GEJFA Council Meeting

November 8, 2005

Minutes

______________________________________________________________________________

 

Call to order at 8:00pm

 

ATTENDANCEJohn Veentjer; Chris Garrod (VP & Five Star); Beckey Ranstrom (Secretary & Inglemoor); Shawn O’Brien (At Large); Billie Hartline (Scheduler); Bob Goldberg (Officials); Chuck Nichols (At Large); Courtney Brown (Bellevue B&G Club); Ed Rafferty and Greg Richardson (Bears); Jim Brenden (Knights); Greg Pardee (Wolverines); Ron Walker (Bothell); Bob Woods and Larry Feero (Eastlake); Chris Garrod (Five Star); Beckey and Duane Ranstrom (Inglemoor); Steve Warren (Issaquah); Tom Michajla (Kirkland); Meredith Cutting (Mercer Island); Doug Evanson (Redmond); Steve Cox (Skyline);; Michael Burrus (Woodinville)

 

      Systems not represented: Bainbridge Island; SnoValley Redwolves); SnoValley Wildcats

 

      Others not present: Sham Austin (Webmaster)

 

Call to order  -- Special note:  due to the ongoing Grievance Committee meeting, the Council meeting did not follow the agenda in the order scripted.  However, the minutes are provided in the scripted order.

 

Minutes of the last meeting (October 18, 2005)

 

Web site – expression of appreciation to Billie Hartline for what he did with the web site this year; provided schedule in various ways, added an automated Game Reporting system that made reports substantially easier.

 

Schedule Review – reviewed schedule for the next two weeks.

·         Semi-finals on 11/12, as is the Senior 9th Grader Championship Game

Rookie and Cubs Semis are at Eastlake

Sophomores and JV are at Inglemoor

Varsity is at Juanita

Seniors 8th Graders are at Interlake

·         Matchups – there are a couple of matchup games filling in between semi-final games.

·         Still need game scores reported ASAP Saturday evening.  Coaches should also be submitting Game Reports

·         Video recording Championships – Will video the Seniors 9th Graders game on November 12, making production cost for 7 games vs 6, $450 additional.  Otherwise, offering DVD only for $30; quality production; need rosters and commentary input ASAP after semi-final games determine the final 12 teams.

 

Game Reports

·         The new Game Reporting System is extremely simple and provided the coaches (or their representative) follow instructions (e.g., keep comments to less than 255 characters, send separate email if necessary to say more), the System works fine.

·         We received a web site feedback suggestion to make Game Reports public; the suggestion is that if the coaches see what other coaches have to say about them, they may make improvements; the consensus was that the reverse would be true and we are likely to spark word wars between coaches.  Actually, we need to make the Game Report System more secure so that only those who are responsible for submitting Game Reports have access.  We have had numerous erroneous Game Reports submitted, seemingly by kids, which creates problems for the System, e.g., duplicate reports will not the score off the board.

·         We will strive for 100% submission next year.  Held brief discussion regarding penalties for the coaches who do not submit Game Reports, e.g., warning for one missed report, suspension for two missed reports, etc.

 

Grievance Committee Report

·         The Committee met to consider two game protests for substitution violations in Rookie quarter-final games. 

        The violation was substantiated in the Bellevue Wolverines v Woodinville game and the Woodinville head coach was suspended for the next game.  Woodinville appealed the Committee’s decision to the Council.  After some discussion, Woodinville moved that the decision be set aside; there was no second of the motion; thus, the decision stood.

        The violation was not substantiated in the Bothell Skyview v Five Star game, thus no further action was taken.

 

Winter meeting/committee work

·         Still need to find way to streamline administration in our program.  There is a lot of paperwork and there are gaps that need to be filled.

·         Roster review; still found mistakes afterwards.  We need better enforcement of transfer procedures – there was at least one transfer that should not have been approved – current rules require that all transfers be approved by the Grievance Committee – need to ensure this happens in the future.

·         Rule updates/clarifications – we still have folks finding rules that either need clarification.

·         Huskies/Seahawks – next up for Huskies game will need to work in the off-season on getting a pre-game for next year.  The Seahawks should be set at one game each year based on John’s communications with the Seahawk’s Community Affairs staff.

·         Grievance Committee – need to revisit the policies and procedures for Grievance Committee to ensure consistent application.  The rules still imply that the decisions of the Grievance Committee must be approved by Council even though some believe we addressed this two years ago and gave the Committee power to rule, subject to appeal to Council.  Again, this next a fix in the off-season.

·         Coaches training program – we need to explore the various training programs and implement a policy within our program regarding training requirements.

 

Officials

·         We did much better this year on the number of officials, however, we can still use more adults.

·         We are exploring a preseason clinic for our officials.

 

Early sign-ups

·         Again, encourage early registration so that the number of teams can be determined by July 1.  Adding and deleting teams after the schedule has been drafted is very problematic for the scheduler; requires time consuming reworking of the schedule.

·         A Preliminary 2006 Age/Weight Chart is attached.

 

Calendar – A draft calendar for 2006 was made available.  One additional off-season (in April) meeting and one additional in-season meeting were proposed.  The consensus was the additional off-season meeting is not needed or desired.  The additional in-season meeting is supported.

 

Nominations for 2006 Officers – need nominations for board elected positions.  Due to the extended length of this meeting, nominations were not made at this meeting.  However, everyone was encouraged to send nominations to John and be ready to vote for the board elected positions at the December 6 meeting.

 

Adjourn with reminder that the next meeting is December 6th, 7:00 pm @ Bellevue Boys and Girls Club, and is to be followed by a social event for all to attend.