RMFL MANAGING BOARD BEGINS EARLY MAPPING OF 2009 SEASON; PLAY BEGINS ON APRIL 11, 2008

BOARD ALSO SETS TENTATIVE BUDGET, ISSUES COMMISSIONER GRADES AND SELECTS MVP PLAYERS/COACHES

MINUTES:

ON-TIME ATTENDEES:  Glacier, Utah Shock, Idaho, Boise, Pocatello, Helena, Eastern Idaho, Missoula, Snake River, Logan, Cache Valley, Bear River Valley, Salt Lake, Morgan (excused late), Great Falls (excused late).

LATE ATENDEES ($50 Fine): Davis Vipers, Utah Wolverines, Uintah Valley, Utah Heat, Magic Valley

MISSED MEETING ($200 Fine): Bitterroot, Idaho Falls, Stripling.

ARIMO – The Rocky Mountain Football League Managing Board met once again for its annual pre-All-Star Game meeting with a number of key items on the agenda; from assessing the 2008 season, to early mapping of the 2009 season.

In a general review of the “Lesson’s Learned” in the 2008 season, managing board members had a number of observations that were voiced. RMFL Commissioner, Jared Neumeier, listed all ideas suggestions with the caviat that problems would not be solved in this session, only identified.  Comments were made as follows:

-                     Confusion for defense/officials with the RMFL rule of ignoring jersey #’s for eligible receiver purposes

-                     Should some sort of Medical “first responder” be required to be on site. Saw some excessive delays in getting medical attention when needed.

-                     Locker Rooms NEED to be required; standards need to be raised for league wide home game presentations

-                     May need to incorporate a more specific “foul weather” stipulations; Early snow games a problem for players

-                     Travel was excessive, especially for certain teams

-                     Involve media and media productions more with RMFL activities; invite to Kick-off meeting?

-                     Look for greater expansion on the EISNlive internet broadcasts to spread RMFL appeal and sponsorships

-                     Try to arrange an teleconference-style officials meeting before season starts

-                     Need better information back to Randell Silcox on who is responsible for officiating in each area.

Commissioner, Jared Neumeier, summarized out a solution to many of the leagues improvements and refinements could be accomplished through a greater and more aggressive marketing effort.  With Marketing Director, Ken Perkins, officially released, there will be a significant off-season effort to recruit and higher a replacement and, potentially marketing reps from areas all around the league.  “Travel costs are the biggest problem for many teams to solve, especially with gas costs going so high,” Neumeier said.  “I believe we need to get very aggressive in Marketing this great league, involving and rewarding sponsors and generating enough extra income to be able to create a travel pool of funds to kick back, by a percentage and length of trip, money to any team that has to go on a road trip of X or more miles.  This will allow all of our teams to keep expenses down… and player participation up.”

Some of the other issues Neumeier suggested will be drilled hard at the late January kick off meeting. “We need to ‘raise the bar’ on our requirements for home games,” he said. “Host teams need to have standards of quality to meet and a lot of that has to do with providing excellent facilities for visiting teams… and fans.  The whole Stripling Warriorz debacle this season taught us all a lot about what we can accept and what we cannot.”.

After the meeting, Neumeier even detailed out some ideas regarding the internet game option that local broadcaster, EISNlive.com provided the league with live web casts of some of the big games, including a Friday night tilt between Idaho Falls and Pocatello that was off the charts on viewer-ship.  “I think we just ‘tipped the iceberg’ on that option,” he said.  “I can envision getting a company like EISNlive involved in all three states (or 4 if there is ever Colorado, Wyoming or Nevada participation).  We could look at our schedule and try to get nearby local teams and rivals to plan on their game on a Friday night.  How great would it be to have like a ‘Monday Night Football’ in the RMFL, only it would be ‘Friday Night Football’.  Think about it; almost every player in the league could log on and watch the ‘Game of the Week’.  It would immediately create player recognition around the league and how many businesses would love to sponsor the ‘Game of the Week’ and have their name put out there all telecast long?  I think it has endless possibilities for everyone.”

RMFL Head of Officials, Randell Silcox, lead a discussion in the boards view of how the new “high school rules with certain exclusions” went across in 2008.  Although there were some early complaints, the Managing Board was generally accepting of the 12 minute quarters. Many games were not significantly different in playing time and the games seem to have a positive affect on the number of injuries. Some suggestions that were proposed to be looked at for 2009 included:

-                     Adding a “mercy rule”

-                     Specify rules for overtime, College “Kansas City Overtime”

-                     Perhaps requiring 6-man crews to make the officials job easier

-                     Creating an “Ask the Official Blog” for Silcox to run and respond to officiating questions at any time during the season

COMMISSIONER GRADES:

For the first time ever the Managing Board had the performances of 3 commissioners to grade, AA Commissioner, Ed Cerise, AAA Commissioner, Dave Sire and the League Commissioner, Jared Neumeier.  The following are the grades per category (1-5 scale; 5 excellent, 1 poor) for each (with comments).

