Letter

Explanation

May 2, 2010

To: ASA Travel Families

In the past few weeks the ASA staff and the Travel Committee have been meeting to plan the budget for the next soccer year. Unfortunately the current year has proved to be very difficult for us financially. The move to a club-centric model has led to new expenditures, the recession has led to an increased demand on our financial aid resources, we had fewer fully paying players than expected, and the County is increasingly removing services that ASA now has to pay for.

As a result, the player fee for 2010/2011 will increase. The new player fee for all players will be $1,650. This is an increase of approximately 15%. In addition, the tournament component is being eliminated from the fee. Going forward players will be responsible for all tournament expenses. We also, reluctantly, have to reduce the amount of financial aid we give out.

There may also be an additional fee placed on each player in ASA by the County. We do not know the how much this will be but it will probably be in the range of $16.00 for the year.

Personally, this budget cycle has been the most painful I have been involved with. We all fully realize that these increases may provide additional hardships for families in our community. But we feel that our job is to provide a realistic budget that allows the Club to meet its financial obligations for the next fiscal year.

The Travel Committee and ASA feel confident that we are providing a very competitive program for Arlington travel soccer players. We have researched neighboring travel clubs and have found that our fees are similar to comparable programs. We have generally found lower fees in Clubs that have yet to move to a more centralized model to meet IRS regulations.

Moving forward, ASA needs to put much more effort into fund-raising. ASA has formed a fund-raising committee and it is my hope that we will begin to see a sizable increase in fund raising revenue next year. We are actively seeking volunteers, particularly with professional expertise in fund-raising.

The ASA Travel Committee is committed to building a transparent and collaborative program, if families would like to meet about our fees, please let me know. If there is enough demand we can set up a meeting. Also, please remember that the Travel Committee monthly meetings are open and anyone can attend.

Richard Easby
ASA Travel Committee Chair

The ATSC Committee is looking for volunteers to assist with the work of the newly formed Communications Subcommittee.  The Communications Subcommittee will assist the ATSC Club with better communicating with its key stakeholder groups via face-to-face, print, and online communications.  The Communications Subcommittee Members will additionally be tasked with working with the other ATSC Subcommittees in defining overall communications activities up to and including a review of current operating policies and the redesign of ATSC's website.  Interested individuals should contact Tom Hall at thomasedwinhall@hotmail.com by September 25th to express their interest.  Please provide a brief summary of relevant background experience

To all Arlington travel team families, 

To ATSC Tryout Families,

As you know we are experiencing some bad weather during the tryouts. If lightning occurs during tryouts the coaches will clear the field immediately. Please do no allow your child to go back on the field to collect a ball or any other article. Wait until the storm has passed and you have been told it is safe to go back on the field. We all heard about the tragic events in Spotsylvania County, last night, where at least one child was struck by lightning and killed. Please be safe.

Richard Easby
ATSC President

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This is Grant Smith, Director of Coaching for the Arlington Travel Soccer Club. Welcome to our tryout process for the 2009-2010 season. I look forward to seeing your children on the soccer field competing for spots on our teams.

I plan on taking a few minutes at one session of each of the U9-11 age group tryouts to talk a little bit about the club and answer any questions you may have about ATSC. I am sure some of you will not be able to attend, so I also wanted to send out a brief e-mail about ATSC’s team and player expectations.

Dear ATSC Families:

As we begin the Spring 2009 soccer season, Arlington Soccer Association’s Travel Soccer Club is also planning for Fall 2009. Flyers with information on the U9-U12 tryouts are being distributed in Arlington Public Schools this week. The U13-U19 tryout schedules and all coaching assignments for Fall 2009/Spring 2010 will be posted to the ATSC website by April 30.

For the Fall 2009 soccer season, Arlington Soccer will reorganize the Travel Soccer Club Director of Coaching responsibilities. Under the new structure, we will have three positions responsible for the technical direction and management of coaches in the Club. There will be a Director of Coaching for Boys’ teams and a Director of Coaching for Girls who will be responsible for overseeing and coordinating coaches for teams in their respective gender group. The third position, Director of Player Development, will be responsible for designing and implementing player training programs, including clinics, camps and other technical and functional training programs. These positions wiill report to ASA Executive Director, Matt Baehr. Grant Smith, ATSC’s current Director of Coaching, will be the Director of Coaching on the boys side. Current ATSC coaches are aware of these changes. Arlington Soccer Association is currently accepting applications for these positions from within the organization and will also consider qualified candidates from outside. ATSC teams should, as always, direct any questions to the Girls and Boys Commissioners.

Andrea Curaca Malito, ATSC Girls' Commissioner, ATSC_Girls_Comm@atsc-va.org
Alex Palacios, ATSC Boys' Commissioner, ATSC_Boys_Comm@atsc-va.org