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President’s
Report on:
House league fee increase
November 24th, 2008
 Well, we are closing in on another Annual General Meeting which really is a signal that one year is over and more importantly another is going to start very soon!
In general, my sense is 2008 may in fact be remembered as a year of important discussion and decision making that ends up leading to a brighter future, combined with challenges that perhaps did not leave the club in the best of shape in terms of our constituents’ eyes.
More specifically, with Janis choosing to step down as Club Manager, your Board of Directors spent significant time this summer really clearly trying to sort out what the club is about and I think this summer’s discussions did just that. One of the key points in those discussions was Shawn Murray joining us in a newly created position, General Manager. Shawn has been with us just over a month and I would suggest he is starting to get a sense of what this club is and I look forward to his future with this club. To me, and I am quite confident that your Board of Directors echoes my thinking, Ancaster Soccer is about life experiences for those involved whether they coach, referee, play houseleague or play competitively. That is it in a nut shell. The club is one of, if not the largest sports organization in the community and therefore it carries with it a significant responsibility in terms of what the community of Ancaster is about. Your board of Directors takes its responsibility very seriously.
On the more sobering side this past year, my sense is the club really reached it max in terms of the present operating structure, and therefore again, I think the discussions this summer really were important in that regard. In addition, on a more telling front, our overall numbers of participants did not really grow this past year and I think that may in fact tell us that our customer service offering to our constituents needs to improve. I do feel we are moving toward addressing that with changes in the amount of staff available at the office level as well as the key decision to hire a part time technical director for the club. Look for an announcement in this regard in the near future. The technical director will have the responsibility to improve coaching in our club and therefore overall play, both at the houseleague level as well as the competitive level.
I have had discussions with many in the past weeks and there is no doubt that this club has come a long way in the last few years and all involved during that time are to be complimented for their efforts. Even though the club has been around almost 30 years, I often think that in terms of its present structure and the development of soccer itself, the club is really in its infancy in terms of its potential. It is also clear that at least in Southern Ontario, soccer seems to becoming a more significant part of Canadian culture and therefore the expectations for our club have risen. The future of the club, I believe, will be dependant on our ability to continue to change with the times.
This past year featured many things, both positive and negative - another very successful Heritage Days tournament, a fantastic job by Nick Centritto in regards to the refereeing, the great shape of our fields, fall tryouts for the competitive program have been very well attended, just to name a few. However, there have been some negatives. I think most would agree there is room for improvement in terms of Soccerfest, the day itself as well as the dinner dance which is really meant to be a celebration of soccer in Ancaster and a thank you to all of those that donate their time. I am also somewhat concerned about the older age groups in houseleague as we had many games with reduced rosters.
I do want to take a moment and comment on our competitive soccer program. Paul Slater has done an excellent job in terms of the competitive program this fall in his role as interim director of competitive. We have made significant strides adding policy in that regard and Paul certainly, along with his committee, have worked hard to administer those policies. We have unfortunately lost a couple good coaches along the way, but for the most part I think we are moving forward.
On behalf of your board of directors, thanks to all for their efforts this past year.
Sincerely
Jim Bethune
President
Ancaster Soccer Club
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