BYSA NEWS: New board, new fees, new equipment
By Boundary Youth and Soccer Association
Chantel Lovegrove is our new president and she is determined to make this a highly effective organization where players have fun, learn soccer skills and develop appropriate attitudes. Please support Chantel and the board in 2015.
New Board in Place
Nicole Allison was inducted as a new director and has accepted the role of Treasurer (and secretary when needed). Tim Carson was elected vice-president. We are still looking for more directors; so if you have skills, a team attitude and care about kids, please let us know.
New equipment
Thank you to the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary, for the $6000 donation and the $1000 donation from Success by Six. The Provincial Gaming Monies also gave us $14,000 – thank you.
With this money, we now have new balls in size three, four and five as well as U7 pop up nets, new replacement poles, nets for Kicks 4 Kids (K4K0 and new nets for U9 and U11.
Unfortunately, we will have to order more jerseys and pinnies as some were not returned last season. We tried to cash some jersey deposit cheques, but many parents stopped payments on their cheques, so our association is at a loss. Read further for changes to the jersey policy for next year.
Registration
There will be a totally new system for registration, assigning players to teams, and assignments of referees and fields. This task, which according to the veterans was the most difficult and frustrating one of all, will be done on-line atsoccerregistrar.com.
Late registrations have been a huge problem. When several players register late, the association has to create more teams, find more coaches and referees, train them, change the schedule and ultimately change the fields. Sometimes players have to be changed to a different team, because of late personal requests for siblings, friends and carpooling. No wonder, some parents do not know where their child is playing until the last minute. Late registration ends up being a problem for the executive and to many pre-registered parents who have to deal with the changes. More information will be provided under the fee structure.
The board is looking into using a PayPal system.
Fee Structure:
Regular: $85 from February 1 to February 28.
Late fee: $ 150 from March 1 to April 11.
These fees are subject to minor changes, but you get the idea of how important paying fees on time is to the executive. One playing child of each coach and Board member will have free registration.
There will be an extra fee of a $50 deposit, redeemable if you volunteer two hours in the season. Parents will indicate where they would like to volunteer upon registration. Coaches, referees and board members do not pay this fee as they are already providing hours of volunteer work.
We may add a one time jersey fee for the year and players can keep the jersey. As alluded to earlier, collecting, washing and sorting jerseys and cashing useless cheques at the end of the year is a hassle. Let’s face it though, $85 for a season of soccer is very inexpensive compared to hockey, BMX, swimming, etc.
Clinics
March 14 – 15 is the Coaching Clinic.
March (date to be announced) At the beginning of Spring Break will be the referee clinic.
This is another reason to register early; we need coaches and refereess trained as a group before the season starts and trained in Grand Forks because of numbers. If we have to train more coaches and refs because of late registration, we have to send these new volunteers out of town for training, which is very expensive, and time consuming for them.
Coordinators needed
Field – maps and marks fields on Sundays, so coaches do not have to do this
Coach – organizes coaches clinic, organization during the year, may sit on dispute resolution committee if required
Volunteer coordinators – phone volunteers to perform the duties they signed up for and track their 2 hours.
Coordinators will not have to pay the extra fee of $50.
Positions to be hired
The Board is looking to interview and hire an administrative assistant, an agent to oversee donations and sponsors, and a bookkeeper. These employment opportunities will be advertised on bysagoogle.com and the new website.
Webpage changes
There will be changes to our page as soon as Chantel Lovegrove (presidenet) can find the time. One highlight will allow parents to view a Dispute Resolution Policy and a BYSA complaint form on our website. These are tools that will help players, parents, coaches and referees deal with disagreements in a respectful and dignified manner, where solutions are found to the satisfaction of all concerned.
Merry Christmas from the Board of Directors of BYSA.
The Board of Directors will endeavour to send Highlights of the Executive Meetings each month. We hope to keep you informed of our decisions and keep communication lines open. There are between 300 to 400 members of the BYSA and keeping everyone up to speed is not an easy task. Hopefully this newsletter will help everyone stay informed and knowledgeable.
