Attendees:
John Veentjer, Scott
Shelton, Shawn O’Brien, Sham Austin, Bob Peterson, Ed Rafferty, Greg Pardee,
Bill Kusulos, Bob Woods, Laura Waite (5Star Cheerleaders), Leah Murphy, Beckey &
Duane Ranstrom, Rick Hansen, Dan Pitzler, Meredith Cutting, Allen McDowell,
Chuck Nichols, Bud Freeman, Gregg Meyers, Dave Schroeter
Absent:
Paul Manjarrez (Secretary -
Knights), Bob Goldberg (Referees), Neil Aguiling (Kirkland Boys & Girls Club),
Roger Moore (Kirkland-Juanita), Zach Hector (Woodinville)
Call
to Order at 1905
Introductions:
Every one introduced themselves for the benefit of anyone new to Council; there were a few new representatives and some quests. Reminded everyone to send John Veentjer any changes to Council representation so that we can update web site contacts list and email distributions.
Introduced Sham Austin as new web master. Reminded everyone to start now to update their system web pages. Get updated information to Sham. Also, everyone needs to look at their home field maps under Field Locations and ensure their respective map is current and provided with driving directions from main routes (i.e., I-405, I-90, or I-5 in case of Univac).
Minutes of the last meeting
(December 10, 2002):
These were distributed by email to all system representatives soon after that
meeting. No comments were received. Thus, assuming these minutes must be
acceptable to all, and having received no objection, the minutes are considered
final. A copy of the subject minutes was included in the meeting handouts.
Review:
Calendar – quick review of calendar, which is unchanged in any significant
way from previous years and is same as handout at December 10, 2002 meeting
except that the semi-final locations have been listed. Having received no
objection, these minutes are considered final and will be posted to the web
site.
Age/Weight Schedule (adjusted one year); this was distributed at the December 2002 meeting and is posted on the web site.
Budget/Fees – distribute proposed budget for 2003 to support continuation of Admin Fee assessment -- $200 base, with additional $15 per team in the system.
Committee Assignments:
Grievance – Bob Woods, Chuck Nichols, and
Greg Pardee volunteered, thus relieving Ed Rafferty and Rick Wells of this
responsibility.
Roster review – Need more roster reviewers for this year. Plan to do review
same as last year, i.e., within one week of the deadline for turning in
preliminary master rosters, the review committee will meet at the Boys and Girls
Club to review the rosters. Would like to have one representative from each
system, thus each review will have one system to review. This works better than
having the systems do a roster exchange without any control over or knowledge of
exactly what is going on.
Husky/Seahawks Coordinators – Kirkland and Inglemoor are each to try to get a
Huskie pregame. John V will work with Fred Camponigro (Seahawk junior football
pregame coordinator) to get a Seahawks game or two.
Winter committee work reports:
Rule update/reformatting – continue work on incorporating policy decisions at
Council into rules. There will otherwise be no significant change in the
rules. Only that which is already the policy/practice will be addressed in the
rule update as well as any other changes adopted between now and the season
start.
Divisions/Schedule Proposal –
This proposal has been on the table since before the end of last season. The
purpose of this proposal was to build divisions in which the teams might be more
evenly matched, consequently we might be able to reduce the number of lopsided
games. There had been significant support for the proposal, however, the
discussion at this meeting demonstrated the feelings against are stronger than
the feelings for. During discussions, several modifications were offered. The
discussion got a bit off task and somewhat argumentative, however, it surfaced
and hopefully relieved some penned up feelings. In the end, the proposal was
withdrawn without alternative. Divisions in 2003 will be established as they
have been in the past.
As part of this discussion, a proposal was made to set the number of players
that constitute a full team to be at least 26. Applicants are to be taken in
order of registration – “first-come-first-served” to avoid a selection or
weeding process. Applicants are not to be turned away (should be put on a
waiting list) until a team is full at no less than 26 players (and, by GEJFA
Rules, no more than 33 – otherwise, a split is required). A motion was made and
seconded; the vote in favor was unanimous. This will be incorporated in the
clarified rules that will be presented to Council in June.
Boundaries – Brief discussion that players in the Sammamish
High draw area have had their choice of Bellevue Systems as indicated in the
GEJFA Rules. Proposal was made that these players should go to the Bellevue
Bears System and the rules amended accordingly. It was noted that almost
without exception this has actually been the practice. Although Bellevue
Knights were not represented at this meeting, Bellevue Wolverines and Bears were
in agreement and Council acknowledged. The rules will be amended to indicate
that the Sammamish High draw area in part of the Bears System.
Officials –
Good discussion about each system recruiting at least 2 new officials for 2003.
Look within your system to find those who have an older brother, older cousin or
friend who might be available to officiate. Some discussion regarding possible
sources for additional officials, such as the officials organization that covers
youth basketball games. Some suggestion about raising pay for the “volunteer”
officials, however, this is not believed to be as much the problem with
retaining officials as is the attitude displayed by coaches and parents.
See no need to raise the pay for officials at this time, but if we don’t get the number of officials we need for any Saturday game day, some fields are going to be shorted.
The handout for estimating admin and officials fees was provided at this
meeting. If anyone has questions regarding the calculations they are invited to
call John V to discuss. John V has all the supporting records to show how fees
are calculated and paid.
Championships’ Video Productions:
Final Take Productions got all the Championship videos out by Christmas.
John V had copy of the Varsity game video available at the meeting if anyone
wanted to take a look at the quality. It appears that everyone present at this
meeting is interested in continuing the video taping of Championship games with
the Admin Fees serving as the means by which the production costs are covered.
Orders for video or DVDs by individual players/families is extra.
First aid requirement:
Don’t forget that each team has to have at least one coach trained in first
aid. Alternatively, the team can have a doctor or nurse on the sidelines or
close by. SnoValley mentioned that a Basic Sports Medicine/Athletic Training
Management course will be presented at Mount Si High School (sponsored by the
Mount Si HS Sports Medicine Program). Gregg will provide a copy of the brochure
to John V for distribution to the other systems (this was done on
2/14/03).
Other Business:
John V raised discussion of becoming a
member the non-profit organization “Athletes for a Better World” (ABW).
Included copy of the Code for Living documents as handouts for this meeting.
This Code of Living can also be found on the ABW website –
www.aforbw.org. There were no objections to GEJFA becoming a member of this
organization; in fact, there appeared to be strong support. (on
2/10/03 John V attended an ABW Board Meeting
in Seattle and will report more on this organization at our next meeting)
John V mentioned that he is trying to raise visibility of GEJFA in the sports
community. ABW suggested that we could actually become a model program that
would be recognized nationally through their web site (to be investigated
further).
Adjourn at about 8:45pm.
Next meeting: June 3 (Tuesday), 7:00pm @ Bellevue Boys and Girls Club