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2-13-19 Board Meeting Minutes

By Nikki Gilbertson, 03/14/19, 3:15PM CDT

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Minneapolis Youth Lacrosse

Board Agenda
{Date} @ {time} p.m. {Location}

Minneapolis Youth Lacrosse Board

Board Member Position Attendance Board Member Position Attendance

Volunteers / Guests

Name Position Attendance Name Position Attendance

Called to Order

06:11pm

Adjourned

08:15pm

Next Meeting

Thursday, March 14, 2019 @ 6:00 p.m. Community Gathering Space at Bryn Mawr


February 13, 2019 – Homegrown

Members present: Eric Elgin, Ashlee Miller, Nick Lucca, Angela Slaughter, Amy Neal, John Neal, Melanie Faulhaber, Rob Bedeaux, Charles Johnson-Nixon, Duane Sizemore, Molly Myers

Meeting called to order 6:11 pm.

Secretary: Notes from the February meeting were reviewed.  Elgin moved to approve.  Faulhaber seconded.  A vote was taken and the motion passed.

Recruitment:  The Try Lax event on February 1sthad 10 players in attendance, with a good combo of boys/girls.  The President of Lakers Youth Basketball was there, and future events and partnerships could be held with them.  There were 35 kids at the February 10thTry Lax session. Elgin will send a follow up registration email to all attendees. The south Minneapolis locations was more ideal for the events, and MCTC should be used as a back-up option.  Other potential venues could include the Seafoam Dome, Augsburg, and Minnehaha Dome (no youth program).  In the future, it may be best to have Try Lax events by age group in order for the coaches to better cater to player abilities.  

Registration:Registration deadlines are currently February 22ndfor Box (17-18 currently signed up), February 15thfor Boys Spring (potentially two teams at U12 and U14), and March 1stfor Girls (only three girls registered to date, which means that a partnership with the Breck/Blake program will likely be needed again. The group discussed extending the registration deadline, and figured it would be easier to drop a team than add one if there are not enough players.  Next year, the group discussed laddering registration fees similar to races to entice players to register early.  For the final registration push, Miller and Myers will send emails to girls that played in the past.  The Neals will have their son send emails to younger boys players.  A. Neal will ask the Park Board to push parents to MAYLA.   There could be “bring-a-friend” nights to the Northeast practices.  Steve Devereaux knows the principal at South and will suggest sending out feelers to Native Lacrosse groups and trying to get more involved in their programming. The Minneapolis Hockey Association has agreed to send out a recruiting email to their families, but their board will have final say on the content, will send the message directly, and will not share their family contact.  Computers should be brought to Box practices so that players can register on the spot, if needed.  

Fields:The Girl’s Developmental League/General Development Clinics will be Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of the week of March 18th.   Boys will be on Monday and Thursdays.  Girls will be Wednesdays and Fridays.  The group discussed different strategies on how to use the time and space for “camps” for potential players on March 20th, 22nd, and 27th.  Marketing will need to be done through flyers at schools, word-of-mouth, bring a friend, emails, etc.  Pricing will need to be inexpensive to entice kids to attend.  Coaches need to be contacted to find out what additional equipment they will need for upcoming practices.    Contracts are being finalized this week with Parade and Bassett’s Creek.  Sizemore will be creating a more formalized process for field allocation, and will be scheduling meetings in waves by age level.  There is a March 3rdscheduling meeting for the boys, as well as a Girls meeting two weeks later.    The priority for the season is to have games at Parade (properly lined), as well as Elliot for boys (not lined for girls).  Bassett’s Creek could also work for games.  Spring Breaks are scheduled for March 29th– April 7thfor MPS, Annunciation, and Carondolet, March 15th– 24thfor Blake, and March 19th– April 1stfor Breck.

Girls Program: The Girls High School team will have tryouts on April 1st.  For U14 girls that want to tryout, we will allow them to register with MAYLA and they will receive a partial refund if they opt to play for the high school. MSLax does not allow girls to play both high school and club, so girls will need to pick one program or the other. High School coach Emily Wirtz will send an email to the U14 players to let them know their options.  Lucca moved to charge a non-refundable fee of 50% if players opt to pull out of the MAYLA program mid-season or are injured in-season.  The group seconded.  A vote was taken and the motion passed.  

Boys Program:  Typically, a GNLL Tournament is played each year.  There will be additional fees passed along to families if players participate.  A second tournament (to be determined) should be covered by the budget.  IN the spring there will be a GNLL tournament only. For Box, the program will run the same as last year, but there may need to be changes for upcoming seasons.  For the 8U program, the plan is to have it be clinic based in the spring with scrimmages in the summer.  The cost will be $100.  High School boys team may be asked to help out with practices.

Treasurer:  TADS will charge an application fee of $30 per scholarship request.  If the scholarship is granted, the fee is refunded.  The criteria for TADS scholarships should be clear to parents so that they are award the MAYLA does not have access to view personal finances or show bias.  The program is run outside of the association for privacy reasons.  Slaughter moved to cover TADS scholarship fees for 2019. The group voted and approved the motion. Slaughter will provide a proposal for a budget process at the March meeting.  The group discussed considering paying an hourly rate to coaches, which would be consistent with how High School coaches are paid, or paying a per-team rate.  The group will research potentially lowering coach salaries and re-alloting the money to scholarships, as well as looking in to work that Chris Miller did on how to pay coaches.

Volunteer:  Open positions will be communicated at the Parent Meeting, so that parents have an idea of where they can volunteer over the upcoming season.  The group discussed doing Shooter Shirts through a Sponsorship Coordinator (possibly 2-3 people to share the job).  The position would be responsible for finding sponsors to cover the cost of the shirts, as well as get them printed.  The group stated that the “Dine Out” night should not be volunteer position this season. Team Photos Coordinators will also not be offered.  Faulhaber will do a demonstration on the Parent Meeting on how to mark Dibs completed. 

Parent Meeting:  The Parent Meeting will be scheduled for Saturday, March 16that Armatage from 10:00 – 11:00. The board will discuss the schedule, web-site overview, and the Development Clinics.  Myers will also follow up with Elgin to discuss providing a list of needed player equipment, as well as a merchandise ordering form.  J. Neal will contact Drew Hack about spiritwear.  Elgin will also contact Eric Johnson about leftover merchandise from last season that could be sold.   A Dibs position could be created to have an equipment swap table at the meeting.  A plan will need to be created for any leftover equipment.

Fundraising:  A detailed and robust development package for fundraising needs to be created.    Brewery/distillery owners (such as LeDona, Du Nord, and Utepils) should be contacted as options for community fundraisers.

Meeting adjourned 8:15 pm.

Next meeting: Thursday, March 14th, 2019 at 6:00 at the Community Gathering Space in Bryn Mawr.