Arlington Soccer Leadership email 10/15

[Anonymous]

Loved this line toward the end:

"Over the next several months, we will conduct a nationwide search for a new Executive Director to serve this very special community."

Oh, we are special alright; not the good kind though.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know too much about true inner workings of the club, although both our kids play for Arlington. Was it known this was coming? Seems kind of abrupt from the communication.

[Anonymous]

Why not do this over the summer? Seems strange to do it one month into the start of the year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Loved this line toward the end:

"Over the next several months, we will conduct a nationwide search for a new Executive Director to serve this very special community."

Oh, we are special alright; not the good kind though.

Unless they're paying Alexandria rates, why would someone relocate for this job?

[Anonymous]

What happened to the last one? It shows you what a business these clubs are when they are conducting a national months-long search.

[Anonymous]

Rest of the email?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rest of the email?

If you’re part of the club, you got it. If you’re not, why do you care?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rest of the email?

If you’re part of the club, you got it. If you’re not, why do you care?

Bc we like knowing what's going on in the clubs around us? not here to bad mouth other clubs but just genuinely curious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rest of the email?

If you’re part of the club, you got it. If you’re not, why do you care?

Bc we like knowing what's going on in the clubs around us? not here to bad mouth other clubs but just genuinely curious.

DP - I already deleted it, there was nothing interesting there. Just So and so has left, we appreciate his work over the last 4 years particularly with the pandemic. Other guy is taking over until we find a new ED. Pretty standard and innocuous. I have young kid, so I have no idea if there was some kind of drama or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What happened to the last one? It shows you what a business these clubs are when they are conducting a national months-long search.

Why does it surprise you that clubs are run as a business? Paying customers is called a business. It's really odd that people think youth soccer clubs are part of some higher mission like some NGO trying to solve world hunger. Soccer clubs are businesses, with paying customers, salaried employees, they market to attract customers, have competitors vying for the same customers.

[Anonymous]

^^ Same here. Just got a bland email with that one fun line.No idea of drama except some of the parents were verbally abusing children (high-school aged refs). Not sure if that was it but then again, that makes us special.

[Anonymous]

I am curious about the circumstances of his departure. The start of the season was very late/disorganized for both of my my kids - one rec, one ADP (I don’t know about the travel side).

Personally, I’ve heard a number of parents complain about the delays in announcing the practice/game schedule and dangerously overcrowded practice fields. I’m not sure if that’s just a limited-fields-in-Arlington problem or a leadership problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happened to the last one? It shows you what a business these clubs are when they are conducting a national months-long search.

Why does it surprise you that clubs are run as a business? Paying customers is called a business. It's really odd that people think youth soccer clubs are part of some higher mission like some NGO trying to solve world hunger. Soccer clubs are businesses, with paying customers, salaried employees, they market to attract customers, have competitors vying for the same customers.

Rec family here. It's a nonprofit ostensibly, but boy does it make a ton of money. Check out the 990, last I saw they had $2M in reserves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happened to the last one? It shows you what a business these clubs are when they are conducting a national months-long search.

Why does it surprise you that clubs are run as a business? Paying customers is called a business. It's really odd that people think youth soccer clubs are part of some higher mission like some NGO trying to solve world hunger. Soccer clubs are businesses, with paying customers, salaried employees, they market to attract customers, have competitors vying for the same customers.

Rec family here. It's a nonprofit ostensibly, but boy does it make a ton of money. Check out the 990, last I saw they had $2M in reserves.

That was my point - not surprised - but these entities (plus a lot of other non-profits) should be paying taxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am curious about the circumstances of his departure. The start of the season was very late/disorganized for both of my my kids - one rec, one ADP (I don’t know about the travel side).

Personally, I’ve heard a number of parents complain about the delays in announcing the practice/game schedule and dangerously overcrowded practice fields. I’m not sure if that’s just a limited-fields-in-Arlington problem or a leadership problem.

As I understand it, part of the issue with practice and game schedules (especially rec game schedules) was uncertainty with the county about what kinds of COVID-related capacity restrictions they would put on the fields. And then every year there are issues around which fields ASA will get to use and which will be off-limits because of work being done on the fields, etc.

But tied into this is that ASA has expanded the number of teams slightly (e.g., U13 and U14 now have silver teams) at the same time there’s a bit more of a field space issue because of Covid restrictions and some fields being converted entirely to baseball (e.g., Tuckahoe, which they’d previously used for a lot of rec practices).

All that said, I have not heard of any issues with “dangerously overcrowded practice fields.” Yes, some of them do get crowded, but dangerously so? Are here particular fields/situations where that’s been an issue? I know some people have complained about wanting more practice space for certain types of drills and such, but that’s different.