2006 Vmsl Agm

[BJB]

It's tommorow night. Anybody know of whose up for re-election? Discussions that will be at the meeting? Any TTP'ers in attendance?

[PV]

There are some goood topics on the agenda, like the financial report, the proposal to get down to 12 teams, and the election.

[Keeper]

Can we get Reed & Thomo live from the AGM?

[trece verde]

BJB:

I'll be there with a bag of tomatoes for Wazzi, Ruben, and SCP...

Not sure exactly how many open positions there are on the board, but some may actually be contested this year...

Trece

[bonefish]

Originally Posted by PV

There are some goood topics on the agenda, like the financial report, the proposal to get down to 12 teams, and the election.

This Agenda is posted where?

[BJB]

Review of the meeting:

Nothing really that interesting, except Sapp players wondering why their wasn't enough promotion of the Province Cup Final. Now who in there right mind would want to go watch Sapp/Firemen.

Same old crap. Few ammendments to the bylaw, mostly master's stuff. Elections saw the same 3 guys get re-elected. there were actually 5 candidates. (Nosella, Allen, and the greek guy). Open forum wasn't that interesting. Best part of the nite was hitting the admiral for a few bevies....

Oh ya the league has a new office. Think its'in burnaby's 8 rinks.

Any other ttp'ers there? Watcher nice chatting with ya.... Damn how time flies.

[PV]

Originally Posted by BJB

Review of the meeting:

Nothing really that interesting.... Best part of the nite was hitting the admiral for a few bevies....

Yes, Admirals was good, but the other good part was having delegates vote to have the VMSL write a letter of complaint to the BCSA about the lack of promotion by BCSA about the Cup Finals. BCSA did not have any advertising for the 3 games, nor was there a notice on the front page of the BCSA website. We complain about the lack of media coverage, but even the BCSA can't do things right.

Unfortunately Wolverton didn't get elected to the Board as he wants to help the VMSL promote soccer in the lower mainland. As long as we keep electing the same people, things won't change.

[Regs]

Anything come about with the reduction of premier to 12 teams?

[Regs]

PV,

While I hear you on the BCSA not promoting the games well, a letter from the VMSL itself is, well, a little much.

VMSL should try and get it's own house in order when it comes to 'marketing'.

That's all I'm going to say.

[BJB]

Originally Posted by Regs

Anything come about with the reduction of premier to 12 teams?

Not a peep.

There was a question during open forum, about making the divisions from Premier down. So there wouldn't be no 1a, 1b, 2a, etc... and go with div 1, 2, 3, 4,5. Azzi quickly shot that down saying that there would be no motivation for those bottom teams and that it be best to keep it the way it is.

After the meeting a few of us were talking about the substitution rule. Well atleast for the Cat teams. Nobody really wants to play on the cat teams, especially if there are more than 16 players there. So to promote the CAT system and the use of getting the players what they need, we were chatting about making the half time for unlimited sub. Keep the 5 sub rule or even 3 sub rule (to keep the game movie) during the game, but make the half unlimited. Why? Most teams that send there Premier players down to get a run in, only want to see them get 45 min or less. Plus it will give more motivatino to players of thinking about coming out to games and knowing they should play, and not have to worry bout to many subs. I knwo the Cat system has been discussed plenty of times. just bringing that point up, just incase it hasnt'n been.

[trece verde]

Regs:

Nothing at all about changing the size of Premier. Not even on the agenda, and apparently not up for discussion.

Not a very full house, as it seemed that a number of teams would rather fork over the $25 fine for non-attendence than watch the paint dry.

Azzi pushed a separate meeting for the o35 teams (and the new o42 division) later in July where he can be taken to task over his error on 31 year-old "underage" players (they've been mysteriously omitted after being allowed last season) and other things involving us cranky "seniors."

A little disappointed by the reluctance to elect new blood to the executive, but people went with the devils they know instead of picking new ones. Voting took quite a while to count, so I guess it was close.

Smiled over "VMSL should try and get it's own house in order when it comes to 'marketing'." Agreed, but how difficult would it have been for the folks who maintain the new and improved BCSA site to showcase adult provincial cup finals on their home page? Not very.

By Willie's own admission, he has "given up" trying to send content to local media. I can tell you that most of us there weren't overly happy about that statement, but conversely, how many soccer groups show up at parks board meetings when financial allocations for fields are on the line? For the most part, we aren't activistic people; we just want to play the game. Even still, we have to be willing to represent ourselves, and I won't point any fingers at folks like yourself for trying to raise the profile of the sport locally.

BJB:

You've got to get away from the TV more often if you don't recognize other TTP'ers like WAB, SCP, PV, myself, Socceroos (even without his Kangaroo), etc... Yeah, I saw Watcher and his gut there too. The guy makes even me look skinny.

Trece

[Sandman]

According to Azzi, a meeting with the Premier teams will be held in the summer to discuss the reduction of teams in their division.

Everyone talks about this being the right thing to do, but the teams themselves have voted against this the last two times its been put to vote.

Once selfish agendas are put aside - there will be no progress.

Sandman

[pipes]

"Azzi pushed a separate meeting for the o35 teams (and the new o42 division) later in July where he can be taken to task over his error on 31 year-old "underage" players (they've been mysteriously omitted after being allowed last season) and other things involving us cranky seniors."

