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9/07/09 - FC77 History Page If you weren't aware of the FC77 history page, you might want to click here and read about all the Byzantine renamings, successes (and failures) our teams have taken over the last 32 years 1/03/06 - FC77 Managers' Meeting Your reporter was not present, but I was able to pluck some pertinent data from some internal communications of the attending managers. It sounds as though Rangers manager Tim Hansen was not present. For this omission, he is designated as the official researcher for a new supply of club jerseys for all teams, save the Old Nicks. The senior team will continue to go its own eccentric way regarding uniform shirts. It is planned that the shirts will be supplied for the Summer 2007 season. Each teams' members will be assessed $7 per player, per season to recoup the cost of shirts which will be covered by the FC77 treasury. Key dates for the Club calendar were set:
7/11/05 - GPSD Minutes And FC77 Athletic Cup Ok, to be fair to the Greater Portland Soccer District (see past rant about their AGM), they now have on their website the minutes of their monthly Board Meetings beginning with January 2005, through June 2005. Here's a glimpse into the (official) workings of our men's league. Perhaps, you'll want to contact them and get involved? Click Here to go to the GPSD Finances section of their website. The FC77 brain trust met last month. One item of interest to all from that session was the impulse to have another summer club gathering with Athletic Cup tournament attached. The tentative date of Sunday, August 14th seems to have the greatest momentum. Managers are checking with you club members to see if that date or Sunday July 31st is preferable. More details will undoubtedly follow.
1/09/05 - Mid Winter Club Party Held The Milwaukie Center again was the site for the second FC77 club-wide gathering. Our attraction to this venue in North Clackamas Park? "Equally inconvenient to all Club members." was the President's pronouncement. Mary Edmeades (manager David Porter's spouse) was the driving force behind the food concept of build-your-own Mexican dishes. Official Club thanks go out to the many members who brought tasty examples of their culinary skills. Colin McDonell very ably handled the beverage procurement. All managers presented either actual awards or flowery testimonials to the mostly undeserving players of their teams. An impressive array of dusty trophies bore witness that there really was a team or two in the Club during the Reagan Administration. FC77 replica gear was given out as door prizes. Several offspring of players won apparel, so some puzzled Portland school administrator will eventually be forced to determine if FC77 is a gang tag. To those who didn't make it - you missed a fun time!
11/21/04 - Club Results For Fall 2004 Are In Here's the GPSD results for the Club teams. As compared to Spring Season, Rangers and PBR improved their goal differential. The other three teams had slightly worse differentials.
11/02/04 - Highlights Of FC77 Meeting Present at the meeting
were: Mike, Kirk, Tim, David, AJ and Mark. Venue was Cassidy's.
8/7/04 - Saxer Wins 4th Open Division FC77 Saxer played FC Alianza at Strasser Field, at Delta Park, for the Championship of the 4th Division Open group. The two teams had finished as 1 and 2 in the standings for this Spring/Summer session. Match start was at 10 am, and the day was mild and sunny. Saxer scored their first goal early in the first half. A few minutes later, an Alianza defender made a reckless challenge on a Saxer attacker while in the Alianza penalty area. This resulted in the player receiving a red card and Saxer awarded a penalty kick - which they converted. While still in the first half, Saxer received another penalty kick. The score was now 3 - 0. Being a man down and behind 3 - 0, Alianza had to gamble on covering defensively as they pressed forward to score. This ultimately proved fatal to any chance for a comeback. In the second half, Saxer scored five more goals. The final score was FC77 Saxer 8, FC Alianza 0. Click For Pictures 7/26/04 - GPSD Annual Meeting This is a short news item because it was a very short meeting. It started at 7:05 pm and was over at 7:20 pm. This is some sort of dubious new record of brevity. There was no news of any consequence. The Prez (Brent Hamilton) and Vice-Prez (Walt Weyler) hustled through a short list of agenda topics. The agenda had listed that nominations would be sought for vacant Board positions including President and Secretary. This never happened in any recognizable fashion. The Treasurer presented no discernible financial information for the year. Some vague, half-hearted requests for assistance were proffered to the attending managers. If this mode of operation continues, there is now no compelling reason for a manager to attend the AGM, since manager input is not part of the process. The last concrete blocks in the Berlin Wall surrounding the GPSD Board are now in place.
7/24/04 - Spring 2004 Results Are In Another spring/summer season is in the books. All the Club teams had their standard summer seasons, heavily affected by player absences, league changes of schedule and general summertime conflicts. Again, Saxer had sterling results; they will be playing for the Spring 2004 4th Division Championship. Their game is Saturday, August 7th, Delta Park-Strasser, at 10:00 am. Their opponent is FC Alianza.
For the complete GPSD league standings please Click Here.
