2015 AGM Minutes

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
VANCOUVER ISLAND SOCCER LEAGUE
Monday, May 25th, 2015
Distrikt, The Strathcona Hotel, 919 Douglas Street, Victoria, B.C.

Present:

Board Members:
Vince Greco, President
Bill Murphy, Vice-President
Keith Smith, Treasurer
Dennis Somner, Director
Scott Metson, Director
Cees van Delft, Registrar
Jake Nemec, Secretary
Geri Dickson, Director
Rick Hood, Director
Kjeld Brodsgaard, Vice-President, B.C. Soccer Association
Dan Greco, Director, VISRA Liaison

Regrets:
Dan Romain, Director
Fraser Sim, Past President

Recording Secretary:
Lori Marshall

The meeting was called to order at 7:05 p.m.

Roll Call:

The following teams were not represented at the AGM:

2014-2015
Division Team Name
Division 1 Nanaimo, Cowichan, Comox, Westcastle, Lakehill
Division 2 Sooke, Highlanders, GH Blazers, Cowichan, Nanaimo
Division 3A Hellas, Salt Spring, Nanaimo, Campbell River
Division 3B Powell River, Lakehill Danger Police, Port Alberni, Penelakut, Sagres, Juan de Fuca
Division 4A Fernwood United, SPL, Sooke Capital City
Division 4B Zgoda, Lakehill Hooligans, Saanich Fusion Bandits
Masters A Nanaimo
Masters B Fernwood Dragons, Cordova Bay Orange, Lakehill, Cowichan
Under 21 Highlanders, Mid Isle Highlanders, Upper Island Riptide, Lakehill, Nanaimo, Peninsula

1. Agenda

The Agenda was approved.

2. Reading of the Minutes.
3. Business arising from the Minutes:
• Section 4 – The Division 1 standards committee is still on the table for this year.
• BC Soccer once again has upped the traveling funds for teams, this will be reflected in the Financial Report.

The Minutes were approved by Murray Smith (Saanich Fusion) and 2nd by Al Hood, (Juan de Fuca)

4. REPORTS

a) PRESIDENT’S REPORT – Vince Greco:

• Please see attached President’ Report (below).

b) FINANCIAL REPORT – Keith Smith

• The VISL had 85 teams this year which is down from 93 teams last year.
• We have, though, doubled the amount of sponsorship (see sponsorship report attached)
• We have a surplus on game balls because we made a large purchase at a good price so we should be good for a couple of years
(Please see attached Financial Report for details)

Motion was made to accept the Treasurer’s report by Al Hood (Juan de Fuca), 2nd by Shaun Gurney (Vic West).

c) DISCIPLINE REPORT – Vince Greco

• We currently have no Discipline Chair, but have someone that has expressed interest.
• It has been a good year with the VISL operating under the new BC Soccer guidelines that include progressive discipline.
• Yellow cards are down from last year
• Red cards are up slightly
• Violent Conduct is down 20%
• Foul and Abusive Language has remained about the same.
(Please see attached Discipline Report/Statistics for details)

d) REGISTRAR’S REPORT – Cees van Delft:

• Registration deadline for the 2015/2016 Season is July 15th. A $200.00 cheque must accompany registration.
• Everyone, players and team staff must have e-mail addresses this year. If a player doesn’t have an e-mail address they will have to get one. This will be a mandatory field on the registration form.

e) WEBSITE REPORT – Vince Greco (for Fraser Sim)

• Fraser is presently working on filling in all the missing information on player registrations.
• There will be mandatory fields on all registrations
• On-line permits will be up and running for next year.
(Please see attached Website report for details)

f) MASTERS COMMITTEE – Scott Metson:
• Vince Greco and Scott Metson met with the Masters Committee about how the Masters A Division will look next year. Having 6 teams in the Masters Division was unacceptable this year.
• There are 3 scenarios that the Masters teams will have to vote on after the July 15th Registration deadline.
1) 18 teams would be divided into groups of 6 teams each where:
A Div. teams would play each other twice, and B Div. once.
B Div. teams would play A Div. once, B teams once and C Div. once.
C Div. would play each other twice, B Div. once.
2) Seeding teams based on last season with a “March Madness” style mini-tournament. League would split up all teams into 3 tiers.
2 teams per division from last year’s division s would go into the separate tiers. After playing those teams within the tier, 3 separate divisions would be created pending on how teams finished the “tournament”.
3) Status quo with 8 or 9 teams in Masters A

