to have the rest of the teams in the division to lose games.
o Darcy: By not enforcing the rules, it sends a mixed message.
o Craig: It was unusual to have so many forfeits. If teams are okay with only having 9 games, then we can enforce the suspension rule.
o Linda: The rule was not enforced at the time because we wanted to make sure that people were okay with losing one or two games even though they paid $1340 to play.
o Ian: Because the team at issue forfeited games 1 and 3, everyone else in the division would only get 8 games. The Executive Board waived the bylaws because that would be unfair to those teams.
o Katryn Wiese (Sirens): Notes that because the team with the 2 forfeits was good, the forfeits affect the standings, promotion, and relegation.
o Lindsay: 3 forfeits were due to no passes. The rest of the games the teams did not feel comfortable playing with less than ten players. We can vote on changing the bylaws next time.
o Ian: Perhaps we can make the fine $50 for the first forfeit, $100 for the second forfeit, and the opposing team can get the fine. We can change the bylaws at an AGM or if we call a special meeting.
o Lindsay moves to make the August meeting a special meeting. Craig seconds the motion. Vote and motion carries by an overwhelming majority.
· Sports basement party – May 21
o Lindsay: Sport Basement is having a party for the GGWSL at their Potrero Hill location at Bryant & 16th Street
· Knee injury prevention clinic
o Lindsay: Toby Rappolt owner of Sunset Soccer can do knee injury prevention clinics. They are very useful. Let Lindsay know if your team would like to schedule a clinic.
· New team challenging in
o Sylvia Pacheco (Mna): How will the new team challenging in affect relegation?
o Lindsay: If the challenge team is successful, the 5th and 6th place teams in that division and below will be relegated.
o Ian: If the challenge team ties, the 5th & 6th place teams in the divisions below go down a division.
o Linda: The challenge match does not affect promotion.
o Craig: East Bay United (a Premier Division team) and FC Storm (a First Division team) might merge for the Fall, making the effect of the challenge match moot.
· Under 18 players
o Sabrina: Concerned about playing against teams that have very young players.
o Lindsay: Supposed to be over 18 to play, but younger players can get a waiver.
o Jill: The rule is designed to keep our league from stealing good youth players
· Jess Hsu fundraiser for soccer in Haiti
o Lindsay: Jessica Hsu is having a Haiti soccer fundraiser May 24, 6:00 p.m.-11:30 p.m. at Bollywood Café.
· Nighthawks Game
o Jill: Nighthawks are having their first WPSL home game on May 25 at Kezar. With CSAN pass, the game is free. If you bring used equipment, you can also get in free.
· Websites
o Ian is working on the Marin Women’s Soccer League website, as well as some school websites. He wants to leverage those developments for the GGWSL site, also thinking about a GGWSL blog.
· Carnival – CSAN
o May 25 is Carnival parade. CSAN has a cable car float and the Nighthawks will be there. They would like volunteers. Contact Barbara if you can help.
VI. Set the date for the next meeting
· The next meeting will be held on August 4, 2008.
VII. Adjournment
· There being no further business to come before the Board of Directors, a motion to adjourn made by Sylvia (Mna) and seconded by Linda Colfax, and the meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m.