Russ Spicuzza, President of the Bethel Park Soccer Association (BPSA), called the meeting to order at 7:22pm in Council Chambers of the Bethel Park Municipal Building. Also present were Tom Boss, Rich Chongaway, Bill Harvey, Jack Kun, Bob Monte, Tom Vater, and Mark Vescovi.

Secretary’s Report: Minutes were out on the website. No additions or corrections.

Treasurer’s Report: Jack reported that our balance was $29866.43. Outstanding from the balance was our bill from MLS. 50% had been paid when we signed for the fall session. But with credits earned, and a final tally from MLS of the hours worked, no additional balance is owed. Jack reminded that we must use 16 hours weekly to maintain our status with MLS, and that some of those hours could be used for a coaching clinic.

President: Russ stated that the South District Presidents meeting would be January 19 at 7pm at Carlynton High School. He would be attending.

Committee Reports:

Registration: Table registration will be held on January 19 in Council Chambers. Tom needs several volunteer. (Rich, Bob, and Tom B will help out.

Currently, we have 81 players registered for travel, and 187 for flights. Tom believes that this is very close to our numbers last year at this time. These numbers also reflect those players who registered for the entire year.

Communications: Tom reported that he had submitted registration information for BP-TV, but hadn’t seen it yet on the channel. He also submitted the information to the Almanac.

Bill asked for mailing labels from the Recreation Department from the fall session players.

Travel Commissioner: Tom stated that Tim Gallagher was the travel commissioner this year. Tim will be working with registration this spring and fall, plus team formation for new U-10 teams in the summer.

The U-11 girls will drop from division A to B this spring.

PR/ Fundraising: Bob presented a letter from Uniroyal about their participation with youth soccer. Bruce Brothers included the total donations to our program.

He is checking again with the photographer about the money owed from the fall pictures to us. He is also working with Ed to find an alternate photographer in the fall this year.

Referees: Tom said that our application to host a new referee course on February 19 & 20^th as been approved. Mark Finegan will be the instructor. Any U-12 player or older, or adult can take the class. Please contact Tom or check the referee web-page for more information.

Tom also was contacted by Nick Vuchenich, a long time referee in our program about improving the quality of referees. Tom is trying to meet with him to get more information, and especially use Nick’s experience in assessing referees in the spring.

Flight 5G would like two referees on Saturdays.

There will be pre and post checklist for referees in the spring.

Player/Coach Development: We are wondering if we every got a report from Ian from the fall for the girls and boys U-10 teams? Russ will check.

Flights: Bill review his meeting with commissioners last November. Their conversation focused on using the MLS for the older flight players (Flight 4, 5B, & 5G) instead of the younger players. We should focus the MLS coach on the Flight 1, 2, & 3 coaches.

Bill asked if we could secure gym space for a coaching clinic on March 12 & 19 from 10-2 or 12-4 each day. Tom will check with the Recreation department.

Equipment: Tom reported that we need two nets for goals and Velcro. We need bags for the collapsible goals, too.

We also discussed getting new equipment to sell, including bags, shirts, water bottles, or signature apparel. We discussed buying a lot of supplies, or finding a vendor who will do it on consignment. Tom will check into that more.

FIELDS: Tom reported that we are losing Park weeknights in the spring to Lacrosse. Holes are developing at Village Green. A playground was added at Millennium.

COMMUNITY LIAISON: Russ will check with Terry about Dick’s coaches boxes.

WEBSITE: Mark presented a website report. He also updated several sections, including referees, 2005 meeting dates, and the registration page.

OLD BUSINESS:

We talked again the 2005-2006 budget, and updating our fees to reflect the prices.

NEW BUSINESS:

We discussed having a planning session for the board to set objectives for the next year. This should include objective for travel and flight, coaching development goals, setting skill levels for the players, possibly segregating travel at an earlier/later ages, summer fliers including measuring performance and evaluations, and what is our focus.

Russ would like to schedule a planning session for February 22, from 6:30 to 8:30pm at the community center.

We can work on the agenda at the next board meeting.

Next meeting: The next meeting will be February 8, 2005 at 7pm in the Caucus Room at the municipal building.

Respectfully Submitted,

Tom Vater

Secretary

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