Swatara Youth Soccer Association

The April public board meeting will take place this Thursday, April 12th at 7:30 PM at the Swatara Township Administration Building.

Registration for the Fall 2012 Soccer Season will open April 15th online.  Walk-in Registration will be held from 10am to 1pm on Saturday, May 19th.  Costs for the 2012 season remain the same: $30 for U6, $55 for U8/U10/U12.  The Board voted unanimously at the March meeting to keep prices at the reduced rate for the third year in a row.  More information will be posted here and on the Registration Page soon.

The Summer Camp page has been updated for 2012, be sure to register early for a free gift from Challenger.

The monthly public SYSA Board meeting will take place this coming Thursday, March 8th at 7:30 PM at the Swatara Township Administration Building.  Parents, coaches and volunteers are encouraged to attend.  Finalization of the schedule for the year as well as costs and fees are the main points to be discussed and approved.

February’s Board meeting was very productive and began the process of laying out the 2012 Fall SYSA soccer season.

Board Members present
-Dave Pender – President
-Michelle Yurko – Treasurer
-Jennifer Coy – U6 Director
-Ricardo Duarte – Boys Director
-Jim LaSalla – Girls Director

Board Change – Karen Sweger has resigned from the Board position of Registrar for personal reasons. Please join me in thanking her for many years of service in this position which can be incredibly stressful at times… Especially during open registration. The Board members present voted unanimously to appoint Mike Radle to the vacant position for the 2012 calendar year.

EPYSA Annual General Meeting – The AGM will take place on Sunday, March 4th in Philadelphia. The President and Registrar will be attending on behalf of SYSA and will provide a briefing at the March SYSA Board Meeting.

2012 Newsletter Edits – We are currently in the process of preparing the newsletter that will be sent home with students in area schools. We are planning for distribution to schools the last week of April/first week of May.

Calendar of Events – A tentative schedule for events leading up to the beginning of the season was laid out and is now pending logistics working out with the Township and other sports activities in the area. Item on the schedule include walk-in/offline registration, coaches meeting, rosters, uniform orders and several other steps that need to happen before the August 1st start of the practice season. Once dates and details are confirmed, this information will be published to the Calendar Page.

Registration Database Vendor – the discussion surrounding the selection of the registration and database provider for SYSA was short and to the point. Those present agreed there was no reason to replace our current vendor based on usage, pricing and familiarity.

The 2012 Board of Directors is now in place:

The monthly Board meeting for February will take place Thursday, February 9th at 7:30 PM at the Swatara Township Administration Building.  This is the first full meeting of the year and will kick off planning and preparation for the Fall 2012 soccer season.

The monthly Board meeting for January will take place this coming Thursday, January 12th at 7:30 PM at the Swatara Township Administration Building.

At the December meeting, both important measures passed unanimously to realign the board.  The position of U6 Coordinator was made a full voting Board member and, as a result, the Executive Board was dissolved as it is no longer needed in the event of a tie vote on matters pertaining to the Club.

Board nominations remain open until the start of the meeting on Thursday.  If you wish to nominate someone (including yourself) for a Board position, please email Dave Pender.

The following nominations have already been made:
Girls Coordinator – Jim LaSalla (position vacated by Kevin McCollum)
U6 Coordinator – Jennifer Coy (position vacated by Jim LaSalla)

The following individuals have expressed interest in staying on in their current positions:
President – Dave Pender
Secretary – Keith Graham
Registrar – Karen Sweger
Treasurer – Michelle Yurko
Boys Coordinator – Ricardo Duarte

The monthly Board meeting for December will take place this Thursday night at 7:30PM at the Swatara Township Administration Building. Coaches, if you would like to unload your equipment for off-season storage, this would be a great time to do so (you don’t have to stay for the meeting, but all are welcome).

The agenda should be short and sweet with the opening of the nominations window for positions on the 2012 board and review of year-end financials. Also, a vote will be taking place on Board reorganization. This has been discussed at many of the meetings this year and, if approved, will go into effect for the 2012 calendar year. The two proposed reorganization items are listed below:

-Promotion of the U6 Coordinator Position to full-voting board member (currently, non-voting volunteer). This will bring the number of voting board members to 7.
-Should the above be approved, dissolution of the Executive Board. The purpose of the Executive Board has been mostly to break ties in voting by the regular, six person board. With a new structure of an odd number of votes, the Executive Board becomes redundant.

On the second point above, to my knowledge, the Executive Board has not had to vote in a tie-break situation in many years.

As always, parents, coaches and other Myers of the public are welcome and any input (good or bad) is encouraged.

Thanks,

Dave

I just wanted to say a quick thank you to all the coaches, refs, volunteers and parents for their patience, understanding and hard work in a very problematic season. Despite Mother Nature’s best effort, close to one thousand kids (almost 300 from SYSA alone) had a great soccer season.

I’d also like to single out Kevin McCollum, our outgoing Girls Coordinator, for his many years of dedication to the Club and the kids. On behalf of all the kids, over all the years, thank you!

The monthly Board meeting will be taking place this Thursday, November 10th at 7:30 PM at the Swatara Township Administration Building on Eisenhower Blvd.  Coaches, parents, volunteers and the general public are encouraged to attend.