How to Make 2008 the Best Season Ever for Region 22

Please supply comments, ideas and suggestions to make next season our best season ever. Please make sure the comments are constructive, reasonable and well thought out. This is a chance to tell us your ideas to make our soccer program the best it can be. Please make sure your ideas are ones that present solutions whenever possible, and don't just point out problems. However, if your not sure what the solution is, don't let that stop you from pointing out the problem and asking for further input. Thank you. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!

Oh no! Not Rain Again!

Pray the rain stops! I'm afraid if it doesn't and fields are closed, that we'll have to cancel the games since we have no more days to reschedule them. Why does it only rain in La Mirada on FRI/SAT???

We're Going to Need Volunteers for 2008 Board

Please volunteer to help in 2008. We need volunteers for the Board of Directors and for many staff positions associated with the operation of the region. Send an email with your name, address, telephone # and area of interest/expertise to applications@ayso22.org. They will be voted on by the outgoing Board of Directors at our Annual Meeting on Jan 11, 2008.

AYSO Takes Unprecedented Step Saves 35 Year Old Youth Soccer Program in La Mirada

The American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) demonstrates its on-going commitment to recreational youth soccer with an unprecedented decision to allow its local region in La Mirada to incorporate, yet still receive its supportive resources. In August of this year, the City of La Mirada gave notice to the local AYSO Regional leadership that it was not in compliance with the City’s Athletic Facility Usage Agreement and that after 35 years, the relationship would be terminated on January 8, 2008. Specifically, the agreement contains a provision, now several years in writing, requiring that all organizations using City facilities have their non-profit tax ID form show a La Mirada mailing address. According to the City's Director of Community Services, Tom Robinson, this address ensures local control of the organization. However, AYSO is a national non-profit corporation based in Hawthorne, CA serving over 1,000 other regions, 250,000 registered volunteers supporting over 650,000 players aged 4 to 19 in all 50 states, and has operated as such since 1964.

On October 29, 2007, the Chairman of the National Board of Directors of AYSO notified Region 22 (La Mirada) that the NBOD had authorized the region to establish and operate under a non-profit corporation in La Mirada. Further, the Chairman, Burton Haimes, wrote, “AYSO will continue to provide you, your volunteers and your participants with AYSO insurance, indemnification and the vast array of other services provided to our Regions.” This unprecedented move by AYSO National encapsulates its commitment to provide its regions with the resources and assistance necessary to provide a world-class soccer program for youth and young adults.

AYSO Region 22 is currently serving over 1100 youth and young adults, and their families in La Mirada. AYSO is based on the five philosophies of balanced teams, open registration, good sportsmanship, positive coaching, and everyone plays. Further, AYSO’s Region 22 is proud to serve a large number of special needs players through its VIP Soccer program and received the Volunteers in Action award in 2006, and was recognized by the City Council, the County, the State and the United States House of Representatives and Senate last year for its achievements and service to the City of La Mirada and surrounding communities.

AYSO Region 22 is also the first youth sports organization in La Mirada to implement a safety program requiring every volunteer who comes in contact with the program’s youth to be screened via fingerprinting and a Department of Justice clearance at no cost to the City or the volunteer.

The President of La Mirada’s Athletic Council has expressed that the AYSO National Board’s gesture is “great news.” AYSO Region 22’s leadership is now working to finalizing local non-profit corporate plans and expects to present the City with its Tax-ID with a La Mirada address before the City’s deadline. This final item will allow the 35-year-old region to comply with all of the City’s requirements, thus clearing the way for a quality soccer program for the City’s residents to endure for many years to come and continue making a significant contribution to America’s fastest growing sport.

AYSO 22 Contact:

Regional Commissioner John Schneider

rc@ayso22.org - EMAIL
www.ayso22.org - WEBSITE

866-714-7733 – FAX

The results are in.

Thanks for the votes, the results of which were:

U8: 5:00 p.m. & 6:00 p.m.	57 (30%)
U8: 5:30 p.m. & 6:30 p.m.	46 (24%)
U8: 6:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m.	32 (16%)
U10-U12: 5:00 p.m. & 6:30 p.m.	30 (15%)
U10-U12: 5:30 p.m. & 7:00 p.m.	64 (33%)
U10-U12: 6:00 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.	53 (28%)
U10-U12: 6:30 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.	8 (4%)

As you can see the results were close. So unfortunately that means that many people will prefer a different schedule no matter which way we schedule things. But, we're going to schedule the night games according to the majority vote from the poll from this week forward.

I realize the poll is not perfect. But, it was the best method we had to quickly gather public opinion on this matter. Thank you to all that participated.

Voting for Night Game Start Times

SoccerMom pointed out that we didn't have a choice for U10-U12 in our voting that allowed the start times we have now at 5:00 and 6:30 p.m, so that the results might not be fair. So, I've created a new poll.

Here are the results of the previous poll:

U8: 5:00 p.m. & 6:00 p.m.	4 (17%)
U8: 5:30 p.m. & 6:30 p.m.	1 (4%)
U8: 6:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m.	8 (34%)
U10-U12: 6:00 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.	17 (73%)
U10-U12: 6:30 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.	3 (13%)

At a very minimum it shows that even for U8 (the younger division), the majority of voters preferred a start time of 6:00 instead of 5:00 or 5:30. Therefore, I'm suspect that the new poll will show that a 6:00 start time for the first game for U10-U12 will also be preferred by a majority of voters. Please vote again in the poll. We'll be adjusting times for the night games beginning next week and forward based on the results.

