SGCS Athletic Booster Board

June 6, 2005

1. Celeste T. opened with a prayer.

2. Tony L. presented a registration update – only 13 registered at the banquet, approximately 32 at the PTO meeting, and approximately 22 at Fun Fest. We have a total of 57 registered at this time. Despite many communications, people seemed unaware of the registration dates.

We discussed grades where the number of athletes was significantly smaller than last year. One attendee reported that 2 6th grade girls went to play at St. Max since the numbers appeared we would not have a team, but we have not yet closed registration.

Action Item: Talk with Ted C. from St. Max to work through how to handle situations between the two programs like this. (George K. to schedule)

Action Item: Check with non-registered players to see if they plan to come back or just forgot (6th grade – Kathy U, 7-th grade – Teri D. to ask Deb K., last year’s coach, to check)

Action Item: We need to send registration info to feeder parishes who do not have their own athletic programs through bulletin notices (Teri D. to send to Kim B. for St. Martin, Kathy U for St. Gabe’s, need to determine a contact for St. Matthias) – people can access the forms on the website, and will not be charged a late fee as we should have sent this info to the earlier

Rich H. suggested using a separate, earlier form to solicit coaches ahead of forming the teams, so we can say who the coach is as people decide whether to play – need to send 2 months before registration – we can start with with boys’ basketball and volleyball

Action Item: Include registration deadlines on school calendar. Joe E. will pick dates for each season and add to school calendar.

We discussed whether it was OK for people to send the forms in to the Booster mail box rather than return them in person. Celeste voiced concerns about 1) incomplete forms and 2) missing mail. We agreed that someone from the Booster Board would be designated to pick up the mail thereby assuring that the forms/checks are not lost in Booster members’ children's backpacks. If those sending in are worried that forms will get lost in their own children’s backpacks they always have the option to mail them to school or to a Booster member directly.

Action Item: Many registration forms are not yet complete as student athletes could not sign that they had read the Code of Conduct at the PTO meeting – Tony agreed to take the forms to practices the first week, and Tony/coaches would talk to the kids about the Code of Conduct and have kids sign. Kathy U also is making copies of the Athlete’s Prayer to reinforce the message.

3. Gym update – Tony reported on benchmarking of other CYO programs sport fees, booster fee, gym availability, concessions, and volunteer requirements. Net – with no gym and no concession, we are not out of line with our current fees.

We need to determine how to better police the gym and how to get volunteers to help with this.

Action Item: Rich C. will draft a blueprint to be worked before August practices start.

4. Dwayne F. suggested seeking tax status to be able to accept grants. Rich H. is working on this now with a UC effort and will be more knowledgeable about the process in the fall. Action Item: George reported he as some contacts with his company. He will explore those and also contact Mark G. to see if Mark can help us in this area.

5. Celeste has agreed to act as cheerleading coordinator to help Robyn A. next year.

6. Uniforms - Dwayne F. shared some information about potential uniforms from a supplier he is familiar with at lower cost. A parent of a new student also has some contacts in this area (Tony L. has the contact information). We discussed the need for a better system to account for uniforms and ensure return, and also to set standards for what uniforms should look like, collection procedures, and a deposit process (if any).

Action Item: Dan G. offered to coordinate uniform collections and purchasing and will use above contacts to make a recommendation to the Board. To have girls uniforms by Sept 1 (start of games), the order needs to be placed by August 1. That means the Board needs to review and approve by late July.

7. Fundraisers – We discussed the option some schools have gone to making fundraising participation mandatory – we decided NOT to do so this year. We would like to target raising $5000 from fundraisers this coming year. We won’t do fundraisers that require selling by athletes, and we won’t do activities that compete with PTO.

Flower Sale- Beth A. has booked the same green house the PTO used for a May 12 pickup date, which we would like to be at both St. Gabe’s and at St. Max.

LaRosa’s gift cards – Assuming we would sell these at “table opportunities” rather than sending home with children, Teri D. will look into this opportunity.

Basketball Tournament or VB tournament (perhaps using Mt. Notre Dame or Sports Plus as a site) – need volunteer to coordinate and plan this

Kindergarten Teddy Bear breakfast – need to do later in the year to stay away from Mentoring get togethers at the beginning of the school year – could be a good idea, need volunteer to coordinate

March Madness/NCAA – ask Cindy and Rich V. to coordinate this (did we decide who was going to ask them?)

8 Banquet -

Action Item: Rich C. will ask St. Max if we can reserve a date for the banquet there again next year.

9. Handbook Changes – Rich H. has much experience with organizational governance and explained that ideally the handbook would be broken into Articles, which would be harder to change and thus be more stable, and Procedures, which would be easier to change and provide needed flexibility. He pointed out that Amendment XI says that the Board votes, not the general membership. Thus noted, the Board voted on the proposal by Larry F. to change Amendment XI so that all members vote by a written ballot, which was proposed at the Feb meeting and reviewed by the Board at their April meeting. The proposal did not pass, with 6 members present voting no. After some further discussion of the proposal, also presented in February by Teri D., to change the way teams are formed in grades 4 & 5, Dan G. proposed tabling the amendment. Kathy U seconded. 6 board members voted in favor of tabling the proposal.

Action item: Rich H had some other suggestions on the structure of our handbook. Given the late hour and the detailed nature of such changes, Rich agreed to draft some comments in writing and provide to the board over the summer for consideration in the fall.

This writer thanks Rich for his major contributions in this area, and his patience at teaching us all something about organization governance and parliamentary procedure.

Action Item: Teri D. will provide additional copies of the handbook for new athletes in the fall.

10. Communication – We agreed to provide a newsletter every month to be sent home in the Thursday envelope. The next one should include top lines of how our budget was determined, and why our fees went up.

Action Item: Teri D. will ask Joanne G. to post the minutes from this meeting on the SGCS website once the Board has had a chance to review them.