Hey Trece Verde ,

You caught my attention with the mention of a new over 42 division. What is the buzz here and is this something that they plan on putting in place this upcoming winter season ??

Pipes
Peg Oldboy Forever

[FRANCIS]

As usual, meeting of theis type are boring unless someone takes someone or something to task.

Most questions were directed towards the Masters league. Spoke to Willy yesterday with respect to the age limit issue. I pointed out that the age limit they proposed was the same as last year and that it needs to be dropped to 1975 to include 31 year olds if they plan to continue with the status quo. He said I was probably right and that it will be clarified at the Master's meeting. I think this was just an error on their part with respect to the years so no need to panic (yet). With respect to the O42 league, it may be a go if they can get enough teams interested.

With respect to promoting and advertising the league. Yes, Willy has tried for years to use the local rags to promote the league, but like he said if they don't want to, you can only bang your head on a brick wall for so long before you get tired of doing it. Yes, I agree there are other things that can be done but with respect to this, I don't blame him.

Interesting to hear that BC Soccer had to cancel a meeting for this past Tuesday. The meeting was for people from all the senior soccer leagues to discuss strategies for promoting the game with BC Soccer. The only ones to respond and say they would attend were Willy and Reuben. The meeting was cancelled due to lack of interest. Read into this what you want but this goes further than our own league.

Funny that the only people to complain about the lack of advertising on the BC Soccer website were the Sapperton guys. Would they have complained if they had not made the finals? Doubt it! So is their concern for the league or for the self interest of Sapperton? Simple really!

[PV]

Originally Posted by FRANCIS

As usual, meeting of this type are boring unless someone takes someone or something to task.

Funny that the only people to complain about the lack of advertising on the BC Soccer website were the Sapperton guys. Would they have complained if they had not made the finals? Doubt it! So is their concern for the league or for the self interest of Sapperton? Simple really!

Are you slagging me and other Sapp folks or are you saying that no one else cares about the crappy job BCSA did promoting its Cup Finals. If you are saying no-one cares, then you are wrong - the motion to criticize was approved overwhelmingly. If you are slagging me and other Sapp people, then you should get the facts straight. I used to write for World Football Pages soccer newspaper, and I wrote an article criticizing BCSA and CSA for not promoting the national youth boys championships were held in Surrey two years ago. I didn't write it because of an involvement in any team - I wrote it because the editor of the paper and I believed that BCSA and CSA had promoted the nationals poorly.

Did you vote for the same three VMSL Directyors or did you vote for Wolverton to make the VMSL more active?

[FRANCIS]

Yes, BC Soccer could have done a better job. I think alot of people care, but usually little is said or done. As was mentioned at the meeting, most parties are only worry about their own little corner of the world, this seems to be a constant for football people except for a few die hards.

I commend you for your efforts to increase the profile of our game. It just seemed a little convenient that Sapp made the finals and Sapp made an issue out of it. Simple question really, did you make an issue out of it because Sapp was there? Would you still have made an issue if Sapp did not make it? Did Firemen say anything? Would any other team have said anything? We will never know.

Everything is overwhelmingly approved at those meetings and yes I am slagging you and Sapp folk. Why? Because it is always fun to slag Sapp folk.

[whataboutbob]

Francis

Us Sapp folk are simple people. As long as there's food on the table and we're in good health, we have no gripes.

For as long as I've known him, PV has been pushing and criticizing BC soccer about the direction it has gone: promoting the Whitecaps and no more. Sapp has gotten tonnes of coverage from the local rags in New West; front page, Mayor & Council recognition, etc, etc....and we are happy about that. But that's not the point. Why can't this league be as recognized as Senior Lacross or the BCJHL? I beleive it is on equal footing as those.

Obviously, as BC champs and on top of the knowledge game of soccer, we witnessed first-hand the lack of BC soccer support, and thus mentioned it yet again.

[whataboutbob]

BJB,

You know as well as I that the CAT sub discussion will never die but never go anywhere as long as Azzi runs things. Unfortunately, this is one problem that might kill CAT interest.

[PV]

Originally Posted by whataboutbob

Francis

For as long as I've known him, PV has been pushing and criticizing BC soccer about the direction it has gone: promoting the Whitecaps and no more. Sapp has gotten tonnes of coverage from the local rags in New West; front page, Mayor & Council recognition, etc, etc....and we are happy about that. But that's not the point. Why can't this league be as recognized as Senior Lacrosse or the BCJHL? I believe it is on equal footing as those.

Thanks WAB, but since I'm currently asking BCSA to do something to help make the upcoming October Nations better, I don't want them to read your post and think I only critize the BCSA. I'm afraid they might refuse to cooperate with me on the upcoming nationals so I need to say that when I was Prez of Royal City Youth, we helped BCSA whenever we could. When BCSA did something good, I wrote about it. When BCSA did something crappy, I let people know about it. I tried to be balanced, but some people felt that I should not have raised any complaints about BCSA publicly.

I was pleased to see that the VMSL delegates want the VMSL Board to complain to the BCSA about the lack of promotion of the BCSA's Provincial Cup finals.

I don't agree with you that local soccer is on an equal footing with lacrosse, because the senior local lacrosse league includes Victoria. The Lacrosse league does a better job of promotion, but its also a little different because of the Victoria involvement.

[GhostRider]

There is money involved in Senior Lacross and the BCJHL. People pay to see these leagues. People do not pay to watch the VMSL. Thats the difference.