Quote:

Did anybody volunteer for one of the thirteen board positions? Let me guess...no



I think they had at least one new volunteer come forward and should have several members (including at least one absent from the meeting) come forward in the coming days. The more salient point is that anyone with any experience in business knows that a 13 member board is unnecessary if not counterproductive. A corporate board (whether for-profit or non) should set policy, donate (or raise) substantial sums of money, hire an administrator in which it has confidence and then GET OUT OF THE WAY. The idea that you should have volunteer board members in charge of day to day operations is patently absurd. The Bylaws addressing these governance issues are hopelessly outdated and needed changes would have easily passed if the membership had been given the opportunity to vote on them separately.

As I understand it, the entire SSC budget is less than 250k and registration and tryout/training fees make up a whopping 90% of the revenue stream. Only 3% of revenue comes from sponsorships and another 4% from tournaments/field rentals. That is not a model for long-term viability.

The management contract with CESA is one attempt to modernize the club. The Bylaws changes are necessary with or without CESA. The Constitution changes were unneccesary "hot-button" issues pushed by CESA for fuzzy-headed "branding" reasons. With or without CESA, SSC needs to make the bylaws changes to streamline governance of the club and it needs to dramatically improve and modernize its revenue stream to allow it to hire a capable administrator and D.O.C. With those changes in place, a bright enterprising young soccer person with the talent of a Andrew Fleming or maybe a SSC alum like a Will Plexico could cut CESA out of the loop and make a very nice living in Summerville.