League Division 2B: Holyrood withdrawn

Newsletter 18 August 2008

Glasgow Schools' Football Association wishes all its member schools, players, parents and supporters an enjoyable and successful season 2008-2009.

Membership of GSFA

Several schools which were in membership last season failed to hand in an application for membership at the AGM as required by last season's Executive.

Schools which wish to apply for a late membership should send to the General Treasurer (James Paul) the application form for membership together with a cheque for £50 which the Executive has set as the late-entry fee per school.

Rules and Procedures

Following its election at the AGM in June the GSFA Executive held a meeting to discuss any changes necessary in the rules and procedures which would address the concerns of secondary football representatives.

Principal among representatives' concerns were:
•    playing facilities
•    poor communications in arranging matches
•    failure of certain schools and teams to meet their fixture obligations

Provision of midweek floodlit pitches

GSFA has permanent provisional bookings throughout the playing season for artificial pitches with floodlights, as follows:
Glasgow Green Wednesdays and Thursdays;
Nethercraigs: Wedensdays and
Greenfield: Thursdays.

There is some flexibilty as to starting times, but schools have to vacate the premises before 6 pm.

It is particularly important with respect to the possible future of this scheme that any facility which has been booked by a school is not left unused for any reason. 

Maurice Shields  (St Mungo's Academy) has kindly offered to oversee the bookings at least in the first half of the season, and we look forward to schools giving him the utmost respect and cooperation.  Maurice will have in place a booking and cancellation system to avoid unnecessary expense to GSFA.

Maurice has already been in touch with schools which were in membership last season.

Communications and Teacher Contacts

Any teacher who does not receive regular GSFA email announcements may join the emailing list by sending a message to matsec@gsfa.co.uk with the subject "GSFA emails".  Only school email addresses are acceptable.

Last season we asked schools to provide mobile and home telephone numbers confidentially to School Football Representatives.  There was a 50% response to this request.  Certain schools and individuals were reluctant to disclose this private information.  However, at the AGM, the scheme was regarded as a very useful innovation.  Not a single report of abuse was reported.

Given this, we would encourage all staff taking teams this season to give their contact numbers.

Changes to "Guidelines to Secondary Teachers"

The Executive has decided to tighten up on the playing of fixtures regularly and at the correct time.  Instead of sending a modified teamline, staff will now send a postponement form, which we will prepare before the start of the season.

The procedural changes are available here.  Changed procedures in red, with important details highlighted blue.

Entries to League and Cup Competitions

School Football Representatives will be sent entry forms for the various competitions by email.  These should be completed according to the accompanying instructions and sent to the Secondary Administrator again by email.

•    entry is £70 per age group (i.e. cup and league entry)
•    please do not enter a team unless you have a committed member of staff already in place
•    please indicate the number of Fixture Handbooks required by your school.  Constitutionally, you will automatically  
     be given 15 per school.  However, you may ask for an additional supply - totalling a maximum of 15 per team.
•    We are investigating the re-introduction of midweek Soccer Sevens for under-thirteen boys
     This can be in addition to a league entry, or an alternative to a league entry.