BETHEL PARK SOCCER ASSOCIATION

Board Meeting – January 13, 2004

Russ Spicuzza, President of the Bethel Park Soccer Association (BPSA), call the meeting to order at 7:10pm in the Council Caucus Room of the Bethel Park Municipal Building. Also present were Terry Bove, Ed Emmett, Tim Gallagher, Bill Harvey, Jack Kun, Bob Monte, Stan Sbei, Tom Vater, Mark Vescovi, and JJ Zekany.

Secretary’s Report: The December meeting minutes were posted on the web site prior to the meeting. No corrections were submitted. The December minutes were approved.

Secretary Tom Vater also asked that lengthy reports from officers or chairman be submitted in writing to him for the minutes. If you have a report for the meeting, and will not be able to attend, please e-mail your report to Tom by Monday before each meeting so that it can be presented at the meeting, and make it into the minutes.

Treasurer’s Report: Jack Kun stated that our balance was $29,123.05. Outstanding bills included the upcoming re-order of travel jerseys.

Jack handed out a financial statement for the first six months of the year. The biggest difference in budget was for coaches’ shirts and referee fees (which were increased during the session). MLS has sent a new contract for the upcoming session, and he is reviewing it before sending it back to them. A deposit will accompany the contract.

President’s Report: Russ thanked all the new members for attending. Russ will be attending the South District Meeting on 1/14/04. We will be discussing open committees later. He also asked that chairman prepare a report in advance to help keep the meeting moving.

Vice-President’s Report: Mark Vescovi asked all the chairmen and officers to think about goals for the upcoming year. They can be for one’s individual assignment or the association in general.

Registration: The registration table will be January 21, 2004 at 7-8:30pm in council chambers. Tom needs 1-2 people to help with registration. Registration is also available at the Rec Department office or by mail. Other deadlines are Feb 6, 2004- early bird; Feb 20, 2004- travel deadline; March 5- flight deadline.

Communication: Articles for soccer registration were in both the December and January issues of Rec News and the Bethel Park Chronicles. We will distribute a booklet at the beginning of flights again the spring. Some of the pages will be different that past books. We will try to focus on travel information, especially try-outs.

Registrar: Tom commented that he will be sending out updates about who’s registered and who’s not in the next several week. Look for weekly updates after the registration table on January 21, 2004.

Travel Commissioners: We are looking into whether the middle school and high school players are forming travel teams for the spring.

Referee: We will be hosting a grade 9 referee clinic here in Bethel Park on February 14 & 15 at Bethel Park High School. Peggy Neason from PA West will be the trainer. Bethany Bowman will again be our assignor, and will be training Brian Carbonara this session. We don’t know how many referees from last year re-certified in the fall. We will find out at the PA West general meeting in March. Also, PA West is hosting a grade 8 referee course Jan 24 & 25. Tom is going. Anyone interested in going with him, please give a call.

Website: Please complete the info sheets sent out, and return to Mark. He is trying to compile a complete list ASAP. Mark has updated the front sheet and board page since the last meeting. He also has created a board member page, and presented usage statistics.

Community Liaison: Terry Bove gave a Scoreboard update. The challenge grant has been accepted by the state. Each group will be asked to give their matching portion of the $8100 scoreboard soon. It should be installed by the summer. The scoreboard will be installed and maintained by the Rec Dept. There won’t be any additional costs. Park Ave field is becoming more of a game field.

PR/Fundraising: Russ reported receiving $200 check from Bruce Brothers for the Fall promotion. There were forms handed out at the meeting for soccer balls. We expect that they will be doing the program again next fall. No check yet from the photographer.

The Riverhounds are doing several promotions for the up-coming season. They have moved to Moon Township for this season, since they moved to a different league. We may participate in one of their ticket promotions, and give tickets to some of the flight groups.

Player Development: Stan Sbei stated that we don’t have dates for any of the soccer camps this summer- MLS, Shoot to Score, or Riverhounds. British Soccer is another group who would like Bethel to sponsor a camp. We expect to hand out flyers at the Memorial Day tournament about the camps.

Coaching Development: We need to sponsor a coaching clinic for flight coaches. There was discussion about having it the first day of Flights in April, or having it before. Consensus was to have the clinic before flights started. March 20^th was targeted. Tom will check with rec department to see if a gym is available on that date. Stan will be the trainer with MLS resources. .

Flights Commissioner Coordinator: Bill Harvey discussed three aspects of flights.

First, that the coaches’ clinic (mentioned above) should include the MLS coaches guide. We should teach coaches how to use the book, and how to run a practice. The clinic should be about 4 hours, and some of the time could be used with actual kids.

(U-9) boys. Tim Gallagher also commented on how helpful it was, and that it should be continued in the spring if possible.

Finally, Bill talked about establishing a flight program during the end of June and July on weeknights. Days that were discussed were maybe Flight 1 on Monday; Flight 2 on Tuesday; Flight 3 on Wednesday; and Flight 4 on Thursday. Please think about this concept, and we will have more discussion at future meeting.

Equipment: Jack said that we would need flight numbers as soon as available. We also need a complete inventory of all the uniforms, equipment, and supplies that we have. We are trying to get the logo on disc for use in the future (patches, shirts, etc). We still want to locate all the corner flags. Please let Jack know if we need netting.

Old Business: We need to look into Soccer Sister, and Varsity Boys High School team helpers.

Monthly Meeting: The next BPSA meeting will be held at 7:00pm on February 10, 2004 at the Municipal Building. Everyone is welcomed.