CATEGORY

Cerise – AA

(Graded by AA Only)

Sire – AAA

(Graded by AAA Only)

Neumeier

(Graded by entire Board)

Organizational Skills

2.2

4

4.2

Comments

 

 

 

Leadership Skills

2.9

3.1

4

Comments

Deadlines soft.

Likes to fine a lot.

Needs to keep on Ed. Stat updating of division commish's

Communication Skills

2.4

4.9

4.3

Comments

Not Visible

He's on it.

 

Responsiveness

2.4

4.9

4.6

Comments

 

 

 

Web Writing

1.2

3.3

4.2

Comments

Didn't do much at all.

 

 

Stat Developing

1.8

3.3

N/A

Comments

Format cool. Dropped ball in end

 

 

Work Ethic

1.7

4.5

4.2

Comments

 

 

 

Personable

3.9

5

4.4

Comments

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall Rating

2.4 - Substandard

4.1 - Very Good

4.3 - Very Good

 

In the next order of business, a tentative budget for the 2009 season was reviewed according to Neumeier in “an FYI fashion”.  The budget operated under the assumption that there would be at least 3 new teams added to the fold, including the potential return of the South Ogden Rhino-Raiders. “I’ve been contacted by at least 8 different individuals or groups wanting to get an new team in the league… and I will expect a few more between now and then,” Neumeier speculated. “Its fair to assume that at least 3 will come out of that and I also intend to make a trip up to Montana to try to instigate something in Butte, Bozeman and Billings, Montana.”.  The same number of playoff teams as from ’08 was assumed would be represented in ’09. The approved tentative budget can be viewed at: Tentative 2009 RMFL Budget.

Commissioner Neumeier noted that the biggest focus regarding the proposed budget will be to increase staff salaries and to focus the off-season on ramping up the League marketing effort.  “This league needs to do more for its teams, hence the Marketing effort,” Neumeier said, “however, we also need to reward our hard working staff… if we want to retain them and allow them to develop and improve.  I know there were a lot more ‘hiccups’ this year with the game stories and stats etc., but our commissioners were learning and they have a big job. This system of separate commissioners running functions of the league is here to stay.  In order to develop our leadership and talent to perform to the expectations we set, we will have to compensate our staff accordingly.”  Neumeier did say that this proposed budget is strictly tentative until the Board meets in the Winter, however, he stressed that teams need to be prepared to pay a $1000 league fee… and hope that our marketing is successful and it will end up being a lot less.

Also, Neumeier noted that the number of teams in the league could shift the amount due. Currently, Neumeier said he has been contacted by “around 10’ various individuals or groups interested in putting a team on the field in 2009.  The budget assumes a minimal growth of 3 teams (26 assumed), however, the actual growth could go as high as 30 teams for the 2009 season.  Areas include Utah County, western Idaho, Park City, Utah, South Jordan, Utah and several cities in Montana (Butte, Bozeman and Billings).

Finally, the Managing Board settled in on discussions as the a skeleton schedule to lay-out the 2009 season.

Another two-day RMFL Kick-Off meeting was agreed to be held January 30th  - 31st , 2009 in Pocatello at the Best Western Cottontree Inn.  The meeting will begin at 6:00 p.m. on Friday (Jan. 30th).  The other following dates were tentatively agreed upon:

            -           Opening Day: Saturday, April 11th , 2009

            -           Final Regular Season Game, Saturday, June 6th , 2009

            -           Playoffs Start: Saturday, June 13th , 2009

            -           Championship Games: Saturday, June 27th , 2009

            -           All-Star Game/League Meeting: Saturday, July 11th , 2009

A discussion and vote was taken on the tentative opening weekend for the 2009 season.  Many GM’s felt that the adverse late spring weather continues to be a concern for school districts and more and more restrictions on early games are forthcoming.  By a vote of 13-4-1, however, April 11th was selected as the tentative opening  Saturday for 2008 over April 18th (one GM voted for April 25th).

Commissioner Neumeier, however, suggested that there were a number of teams that felt there was a need to try to finish the RMFL season before the 4th of July weekend. 

The managing board member teams not in attendance were the Idaho Falls Mustangs, Bitterroot Blaze, Stripling Warriorz and Magic Valley Bulldawgs.  Teams missing mandatory League meetings are assessed a $200 fine.  Several teams had outstanding fines due heading into the meeting, including the Utah Heat who owed $150.  Not having paid at the meeting as due, the Heat are hit with a $100 late fee and also collected another $50 fine for late arrival at the meeting.  The Bulldawgs also owed fine money as well as the Utah Wolverines.  The Bulldawgs, who only owed $150, were also assessed with another $100 late fee and another $50 for a late arrival.  This will place the Bulldawgs owing an additional $300 heading into the 2009 season.

The meeting finally adjourned at 2:55 p.m.