So... our first meeting was at the Finks' last night. This blogging plan was hatched along the way, so i wasn't keeping detailed minutes, but hopefully, future activities will be recorded somewhat more diligently. Here's what happened:
In attendance: Jon, B-Lo, Trey, Dusty, Chris, Tom. Absent: Reuben.
We didn't have a clear agenda in mind (that will change for future meetings as we build momentum), so a lot of issues came up and were revisited throughout the meeting. While we waited for everyone to show up, we started hashing out tournaments this group might attend. Over the course of the evening, this is the schedule we have in mind:
- Mid/late March - Terminus. If we can get a team of atleast 14 or so players, it would be a good opportunity to send a group. Who's interested in going?
- 2-4 April - Fools. A lot of people have teams already, but let's get a group to go and play together.
- 10 April - first mandatory tryout/practice. Everything's mandatory from this point forward.
- 17-18 April - Henlopen.
- 24 April - tryout/practice. First round of cuts after this weekend (target number around 40-45 tryouts)
- 1 May - 15 May - tryout/practices every Saturday. MetroEast College Regionals is likely 1-2 May.
- 22-23 May - Our own mini-tournament in conjunction with Bell Crack.
- 29-30 May - Some activity? Memorial Day weekend.
- 5-6 June - CUT. Bring around 30 tryouts. Final cuts made after this weekend.
- 26-27 June - Boston Invite.
Pickup: We want to start pickup as soon as possible. Trey will organize.
Where to hold tryouts/practices: Given most of the people present are from Philly, most of us were personally in favor of Edgely. Dusty voiced Pike's concern that Pike does not unilaterally see itself as a "Philly Team". Holding tryouts exclusively at Edgely would effectively close that discussion which alters their team identity in a way not everyone on Pike is ok with (Dusty, i hope i'm representing these sentiments accurately). This brought us to the larger sticking point of Pike's in maintaining their team identity, including the name of the team. These are the biggest issues involving this project, so unfortunately, nothing conclusive has come out of discussions just yet. Stay tuned.
Selection Committee for tryouts: We are in agreement that it would be good to bring in some outside objective perspectives. As to who those people might be, that's for a future discussion.
We did agree that the tryout process should be dialogue heavy between individual tryouts and the selection committee. This will provide tranparency/objectivity, educational value, and set the tone for expectations and coaching. Clear and timely communication will also help tryouts decide if this is a good fit for them and provide them opportunity to pursue other options for the club season.
Also tabled for a future discussion was recruiting (though obviously this is a high priority). For now we will collect contact information. How to allow for easy sharing of contact info will be worked out but likely a shared excel googledoc. We want to be sure that the majority of recruiting dialogue is between the recruit and the core. There are various interpretations about what this team is about and we want incoming recruits to get a consistent message. Expect us to put out a formalized statement about team identity and recruiting guidelines soon.
Along these communication lines, B-Lo's gonna create a blog for people to follow along with the core's activities and they're on top of the issues. Jon's gonna create a googlegroup to centralize communications.
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