The meeting was held at 6pm on Sunday, September 17th at Christie Clark’s house. In attendance were Christie Clark, Craig Hardwick, Marty Eaton, Karrie Elliott, Cyndi Lindblom and Ken Gamble.

          Christie’s first order of business was to emphasize the role that recreational soccer plays in the development of club soccer. To repay that debt, club soccer and the NASL need to reach out to the recreational leagues (including AYSO, USYSA, and Boys and Girls Clubs) by providing coaching clinics for players and coaches. NASL should form a relationship with each league by providing liaisons to find out what each league would like to receive from the NASL.

         The second order of business was a financial report from Karrie Elliott. The NASL recently gave a check for $20,000 to F.O.S.N.A. for development of soccer in North Alabama in general and for development of Merrimac Park in particular. The current checking account balance is $6,198.27. Current accounts payable have been paid. Still due is a check from the Kicks Soccer Club of approximately $1,000 which, when received, will result in a balance of approximately $7,200.

         Next up was Craig Hardwick. Craig stated that everything had been going as smoothly as possible with the scheduling of games so far this season. Field availability has been tight due to Airports fields #1 and #2 not being available and fields #3 and #4 being repaired. Craig stated that several games had to be canceled or rescheduled during the September 9th and 10th weekend because classic games are given priority. At the fall NASL scheduling meeting all of the premier teams had been warned not to schedule games that weekend because of a lack of referees and fields. The board reaffirmed their position that Classic games are to be given preference on those dates when games are to be played in Huntsville. The next classic play date is this weekend, September 23^rd and 24^th.

         It was suggested that the red cards issued to players be dropped off at Pete’s Soccer Shop by the referees and that Christie would pick them up in a timely manner. She would issue any additional penalties to the player involved if the game report showed that additional penalties (such as being declared ineligible for coming games) were deemed necessary.

        Since coaches can not be issued red or yellow cards it was suggested that all instances where coaches were removed from a game be noted on the game report and a copy be left at Pete’s. Christie would pick them up and NASL could issue any additional penalties warranted. After much discussion the board decided to ask the NASOA (soccer officials association) for their input. It was noted that parent and coach behavior at NASL club level games was not the problem that it is at the high school level.

        The other topics that Craig discussed were:
Trying to use several fields in North Huntsville that were not getting a lot of game use.

Requesting new goal nets from the city.

Repair and maintenance required for several fields.

        Cyndi Lindblom discussed formulating a new policy for next fall concerning player cards. Each year there are problems with teams not having their cards available for August games because they wait too late to request them. This year the teams were requested not to schedule any games with referees before September 2nd but instead to play friendlies prior to that date. Referees were told not to allow any players to play without player cards. Unfortunately, as in past years, teams elected to schedule early games without knowing that player cards would be available and the inevitable problems did occur.

         Cyndi suggested a solution - that each team have all prospective players fill out player forms at club try-outs and that the clubs provide her with the number of cards (just number, not player names) that they will need for each team. She can then pre-order the number of cards from AYSA. And by having the forms already filled out, the teams can get them to her shortly after team selection. The board agreed that this was a good idea and expected to have a policy in effect before the next fall season.

         Ken Gamble has added a monitored discussion/message board to the NASL website. Anything that needs to be posted to the website should be e-mailed to him at dsports@hiwaay.net Marty Eaton requested that forms for travel permits and also for permission to host tournament be added to the list of forms on the website. An application for the Governor’s Cup as well as many other forms are now available on-line at the website. A new area of the website is being developed for the Friends of Soccer, North Alabama (FOSNA).

        As representative to the state association Marty asked that we alert him to any issue that he needs to bring to the attention of AYSA. It was discussed that we should find out if the leagues, clubs and teams in North Alabama can give Marty their votes by proxy so that Marty can vote for us at the state meetings. It was also noted that we should nurture a stronger relationship with AYSA.

        Cyndi mentioned that there will be a USSF "D" coaching license course in Huntsville the last week of January and the first week of February 2001. The cost is $95.00 per coach and a down payment of $50.00 is required to hold a place in the class.

        The meeting was adjourned by President Clark.