Minutes of August 14, 2001 LISC Board Meeting

Present:  Seamus Reilly, Joe Seeley, Michael Wingo, Robert Baird, Terry Hinds, and Jan Weyhenmeyer

Absent:  Jon Foreman, Kent Williamson

Terry gave an update on the 2001 Fall Cup.  He has been working with the Champaign County Visitors Bureau and the Hotel Association.  Sara Seed, Sports Director of the Champaign County Visitors Bureau, had planned to attend the Board Meeting but at the last minute was unable to attend.  Nevertheless, she is very willing to help the club with publicity and housing. 

The Hotel Association is willing to make a long-term commitment to the club and has proposed some ideas that include scholarships, trophies, printing and cash.  The club's obligation would be to help book rooms.  The majority of the hotels are members of the association and a good working relationship with LISC would benefit the club and the association.  There are two weekends a year that are sellouts for the hotels and our tournament weekend is one of them.  The Visitors Bureau would be the liaison between the club and the hotel association. 

There are currently 99 teams registered for the Fall Cup and this does not include LISC teams.  Terry anticipates about 125 teams.  It would help if there were 1-2 more fields.  It is possible we could use the U of I women’s practice field and there does appear to be room for 1 more field in the Sports Complex.  Dodds Park does not seem to be a viable solution and it is too late to request Brookens.  Mike is going to purchase tournament-scheduling software that will make a difficult job much easier.  Terry needs a list of parent representatives for the Fall Cup from the teams and plans to schedule a meeting soon.  Also, the tournament needs a referee assignor.  Charlie Smyth’s resignation has created a problem for the tournament director since he was the tournament assignor.  Referees are also needed!

Seamus and Mike discussed the centralized coaching system.  All teams are practicing at Parkland and Tray, Mike and Seamus are running 2 forty-five minute sessions a night.  Tray is responsible for utilizing the space at Parkland and scheduling the sessions for the 14 LISC teams.  He coaches a team and will be responsible for soccer conditioning during the winter.  Therefore, it was proposed and approved to pay him $10,000.00 a year.  This breaks down to $4000.00 a season and a $2000.00 stipend for the winter conditioning. 

The club needs a League Representative since Charlie Smyth is no longer involved with the club.  He also was a member of the LISC Board and that position needs to be filled.  Recommendations can be made to the board.  It was suggested that Tray could be the League Representative. 

Soccer Country will have the uniforms ready shortly.  Coaches will distribute them at practice.

The League schedules are not ready.  The club tournaments are the Orange & Blue Fall Cup, Morton’s Pumpkin Classic and the SFC Invitational.

There is interest in expanding the website.  However there is a cost associated with this and a Corporate Sponsor could help defray the cost to the club.  LISC needs a corporate sponsor.  Communication would be easier if information was listed on the site. 

The next meeting will be September 4, 2001 at 7:30.  The location is not yet determined.