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Minneapolis Youth Lacrosse

Board Agenda
September 19, 2019 @ 7:00 p.m. SportsEngine

Members present: Eric Elgin, Rob Bedeaux, Nikki Gilbertson, Molly Myers, John Neal, Karen Bruce, Staven Bruce, Charles Johnson-Nixon, Ashlee Miller, Nick Lucca

Meeting called to order 7:09 pm.

Secretary: Notes from the August meeting were reviewed. Myers moved to approve. Johnson-Nixon seconded.  A vote was taken and the motion passed. 

Fall Offerings: There are Friday night practices and clinics running in the fall at Bassett. The Boys 12U team is paired with St. Paul, and 14U team is paired with Hopkins.  Overall, the fall teams are doing well.  There are about 75 kids that are new to lacrosse that have been trying the clinics, with about 25% of these participants joining a team.  The Great Pumpkin Shootout tournament is coming up October 12-14, and recruiting for players should start now.

Fields: Elgin met with Jack Bartsh from MPRB to discuss field needs.  The hope is to get as much time on Parade as possible, as well as some locations on the south side of the city.   There may be an ability to work with Minneapolis United to find a solution to getting some of the field space they have used in the past.  Elgin was advised to take Bassett in the meantime. Field fees will probably go up, especially if there is more field use at Parade.  Decisions on fields won’t be available for two to three months.  It would be in our best interest to have some clinics set up at McRae to show that we can draw kids from the area.  

Recruiting:  Elgin is requesting that US Lacrosse help get lacrosse into gym classes.  Myers reported a parent survey given at the year end picnic shows that word of mouth is the number one way to learn about the lacrosse program, as well as crossover from other sports (such as friends players know from hockey and swimming). Myers and Lucca will devise recruiting plans to get more kids from those sports.  They will also look at the schools where most of the players come from, and get parents to help recruit from classmates.  Myers will also have Facebook credits from a friend that can be used for our marketing tactics.  There also have been concerns about communications.   Myers thought a monthly email could be sent offseason to let people know what’s going on.  During the season, the team managers should be sending out an email about what is coming up during the week.  There is a definite need to ensure managers are being trained on how they should communicate with their team during the season, preferably by doing a meeting/training at the beginning of the season.  Myers also proposed adopting a mascot.  Myers will contact Andrea Siegel to see if she can do a poll on Facebook for potential mascots.  Myers would like to keep clinics at Northeast at the same time next season, as well as potential clinics at Minnehaha, Holy Angels, and some additional parks for outside clinics.

Board Structure:  Elgin made a motion to nominate Staven Bruce for Vice President of Admin, Johnson-Nixon as Equipment Coordinator, Jeff Siegel as 12U Boys Coordinator, as Deborah Van Eedenburg as Secretary. Gilbertson seconded.  Each role was voted on, and all motions passed. There are still remaining roles (Volunteer Coordinator, VP of Lacrosse, and the boys 10U or 14U) that will be filled at a future meeting.  Gilbertson will add all new roles to the invite list for the October meeting. Miller has some leads for coordinators for the girls.  Gilbertson asked if we need to move away from Dibs if there isn’t a person to coordinate. Myers wondered how much money we make from buyouts, and if we’d need to raise fees.  The group will table the discussion and re-visit the topic at a future meeting.

Uniforms: Amy Neal provided mockups for potential uniform redesigns. The group is not opposed to keeping the uniforms the same design for next year, with changes for the future to keep fees lower.

Budget: Angela Slaughter relayed that there is $49,637 in the bank.  All but two coaches have cashed their checks.  Field invoices have not come in to date.  There is still work to be done to clear up invoices with General Sports.

TADS: Elgin would to close the relationship with TADS.  A new process should be put in place prior to making a final decision, to ensure that people are available to make the decisions on who can and cannot receive aid.

Volunteer:  Melanie Faulhauber will forward a list of parents who did not complete their Dibs to get feedback on people who may have been missed that did their volunteering.

Future Feeder:  Elgin is passionate about re-introducing a new player program for young kids to grow the program at the 8U level, similar to what was done with MAYLA in early years of the program, as well as what other programs do (Stillwater, Edina, etc).

Meeting adjourned at 8:27 pm.

Next meeting: WEDNESDAY October 9, 2019 at 7:00 at the home of Eric Elgin