Can you explain the voting rights at SLYSA?

Is it true that if the 3 larger clubs band together they have more voting rights than everyone else?

There is an answer to the question “Can you explain the voting rights at SLYSA?” from both a legal and an answer from a practical perspective.

From a legal perspective, each team playing in the SLYSA league has one vote. This year there are approximately 625 teams or 625 votes. What is the vote good for? What does it control? When is it used? From a legal perspective, the vote is used solely to elect the five members of the SLYSA board. These elected members then manage the league.

From a practical perspective, the vote is currently also used to help determine league policy and direction. Several years ago the SLYSA board, and for the most part the president, set policy and managed the league without input from the teams. A few years ago, the SLYSA board created the SLYSA Club Directors committee composed of all the member club presidents/directors with 5 or more teams in the league although clubs with less than 5 teams and even individual teams have not been turned away from SLYSA Club Director meetings. The purpose of the committee is to represent the teams and to help provide policy, direction and input for the SLYSA board. The thought is that since the teams are the owners of the league, they should have a voice. Since there are logistical problems with having every team represent themselves, the Club Directors represent the teams (owners) to the SLYSA board.

The way it works today is that decisions regarding the operation of the league are largely made by the league employees responsible for the area in question; office operations, scheduling, field operations, etc. The SLYSA board meets almost weekly and sets budgets and sets/manages policy for the league. The SLYSA Club Directors committee provides input and direction to the SLYSA board. The SLYSA board members derive their authority from the teams (owners) in the league via board officer elections. The SLYSA employees and the SLYSA Club Director committee derive their authority from the SLYSA board.

SLYSA Club Director Committee meetings are held whenever there are issues to be dealt with when the SLYSA board would like input from the teams (owners). These meetings take place before leagues begin to establish bracketing and at other times during the year when the SLYSA board requests direction. Meetings can also be called at the request of a member of the Club Director Committee. At these meetings, officially, each club has the number of votes equal to the number of teams which are in the club and the league. It is interesting to note, however, that, to date, except for the election of SLYSA board members, all decisions by the SLYSA Club Director Committee have been made on a one vote per club basis. There has been enough general agreement that an “official” vote based on number of teams has not been necessary. There are currently about 23 clubs on the Directors Committee. So, while some may claim that the league is controlled by the big few, the reality is that the big few have, to date, diminished the magnitude of their vote and a small club with 5 teams has had as much vote as a large club with more than 70 teams. This may not always be the case, but it has been true so far.

One other item of note; there are more than 100 independent teams in the league. While these independent teams have a vote at the SLYSA AGM to elect SLYSA board members, these teams currently have no voice on the Directors Committee. The independent teams represent a large percentage of the league and we would like them to have a voice and are working on ways to allow each team to represent themselves directly in helping set league policy and direction. Unfortunately, we have not figured out how to do that yet.

Lastly, I am not sure who you mean by “the 3 largest clubs”, but from a SLYSA perspective, the three clubs with the largest number of teams (Metro Strikers, St. Louis Soccer Club and Scott Gallagher…in that order) represent a total of about 201 teams or about 32% of the vote. So the answer to your question “Is it true that if the 3 larger clubs band together they have more voting rights than everyone else?” is no.