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.
22 comments:
John,
Thanks for getting everyone's opinion on this. Good work!
Thanks for adding the earlier times. I am concerned however with decisions being made on such a few number of respondents. You indicated that the previous poll indicates that the majority of voters prefer an after 6:00 start time (which is correct based on the poll). But why would you want to make a decision that impacts such a significant number of families based on such an insignificant number of votes (13 families for U8 and 20 for U10-12)?
Now on the new poll the top choices are currenctly 7 or 8 votes for U8 and 8 or 13 votes for U10-12. Still not a significant enough number of votes to make changes for hundreds of families. If you want to get a clearer picture of what our families want I would suggest putting the poll on the home page -and e-mailing families letting them know of their chance to have their opinion heard. You are limiting yourself to the bloggers by having the poll on the blogs.
I know that you have probably heard some frustrations from working parents (I am a working parent too), but I am afraid that you will hear just as many complaints from other families if you move the kids' games to later start times. I know you can't make everyone happy, but I think it's a bit late in the season to be making these changes.
I know for a fact that many families were frustrated with first only partial scheules, then changed schedules, then conflicting schedules, now... new schedules?!? If you want to gather information about schedules for the future, I think that's great, but leave our schedules alone!
Soccermom, we can't please everyone. If we move later we help people getting to games. If we move earlier, we frustrate people wanted to get kids to bed. I consider two things in moving games. I can only respond to people the vote and make their voice heard. I consider based on statistics that this will be a representative sample and still be reasonably accurate of the entire membership. Also, when choosing getting kids to bed late on 2-4 weeknight games, versus having times that make it difficult or perhaps prevent parents from attending, I think the latter is a more 'weighty' situation. Sorry that this doesn't please you. But, this is the decision that the Board voted on at our public meeting last night. Thank you so much for your input, which has been considered. See you on the fields.
Oops! I hit ENTER to earlier. I should've proofed. :)
What I meant to say in the first para was:
If we move later we help people getting to games.but frustrate people wanted to get kids to bed. If we keep the games earlier, we help people get their kids to sleep on time, but may make it hard or even impossible for some families to attend games...
Next time, I'll proof-read better.
Final results of the second poll was:
U8: 5:00 p.m. & 6:00 p.m.
8 (25%)
U8: 5:30 p.m. & 6:30 p.m.
1 (3%)
U8: 6:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m.
10 (31%)
U10-U12: 5:00 p.m. & 6:30 p.m.
3 (9%)
U10-U12: 5:30 p.m. & 7:00 p.m.
8 (25%)
U10-U12: 6:00 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.
17 (53%)
U10-U12: 6:30 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.
5 (15%)
Thanks John for the poll, starting the games later makes it so much easier for our team.
John,
As a parent and an educator I am deeply disturbed by your response to my concerns regarding moving games later in the evening. To quote you: “Also, when choosing getting kids to bed late on 2-4 weeknight games, versus having times that make it difficult or perhaps prevent parents from attending, I think the latter is a more 'weighty' situation.” I see that U8 games (which involve 6 year olds) will now begin at 7:00p.m. If these games begin on time (which is unrealistic based on past game experiences) the kids will not even be finishing their games until 8:00 at the earliest, maybe get home by 8:30, shower and get to bed by ??? And U12 games (which involves 10 year olds) won’t even end until at least 8:45?? I’m not sure that our City Council or Athletic Council would agree with you that this is less of a “weighty situation”.
I would also like some information on the direct polling that took place as neither myself nor my husband/coach were asked about game time preferences. It seems interesting to me that the Board voted on an issue based on poll results of a poll that was still taking votes. Were the Board Members aware of the few number of respondents or were they just informed of the percentages? The “public” Board Meeting was held on Friday night, but no agenda for that Board Meeting was posted, so how would families know to attend the meeting to voice their opinion on an issue that was still being polled. That might lead me to believe that once again the Board is voting for issues that directly impact them or their teams personally. I would like to reiterate that 32 families voting is not an accurate representation of Region 22’s membership. I would say that we probably have at least 400 families in Region 22. If that is the case only 8% of those families had their voices heard, many of those being voting Board Members.
