WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL BOYS LACROSSE ASSOCIATION

Minutes of February 2, 2008 Board Meeting

832: The Board meeting of the Washington High School Boys Lacrosse Association was held Saturday, February 2, 2008 at 10:00 am at Bertona Hall, Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, Washington. Present were Vern Smith, Brandon Fortier, Ryan Kelly, Kevin Martin Rob Hawley, Ken Hopkins and Gail Shelton. Absent was Tony Olney.

833: MOTION: The Executive Board minutes of the January 14, 2008 meeting are approved as corrected. Motion passed 5-0

834: Vern introduced Leslie Cornelison to the Board. Leslie is the incoming Executive Secretary/Treasurer of the Board.

835: The Board reviewed the handout for the General Membership meeting. An addition to the handout is that team rosters must be posted on Sportability by March 10. There will be sanctions for teams who don’t post their rosters by that date.

836: The Board agreed that coaches will face sanctions if they do not have a current USL membership throughout the season. Teams will forfeit games that are played with a head coach who is not in compliance.

837: Gail spoke to the Board about her meeting with the Principal and AD at Mercer Island regarding crowd control at the state finals. The Board will be asking teams to think about asking someone in the stands to help control crowds especially at rivalry games, play-off games, and the finals.

838: The Board reviewed Tony’s proposed policy memo regarding the organization of members’ boards. Several suggestions were made to clarify the memo. Gail will make the changes, circulate it for final approval and it will be sent to teams before the season begins. Brandon will also put it in the Handbook. Kevin suggested a purpose paragraph be written when it is presented to the membership.

839: Gail will send a memo to the teams requesting the main contact person for their Board as well as a list of their board members - president, vice president, secretary/treasurer.

840: Brandon assured the Board that the officials evaluation form will be up and running before the beginning of the season.

841: Nathan Morris, AD at PCCS and Mark Thomas, coach of the Lynnwood Highlanders spoke to the Board regarding keeping four PCCS players together for the 2008 season and allow them to play at Northshore in hopes they can field a team in 2009.

842: MOTION: The Board grants an exception to the residency rule and will allow the PCCS players to play with the Northshore team for 2008. Motion failed 0-6. Although the Board is very receptive to the idea that they may enter the League next year with a team composed of players from PCCS and other nearby private schools, the Board does not allow players to choose their own teams and will not make an exception in this case.

843: The Board has been informed that several head coaches will not be attending the mandatory coaches meeting. The Board discussed by email how absences from the mandatory meeting will be handled. If after investigation the Board determines there is not good cause for missing the meeting, there will be a sanction imposed on the head coach.

844: BY A VOTE TAKEN BY EMAIL ON 1/18/08, MOTION: The Board finds that the Starz coaches do not have good cause to miss the February 2, 2008 mandatory coaches meeting. Motion passed 7-0.

845: BY A VOTE TAKEN BY EMAIL ON 1/22/08, MOTION: The sanction for missing the mandatory coaches meeting without good cause will be the suspension of the head coach for the first game of the season. Motion passed 6-0.

846: BY A VOTE TAKEN BY EMAIL ON 1/22/08, MOTION: The Board finds that Mark Benedum, Highline head coach did not have good cause to miss the February 2, 2008 mandatory coaches meeting. Motion passed 4-2-1.

847: MOTION: The Board finds that Brian Langhorst, Eastlake head coach did not have good cause to miss the February 2, 2008 mandatory coaches meeting. Motion passed 5-1

848: The committee representing WHSBLA with the WALOA negotiations will be Vern Smith, Ian O’Hearn, Brandon Fortier and Ryan Kelly.

849: There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:30 am.

Gail Shelton, Executive Secretary

Regarding items 846 and 847, both coaches subsequently requested a meeting with the Executive Board. The Special Meeting of the Executive Board was held on February 12, 2008. See minutes dated Feb 12, 2008 SM.