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