October

NCSL Meeting Minutes of Oct. 5,1998
Meeting called to order at 7:30PM. Roll call does not show a quorum. Clubs not present: Annandale, Alexandria, Arundel, Bethesda, Baltimore Football, Bowie, Burtonsville, Columbia, Eastern Panhandle, Falls Church, Frederick, Fairfax Police, Laurel, Loudoun, Reston, Savage, Soccer Club of Baltimore, Seneca, Sterling, Stoddert, Springfield, Takoma Park, Waldorf, Western Howard, Winchester and Washington. R&D-Ray Greenberg: Mid-season report is ready for distribution. Every club rep who has e-mail has gotten a list of teams with points. Has 60% of clubs with e-mail which makes it easier for him because he can respond late at night. President' report: Club reps were promised an objective report on referee game coverage. Jay Baker has been putting together information that comes in on Sunday night with scorekeeping. Coverage has been less that perfect. Our problems are: Quantity Quality -U16 &15, Division 1 and 2 need high quality officiating with a 2nd tier at U17 & 19 Scheduling- Need to get away from the focus on home games and begin to stack fields with similar quality needs for referees, a regionalized approach. Competition- Other leagues are competing for the resources of fields and referees. Suggestion -- a permanent referee committee that meets on a monthly basis with a purpose to come up with solutions to the referee problem. Anyone interested in serving on this committee should contact Jeff. The members do not have to be referees. One of the problems we know about is the timeliness of their payment. Suggestions and comments from the members: How about a survey for the referees--what do they want? What about notification to clubs when a referee is not found. Pros- occasionally the club rep can find someone to cover the game. Negatives- assignor spends valuable time going over with club reps a laundry list of people they have already called. Assignors sometimes find someone at the last minute. Takes out the possibility of the game being played with team parent. Roll call showed a quorum at 8PM. Minutes are approved from the last meeting. Committee report for a new club wanting admittance to the NCSL--request was withdrawn because the information was not received until two days ago. New Business: Over a period of years the NCSL gave our scores and standings to the Journal newspapers. Over this period of time commentary and articles were overwhelmingly negative about NCSL and WAGS. This was discussed in a meeting with the officers and commissioners and we decided not to support the Journal newpapers and supply our standings to them. There have been some request to have them back. Discussion followed and then the following motion was made. Motion: I move BOD direct the scorekeeper to supply the NCSL standings to the Journal newspaper weekly. Seconded and passed. Update on league select team--Jeff attended the organizational meeting. There will be no practice during the season. There will be a roster of 16 players with a taxi squad if there are cancellations. Each player must get his player pass from his coach so the coaches will be aware which players are on the team. Jeff will continue to keep in touch with the team between now and the tournament. Recruiting issue continues to be a problem. Meeting adjourned at 9:00PM.

NCSL Meeting Minutes of Oct. 5,1998

Meeting called to order at 7:30PM.

Roll call does not show a quorum.

Clubs not present: Annandale, Alexandria, Arundel, Bethesda, Baltimore Football, Bowie, Burtonsville, Columbia, Eastern Panhandle, Falls Church, Frederick, Fairfax Police, Laurel, Loudoun, Reston, Savage, Soccer Club of Baltimore, Seneca, Sterling, Stoddert, Springfield, Takoma Park, Waldorf, Western Howard, Winchester and Washington.

R&D-Ray Greenberg:
Mid-season report is ready for distribution. Every club rep who has e-mail has gotten a list of teams with points. Has 60% of clubs with e-mail which makes it easier for him because he can respond late at night.

President' report:
Club reps were promised an objective report on referee game coverage. Jay Baker has been putting together information that comes in on Sunday night with scorekeeping. Coverage has been less that perfect.

Our problems are:

Quantity
Quality -U16 &15, Division 1 and 2 need high quality officiating with a 2nd tier at U17 & 19
Scheduling- Need to get away from the focus on home games and begin to stack fields with similar quality needs for referees, a regionalized approach.
Competition- Other leagues are competing for the resources of fields and referees.

Suggestion -- a permanent referee committee that meets on a monthly basis with a purpose to come up with solutions to the referee problem. Anyone interested in serving on this committee should contact Jeff. The members do not have to be referees. One of the problems we know about is the timeliness of their payment.

Suggestions and comments from the members:

How about a survey for the referees--what do they want?
What about notification to clubs when a referee is not found. Pros- occasionally the club rep can find someone to cover the game. Negatives- assignor spends valuable time going over with club reps a laundry list of people they have already called. Assignors sometimes find someone at the last minute. Takes out the possibility of the game being played with team parent.

Roll call showed a quorum at 8PM.

Minutes are approved from the last meeting.

Committee report for a new club wanting admittance to the NCSL--request was withdrawn because the information was not received until two days ago.

New Business:
Over a period of years the NCSL gave our scores and standings to the Journal newspapers. Over this period of time commentary and articles were overwhelmingly negative about NCSL and WAGS. This was discussed in a meeting with the officers and commissioners and we decided not to support the Journal newpapers and supply our standings to them. There have been some request to have them back. Discussion followed and then the following motion was made.

Motion: I move BOD direct the scorekeeper to supply the NCSL standings to the Journal newspaper weekly. Seconded and passed.

Update on league select team--Jeff attended the organizational meeting. There will be no practice during the season. There will be a roster of 16 players with a taxi squad if there are cancellations. Each player must get his player pass from his coach so the coaches will be aware which players are on the team. Jeff will continue to keep in touch with the team between now and the tournament. Recruiting issue continues to be a problem.

Meeting adjourned at 9:00PM.