• The vote will take place after the July 15th Registration deadline.

g) REFEREE REPORT – Dan Greco:

• This is a call for help! We need more referees, as the VISL is down to just 2 Provincially qualified referees. The best referees come from the players themselves, so please start recruiting.
• The 1st Referee clinic will be at the end of summer in either August or September

h) B.C. SOCCER REPORT – Kjeld Brodsgaard:

• The Adult tournaments are not hosted by BC Soccer anymore. Next year it will be once again back on the island. The Rotation between Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island, and Vancouver Metro will stay the same
• Over the past two years BC Soccer has doubled the travel allowance for teams traveling to the Provincials from $250.00 two years ago to $375.00 last year to $500.00/team this year, and the VISL has matched this, so traveling teams will now receive $1,000.00 travel allowance.
• The Cup draw was webcast live again this year from Vancouver. Next year the draw will be on the island again.
• Port Alberni did extremely well in the finals this year finishing 2nd to the team that won the Under 21 title last year.
• One constitutional change that will be coming is that you must submit an application to run for the board 45 days in advance.
• Another amendment is to increase clarity and define Associate Member Adult League.
• There is a proposal for BC Soccer to monitor leagues finances every two year.
• Another Proposed constitutional change will state that Associations, Leagues, teams and player may not be represented by a lawyer at a discipline hearing
• The BC Soccer AGM is June 12th this year.

i) SPONSORSHIP RCOGNITION – Vince Greco:

(Please see attached sponsorship report for details)

5. ELECTION OF OFFICERS – Chaired by Kjeld Brodsgaard, assisted by Bill Murphy & Rick Hood.

The following Board members were up for re-election this year:

1. President, Vince Greco – re-elected by acclimation
2. Treasurer, Keith Smith – re-elected by acclimation.
There were 7 people who put their names up for the 5 available Directors positions. The following people were elected to the 5 available Director’s positions.

1. Dan Greco
2. Scott Metson
3. Samantha Mount
4. Dan Romain
5. Mark Tarrant

The two people not elected were Dan Bell & Elvio Cramare.

Also Re-elected for a one year position was Director Dennis Somner.

6. NEW BUSINESS:

1. Blood Drive – Ryan Emo, Castaways Juniors:
Castaways would like to put together an annual blood drive event for the members of the VISL. They would like to get all teams and Clubs involved. Members were asked to please take this information back to their respective teams and Clubs. There will be a tent set up at the Castaways Labour Day tournament for people to receive more information. President Greco indicated that the VISL will support the inititative in any way they can.

2. U21 Division:

The VISL is considering adding a 2nd U-21 Division with the hopes of retaining Silver and Bronze players graduating for youth soccer. Several Clubs are already on board. The VISL requests that members take this information back to their Clubs to generate interest and commitment to make a 2nd Division viable.

3. Scheduling:

Danny Hood will continue to be the Referee and Game Scheduler for the upcoming season. All teams are requested to inform Danny of their team and club Scheduler by July 15th so Danny has the correct contact information when games have to be changed or rescheduled.

4. Question from the Floor from Elvio Cramare: Enquiring what the VISL does regarding the lack of TV coverage on Check TV and the media in general? Vince Greco explained that the VISL regularly attempts to receive more media coverage but since we do not buy advertising at Chek they seem mostly uninterested in giving us more than cursory cover. Other media outlets do carry VISL news and information, i.e. Cliff Lequesne and the Q and that the VISL continues to look for ways to increase our exposure in the community.

ADJOURNMENT: Motion to Adjourn by Moreno Stefani. The meeting adjourned at 8:29 p.m.