Game Schedules Discussion on the Coaches Blog

The discussion of this season's game schedules on the AYSO Region 22 Coaches Blog has been very helpful. You can read that discussion to learn the latest about the schedules, which are being worked on this weekend in hopes that they'll be posted before it's over.

City Directs the La Mirada Athletic Council to Evaluate Programs to Replace AYSO

At the last Athletic Council Meeting, AYSO was informed that the City had asked the La Mirada Athletic Council to evaluate other programs to replace AYSO in case AYSO region 22 will be unable to comply with the Usage Agreement by January, 2008.

The only issue AYSO has not been able to comply with is the item that requires us to show that our local AYSO region is a 501-C(3) corporation based in La Mirada. Unfortunately, this differs from AYSO's organizational structure that they've had since inception over forty years ago and successfully use to serve over 1,000 other regions just like ours.

I am working intensively with AYSO to try to see if there is some way that we can accommodate this. I don't yet know if this will be possible, or not. But, keep in mind that in order to accommodate La Mirada, it would be the first time in AYSO's history that it worked with a region in this way, and that AYSO national would have to change many business systems internally in order to accommodate this in a very short amount of time.

One of the programs being evaluated (and perhaps the only one) is called CALSOUTH. It is the program utilized in Whittier by the W.A.Y.S. organization. In the last Board meeting of AYSO Region 22, Coach Bob Davis made a pitch for the organization, saying "Our kids would not notice the difference".

Others have said that while the program has a competitive program that many would like to see in La Mirada (perhaps as a complimentary program to AYSO's recreational league), that CALSOUTH's recreational youth soccer program and coach and referee training programs do not measure up to AYSO's.

I encourage anyone interested to do your own investigation. As a La Mirada resident/parent, I want to see the best of all choices for our youth. I don't want the best choices precluded because of language in the City's Usage Agreements.

New Section 'Region Disclosures' Added to Website

This section has the current operating budget and will contain our meeting agendas, minutes and financials, as well as other reports and items of disclosure as they are produced.

Financials (the topic it seems many have been waiting for...)

I'd like to inform on the following:

Audit:
An audit is being conducted on our region's financials by an outside CPA firm as part of AYSO's National Accounting Program. Our region's audit have been raised to the Section level of AYSO and we've been put in the front of the line. We expect results before the next Board meeting (not this Friday, but the next one).

Budget/Financials (updated):
Our operating budget has been posted on the Website under new Region Disclosures section. I'll be posting our last year's financials as soon as I can put my hands on them to post them -- hopefully in a day or so as I receive them from National.

Cost per Player:
There is a cost per player in our current operating budget, but we'll also be deriving a new cost-per-player based on costs for this season as soon as we have a good idea of what those costs are. That will be made public.

AYSO Guidelines on Financials:
AYSO recommends publishing financials at least once a year. We'll follow this recommendation, but I'm sure we'll have information available more often than just once a year.

Internal Audit Functions:
I'll be proposing to the board the agenda item to address an internal audit function for our region. This may include the opening of a Board position entitled "Regional Auditor" that is already defined by AYSO. It is my hope that it may also involve the formation of an Auditing Committee that will consist of the Regional Auditor, as well as some members that do not hold Board positions. However, these items will need to be discussed and voted on by the Board. When we address this agenda item, we'll of course ask for public comment.

Referee's Blog Added

We've opened a Referee's blog! Yeah! Enjoy.

Coaches Blog Added

We've added a Coach's blog for discussion centered around coaching, and Ill be adding a Referee's blog as well in the next couple of days. I'll post links to all the blogs on the LINKS page of our website.

Board Meeting this Friday

The next Board meeting is at La Mirada Christian Church. I'll post a schedule and agenda shortly. There will be a public comment period towards the beginning of the meeting. Guidelines for Public Comment will be posted as well. We welcome all. This meeting, we got moved to a smaller room than the main room we normally can use because of another event, but we'll do our best to accommodate all who want to come.

Opening Day

How did we do? What did you like? What did you not like? What can we do better for next year?

Ideas wanted for discussion

Please post your comments to this thread to propose the items you'd like to discuss. Thank you!

Welcome to the AYSO Region 22 Blog!

This blog is designed to promote discussion for AYSO Region 22, La Mirada. The goal of the discussion is to improve our region to provide the best youth soccer programs possible. Having said that, I'd like to ask that the comments, suggestions, criticisms and ideas are written in a constructive and positive way. Please refrain from making personal accusations or attacks against any individual in this forum. This is meant to be a place for civilized, constructive discussions.

This is my first experience using a blog, so it may take a little experimenting to get it working for all of us the way we'd like to promote open discussion. I'm pretty sure that the way this works, is that a POST has to be made, then open comments from readers can be posted about that POST. So, I'll make a post for IDEAS to discuss, then readers can comment on that post and based on the comments, we'll make new posts to discuss each individual idea that seems to have interest behind it. Hopefully this will work as a good way for us to discuss the many things about our region that we'd all like to participate in.

Anyway, welcome to all and let's start blogging...