Read minutes from last meeting (9/08/03). Unanimously approved.

Previous balance: $35,517.06 (9/08/03)

Deposits: $4779.43 interest & concession stand profits

Expenses: $10,914.64 mostly travel referee pay, concession equipment/stock and field maintenance

Balance: $29,381.85 (10/13/03)

• In-house rain-out from 9/27/03 will be made up on 11/1/03 (unanimous vote). Because of the change in clocks the weekend before, game time schedule and duration will be adjusted; one-hour timeslots from starting at 9 AM and ending with 4 PM game. In-house commissioners will inform coaches. Paul Caracciolo wil adjust concession stand assignments and inform teams.
• Bob Tramontina had U8 make-up game scores to provide to Tom Whitehurst.
• Also, Bob will pursue with Tom a refund for a U8G who dropped prior to the start of the Fall session.

• Certified referees for SPSA are few in number (6-7 youths and ~8 adults (several of which have no children playing in SPSA)). Game coverage is especially short on In-house Saturdays. We need to get more people involved. Discussion of possible courses of action:

1. Start parent involvement at U6; require they ref their own games
2. Provide handout explaining referee requirements and solicit help
3. Add information to the web site

• John Alukonis nominated for the open Referee Commissioner position. There were no other nominees and John was elected unanimously.
• There were no nominees for the vacant Girl’s Travel Commissioner position. Pat Carter will continue to act on an interim basis. Nominations will be re-opened at the November membership meeting.

• PAWest recently highlighted goal safety, given that a Chicago player was killed through a falling goal
• SPSA needs to secure their goals at all times

1. At the Middle School repair to the existing goals will be pursued and the goals will be anchored. If repair is not possible, the goals will be dismantled and disposed of. Investigations will also proceed into safer PVC-type goals or other alternatives
2. At Evans field the goals will be secured through chaining to prevent their use outside of in-house and travel games.

• No issues

• Several winter practice options were presented. These will be added to the web site.

1. Riverhound’s sessions for U10 and U12 at Southpointe
2. Mike Blatz sessions at Family Sports, coordinated through Ellen Conrad
3. Magic Moves and training through the Centers Of Excellence as advertised on the PAWest web site

• Field maintenance scheduled for 11/08/03. Brooke Martin requested a list of travel teams participating in the beginning of Fall work effort so that she could contact the remaining teams for the upcoming effort.
• The rain policy with respect to field damage needs to be better defined. Suggested that significant standing water should be cause to cancel games until the fields have properly drained. John Papinchak will draft a proposal to deal with this concern.
• Middle School aeration and seeding will be performed the last week of October. Paul Caracciolo and Dave Shero to coordinate top soil distribution and seeding in U10 practice areas and in front of the kick board.

• Emphasized need to drive slowly in the parking lot
• South Park police have been ticketing outside the entrance to our fields for parking in the posted no-parking areas. SPSA would like to see this enforcement more frequently and raised the possibility of increasing the fine (currently only $5)