General Meeting Notes

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.

This Is Your Club

We've finally come to an agreement about how to share ownership of our club with you, our supporters. The premise that has underlined this resurgence of Cedar Park Hounds is that we want to be a club of the people that represents the community we come from. To do that we need your voices to be heard, and this is how.

Anyone can be a member of the club for $200 a year. This fee is completely separate from all ticket sales, though club members will get discounts on season tickets. There won't be different levels of membership. No business membership, no first class membership, no platinum membership. What you get for your money is a real voice in all club matters. Every offseason there will be a general club meeting where the primary order of business will be to elect (or re-elect) members to the following positions:

Head coach (currently held by Randy Alfaro)
General manager (currently held by yours truly, Ross Houston)
Head of marketing and sales (currently vacant)
Youth head coach (currently held by Jorge Leavitt)

Assistant coaches, psychologists, spokespersons, economists, physiotherapists, and doctors will be hired by the head coach and the general manager as necessary.

The second duty of the members at the general club meeting is to propose, vote on, and pass club general policies. These are guidelines that elected club officials and all other club employees are expected to follow on daily basis.

To vote on any of these matters members must either be present at the meeting or have previously submitted an absentee ballot.

Twice during the season there will club meetings at which policies can be debated and voted on, but the elected positions will not be up for election. These meetings will coincide with match days 5 & 10 in the league season.

To be elected to any elected position you must be a club member in good standing for at least one season. "In good standing" is defined to mean that you've voted at every club meeting during the last season. While the club itself is not yet one season old we will consider all founding members.

So that's it. The majority of the definition of what this club is and what it means to be a member we are leaving up to you. Our first meeting will be August 25 immediately following the home game with Tansen. Anybody who becomes a member on or before that day will be considered a founding member and thus will be eligible for elected office at the end of season meeting. The agenda for our first meeting will be to pass a set of initial club policies that we club officials will be bound to follow.

Bumps In The Road

We've passed several milestones in this new chapter of the club's history. For the most part things have gone better than we could've possibly imagine. We saw over 3000 at the club's "first" home match, a tough 2-1 win over redrhinos. We're currently ranked 4th in our series and believe we have every chance of improving that over the remainder of the series. But we've also had our share of troubles and this new version of Cedar Park Hounds wants to be honest about our shortcomings.

The team performance against Tansen was not good enough and many fans are pointing the finger of blame at coach Randy Alfaro for fielding a less than full strength team. We understand your frustration, but please remember that we are chasing multiple objectives over the course of the season and we are not a big enough club to achieve them all. We placed a high importance on defeating the Cambridge Streak (formerly of Reno no matter what they say) and Randy thought we needed our best players to do it. The consequence of that was a public humiliation on the biggest stage our series has to offer at the Tansen Dome. You can argue that coach Alfaro's priorities were wrong, but you really can't say he wasn't doing his best for the team. We can't ever have direct fan input into team selection, but if the fans consistently tell us what their priorities are, we will respond accordingly, since you are our bosses.

A bit more out of the public eye have been the travails of the new youth academy. The youngsters haven't been getting meaningful matches due to the disintegration of their league, NY Stud Farms. CPH is committed to this league for 7 more weeks and in that time we hope to encourage the other clubs to put together teams capable of participating. We will definitely not be renewing our commitment to NY Stud Farms and will be looking for other leagues for our youth academy to play in.

Back on the bright side, we are very comfortable with the roster of first team players we've assembled. We are very optimistic about our second home match against series strugglers Molson Export. The two following weeks will likely be the most important of our season as we play back to back matches against Davison SC who we consider to be our most important rivals this season. We're very close to releasing the details of our club's membership policy which will place the power firmly in the hands of the fans.

We're Back (And Why We Left)

Season 32 was a trying time for Cedar Park Hounds. We stated as a club that our goal for the season was to go as far as possible in the cup, and our 7-round cup run was thrilling. But the toll it took on our league performance was plain for all too see as we failed to pick up a single point all season long.

The mystery that many of you have pondered is why the club closed up shop after this season of ups and downs. We probably did owe it to our fans to accept relegation and come out swinging in division V. The common misconception seems to be we quit for financial reasons. After all, that is the customary reason why an American soccer club fails. But the real truth is not quite so tangible. We simply lost our will to compete. It permeated all levels of the club, from the director all the way down to the field crew. With such a mindset we couldn't continue.

We realize now the shock this was for our fans. As we see it there are two things we can do to make it up to you. The first is to offer our eternal and sincere apologies. The second is to make ourselves into a club you can be proud of again.

If you come back you will notice many changes. We will be competing in division VI. The Dog House was torn down a year ago, and our club's new home is at the far more humble Milburn Park. We have made a new commitment to be a club that represents where we come from. That means a focus on American players and particularly on players that we develop ourselves via our youth academy. We may not win all the trophies, but we will be a club with heart. We will be offering fans the opportunity to purchase Barcelona-style membership in the club so that we can truly be a club of the people.

We've made a good start to our season with 2 road wins. (and many division observers didn't expect us to do that.) Our first home game is this Sunday at Milburn Park. Please consider giving us a second chance.