SAN FRANCISCO VIKINGS SOCCER LEAGUE
* AGENDA *
2007 ANNUAL ELECTIONS MEETING
2007 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Monday, January 29, 2007 at 7:00 p.m.
Town School, 2750 Jackson Street
San Francisco, California
A. Call to Order
B. Roll Call of Directors and Officers
C. Credentials Report (See Attachment)
D. Introduction of Guests
E. Acceptance of Minutes of the 2006 AGM
F. Reports:
1. President
2. Chief Financial Officer
3. Secretary
G. Unfinished Business (none)
H. Awards
I. Proposals for Change of Articles, Bylaws, and/or Rules and Regulations. (See Attachments)
J. New Business (Members Question and Answer/ Comment Period Limited to 30 minutes)
K. Election of Directors (See Attachment)
L. Good of the Game
M. Adjournment
IN WITNESS WHEREOF:
/S/ Clay Leighton
Acting Secretary
ATTACHMENT - C. Credentials Report.
Teams must present their credentials to be able to vote. Team votes are to be cast by coaches unless they grant a proxy to a team affiliated adult. Proxy holders must have a coach or team contact signed written proxy plus suitable proof of their identity such as a picture ID. Disputes will be resolved on the spot by a credentials committee. A proxy may be informal, e.g. I, John Smith, am the coach of the Hornet, BU10, TIN: 355. I grant my 2007 AGM proxy to Joe Black, a team affiliated parent. Dated: /s/ You may also use the 2007 postcards sent by mail to the coaches or team contact.
ATTACHMENT - I. Proposals for change of Articles, Bylaws, and/or Rules and Regulations.
Amendment Proposal #1
Amendment to Rules and Regulations to limit number of teams on which an individual coach can be listed as the head coach. Submitted by Shelli Meneghetti and Clay Leighton, Co-presidents.
In general the San Francisco Vikings Soccer League (“Vikings”) and the Police Activities League (“PAL”) are trying to do a better job of coordinating the fall and spring youth soccer league rules and regulations. Both leagues find it difficult or impossible to make scheduling accommodations for coaches with multiple teams. In its rules PAL limits the number of teams on which an individual coach can be listed as the head coach. We recommend that Vikings adopt a similar rule.
New Rules and Regulations Proposal:
III. E. Number of teams. A coach can only be listed as the head coach on a maximum of two teams.
Amendment Proposal #2
Amendment to Rules and Regulations eliminating age waivers. Submitted by Shelli Meneghetti and Clay Leighton, Co-presidents.
Currently Vikings offers some limited age waivers to players on U7 to U11 teams. PAL, other leagues and tournaments do not honor age waivers. Vikings does not allow age waivers for players on U12 and older teams. Ultimately these age waivers cause problems for the teams and/or players. We recommended that we eliminate all age waivers. The only exception will be that we will “grandfather” any players who received age waivers in the fall 2006 season.
New Rules and Regulations Proposal:
IV. G. Age Waivers. The League will no longer grant any age waivers to players. The only exception to this rule is for children who received age waivers during the fall 2006 season, are on a U11 or younger team, and are playing on the same team as they played on in the fall 2006 season (a team will be considered the same if at least 75% of the players on the 2006 team are still on the team).
Amendment Proposal #3
Amendment to Rules and Regulations to change the method of team formation for U12 and older age groups. Submitted by Libby Rappolt, VP – Coaching, and Stuart Berkowitz, Assistant VP - Schedules.
This proposal to improve the method of team formation in the Vikings for the U12 and older age groups is motivated by the sentence in our League philosophy:
The Viking League is a recreational youth soccer league. We are interested in being a league which lets children have fun learning to play soccer and, at the same time, develop into good winners and good losers. Every team should expect to win half their games and lose half their games on average.
In the U12 and older age groups, we generally do not meet our goal because the skill and experience level of the players is not balanced across teams and we do not have sufficient numbers of teams to make a variety of different divisions. As a result, we end up with many imbalanced games.
We propose to modify the method for forming teams based on methods employed by most Northern California recreational leagues. There would be two different divisions of teams at the U12 and U13/14 age levels: an upper house division and a pure recreational division.
The upper house division would allow teams wishing to stay together, to remain together. This division would also allow paid coaches and selection of players - instead of the behind the scenes activity that often currently occurs. All teams in this division would be grouped together and would play each other.
The recreational division would be for those players who want to play on a purely recreational team where teams would be formed based on a modified draft system with the goal of having relatively equal teams. Coaches would be required to be volunteers and the volunteer coaches and assistant coaches would be allowed to have their children on their roster. Additional players would be chosen at a coaches meeting in a draft format, where players have an ability rating based on their previous season’s performance. Players wishing to join the League after the draft would be assigned to teams in rotation. We would hope to take into account players’ preferences for practice times and areas if at all possible in order to make carpooling easier for parents.
This system would create more parity in the playing experience for the older age groups, where we have fewer teams, and the age group is often dominated by a few teams. Benefits to the League would be fewer complaints about weak players being coerced to leave a team, a less tribal atmosphere because players would know each other from previous experiences, and greater parity in the playing experience for the participants.
We recognize that more details need to be resolved to implement this change but the Board is seeking approval of the concept and the authority to implement it if in the Board’s judgment the details have been resolved.
New Rules and Regulations Proposal:
II. D. Team Formation. The Board of Directors (“Board”) is instructed to explore and seek to implement in each of the U12 and U13/14 age groups a two division structure. The first division will be an upper house division where teams form themselves, may select players and may have paid coaches. The second division will consist of players and volunteer coaches registering with the League and the League forming teams based on a draft system. The Board shall have the authority to implement this system if, in its sole judgment, the details are resolved and appropriate systems are in place to implement the structure. The Board may decide to implement this in one age group or all. The Board may also implement any interim rules necessary to put this new structure into place. If the Board does not believe that the issues have been resolved in time for the 2007 season, the implementation may be delayed or cancelled.
ATTACHMENT - K. Election of Directors.
The slate of candidates for director submitted by the outgoing board is:
Stuart Berkowitz, current Assistant VP – Scheduling, soccer coach, and licensed referee.
Keith Engelbrecht, current Assistant VP – Scheduling and soccer coach.
Jim Hobbs, current Director, VP – Fields and Equipment, and soccer coach.
Michael Joseph, current Director and Chief Financial Officer.
Clay Leighton, current Director, Co-president, soccer coach, and licensed referee.
Shelli Meneghetti, current Director, Co-president, and soccer coach.
Libby Rappolt, current Director, VP – Coaches, soccer coach, and President of San Francisco Vikings Soccer Club.
Peter Schumacher, current Director, VP – Referees, soccer coach, and licensed referee.
Claude Sidi, current Director, VP – Commissioners; soccer coach, and licensed referee.
Kevin Tom, current Assistant VP – Referees, soccer coach, and licensed referee.