7/14/04 - FC77 Managers Decide (Happily) To Not Meet A makeup game suddenly came on the radar, so the Club prez is not available on the 20th. Makeup meeting dates in the rest of the week looked impossible for at least somebody - so now it's off the table. Maybe our computer avatars can meet? 7/10/04 - FC77 Managers Decide (Reluctantly) To Meet Yeah, it's going to happen. The brain trust is gathering at Madison's, Tuesday July 20th, at 7:00 pm. Known topics of discussion include: The managerial outlook for FC77 Rangers. The Club approach to the GPSD's annual general meeting. Finances review. All Club members are welcome. 4/15/04 - GPSD Summer Schedule Changes Wreak Havoc Email to the GPSD leadership- "Date: 04/15/04 07:22 PM This is a huge burden on me because I am now scrambling each week to find players to fill in. The players available tend to be significantly below the level of play in our division. It is extremely frustrating for my remaining team members to go out each week knowing we are not putting enough quality players on the field to realistically compete each week. This also makes it very difficult for me to collect the $815 registration fee. It is hard to only split that cost up 10 or 11 ways. It is even harder to beg different players to come out each week and also get them to pay $8-10 to play for that day. If my choices were a) Fridays - Delta Park
with a good ref crew b) Tue/Wed - crappy field, weak ref'ing I would
take b). There is no value in a) if I can't keep my team together. Please
take my comments into consideration for future scheduling. Thanks for your time, Reply from the GPSD leadership- "Thanks for your note Kirk. Your feedback
will be helpful during our next meeting and I am hopeful that we will
not duplicate these problems in future seasons. Please extend our apologies
to those on your team. Although we may not be able to fix the damage
to your team this season, you and your players will be heard. 2/23/04 - GPSD Mid Year Managers Meeting. Monday, Feb. 23, 2004. The Smokers Room at Kell's was packed with the best minds in the GPSD by 6:45 pm. Wait staff scurried about, busily attempting to stoke the fires of soccer enthusiasm with pints of ale. The FC77 contingent was all there. However, our bloc was marked with numerous comings and goings. New Belgium, Rangers, Old Nicks and Newcastle managers held a lively swap meet to distribute stripey shirt numbers evenly through the Club uniform inventory. As the 7 pm start time arrived, a couple of FC77 managers slid out of the room. These were our managers who had not felt comfortable with the new corporate GPSD management style. [An editorial aside: I can sympathize with our dissenting managers who had manfully struggled for over a decade with what must be judged as some of the worst volunteer chief executives in the history of non-profits. One galling aspect must be the immediate shift from that drawn-out misery to a closed corporation whose true long-term agenda is still debatable. It's really unfortunate that the new management decided that lots of manager involvement was part of the GPSD's problem. To be fair, the GPSD CEO's of the previous decade allowed a vacuum of power and direction - and nature abhors a vacuum.] Right at 7 pm, the meeting began, with the GPSD president closely following his printed agenda. To his credit, he controlled the inevitable manager outbursts of verbal non-sequitors and streams of consciousness that have derailed many a general meeting in the past. Scheduler Hugh Kalani reported the unsurprising news that regionwide competition for playing fields and Portland Parks fees are increasing. The Park Bureau has decided that each sports league competing for fields must designate a core season for its sport. This season will be favored; other subsidiary seasons will have to defer to the core season requirements of other sports. It sounds like the rugby and lacrosse groups are fighting for some of the same resources. The Park Bureau is struggling with a 2.5% budget cut this year. Some of our increased fees go into a Parks fund for field maintenance. The managers were assured that no-show referees were, a) not paid for the missed work. b) were fined the equivalent of one match's wages. There is now a GPSD Referee Committee. The idea is to give both referees and teams a say in the relationship. The meeting is the 1st Thursday of the month, OASA offices, at 6:45 pm. Managers were told that if they can obtain their own home fields, the field fee payment is capped at $30 per game. The team involved would cover anything above that amount. This cap is based on the Portland Parks fee structure. Slide tackling was voted in for the Over 40 First Division. There were two managers present from that bracket. One voted yes, the other voted no. A coin toss passed the rule. A major organizational rearrangement was voted in for GPSD. We now have a Premier Division at the top. It will start in the Spring of 2004. Initial entry is by invitation. Teams to be invited will be from the top 1st Division teams, the OPSL and local college teams. In subsequent seasons there will be promotion and relegation from the 1st Division - two teams up; two teams down. Interesting details: The number of Premiership teams is undecided. It could range from a low of six to a high of eleven. There will be a purse awarded to 1st and 2nd place finishers. Each Premiership team will pay an extra $100 into a purse kitty; 70% will go to 