Minutes of the Danvers Youth Soccer December Board Meeting
December 1, 2004

Attending: Neal Hovey, Bruce Ocko, Brett Amico, Tom Conway, David Tye, Bob Gabel, Brian Harrison, Jeff MacInnis, David Kamens, Jeff Chambers, John Barrows, Janet Gargan, Rob Lebel, Chuck Mower, Simon Dillon, Tom McNulty, Loren Rocker, .

17 people attended the meeting.

The meeting was called to order at 8:00 pm

Secretary's Report

Approval of the November minutes was tabled to the January meeting because of the short time between the November and December board meetings.

Treasurer's Report

Bruce Ocko is in the process of transitioning to the new Treasurer Tom McNulty. Final figures for 2004 were reported. Treasurer’s report as accepted.

At this point a short break was taken while everyone introduced themselves.

Registrar’s Report

Neal Hovey (previous Registrar) is transitioning to Jeff MacInnis (new Registrar). Neal gave the report for this meeting. A walk-in registration will be scheduled for early February, probably the week after the monthly board meeting.

Travel Director’s Report

Janet Gargan transitioning to Brett Amico. A large number of registrations have come in for the older travel age groups (U16 and above) giving reasonable numbers for the Spring season. Discussion about Spring tryouts occurred. The full day tryout on a Sunday met with general approval. Way needs to be found to get the intramural coaches to evaluate at the tryouts. Professional input (MPS) at the tryouts was also valuable. Travel Committee needs to firm up tryout dates soon as a courtesy to the other Danvers youth sports leagues.

Committee Reports – Danvers Invitational

Tom Conway made the report. New tournament directors need to be elected in short order. Tom C. graciously agreed to stay on as a co-director. Brett Amico volunteered as well. First DIT meeting to occur January 12, 7:00 pm at the Stop’n’Shop at the Liberty Tree Mall. As always, the tournament needs volunteer help.

Intramural Tournament Committee (ITC)

Chuck Mower reporting. Collecting and sorting registration forms. So far 34 have been turned in. Form on website needs to be updated. Another registration may be held in February.

Old Business

Revolution Season Tickets: A motion was made and passed to renew the 4 DYS Revolution season tickets. These are available to any DYS members on a first come/first serve basis.

New Patch Design: Final decision needs to be made regarding the design to be chosen. Loren Rocker, Jeff Chambers, Larry Pickering and Neal Hovey will review the final designs and make a final decision shortly.

New Business

Committee Signups: Not prepared at this meeting to sign up new members for committees. Forms will be drawn up and posted at the next meeting for committee signups.

Budget Review: New budgets will be presented and reviewed at the next meeting (January) and voted on a the February meeting. The intent for the coming year is that realistic, detailed budgets will formed and board members will be held to them. Budget submissions to the Treasurer should be made in Excel if possible. Travel registration fees are due to ECYSA by Jan. 4. As the 2005 budget will not have been approved by then, a motion was made and passed to authorize the travel director to make a one-time payment to ECYSA of up to $15,000 for travel registration fees.

Registration Fees: MYSA will be increasing Fall 2005 fees 50 cents per participant. The increase is a pass-on from USYSA. Travel fee increases from ECSYA will likely total between $800 and $1000 for DYS. Referee fees will also be increasing. DYS has the lowest fees of any youth sports league in Danvers and has not increased fees for 7 years. It was suggested that a review be undertaken to determine the actual costs per participant and adjust fees accordingly. Corporate sponsorship might be another source of funding. It was also suggested that we review our full refund policy as DYS incurs expense in registering and dropping players.

Next board meeting will be 8:00 pm, January 5, 2005 at the Maple St. Church

Meeting adjourned at 10:45 pm.

Minutes taken by David Tye.