One of the decisions made at the Board Meeting, was to move U8 games a whole hour later (from 5:00 starting time to 6:00 starting time). On the poll results there was only a difference of 2 votes with no majority. Only 3 votes would have changed the poll results. Would those 3 votes have changed your decision or was your decision already made? It would also be interesting to know how many Board Members voted on the Blog poll and then again at the Board Meeting!?!
I really thought Region 22 was working hard to clean things up, but based on the way that this schedule issue has been handled one might begin to question the Board’s motives.
Has it ever been brought up to have a few Sunday afternoon games?
Please don't shoot me
I like the game times earlier, like
5pm or 6pm. My daughter who is in U8 having a game at 6:30pm, still doesn't get to bed until almost 9pm. I can't imagine her having a later game. I hope you guys concider that for the little ones.
Soccermom:
I disagree with you. Sorry, but I guess we can't agree all the time.
Each team will normally have 2 night games. Those games could be at the earlier or later time slot. So, most children will have a late game once or twice during the season. I still think that getting to bed late one or two days, versus having families having trouble getting home from work to get kids to games is a better choice.
Also, with regards to the # of votes: The voting was advertised on the schedule page of the main website. The voting showed that the majority of voters by percentage preferred a later time. Also, the parents we talked to by majority told us the same thing. And, I actually did speak to your husband, who told me your opinion. So I'm sorry, but I did get your opinion as well. But most people that voted and that we were able to talk to disagreed with you. Sorry things didn't go the way you feel was better. The vote for this was at our public Board meeting also, which is listed on the event calendar on our website.
Thank you so much for your input. I'm sorry that the numbers of opinions we were able to get didn't happen to agree with you. I did look at your schedule -- at this time only one of your children have one late game. Hopefully this one late night to bed will not be too much of a burden. Good luck and have a great season!
Bob,
I have no problem with Soccer on any day at any time that the majority of our players and families would like it, and that the City will allow us to play.
Sunday afternoon would be fine. The trouble with unconventional times like this is finding out if the majority of players' families support it. If you can think of a great way to accomplish this. I'm fine with it.
Also, if you have a game your team wants to make-up (with the rain-outs) and the other team is fine with playing at this time, let us know and we'll be happy to check with the City, and if it's ok, schedule it.
Mr. Commissioner or should I say John, you had no problem e-mailing all of us and letting us know that we could not play on the fields when AYSO 22 pissed off the city of La Mirada a week before opening day, so why could you not just send out another e-mail and tell us that there was a vote going on in the website. I can tell you that I am very disappointed with AYSO and don't think that La Mirada will be having AYSO in the near future. I don't know why there is such a problem on making a schedule, publishing it and sticking to it. I have 2 children that are under 7. This new time is very inconvenient to their bedtime schedules as well as homework. Not to mention the morning routine the next day when they go to bed at 9:00 or later. I don't know if you have younger children or not but it seems that you have your head shoved where it should not be with your opinion that "…when choosing getting kids to bed late on 2-4 weeknight games, versus having times that make it difficult or perhaps prevent parents from attending, I think the latter is a more 'weighty' situation. " Obviously you have no care about education or young children’s well being.
