meeting minutes

CGLA Board Meeting: June 11, 2007

General Board Meeting: CGLA Executive Committee and Administrators

Buck Community Center, 2004 W Powers Ave, Littleton CO

The following CGLA club administrators and/or delegates were in attendance:

•  Michelle Kraemer. South Suburban

•  Tom Leovic, Columbine

•  Jill Nunes, Highlands Ranch Metro District

•  Pam Kochis, Highlands Ranch Metro District

•  Chris Cassidy, Eagles

•  Chris Constantini, Westide

•  Les Snively, Cougars

•  Steve Cordry,

•  David Corral, Native Lacrosse

•  Marc Luckett, Cheyenne Mtn.

The following guests were in attendance:

•  Michelle Secor, CWLOA

•  Kristen Olson

•  Frank Bailey, CWLOA youth liaison

The following members of the CGLA Executive Board were in attendance:

•  President, Kim Wallace

•  Vice President, Wendy Zerr

•  Treasurer, James Beram

•  Executive Director, Kate Dresher

Angie Flachman, Secretary, has resigned her position, and was not present.

Welcome:

Kim Wallace welcomed all participants, and introduced the Board members.

Introduction of Delegates and Administrators

All delegates and administrators introduced themselves

Board Minutes

Jill Nunes made a motion to approve the minutes of the Feb. 7 CGLA Board meeting minutes, and Tom Leovic seconded. There were 8 votes in favor, and one abstention. The motion carried, and the minutes approved.

Kristen Olson

Kristen Olson asked for and received permission to discuss her new publication, Colorado Lacrosse Report. The publication will be distributed free, and will contain articles and information of interest and related to the Colorado lacrosse community.

Wendy Zerr

Wendy made her Vice President's report, noting that the Festival raised nearly $6,000, and highlighted the support of new vendors and suppliers. She also made a call for a replacement interested in taking over her position.

James Beram

James presented his Treasurer's report, noting that payment of referees was nearly completed. Financial balance for the year was still being prepared.

Vote to elect Marc Luckett as Secretary of CGLA

David Corral made a motion, Steve Cordry second. Votes were unanimous in favor, and Marc Luckett was elected as the new secretary.

Executive Director's report

Kate Dresher spoke about the need to have more participation in CGLA activities by the community at large, and noted that volunteer levels are down.

Team Colorado tryouts were very successful, with 3 teams being selected: U13, U15, and Team Vail (a U15 that will participate in the Vail Shootout).

6 th Grade All-Star teams were selected and announced at the Festival, with camps and practices to be held in June, games in Vail on June 30 th .

Fall Ball will be held again this year, and she encouraged all clubs to save the days. A flyer with more information will be available during the summer.

CGLA Festival - This year's Festival was a success once more.

President's Report

Kim Wallace presented her report, and began with a recap of the season, noting that there were significant positives, but also some serious negatives. She introduced 3 broad areas of concern:

1. Officials
2. Schedules
3. Standards of Conduct.

She then outlined the facts underlying each area, and posed some possible solutions:

Officials:

1. High Schools began playing some Saturday games, thereby taking up more HS and adult officials. Meanwhile, adult officials were officiating college games.
2. Over half of the youth officials were officiating games of their own age group. More qualified officials were working HS and college games.
3. Spring Fling was cancelled (weather) so many youth officials did not get pre-season on-field training.
4. Retention of youth officials and their decreasing ability to work on Saturday

Possible Solutions:

1. In order to ensure effective pre-season training, limit the Spring Fling to 7/8 grade teams, full field games.
2. Promote more pre-season club-to-club scrimmages, thereby giving more opportunities for youth official training.
3. CGLA and CWLOA must do a better job of marketing, publicizing and promoting training sessions and youth official opportunities.
4. Spread the word that everyone must be responsible for recruiting new officials, of all ages.

Scheduling:

1. CGLA had the courage to try something new this year: using mylacrosseleague.com for scheduling.
2. The significant delay in publishing the schedule meant that field availability was limited.
3. The technology was a challenge to many, and there was very limited time and opportunity to train people.
4. Officials did not use the system appropriately. Officials had the power to accept/reject games, causing widespread confusion.
5. This year's weather made things even more complicated, and rescheduling was a challenge.

Possible Solutions:

1. Play 4/5/6 grade games on Saturday, 7/8 games on Sunday. Alternatively, play 7/8 on Sunday in April, Saturday in May, and vice versa.
2. Revert to old way of scheduling games and officials.
3. Find a new scheduler, and continue in the old way, with requirements for a preliminary schedule out in Feb, and a final schedule out by March 1.

Standards of Conduct

1. Increased number of yellow and red cards issued to players and coaches.
2. Coaches intimidating youth officials (instead showing patience and mentoring)
3. More complaints from clubs about opposing coaches.
4. Sideline management not enforced.
5. Drop in the quality of coaching- knowledge of skills, rules and sportsmanship.
6. Clubs were actively recruiting from other clubs. Players were playing on more than one team, and rosters were not exchanged prior to games.

Possible Solutions:

1. Coaches Education
2. Clubs must be truly committed the Sideline Manager Program
3. Coaches must have more exposure and training from the Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA)
4. Sanctions? How do you sanction a club or coach? Probation? Expulsion?

Breakout Groups

After these issues were introduced, the assembled parties broke out into three groups to discuss each area. After approximately 30 minutes, the assembly reconvened, and each working group presented their own suggestions or conclusions for each topic.

Officials

1. Don't blame the assignors
2. Reach out to and recruit HS boys
3. Recruiting and promotion of officials must have a much higher profile.
4. When scheduling, strive to combine games at single location. This would allow officials to work several games in a row, and by reducing travel, would make officiating more attractive.
5. Use South Suburban Parks/Rec and Highlands Ranch Metro to promote and recruit officials.
6. CWLOA must provide better quality and quantity of officials and training.
7. Use Invesco Field for training events.
8. Provide some sort of referral bonus, as an incentive to recruitment.

Schedule

1. If the online scheduling system is to be used again, much more training will be required.
2. In order to ensure that new clubs have the expertise to use the system, any new club would have to schedule games under the auspices of an existing club during a probationary period.
3. Set hard deadlines, and enforce them. This means team lists, fields, etc. If the information isn't received on time, the offending club will not be on the schedule, or will have a TBA next to their games.
4. Any team that refuses to travel to their game should be penalized.
5. Hard dates must be established for obtaining (and reporting) field permits.
6. In April, 4/5/6 grades play on Saturday, 7/8 on Sunday. During May (after HS play is completed), play days flip.
7. Establish specific venues for CGLA games each weekend. This would assist in both field and official scheduling
8. Begin season in mid-March, ensure that each club reports Spring Break dates in January.
9. Guarantee 2 home games/club per season.

Standards of Conduct

1. Rosters must be submitted to CGLA prior to season play, and should be exchanged with opposing coaches prior to each game.
2. CGLA should ensure that girls are not playing on more than one team.
3. CGLA must monitor any and all infractions reported, and keep a list. Such a list will allow for the monitoring of possible trends of bad behavior.
4. Sideline Managers must be identified prior to each game, and introduced to officials.
5. Any coach who receives a red card will not be allowed to participate in his/her next game.
6. Enforce CGLA rules regarding mandatory coaches education. The education can be either the online Level 1 coaching, or a local US Lacrosse Level 1 clinic. There should be sanctions for coaches who do not meet this rule. Furthermore, CGLA must keep a record of each coach's training.

Meeting Adjourned.

Kim Wallace adjourned the meeting at approximately 9:00 pm.

prior minutes

February 05
June 05
November 05
February 06
September 06
November 06
February 07