Minutes of the NASL General Membership Meeting
Rec Field Recreational Building
6pm on Tuesday August 21st, 2001

      NASL board members in attendance were: Christie Clark, Craig Hardwick, Marty Eaton, Kari Elliott, Cyndi Lindblom and Ken Gamble.  Board members who were absent were: Marty Eaton.

STATE CUP:
      The meeting was called to order by NASL President Christy Clark.  She announced that Huntsville had been awarded the State Cup by AYSA.  She called on Lee Sims to provide details about the announcement.  She said that Lee was the one who had actually worked with the Huntsville Sports Commission and had made the presentation to AYSA.
      Lee noted that North Alabama Soccer League and the Huntsville Sports Commission had jointly worked to bring the State Cup to Huntsville.  He also noted that Huntsville would also host the Gulf South Conference Tournament and the Alabama Men’s Adult Soccer State Cup in November.  There will be lots of work to do and NASL would be expected to do the majority of the work and provide the volunteers to put on the AYSA State Cup.  There will be four teams per class for both boys and girls for a total of 40 teams.
       Lee outlined the major responsibilities of putting on State Cup.  They are: tee-shirts (money goes to NASL), field marshals, hospitality conference, tournament staffing and providing a tournament director.  The concessions will be put on by the Sports Commission and the money earned from concessions will be retained by the Sports Commission.  Snickers is the official State Cup sponsor and Umbro is the official equipment sponsor and will furnish game balls. 
       Lee provided more details including: sunrise is at 6:35am and sunset is at 4:36pm and that Merrimack Park fields are the back-up fields.

AYSA CHANGES:
      Questions were raised by several NASL members about the way that this year’s  playoffs will be handled to determine which four teams will play in the State Cup and whether it would be single or double elimination. NASL board members could not answer all the questions. There was considerable criticism of the way that information was being disseminated by AYSA to NASL.  With all the changes this year it was felt that NASL members did not have the proper information in order to make proper decisions – especially concerning State Cup, Division I, II or II, and conflicts in play dates for games.
      Marty Eaton, NASL’s district commissioner, was not present at the meeting.  Several NASL coaches and managers requested that Marty provide better information from AYSA meetings and report back to the board after each monthly meeting and the notes from the meetings be provided to members through the website.  (NOTE - The questions raised at the meeting are now answered on the NASL website’s State Cup web page.)

ANNUAL ELECTIONS:
      Elections were held and the following board members were elected:

Vice-President – David Ghoja
President – Christie Clark
Secretary – Ken Gamble
Treasurer – Kari Elliott
Scheduler – Craig Hardwick

      Two board members were not up for election: Marty Eaton’s two year term as district commissioner will last until next year and Cyndi Lindblom retained her appointed position as NASL Registrar.

NASL GAME SCHEDULE:
      Craig Hardwick talked about the number of fields available for NASL games and the manner in which NASL could use them.  He met with the city and blocked off fields for NASL games. 
       Craig noted that several fields are for games only – teams practicing on those fields will be subject to arrest for trespassing.  Game only fields are: Rec Field, Merrimack Fields # 1, 2 & 3, and Hunt Fields # 3 & 4. 
       Game time slots this fall for weekday nights will be 5:00 to 6:20pm, 6:30 to 7:50pm and 7:50 to 9:30pm.  Craig has the following fields available for weekdays:

• Mondays – 2 lighted fields @ with three games

• Tuesdays – 2 lighted fields @ with three games

• Wednesdays – 1 lighted field @ with three games

• Thursdays – 1 lighted field @ with three games

Scheduling will be done much as it was last year.
      Field assignments or times as these are done each Sunday at 6:00PM. 
The confirmed schedule will be issued by e-mail and posted to the website as soon as possible on Tuesday mornings. 


Games may be added to the schedule by the following process:

1. Notify Craig using team numbers the teams that will be playing.

2. Include the game date. (you'd be surprised)

3. You may request a time, however field or referee restrictions may require some adjustment.

4. Craig prefers e-mail notification of additions.

5. The game addition deadline is 6:00pm on Sunday.
   
         Remember, the schedule is done Tuesday through Monday. Games on Monday of a week, require notification 8 days earlier on Sunday.

Games may be canceled from the schedule by the following  process:

1. Games may not be canceled by e-mail.

2. A voice phone call to me at home or cellular phone, in that order, notifying me of the game cancellation. A message on my voice mail is not considered notification. 

3. This notification must 24 hours or more prior to play date and time.

4. You will be issued a game specific cancellation number. This is the same for NASL games as it is for Division I and II state games.

5. The cancellation number should be maintained for protection of your bond. 

6. Home phone number for me is 256-881-9435.

7. Cellular phone number for me is 256-653-3574.  
   
         Any game scheduled is considered a valid game and both teams will be held
   responsible for your bond unless you have a cancellation number that can only
   be issued by me. Please contact Craig if you have any question regarding this information.
         Please check your team number against the dates that you have and notify Craig of any changes.

     When Craig finished his scheduling talk, he assigned numbers to all teams.  Those numbers are listed on the website on the clubs-teams web page.  The cost to Division I and II NASL teams is $75 for five games and $135 for ten games.  That cost does not include referee fees which will be paid on the field for “friendlies” as opposed to state assigned games where the ref fees are paid in the registration fees. 
     Craig will assign a game number to each game as it is scheduled.  For example the first game scheduled on September 8th will be numbered as 98a - the 9 designating September as the ninth month, the 8 designating the day of the month and a designating this as the first game scheduled.  The second game for that date scheduled will be designated as 98b, and so forth. If game # 98a is rescheduled from September 8th to November 3rd the designation will not change it will retain the old number 98a even though it is now on 11/3/2001.  Craig will provide the entire fall schedule on an Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with changes in red which can be downloaded from the NASL website.  The schedule will be updated each week for the remaining games.  AYSA is proposing a schedule freeze date of September 7th so please get your game schedule firmed up by then.  Follow the schedule changing requirements!