GEJFA Minutes

September 28, 2004

Call to order at 8:00PM.

ATTENDANCE: John Veentjer; Scott Shelton; Beckey Ranstrom (Secretary & Inglemoor); Shawn O’Brien (Scheduler & At Large); Billie Hartline (Scheduler); Bob Goldberg (Officials); Susanna Chung (Knights); Greg Pardee (Wolverines); Beckey and Duane Ranstrom (Inglemoor); Steve Warren and Dave Ciszewski (Issaquah); Neil Aguiling (Kirkland B&G Club); Dan Pitzler (Kirkland Lake Washington); Meredith Cutting (Mercer Island); Doug Evanson (Redmond); Steve Cox (Skyline); Louis Lee (Redwolves); Dave Redemann (Wildcats); Chuck Nichols and John Nelson (Univac); Mike Burrus (Woodinville)

Not present: Sham Austin (Webmaster); Bob Peterson (Bellevue B&G Club); Ed Rafferty (Bears); Ron Walker (Bothell); Bob Woods (Eastlake); Chris Garrod (Five Star); Roger Moore (Kirkland Juanita)

Minutes of the last meeting (September 28) –John will send them out by email if they are not posted on the website.

Financial Report: Discussed fee estimates and field use adjustments. If there is a game scheduled at your home field even if your teams are not playing in that game, you pay for the field costs and then you will be reimbursed at the end of the season. The administrative fees and the referee fees were estimated; the true amounts will be calculated and given to the Systems at the end of the season. Balances (amount due or credit) can be taken care of at that time or you can carry over balances to the next year.

Score Reports: The reports have been coming in slow. The score reports need to be in SATURDAY EVENING for the rest of the season so that Shawn can set up the quarter final games, match-up games, and any shoot-out games as appropriate.

Game Reports: Coaches are reporting some nice experiences and things seem to be going well for the most part.

Violations of GEJFA Rules:

Grievance Committee report – There has been an incident almost every week so far. Please get the word out to your coaches that the policy is zero tolerance and that sportsmanship is critical.
- Ejections – so far this has involved assistant coaches yelling at the referees. Head coaches could also be subject to ejection with incidents involving their assistants, players or parents. Remind your head coaches of this so we won’t have anymore incidents. Field managers have the potential to diffuse some situations.
- Substitution violation – there have been some vague reports of violations in the comments of game reports. There must be specifics in order to call a meeting of the Grievance Committee. See Handout on Substitution Rule scenarios. Please keep in mind the spirit of the substitution rule.
- We are looking at more coaches training in the future. This will be an item of interest in the off season. (NYSCA? Or other)
- Positive and negative comments are coming in and both are appreciated. It is nice having the coaches’ comments. They are all read.
Protest procedures – If you are protesting you need to send the information to John on Sunday (at least call on Sunday, then follow-up with written report ASAP) so that there is time to call the Grievance Committee. John also needs a call and follow-up email if there are coach ejections, etc.
Other reported violations
- Equipment changes after weigh-in are not allowed. The player either weighs in with or without equipment that will be used in the game. No adding/changing equipment, this includes, arm pads, gloves, etc.
- Multiple weigh-ins – a one time courtesy weigh in is acceptable, running a kid around the track to try and lose weight on game day is not acceptable. Players can weigh in without their shoes and with or without equipment (without equipment, they do not get the equipment allowance).
- “Chain of command” – game reports, system director/reps, system to system -- let your coaches know to be respectful of other Systems fields/rules.
- From officials – some of the officials are complimenting the coaches in their reports.
  Meeting Adjourned.

Players moving up or down a playing level: Moving up is a non issue, they should have to move up if they are overweight for 3 weeks. We will discuss moving players down in the off-season and should be a case-by-case basis.

Substitution Rule clarification (attachments): Free substitution on the first play at scrimmage after a kick-off. See handout regarding substitution rule scenarios, what is legal, what is not. The substitution rule exists to ensure equitable playing time for all players. Coaches are strongly encouraged to teach players more than one or two position.

Conduct at Fields: Follow the Field Rules from the School District (attachment). Absolutely do not argue with field managers, in particular those who are school district employees.

Schedule Review

Game score reporting – SATURDAY NIGHT- ASAP
Potential playoff line-up – by having the reports on Saturday, Shawn can line these up.
Shoot-outs (tied for 4th), only as necessary per the outline (only if it means in or out). All other ties will be decided by head-to-head or coin flip; as needed, Shawn and John will conduct the coin flip on 10/31. A suggestion was made to change the wording from “rank” to “seed” to avoid confusion. We will take this up in the off-season as part of the rules clarification.
Quarter-finals 11/6 (plus matchup games for all other teams)
Semi-finals 11/13
- (Rookie/Cubs @ Pop Keeney; Soph/JV @ Newport; Varsity @ Eastlake)
Post season play
- 11/6 -- match ups for other than playoff teams -- required games; will be matched up with teams of like records. – Shawn checked field availability with the systems that were present.
- 11/13 -- other than playoff teams must find their own match up opponent and field and let Shawn know.
Championship 11/20 @ Issaquah

Winter meeting/committee work: Critical that all systems are present and taking part in the off season.

Rule updates/clarifications
Streamline the Administration – the review is the most difficult – huge job may place some of the responsibilities back on the Systems.

Other Business

Marketing calls – advertise on web site; fund raising clinics; etc – We would not like to do this. We are not set up to do this financially.
Nominations for GEJFA positions – if your system is changing reps, please update your reps with John.
X skull cross bones – voted to have them removed from all helmets. This is not what we want to present as a league. The vote was unanimous. The system involved will be notified.

Next meeting: November 9^th, 8:00 pm @ Bellevue Boys and Girls Club