The NPSL was both a fun and interesting mentorship opportunity. Even as I complete my mentorship requirements at Tiffin, I plan to stay involved in the organization and help them drive foward into the future. In order to be succcessful long term, improvements must be made to policies and procedures in order to maximize effeciency.
First, policy. There are far too many beer league type players and coaches in the NPSL. They flood the league with vile behavior and drive away potential paying fans. The policy against violent conduct and abusive language needs to more closely resemble the zero tolerance policy found in premier leagues. Suspensions should be accompanied by fines, and repeat offenders should be banned from league play.
Procedure could also use some overhaul. Currently, upon a game's completion, the referees complete three different reports, with additional supplemental reports for dismissals, injuries, facilities concerns, etc. The amount of paperwork is ridiculous. When the reports are complete, they are emailed to one shared Gmail box, where various league officials comb through each email hunting for the document they need for their particular report. What should take minutes, takes hours. To remedy this immediately, the NPSL should talk with its web developer (Bonzi) and set up seperate attachement upload functions for each report. Then, the NPSL should open 3 additional mail boxes, giving them one for each report. Finally, the webmaster should set up "smart routing" whereas when a referree uploads a particular report, that report is routed to the corresponding mailbox for easy access by the person responsible for said report.
I'm sure there will be additional improvement opportunities in the future, but for now, the ones mentioned above are the most glaring.
First, policy. There are far too many beer league type players and coaches in the NPSL. They flood the league with vile behavior and drive away potential paying fans. The policy against violent conduct and abusive language needs to more closely resemble the zero tolerance policy found in premier leagues. Suspensions should be accompanied by fines, and repeat offenders should be banned from league play.
Procedure could also use some overhaul. Currently, upon a game's completion, the referees complete three different reports, with additional supplemental reports for dismissals, injuries, facilities concerns, etc. The amount of paperwork is ridiculous. When the reports are complete, they are emailed to one shared Gmail box, where various league officials comb through each email hunting for the document they need for their particular report. What should take minutes, takes hours. To remedy this immediately, the NPSL should talk with its web developer (Bonzi) and set up seperate attachement upload functions for each report. Then, the NPSL should open 3 additional mail boxes, giving them one for each report. Finally, the webmaster should set up "smart routing" whereas when a referree uploads a particular report, that report is routed to the corresponding mailbox for easy access by the person responsible for said report.
I'm sure there will be additional improvement opportunities in the future, but for now, the ones mentioned above are the most glaring.