1st place, 30% will go to 2nd place. Instead of the current Gold & Silver groupings of the Open 2nd & 3rd divisions, there are now straightforward 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th divisions. The new alignment doesn't change anything in the Over 30, Over 40 or Over 50 divisions since they didn't have parallel groupings. The three Rules Of Play changes were passed. These basically change the process for fining players and teams for large accumulations of caution/ejection points. Up to now, the GPSD charged a lump sum "bond" from which deductions were made, as points continued to accumulate. This is a bookkeeping nightmare. Instead, the new policy is "pay as you go" fines. The GPSD is a 501(c)4 corporation. Before your eyes glaze over, just understand that this means that GPSD isn't a full-bore non-profit. Contributions are not tax deductible. The hope was stated that - down the road - we will become a 501(c)3. Accountants within FC77 can make more informed and subtle judgements about the GPSD balance sheets and P&L's than this reporter. Some highlights are: GPSD has equity of $25,000+. About $15,600 was "donated" from the old GPSD association. Net income for the Fall 2003 season was $8,800 on revenues of $75,000 (11.7%). The fees paid for personal services within the club included: $1500 for the web administrator; $900 for the club administrator (who's that?), and $1392 for the scheduler. There is the massive amount of $13,558 listed for the Referee Assignor. This is separate from the Referee fees of $89,190, so I don't know if this is a person, or a service provided by the referee organization.. The meeting ended exactly at 8 pm. A Board meeting was scheduled for immediately thereafter, but this reporter, like the majority of managers, took this opportunity to skip out the door and into the night. 12/06/03 - FC77 Saxer Plays For Third Division Championship; Loses 2 - 1. In the only notable success for the FC77 Club in late 2003, FC77 Saxer played the first game of the GPSD Championship matches for Fall 2003 at the turf covered Strasser field at Delta Park. Unlike the later games, the 9:00 am match was played in bright sunshine. The opponent was Beer Thirty, a team who had beaten Saxer 3 - 1 during the season. The match was played with a high intensity. This observer saw no cards issued by the referee; all tackling was done within the spirit of the rules. Both teams struggled with midfield passing accuracy; Beer Thirty with slightly greater success. Just before the half, Saxer capitalized on some lax Beer defending and punched in a low cross for the well-deserved first goal of the day. The second half was played in the same seesaw manner as the first, with both teams having scoring opportunities. As we arrived at the 86th minute it looked like a Saxer victory was assured. Unfortunately, a Saxer defender tripped up an opposing forward in the box and Beer Thirty converted the penalty kick. Within the last minute, another Beer Thirty attack drew the Saxer keeper way off his line and an accurate finishing shot made it a heart-breaking 2 - 1 in favor of Beer Thirty. 9/21/03 - Televise The USA WWC Match? KATU Goes For Gardening Show. Here's a real head shaker. Read Jonathan Nicholas' write-up in The Oregonian on 9/22/03: The Women's World Cup game between the United States and Sweden was not broadcast live by KATU (2/ABC). Dave Olmsted, station vice president and general manager, decided to stick with a previous commitment to air the Mike Darcy show, "In The Garden," from 9-10 a.m. Sunday. "This is a balance trying to meet all our commitments," he said. "It's not something we do on a cavalier basis." The station said it planned to air a replay of the game at 2:05 a.m.(!) Monday. As for published reports saying the game would be carried live by his station, Olmsted said: "That was an error on our Web site. Those things occasionally can happen." A spokesman for U.S. Soccer was disappointed in the decision. "For a local affiliate not to show a game in a market that's hosting three major dates, including quarterfinals and semifinals which we hope will feature the U.S. . . . I feel bad for the fans of Portland that they missed out on that," said Jim Moorehouse, director of communications for U.S. Soccer. "It's a poor decision." Can you say,"Boneheaded?" 9/17/03 - Entertainment Books Support FC77 This fall, FC77 is offering you the 2004 Entertainment Book as a way you can save $1000's in 50% Off Coupons on restaurants, fast food, movie tickets, golfing, sporting events, zoos, theatres and lots of other great family fun. Your cost is $35 a book. All profit goes to support FC77 activities. This means that all our profit will go to offset FC77 team playing fees, team uniforms and team social activities. 8/10/03 - Pro Soccer
Last night's Timbers loss to Seattle (0 - 1) showed
a lot of familiar facets. It was a very good (6,800) size crowd for
a non-Thirsty Thursday. In England, all is normal. ManU is the smart money
favorite and the pretenders are the same as last year - Arsenal, Liverpool,
Chelsea and Newcastle. Chelsea, at least, is fun to observe spending,
so far, about $75million on a whole herd of pedigreed players. For
the Observer's take on the pre-season outlook, click
here. 5/21/03 - FC77
Manager's Meeting 4/18/03
- Timbers Season Starts May 1st 4/11/03 - Oregon
Classic Tournament 3/29/03 - Logo
Garments In Pipeline 3/18/03
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