The first general meeting of the club's members was held this past weekend. The following club officials were elected:
Head Coach - Jamie Whittington
General Manager - Ross Houston
Head of Marketing and Sales - Peter Heit
Youth Head Coach - Jorge Leavitt
Whittington, Houston, and Leavitt have already been serving in those positions. The Head of Marketing and Sales position was new and club legend Peter Heit will lead that effort.
The members passed the following general policies:
* The team should have a maximum of 5 international players. We recommend trying to keep the number at 3 so that emergency transfers won't be held up because of nationality. There is no minimum number of international players.
* The club should pursue league games and US Open Cup games with an equal commitment. Any other competitions should be considered secondary without an explicit recommendation from the members.
* The club has an ongoing mission to promote local players. Youth team academy players promoted to the senior team but still under the age of 21 shall have 2 protected roster spots. These players cannot be fired or transferred from the club without the player's consent.
* All efforts must be made to ensure that the youth academy team and the reserve team have as many matches to play as possible.
* The roster size must be at least 24 players at all times. (Including the 2 youth academy spots)
* We do not wish to be a club that makes short term money buying and selling players. When we acquire a player in the transfer market we expect that player to be of service to the club on the playing field for at least a season. In general we want our players to have careers at our club, not stints.
* As the stadium expands we want ticket prices to remain affordable. Terraces, basic seats, and seats under roof are all acceptable options, but we do not wish to see any luxury boxes or other VIP seats in our stadium. This would undercut our values as a club of the people.
* We would like to prioritize an expansion of Milburn Park to at least 20,000 before the end of season 38
Support for the policies limiting internationals and discouraging short term players was probably spurred on by the short stint at the club of goalkeeper Czech Dominik Cejka. The 37-year old was brought into the club to compete with Charlie Melendez and Herschel Womack for the starting spot, but so failed to impress that we appeared in only one reserve match before being dismissed. The incident has raised a lot of questions about the player evaluation process.
As expected some of the policies have to do with supporting players from the new youth academy. We are glad to know that the members of our club are of the same opinion as we officers are about the importance of this new part of the club. After some initial difficulties finding competition for the academy team we have now found a strong youth league for our boys to play in. We've started the season well with a 2-1 record and are optimistic about a strong showing.
Regarding the stadium we are confident that we can expand our stadium within the given timeframe. We might even be able to expand before the end of season 37, but we appreciate the members agreeing to a more flexible timeline.
