Meeting Called to Order at 7:05P.M. by President, Todd Verdi

Minutes

Date:February 13, 2012

In Attendance: Rick Koczera, Kiley Palmer, Deborah Polydys, Tim O’Shea, Greg Sioch, Todd Verdi, Dave Wyskiewicz

Richard Witte, Jeff Cyr, Bruce Padden, Pat Testa, Jamie Lamson, Tito Roderick, Jim Tracy, Tom Porter

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Meeting called to order at 7:05p.m. by President, Todd Verdi.

Review and approval of previous meeting minutes.

Committee Updates

(a)Branding/Fundraising

-Registration dates have been established; are going to submit flyer to schools for approval and distribute flyers through all middle schools and elementary schools in town

-Developing sign committee; looking for volunteers

-Investigating sweatshirts prices to see if can find another provider

-SVMFL Face Book page is now becoming more active with announcements as we prepare for the season.

-Are looking to develop more PR and articles on what SVMFL is doing this coming season to raise awareness in the community

-Have also spoken to STEPS about getting them more involved in SVMFL and bringing their program to our SVMFL youth. Will be meeting with them sometime in March/April.

(b)Concession/League Auxiliary

-Board is reviewing the possibility of having an outside vendor manage the concession due to past issues with volunteer staffing. There is some concern that this could become a greater problem if we have to staff two locations with volunteers for the coming season.

-Rick Koczera is working with Dave Wyskiewicz to put together an RFP. Will be requesting RFP responses from various vendors

-The RFP is a very detailed outline of what SVMFL requires to manage and run the concession stand throughout the season; SVMFL is exploring both flat rate and rebate options

-Concession/League Auxiliary Board Member’s (Dave Wyskiewicz) position would evolve to becoming more of a manager

-This is still in the exploratory stage. Expect to have responses back within two weeks.

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2.13.2012 SVMFL Meeting Minutes

(c)Professional Development

-UCONN & St. Paul’s will be having coaches training. Do not have dates of yet.

-Dates will be announced as soon we receive the information

-Board was thinking about financing coach training to encourage more coaches to participate, and, to increase the consistency of training across all teams at all levels.

-SVMFL is looking into the possibility of doing an additional spring training with the coaches

-Board member, Kiley Palmer, reported on the Nike Clinic that he attended for 2.5 days. Report was that it was very good. Kiley Palmer shared the following highlights of this camp at the meeting:

• Purchased DVD from tackling academy that demonstrates new tackling methods (DVD issued by YFBCA (Youth Football Coaches Association)
• SVMFL is looking into setting up a YFBCA Tackling class for SVMFL coaches at Rec Park
• YFBCA also offers a coach’s certification & background checks. Participating in this could help to improve the qualityof our league and the quality of our coaches (certification is good for 2 years). Coaches can go online and takethe test/can retake if don’t pass. Having this in place will help increase the quality to our coaches and will help us improve consistency of coaching and youth training across all teams at all levels.
• SVMFL needs to identify the best methods of getting all of our head and assistant coaches more training
• SVMFL may be able to do an assessment of what areas are strong/what areas are weak so we can bring in additional training where needed
• Last season, we implemented the stations to get more uniform training. Now we want to take our coach training to the next level

(d)Building

Building has been looked at by Crystal Restoration and they claim SVMFL does not have black mold. We need to get a statement in writing in regards to that. Dave Wyskiewicz and Kiley Palmer were looking into the best way to clean the walls in the equipment room.

(e)Equipment

SVMFL does not yet have an Equipment Manager. Tim O’Shea, the previous Equipment Manager has put in for the position. The E-Board is expected to vote on that shortly.

-Tim is going to be conducting an inventory of all equipment

(f)Treasurer

-Treasurer, Rick Koczera, is working on a complete budget and financial report that outlines everything that SVMFL is considering for the entire year. It demonstrates our income and our expenses so that we can better plan and forecast for the entire year.

-This document is very detailed and will provide an excellent financial record of the league’s goals and whether or not we are on track to meet our goals.

-This will be a working document for the league.

Old Business

(a)Report on Blue Ribbon Committee meeting on Jan. 18th.

-Board members, Todd Verdi, Rick Koczera, Deborah Polydys and Greg Sioch attended that meeting

-Todd Verdi gave the Blue Ribbon Committee an overall report on what we are looking to do in 2012; where we plan to take the league; the amount of traffic from all sports that passes through Recreation Park on a regular basis; and what we would like the committee to help SVMFL with, in particular, our fields.

-It does appear that this committee will be putting in another athletic field by Thalberg School.

New Business

(a)Registration for 2012

-As reported above, will be distributing flyers to all school systems in Southington. Will also place posters in different places (YMCA, other)

-Need to market the fact that we only have 17 kids per team (Memorial has 30); that our teams our small and that kids get more playing time at SVMFL

(b)Scheduling for 2012

-All dates have been established for the draft, conditioning camp and the Jamboree

-Would like to get game schedule in place prior to beginning of season

-Tom Porter volunteered for the scheduling committee

(c)Halloween Dance has been scheduled for Friday, October 26th.

-Will be held at Aqua Turf in the Wagon Room

-The band, Radio Giant has been booked again due to popular demand.

(d)Field

-Looking into sod; what’s the best method of refurbishing the field in time for the football season

Other

(a)Still meeting with West Hartford for the tournament games for 2012

(b)PowderPuff – are looking into possibly establishing a girl’s flag Powder Puff team for 5th through 8th grade if there is enough interest. Will be putting a survey out to the league.

Motion to adjourn 8:30 p.m.