I am a coach of 2 teams and have a kid playing on a team at our club. We are a grassroots type of club that has seen growth the past few years. I trust the guy that runs things and the 2 board members. But- I feel if we are to be taken more serious by other clubs in our league and by the league itself, we need to have a more formal structure. What are the requirements of a soccer club? Does there need to be announced and open board meetings? Are minutes required? Are financial documents required to be viewed? What types of board members should there be? Our president is also the treasurer, registrar and coaches a few teams. We are a 503(c), but some coaches get paid. The president and doc get paid. (Ie- we are not an all volunteer organization. But some coaches do work for free).
I don't think the public at large has any idea how any club is run - maybe not even their own kid's club. I find it hard to believe the league cares. Not saying a more formal structure is a bad thing, in fact, transparency is ALWAYS a good thing, but I don't think meeting minutes is going to get a club taken more seriously. As an on again, off again team manager over the years, I take a club more seriously when they are responsive. Doesn't matter if it's a coach doing the responding, a team manager or some centralized contact person, but I like it when someone gets back to you. Also (and I know it shouldn't matter), I take a club more seriously when they have a single location for all their fields, rather than playing at 17 various parks/schools across three towns.
I would agree more formal structure and transparency is always a good thing… The one thing that jumped out at me was the President seems to wearing a lot hats, and reading between the lines, I assume, he basically runs the show…your seriousness may be limited if this club is seen as basically a one man show, regardless of how good a guy he is…work to diversify and expand club leadership and I don’t think the any board member should be paid, including the President…now if the board wants to hire a paid director of operation, along with a DOC, that would be ok….
Bit of a a long story - but our club has had 4 different names in the past year. We were an affiliate of Club A. They wanted to take over more control last Spring. (IE- have say over our teams and coaches. Get more of a % of our club dues flowing to them). We told them to pound sand. We attached to another club (Club B). There are 2 main gaming leagues for clubs here. We prefer to be in the one that has less travel for our area (League1). Club B was slated to get accepted into League 1 for Fall 2017. Club A is on the board of League 1 and they denied our entry. Club A was not happy with our abrupt departure. I think they were banking on our funds to help them cover some expenses. Our agreement with Club B was that we were to be playing in League 1. When that fell apart, we hooked onto a larger name (Club C) that got us into that league for last year. We applied this year to League 1 to stand on our own - And surprise - we got denied again. I do not know the exact reasoning why we got denied. I was told that the league didnt feel that we were strong enough to stand on our own. I think Club A rallied some troops to not let us in this year. The Larger Name club that we affiliated with last year sold the rights to our county to another Larger Name club (Club C2). Since we got denied on our own, Club C2 was willing to let us become an affiliate of theirs. But only on a short term agreement and at a cost we had not prepared or budgeted for. And then they wanted to negotiate to a higher rate for subsequent years. From what I've heard is they weren't willing to put anything in writing other than the money we were to pay them. So we told them "no thanks" and now we have aligned on a long term deal with another large club - Club D. I feel that these types of arrangements would be better served by people that are better able to deal with these types of issues.
Just adding to what others have said, I think it comes down to PR. PR for how you deal with the other clubs, leagues, and whatever other governing bodies, etc. Sounds like someone at Club A got ticked off and wants to make things difficult for your club, so perhaps mending that relationship may help in the future. If your execs are chummy with other club execs or TD, that would probably work in your favor. The perception that you give to parents is also important. Cost .... what does the club do that makes me feel they are trying to keep the cost down for my family? Coaching ... organized, development oriented, communicate well to the parents. Team performance ... are the club teams consistently competitive in league play. Do the teams represent the club well in terms of sportsmanship? Lastly, fairness ... do I think my child has equal opportunity to develop as a player or do I think there is too much politics involved for playing time and team selection. Word gets around and parents from other clubs will hear about or notice these things as well. For example, when I hear about how another club runs their tryout/ID sessions and I like it compared to my club's money grab, I'm thinking that other club is more progessive. Lastly, run the best local tournament in your area measured by how fun it is for the players and family.
I can't agree enough with the commenter who said be responsive. One of the biggest complaints I have and I hear from others about my son's club is, at times, a lack of responsiveness. Also the comment on the tournament. We run two, both of which are pretty well attended and (I think) getting stronger and better. And the revenue these can generate is a great way to help keep your parents' costs down even without charging too much for the teams that participate. I like a degree of formality as a way to be more transparent, based on my own experience. We (I'm part of the board) have monthly board meetings that anyone can come to, and sometimes this is how we learn about issues with a particular team, when a parent or parents come to a meeting to talk about it. We've also made an effort in the past year to be a lot more transparent, telling people in moderate detail how we're spending their money. And even the cursed minutes have been internally useful (I'm the schlub who takes the notes for those, unfortunately). Something came up recently about the reasons behind establishing showcase teams. That predated me, but a summary of the discussion was in the old minutes.