DeWitt Soccer Club (DSC)

Monday, July 21, 2003

Members Present: Pat Shafer, Bruce Thomas, Larry Tait, Dave Barnhill, Chuck Murdoch, Mark Thomas, & Tony Harris

Meeting called to order at 8:10pm. The "new" guy was initiated by being selected to do the minutes.

Treasurer's Report: Bruce reported that the Club's general fund was currently fine. As of the meeting date, it contains $31,269. Nothing more to report.

Secretary's Report: Distributed via e-mail. Motion to approve by Dave, seconded by Bruce. Accepted as written.

Training & Education: Waiting on fees from SoccerZone camp. Boys still working out at the high school preparing for next season.

AYSO: Mark Thomas was present from AYSO. It looks like they will have more kids in the program next season, thanks to two registration sessions. There will be no U14B team next season, but there will be a U14G team. There will be two U12G and U12B teams. Plenty of U10 and U8 teams. In total, around 330 kids. The fees were raised, as well. Financially, it

looks like the AYSO program is doing well. They will need new goals, since a lot of them were destroyed by vandalism. The season will start on 9/14 and there will be a coaches meeting around 8/25. There is also a ref appreciation pool party being hosted by Ann Geller. A big thanks to all the refs!

CASL: Chuck is the new CASL representative. He is one of 13 members that make up the CASL Board. His function will be as the secretary. A few topics were discussed at the meeting. One being how many referees are needed for a short-sided game. Currently, 3 refs are used. CASL was looking at going to 1 ref and use club linesman (parents). CASL is looking at different options to potentially save money. Mark T. mentioned that ref fees were going up next season. It looks like CASL is keeping 3 refs per game, but it has not been made clear at this time. TBD. Another topic that was raised and voted on, was the issue with having two short-sided teams at the same age group and the division of talent. The CASL board decided that if there are enough kids for two short-sided teams, then the teams would be divided up equally. Chuck requested that the DSC take over the selling of sweatshirts to the USSF players. Currently, Terri Murdoch organizes the collection and ordering of DeWitt Soccer sweatshirts for all the USSF teams. She has been doing it for the last 3 yrs. She has established a relationship with BLTs, who prefers to deal in large orders instead of many small ones. Terri would put together a brochure with all the selections and provide it to DSC. DSC would distribute to all the USSF teams. The teams would gather their orders and money, then provide DSC with one check and sweatshirt orders. DSC would in turn order the items from BLT and distribute to the teams. This is not a fundraising opportunity, but a positive gesture by the DSC. The members present liked the idea. There was also take about what logo would be used, and whether or not the Dewitt Soccer Club should be added to the items. Nothing clear cut was decided. Most liked the idea of promoting the soccer club. This may also be an opportunity to start moving toward a "club" mentality (i.e. common team names, uniforms, patches, logos, etc.)

High School: 22 boys attended the Hope College soccer camp. Positive feedback was received from the participants. Tryouts for HS will be 8/11 thru 8/15.

Fields: The sprinkler has not been used on the HS this summer. There has been sufficient rain, so it was deemed to be not necessary. This helped to save costs. It should be fine for the 4x4 tournament and AYSO Fall season. Chuck will get some fertilizer on it in the Fall. Mark suggested that the HS practice field (U12&up), should have some work done to it. Specifically, have some low spots filled in with dirt before winter. Chuck will look into it. Chuck also mentioned about Fuerstenau's field. He would like the DSC to look into hiring someone to re-seed the field. Bruce mentioned that CASL matches up to $500 per season for maintenance costs. That might help defer some of the cost. There needs to be a plan for repairing the field, that includes letting it set for a year. This would allow the work that is done to take affect. However, it complicates the practices schedules and available green space. Mark and Chuck will get together on this to free up the field for repair work. They will look into scheduling U8 practices and games at the HS area. This would free up some space. They will get back to us.

Promotions: Nothing to report.

Men's Over-35 Team: No issues or concerns to report. Everything is going well. Currently, the team is 6-3-1.

New Business: When Tony agreed to do the website, he thought he had web development software on his home PC. Since that meeting, he has been unable to find it. He requested to have the Club purchase software, so he will be able to administer the website. Dave motioned that Tony be allowed to investigate and spend up to $150 on web development software for the DSC website. Chuck seconded. The motioned passed unanimously. Should the responsibilities shift, the software can now follow.

Old Business: Nothing to report.

4x4: Larry wants to get the updated rules on the website and to Robin Goodenough for the 4x4 program. Need to get the word out about the referee orientation this Thursday (see top of e-mail).

The next 4x4 meeting will be Monday, July 28th at 7:30pm at Relli's. The next Board meeting will be Monday, August 18th at the Banquet center behind Burger King.

Adjournment: Dave made motion to adjourn. Seconded by Larry. Approved. Meeting adjourned at 9:10 p.m.

Submitted by Tony Harris, interim secretary