2015 President’s Report

2014/2015 AGM
Distrikt @ Strathcona Hotel
Mon May 25, 7 pm
Presidents Report

Thanks to you all for being here in what is considered our offseason.

A productive year as a League that saw many special occasions from Port Alberni making the BC Soccer Provincial B Cup Final, to us celebrating our 100 Year anniversary of the Jackson Cup @ RAP. There were several great races for promotion & relegation, and there were obviously 4 great Cup Finals this year to wrap up our year locally. Congrats to all teams who were able to participate in BC Cup, is pretty obvious we are not far off the rest of the Province.

Overall, it seems like most were happy with the standardized Umbro game ball – thanks to all the team admin for stressing out during the year when a ball left the field.
Overall, I was very happy to see more community sponsors on board – will talk a bit more about them later, but they sure make a huge difference come special event time – because of them and CSA & BC Soccer; another reason why registration costs stay flat with only membership wanted fees going up. We are still proud to say our Board is 100% volunteer; especially as you all know how hard it is to get people to give more of their time. Thanks to….(introduce Board) …..Besides them putting in a lot of time, they put up with me and that is not particularly easy.

I look forward to advancing our efforts in trying to get more dedicated turf field time, and dream of the day when we can have a place of our own – a place that we can call home for all our members. I am so happy with where we are financially and hope we can grow even more in order to achieve all our goals.
Have a great off season and happy recruiting!

Vince Greco
VISL President
www.visl.org
250-889-1213

2015 Sponsor’s Report

2014/2015 AGM
Distrikt @ Strathcona Hotel
Mon May 25, 7 pm
Sponsors Document

There is no better feeling than having our community work together for the game that we all enjoy. Our humble beginnings in trying to get community involvement started with Allsports which turned into Spank It. The next 13 or so years it has just gotten bigger and better with so many of our community people jumping on board to make our League a little bit better. What started out as $2000.00 in 2002, has turned into $30,000.00+ in 2015. We love that it makes our League that much more enjoyable for the majority and hope to keep that going in the future.
So while we are happy to see the growth of sponsors, we are saddened to see our oldest serving sponsor close doors. Officially Spankit has closed down. Bill Sood has been absolutely unbelievable to us over the years – especially at what he was very happy to support – the Allstar games. I hope we are able to support Bill wherever he may go – I know I will never forget his generosity to the League.
As one door closes, others open – and I am happy to report that other members of our community now want to step in and join us. I look forward to announcing another local business as a sponsor very shortly – these guys make a WORLD of difference and love their SOCCER.
I am also happy to report that we are close to coming into a working relationship with a facility and group that is able to offer medical assistance to our League. While my first desire was to find something concussion related, it is clear that this company does so much more and can help us in so many ways up and down the island. I hope to bring a favorable update come August at the Organizational meeting.

So while we still strive to get more people involved in our League, I really hope you are able to see who is part of our team right now and see who really offers great things to all of us. I cannot stress enough that we hope you at least give them a chance to help out with your goods or services you that you may need.

What we call our Gold Sponsors:

TeamSales – Moreno Stefani
HutchisonOss-CechMarlatt barristors&solicitors–LorenzoOssCech
Hendry Swinton McKenzie Insurance – Brad Hendry
BMT/CVS – Fraser Sim
Signs of the times – Dan Hanson

What we call our Silver Sponsors:

Elite Trophies – Debbie O’Keefe
1550’s Pub Style Restaurant – Keith Campbell
Investors Group – Danny Greco
Molsons – Brent Dobbie

And of course, our Title Sponsor the Strathcona Hotel who have helped out in so many ways. Not only have they provided a great place for meetings, a great venue for a party or celebration, they have really stepped in to help out whenever and wherever possible to promote the game of soccer. They are our first choice when we are looking to have or recommend a hotel or function venue downtown for a large or small group. Thanks to Grant Olson for putting it all together.

Please check the website for all sponsor info.

Vince Greco
VISL President
www.visl.org
250-889-1213