GEJFA Minutes

December 7, 2005

ATTENDANCE: JJohn Veentjer; Scott Shelton; Beckey Ranstrom (Secretary & Inglemoor); Shawn O’Brien (Scheduler & At Large); Billie Hartline (Scheduler); Bob Goldberg (Officials); Greg Pardee (Wolverines); Ed Rafferty (Bears); Ron Walker (Bothell); Larry Feero (Eastlake); Chris Garrod (Five Star); Beckey and Duane Ranstrom (Inglemoor); Steve Warren and Dave Ciszewski (Issaquah); Roger Moore (Kirkland Juanita); Donna Eken (Mercer Island); Doug Evanson and Eric Geyser (Redmond); Steve Cox (Skyline); Louis Lee (Redwolves); Chuck Nichols (Univac); Mike Burrus (Woodinville); Wayne Houston (Bainbridge Island)

Not present: Sham Austin (Webmaster); Bob Peterson (Bellevue B&G Club); Susanna Chung (Knights); Neil Aguiling (Kirkland B&G Club); Dan Pitzler (Kirkland Lake Washington); Dave Redemann (Wildcats); John Nelson (Univac)

Call to order.

Minutes of the last meeting (November 9, 2004)

System Board changes
• Update sign-in sheet – send me changes as they occur

Review Championship Game Day
• Scores on web site
• Great games, some of our best – fun was had by all. No major issues/problems.
• Great job by Issaquah (field admin, concessions, programs) – Thank you to Issaquah for hosting the Championship games.
• Great announcing by Mark Hamilton – thanks Mark!
• Special recognition (Roger Christlieb, Clint Trauter, Jason Gardiner) – A nice ceremony took place with John presenting an award to Roger, Clint and Jason for the number of games that they refereed. We appreciate them!
• Video taping – went well. Some improvements to be made next year. Overall nice job and all tapes should be out shortly if not already.
• Sportsmanship – Nice job on sportsmanship for the playoffs. Things overall went smoothly. No major issues.

Review referee, admin and field use fees – attachment. Systems with more than $200 balance owed were asked to clear that balance since we are short on the payment to officials.

2005 Season
• Age/Weight Chart – discuss/vote on proposal for minor modification – a discussion regarding the new Age/Weight Chart was presented. There was some discussion on the Cubs and Rookies teams having a cap weight to carry the ball. However, the motion was made and seconded to keep the Age/Weight Chart as is with the annual update only – there is no other changes and no caps at the Rookie and Cub levels. This motion passed with 9 votes for and 3 against. The opposing systems voting NO (because they wanted a cap weight at Rookie and Cubs) were Bothell, Inglemoor and Woodinville.

• Calendar – draft attached - See handout or website.

• Off season work -- committee assignments at February meeting. We really need to have all systems represented at all meetings year round. Please make sure to have someone represent your system.

Pursue some inter-league meeting(s) – We will discuss this more at the next meeting.
Need volunteer to pursue a Huskies game – Inglemoor will pursue a game for the Huskies.
Rules – need to take a look at the rules and see if any need to be clarified or changed.
Streamline administration – GEJFA is looking at putting more of the responsibility on the Systems for ensuring accuracy, etc. for next season. We will discuss this more at a future meeting.

• Early sign-ups – early determination of number of teams; system split policy. All systems are encouraged to do early sign ups so that GEJFA scheduling team can start working early enough to have the schedule ready before Labor Day and won’t have to redo because of changes in the number of teams. Please remember that you need to split your teams evenly by boundaries, schools, etc. You need to provide your split policy to the GEJFA for approval.

• Fees – Short about $3K in estimates for 2004 officials fees. After some discussion regarding the alternatives, a vote was made to raise the officials fees for the 2005 season so that there won’t be shortage in 2005. The vote was unanimous. The official fee will be raised by $30 a team. A new fee sheet will be distributed at the February meeting.

• Game jersey – continue to pursue secondary jersey. All systems are supposed to have a home jersey and an away jersey or an alternate color jersey. Home teams dark colors, away team light color or white. Please work on getting alternate jerseys so that we don’t have issues with similar colors (e.g., dark blues/blacks) making it difficult for players and officials on the fields.

• Web site – Sham has done a great job with the website. There are additions that will be made and improvements continue. Please watch the website for updates. Thank you Sham for your contribution to GEJFA!

• Scheduler – Billie Hartline will be doing the scheduling for 2005; he assisted Shawn in 2004. Shawn will be coaching the senior team for the Bellevue Bears in 2005. Thanks Shawn for scheduling the numerous years that you did!
• More officials, adults in particular – all systems are required to have 2 new officials every year. Please encourage adults to sign up, High School and College kids as well.

• Preseason clinics – Looking into various preseason coaching clinics preseason clinics. More discuss at February meeting. John will send them out as he gets the information.

Bainbridge Island junior football made application to join GEJFA – Unanimous vote of approval after brief discussion. Welcome Bainbridge Island to the GEJFA. They will be under the umbrella of Bellevue Bears system for one year and then on probation for one year.

Election for 2004 Officers:
• Additional nominations – there were none.
• Vote

President - John Veentjer – Unanimous vote, none opposed
Vice President – Chris Garrod – Unanimous vote, none opposed
Secretary – Beckey Ranstrom – Unanimous vote, none opposed

Adjourn

Next meeting: February 3rd, 7:00 pm @ Bellevue Boys and Girls Club.