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Haverhill PAL Soccer
No Late
Registration
Policy Explanation
In
past soccer seasons, the Board of Directors had been faced with a
situation that negatively impacts our collective ability to run and
participate in the league. Specifically, the inability or failure to
register children on time for the fall or spring season creates much
unnecessary frustration. The following information is intended to
raise awareness of the timeline required to run the league and
reason for dis-allowing late registrations.
Organizational Timelines
As
an organization, we need to establish key dates in order to meet
deadlines to the Essex County Youth Soccer Association (ECYSA). Each
season, registrations are used to create soccer teams, to
create rosters for coaches, to develop team schedules and to submit
to the higher level governing bodies. One of the most important
things ECYSA does for us is to provide insurance for our
players; part of your registration fee funds this insurance
premium. The cut-off for PAL registration submission to ECYSA is
typically 5 weeks prior to the start of soccer season. Our
registrar(s) need(s) to manage over 600 registrations for the
in-town program and another 280 for the travel program. Haverhill
PAL needs to freeze registrations approximately 2 weeks prior to the
ECYSA submission date to complete data entry, rostering, etc.
This deadline allows sufficient time to compile all the necessary
data for ECYSA so we avoid additional late charges that potentially
impact all registrants in the form of future increases to our fee
structure. Also understand that volunteers need to do a significant
amount of work in the weeks leading to the start of each season to
be compliant with governing bodies and to be respectful of our
coaching volunteers. August and September are particularly
challenging months to get prepared due to new players and new teams
being established.
Signup Opportunities and Notifications
-
On the last two
Saturdays of every soccer season from 9AM to 3PM, we hold
sign-ups at St. James Field for the following season. Volunteers
staff the tables all day - primarily our registrar and members
of the board of directors.
-
On-line registration
was adopted to help parents/participants conveniently signup 7
days per week, 24 hours per day and at a relatively low cost
($3.98 per registration). This feature is activated
approximately one week before the in-person signups and is
available for approximately 8 weeks for spring sign-ups and
nearly 12 weeks for fall sign-ups.
-
In January/February
and again in May, flyers are delivered to every public and
parochial school in Haverhill so all the children in Haverhill
are notified of the in-person signups as well as the continued
availability of the on-line registration option.
-
The Haverhill PAL
website advertises in-person signups at St. James Field and at
the Citizens Center (Jan, Feb, June, and July). These are also
advertised in the Gazette and Tribune. Our volunteer registrar
and members of the board of directors staffed the tables on
these evenings.
-
We may issue a
“last call” reminder to all persons who entered their email
address in the blue box on our home page “Join the Haverhill PAL
Soccer E-Mail List!”
So how does one late registration really affect Haverhill PAL?
One
late registration can be dealt with if we are still within the
deadlines established by ECYSA. But everyone's "just one" becomes
many tens, every season. In the fall of 2005, we had a record
number of late registrations well after the deadline and that
severely infringed on the time to submit registrations to ECYSA
among other things.
Why not institute a late fee?
The
late fee had been $25.00 per late registration for many years. It
was meant to discourage the number of late registrations while still
not penalizing a child, and to encourage on-time registrations next
season. The late fee was absolutely not intended as a revenue
generator but rather to act as an incentive for parents/kids to sign
up on time and to put a stake in the ground to allow us to serve the
soccer community in a responsible manner. Twenty-five dollars in
penalties was clearly not changing parental behavior and the
lateness significantly and negatively impacted volunteers. In the
fall of 2005, some parents who did not sign up their children on
time were highly aggravated “with the league” and the phones did not
stop ringing; the emails were flying. We held back submission of
our rosters to ECYSA in an attempt to accept as many children
as possible despite a parent's inability to sign up on time.
This was done at great personal expense to our registrar, to parents
who did sign up on time, to the volunteer coaches and the
participants. Rosters were late being issued to the parents &
kids who were signed up on time but were not called well enough in
advance of the season start. The bottom line is that by allowing
the lateness to propagate every season, the Haverhill PAL Board of
Directors unintentionally penalized all the wrong people.
In
an attempt to minimize the administrative chaos that results from
late registrations, the Board of Directors implemented a $50 per
late registration fee in the fall of 2006. While this increase did
serve to increase on-time registrations, the number of late
registrations and requests post-late-registration cut off did not
decrease sufficiently.
Deadlines are necessary in order to start the season on time and
with the proper endorsements. We must enforce timelines. We intend
to be equitable to parents and players who sign up on time, to the
coaching volunteers who are anxiously awaiting rosters and the
volunteers who need to run this league. As of spring 2007, late
registrations will not be accepted for any fee of any magnitude - it
is just not worth the negative impact to the league and all its
volunteers.
We
are a volunteer organization always looking to keep costs down, to
improve all aspects of our operation and to best serve the extended
soccer community. Constructive criticism is welcomed. We can
always use help for the many small and large tasks to be done
throughout the soccer season. Please consider volunteering for
something this season. Contact any board of director in person or
via our website.
Haverhill PAL Board of
Directors
11-14-06 |