Executive Board Members

Date: 11/21/22 8pm @ Virtual

Exec Board Attendees: Kevin Marcus, Michael Fink, Glenn Hechler, Jason Klatsky,

Committee Attendees: Jack Duffy, Mike Matteo

Individual Sport Attendees: Nils Almquist, Craig Steinberg, Kelly Rudyk, Patrick Mullins, Alicia Sokolofsky, Erin Kieran, Todd McElduff, Lisa Mazzella, Matt Gallino, Maribeth Linares,

Sport Specific Updates:

Baseball – new board, 262 participants, tripled coaches in the program, coaches clinic added, Opening Day celebration was a success, looking at ways to show more appreciation for coaches, working with Varsity Coach, utilizing technology better to create a process for the future, offering one $1000 scholarship, considering options for kids to “play up”

Cheer – K-8, wants to increase volunteer base, varsity is only 6-7 kids. People don’t want to commit until they know when practice is

Girls Basketball – new board, good first year, 120 in town 2-8th grade, good volunteer base. Travel 57 players. 4-8th grade. Opening up more opportunity for travel tournaments. Spring clinic 3-7th grade. Looking to start a Summer clinic at Reis park. Replacing scoreboard at SMS?

Girls Lax – 150 participants (mostly K-5), mini-tournament coming up May 22nd (vendors and small business coming), good relationship with Varsity girls and continuing to grow (big-little program), 3 new board members with young kids, utilizing technology better to create process for the future, lower fields were an issue (not lined, not cut), concern about new games getting added from other sports and programs getting bumped

Football registration open, 110 kids registered, league is growing, back to West Point for championships, flag will start registration after Labor Day, doing coaches clinics with DiMatteo

Girls Flag – 40 girls registered for a recent clinic grades 4-8, June 18th will be another clinic with varsity for k-8, working together well with Varsity (and want to focus on that and a mentor program), 188 girls last season, using technology better, having tables at events to recruit

Wrestling – record registration + 8 girls, they want to promote girls wrestling more (fasting growing sports), great relationship with varsity coach who helps with the program, only a couple tournaments this year, but not a tournament heavy program. Goal is to get kids engaged and loving it

Boys Lax – 150 kids, just finished using Carmel Sports for practices, very good volunteer levels, ran house league with HS kids helping out, new uniforms, Somers Slam June 5th which helps fun Carmel, no home games

FC Somers – 305 kids, 20 teams, 4 teams in cup finals, one team going to Nationals, hiring new trainer (Vlad), slow start because of weather, tryouts starting now (no concern about not being able to put together teams), wheels have been added to all the goals, memorial bench for (?), soccer camp this summer Jun 27 at Van Tassel, June 18th for celebration, 2 HS scholarships $500 each

Softball (submitted by Katie) – We have registered 131 girls between PreK and 8th grade with 35 coaches and volunteers. I am looking for a parent to take over for next year as my commissionership is up. The season is in full swing, baseball and softball have worked through scheduling. Unfortunately having to move my fields around for the HS has been annoying and we are still left without enough fields for our program in general so that is a challenge. We have 3 teams per division except 12u which has 15 girls. The HS has been inconsistent and when I spoke with the grounds person Anthony he said they would be working on Primrose in the fall (they are not doing drainage which is what it needs but I told them they need to work to fix the holes left from the graduation tent). Apparently there was a graduate who was coming to the field to practice throwing discus and was leaving huge divets in the field and they did not know until they saw camera footage. One mystery solved. Anyway, I doubt primrose field will EVER get the upgrades it really needs, so the saga continues. I speak to Roman every week and move my schedule around for Saturdays for him when need be. Their season is almost over so it will open up Primrose for me in the first and second slot on Saturdays

Treasurer/Finance Report:

– $55k annual expenses (accounting fee, general liability, other insurance, advertising)
– 100% transparent (SYSO is NFP), considering annual allocations with full year view, goal is to have $0 balance budget so parents aren’t overpaying
– Please advise SYSO if there are any larger capitalization plan for your sport
– Paying off expenses from the past (splitting over 2 years)
– Let’s keep participation counts updated
– CPR costs split amongst sports for coaches (will look into coaches who coach multiple sports)
– Scholarships – SYSO EB will send checks
– SYSO costs (no perfect model) – currently based on pro-rata allocations of number of participants, football insurance is covered by football program, AYSO mandated to go thorough national organization

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Committee Reports:

Health and Safety Committee
– CPR had great participation, need 3 more AEDs

Fields Committee (Mike Matteo joined call)
– Turf? Need to build some momentum to help funding
– Please request your desired field space annually. It is not on a first come first serve basis
– Reis and VT is an option for Lax
– Library fields?

PR/Communications Committee
– Jason to lead, but need committee members
– Vicki Durso aging out, need social media support
– Nick Mancini leading on LeagueApps backend

Capital Improvements Committee
– Glenn to lead, goal of increasing capital improvements in Somers

Audit committee (needs to be filled)
– Makes sure our policy and procedures are what they should be

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Expanding Volunteer Base:

Marketing opportunities/ideas (to recruit volunteers)
– Need in person interactions to recruit
– Send LeagueApp emails across all sports
– Use Kindergarten bus drive (PTA) to promote SYSO sports (goodie bags, flyers, QR code) – Erin to lead
– SYSO Social Hour (invite people to something fun)
– Back to School nights (recruit a coach that is known in that grade)
– SYSO sports section in Somers Record

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Other:

Administration
– Requests for Parks & Rec through SYSO?
– Lights? Could be put on back of Turf 1 poles

Meeting adjourned at 9:30pm
Next meeting TBD