I don't even know where to start. I am so fed up with the whole AYSO that I can't even wait for the season to end. This year has been a hassle from day one!!! First not enough coaches, then no practices due to issues between the league and the city, then there are all of the schedule changes. Now to top it off another schedule change based on some vote, that was not publicized. The only reason I even know about this is a friend called me. I have a very busy schedule, as I am sure we all do, so I have better things to do with my time than to keep checking the web site and reading blogs. I also did not like to commissioners attitude to some of the responses that I read tonight. It is obvious to me that education means nothing to him. The young kids in the U8 division should not be having games starting at 7pm I even thought that 6pm was too late, but 7 is unacceptable. In order for children to be successful in class they need to have a good nights sleep. That is not going to happen if they are not getting home until 9pm that is if the games start on time. My child's team has yet to have a game that has started on time. One of our games started almost 20 minutes late. I think if you want a true sampling of how people feel about game times, then you need to email everyone, and we know that you have everyone’s email (or at minimum the coaches) and let people know about a poll. You should not be burying it in a blog that the majority of people do not even know about. Most practice times are around 4:30 or 5:00 and parents seem to be able to get there then, so game times should be no different. We need to think about the health and well being of the children not what is easiest for the parents. I too am a working parent but I do what needs to be done to have my child at practice and to be at the games. I am sure that my words are falling on deaf ears, as it sounds like the board wanted this, so they made it happen regardless of anything else. They say they talked to people, how many people could they really have talked to? There was barely a hand full of people that voted in the poll!!! According to what I read there were 2 polls, I never saw any of them. AYSO 22 is just a mess, and they continue to go down hill. I think that they soon will loose the support of the parents. Do the right thing; take a legitimate vote on the issue.
For anyone that doesn't understand why the schedules changed, it's because we added games to give the kids more soccer, and the difficulty of ensuring the schedules take into account a large amount of variables and still work makes them very hard to get right. We have more than 1,000 games to schedule on 14 fields with 93 teams. We're trying to ensure a balance of home versus away and early vs late, etc. We're also trying to make one of those games a night game and one a double-header for older divisions. I ask that you volunteer to help with scheduling so you can 1) experience the challenges that many of us have spent countless hours of our personal time on in the interest of your (and our) children, (I personally have spent over 30 hours on schedules alone), and 2) so that you can help out on an issue that is important to you and lend your insight as you contribute.
I'd like you to consider that you're up-in-arms about possibly 1 or 2 nights -- not a regularly occurring event. Most U8 teams have 1 night game. So you're telling me that I don't care about young kids (my daughter is 8) because of in most cases 1 night that your child may go to bed an hour late. I just can't believe it sometimes!
And the complaint of not enough coaches; as if that applies to those of us who do volunteer most of our free hours is just priceless!
I decided there was no reason not to email everyone as suggested and ask them to take the poll again, so I've done that. I thought by posting the first poll on our website, and notifying about it on the schedules page that I was taking into account peoples opinions. I was shocked that since I took that vote and the vote of the parents, coaches and referees on our board and adjusted schedules accordingly that I was accused of not caring about young children. But, I guess that's what you get when you volunteer to run an organization for others. Anyway, I hope this new chance for voting will be helpful to those of you that have asked for it.
Your complaints regarding late game schedules are ridiculous - When you signed up to play a sport you have already committed yourself to a balancing act of school, sport (practices & games), and bedtimes/family-time. As I understand it, night games are not scheduled to be the norm. - they are there so that all teams get adequate game time for the season. How many times are you actually going to be putting your kid to bed at 9:00? Once, twice? I think the kid can handle 9 or 10 hours of sleep a few times a season (as opposed to 10 or 11 hours)- not a big deal, unless you make it one. And as far as not being notified of the poll, there is a chain of command, or chain of information here. I was aware of the poll by our team mom, who found out from the coach, who found from the division commish, etc...Sounds like a lack of communication on someone’s part - not necessarily the fault of AYSO. Also, take a little initiative and read the website, read the blogs - There is a lot going on in the organization and it pays to keep abreast of the issues at hand - so make the time -
Having all 400+ participants vote would not be efficient way of approaching the situation - having coaches cast a representative vote is all that's needed. The new schedules added more games and we're thankful for that! I appreciate the effort that is being made for more games, more games equals more fun for the kids who work hard at practice. Give me a break with the lack of concern for kids' education comments, and their health & well-being - this is not a reasonable assumption and is simply unfounded - and only added for dramatic content. Getting kids to practice for working parents is usually a difficult task which may include assistance from friends, family, or presence of only 1 parent. Yes, having games at 6pm or later is extremely helpful for parents, but not a the detriment of kids and their bedtime. I believe that AYSO is taking into consideration the lifestyle of today's families (working parents) and that is much appreciated by all affected! Curious about your individual "hassles" this season, are you on the Board, or a volunteer of some sort???
