I would like to start by thanking the Executive Board, Board of Directors, Office Staff, Director of Coaching, and all the additional Coaching Staff for a wonderful year @ Missouri Youth Soccer Association. I would also like to thank all the Members, Administrators, Coaches, and countless volunteers throughout the state that makes Missouri Youth Soccer Association what it is. Also, to my wife, thank you for allowing me to continue a passion that I have for the game of soccer.
When I started my campaign last year for the Presidency, my focus was a “grassroots” approach, of “Building Stronger Soccer Communities”. It is important to remember where our coaches, players, parents, and volunteers came from. The players started in some type of recreational, academy, and festival style programs. Our parents who became the player’s first coach and our volunteers are those who liked wanted to help. In my opinion, this is the foundation of this organization is and we cannot lose sight of that. The emphasis I would like to see is more involvement with our local recreational and competitive leagues that do not wish to participate in the National, Regional, and State leagues and tournaments that Missouri Youth Soccer offers. Missouri Youth, along with US Youth Soccer offers some positive programs that some, if not most of our members are not aware of and do not take advantage of. Some of them are the Recreational Accreditation Program, Parenting& Coaching Programs like “we are all in this together “, and the coaches resource and library that is on-line. If anyone would like more information about any of these programs please feel free to contact me. Several new ideas and visions have been developed over the past year and we are currently moving forward with some of them which include Marketing Plans and Partnership Plans. One new marketing plan is with “Expanda Signs” with the co-branding of Missouri Youth Soccer Association with Toyota, Soccer Master, and US Youth Soccer. The new signs will be used @ all our events which include schools, coaching clinics, tournaments, ODP Camps, and here at the AGM and Workshops. Another new vision was to re-develop the web site. The Web site will have new and improved areas, which include a user friendly presence, content manager which will allow us to update news, information, and scores within minutes, not days. The Missouri Youth Soccer Association Foundation is being formed as we grow into partnerships with vendors and this will allow us to receive revenue without being taxed. Every year this revenue will be used for grants to our members in ways such as ODP, player registrations, starting new soccer programs, and other useful assistance for our members. As some of you may know Missouri Youth Soccer has been a part of a four (4) State Association Alliance with Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas. The benefits from forming the alliance are the Toyota contract for the van that the Director of Coaching uses, sponsorship revenue from Toyota, and combined insurance with the other four state associations which reduces the premiums. A new online Tournament Registration website is currently under development. This will allow our members to submit the application to host tournaments and all necessary paperwork needed. This will eliminate all the paperwork, and will expedite the approval process. It will also allow the members to take advantage of some revenue that will be generated by host hotels, and possibly even finding a sponsor for your tournaments. I will have more detailed information as it becomes available. As we continue to improve our services to our members, we have sanctioned Futsal and we have been recognized as the State Association for Futsal. There are details still to be work out with registration, insurance, and cost, but we will intend on have everything ready for the 2008-2009 season. The ODP Program is another focus of mine. Missouri is known and respected for having some of the best players in Region II, and amongst the Nation. My goal is to increase the number of participates in our district and state camps, which will hopefully lead to regional and national levels of play within the ODP Program. To help with the overall structure of the ODP program we have moved the processing into the office to streamline and expedite all the paperwork. This has allowed the coaches, to just coach and this gives continuity from start to finish. I would like to take time to congratulate the “92” Girls Missouri ODP team for winning the Regional ODP Tournament and advancing to the National ODP Tournament in Fristoe, Texas in March, and good luck.
As Missouri Youth Soccer Association moves forward with this new vision of “Building Stronger Soccer Communities” I would like to extend a personal thanks to each and every one of you for your hard work and dedication to the “game for all kids”. I look forward to serving you and this organization in the years to come. As always, if anyone ever needs to contact me please call me at 314-620-9568, or you can e-mail me at
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Sincerely, Travis C. Ross
President
Missouri Youth Soccer Association
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