April 8, 2020
We hope today finds you well. Just a brief connection today to reiterate previous messages.
Today’s connection:
- Regular engagement and resources
- Running the business side of your club during this crisis
- Iowa Soccer League and Cup/Festival planning
- Status of spring coach/volunteer background checks
- Suspension of Iowa Soccer billing
Regular Connections and Member Resources
- For the remainder of the spring season
- Look for regular Wednesday e-news; recipient groups will always be listed at the top of the message.
- We've implemented "Engagement Thursdays" will which we'll use to schedule, using zoom.com, focus groups or specific topics to discuss
- Those to whom the focus group or topic is relevant will receive an email invitation with zoom meeting credentials.
- Resource pages
- FAQ
- Financial/Business resources
Financial Resources
- The passage of the CARES Act has opened up financial resources for nonprofits such as your club via an application process that starts with your bank.
- We've put together a resource page that connects to finanical inforamtion, so we encourage you to review it ASAP, as at least one application process opened earlier this week.
- Contact Executive Director Dan Cataldi with any questions, dcataldi@iowasoccer.org
Iowa Soccer League (State, Rec, Academy) and Cups/Festivals (State, Presidents, Rec, Academy)
- We are looking forward to providing our members with competitions options this spring. For all our Iowa Soccer Leagues (State, Rec, Academy) and Cups/Festivals (State, Presidents, Rec, Academy) we're mapping out different options based on different return to play dates. We're being creative in our approach to opportunities to play, which includes, if necessary, consideration of using dates in June and July for competitions.
Status of Spring Coach/Volunteer Background Checks
- Since mid-March we have not proeccessed any background checks due to the suspension of all in-person soccer activity. We are now suspended through at least April 30, 2020 and still are not processing background checks. We are hopeful to have a spring season of some sort where coaches are working with players in-person and in order to do so, our background screening and online training will still be required.
- As playing options come into clearer focus, we hope to restart processing background checks two weeks prior to coaches having in-person contact with players. We understand clubs need lead time to get coaches connected to teams which is driving our two week buffer.
- The two week buffer is our ideal, but we ask for flexibility and understanding if checks are restarted with less than a two week buffer.
Regular April Billing Cycle Suspended
- We are doing our part to help our member clubs and adult leagues manage their cash flow
- A reminder: as of mid-March, we have not billed any spring registrations or competitions entry fees to any club or league.
- Suspending our regular April biling cycle
- We were to have engaged our regular billing cycle on April 21, 2020 for spring activity including player/coach registration and entry fees for competitions. We have SUSPENDED this billing cycle.
- Once we can better understand what the spring playing schedule looks like, we will re-evaluate what a billing process and timeline will look like.
- Please know that we will take a common-sense approach to these unprecedented circumstances when it comes to Spring 2020 billing.