ParentX,
I don't want to get into a mud slinging fight here so I will just get to the point. I think 7 to 8 is too late for my child to be out on the field. As of right now, not one of our games have started on time, usually due to the reffs doing something. So lets just assume that a 7:00 games starts on time for some miracle, the games ends at 8:00. We shake hands, get a snack quick meeting with the coach and then go home. 8:30. Get the kids in the bath. 9:00. Now get them calmed down from the game they just played and get them to bed. Finally they are asleep. 9:30 -10:00. Maybe your kids are different, I don't know but my kid’s need all the sleep they can get and when they don't it is hell in the am.
As for the vote and I did even know about this forum until just the other day. As for the information pipeline or should I say "chain of command, or chain of information..." ours chain must be broken... I e-mailed our coach last night and he had no idea that the vote was happening. It seems a lot of other voter’s chains were broken also by looking at the voting numbers now vs then. So where it broke? I don't know. I know that John has our e-mail addresses and as you can see today he found them and sent out an e-mail letting all of us know that there is a vote going on. If the majority wants later games then later games we should have.... Also I just want AYSO 22 to stop messing with the schedules. I should not have to check the schedule on a daily basis. We all have busy lives and stuff on the calendar.
Let me just say, The Board is doing a great job. This has been a very crazy year. I played AYSO in La Mirada and now I have three children who play. We ref, coach and volunteer. We also have very busy lives school work etc. With this said AYSO 22 board 2007 has made themselves available to everybody. I have never seen a season where you knew who every board member was and could easily approach them. In the past you had no say to what times you wanted your games, you were just given times and that is it. Sometimes games run late due to injury, whatever but you cannot blame the officials that are part of the game. Sorry for being all over the place. Just be patient.
This is for everyone who DOES NOT AGREE with the later games.
Do your children play baseball or softball?
They DO HAVE late games on the week nights also. Approximate times of games are LONGER that a soccer game. Baseball and softball games can last up 1 hour and 50 minutes.
Just a thought, if you are concerned with your child staying up to late (once a week) you may NOT want to sign up for Baseball or Softball.
A BIG THANKS to the Board Members that are making up the season's schedules - I know its a tough VOLUNTEER JOB.
Hey guys let's try to understand several things.
Yes, they have made several mistakes with the schedules, but lets not have a lynching.
They are basically a new board. None of they have done soccer scheduling. They had a computer program do the schedules and they thought it was fair and competitive. So they posted it.
But they, due to thier inexperience, were wrong. They didn't know what to look for as far as schedules go. Computers do make mistakes.
Coaches wanted to play every team in their divisions, before the tournament. (Need to add more games)
Some teams played each other more than once, at the same time not playing other teams at all. (Schedule was computer program generated, need to manually fix)
A lot of people complained about 5pm games. (Maybe a later start will help)
So see these are just simple human errors. This is what a new board does.
They are doing their best, try to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Steve, All I wanted was a fair vote. If we let 19 people who frequent the blog decide what affects everyone, then I think that is wrong. I wanted a re-vote and we got one with everyone invited. If they don't vote then they can't complain. We will see what happens on Friday. It seems like as of now, u8 wants a earlier game time and u10-12 wants a later time. Which in my opinion is the way it should be. Time will tell.
I am amazed that you parents would think that the RC does not care about the kids education...maybe if he keeps them up late they can all get bad grades..come on, I dont even know him but I don't think that was his intentions when asking about later start times.. And yes I did vote to keep them early but I'm sure he was trying to please what he thought was what the parents wanted..maybe we can give him a little break with all that he has had to deal with...lets not forget that the board and vols. do put in alot of time away from there families...You can't please eveyone.. I can't see how staying up late once or twice during the season is going to effect your kids education that much..hopefully this will get settled and everyone will be happy but odds are that wont happen either..Lets all try to make this work so that the kids continue to have fun...
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