Dear AYSO Parents and Volunteers,

In light of recent events over the past few days, it was brought to our attention that there is confusion and miscommunication surrounding the Player Membership Fee and the new Volunteer Membership program that will go into effect in Membership Year 2019.

The Player Membership Fee, which was approved at the 2018 National Annual General Meeting, was presented with a very intentional and wide-ranging communication plan to all Executive Members over a five month period via in person presentations, webinars and a dedicated landing page on the front page of our AYSO Volunteer Resources website: http://www.aysovolunteers.org and http://www.aysovolunteers.org/important-announcement-playership-fee-increase-and-new-volunteer-membership-program-information/. The fee increase, which will go into effect in Membership Year 2019, was approved with overwhelming support by the Executive Membership. 

This fee increase was not decided upon lightly. Much research as well as exhaustion of all other avenues were explored and it was determined this to be the best course of action. The process is clearly explained here: https://youtu.be/6XnwDxdspZA. 

The new $25 Volunteer Membership program was approved by the National Board of Directors in the Fall of 2017 and will go into effect in Membership Year 2019 as well. This information was rolled out in conjunction with the proposed Player Membership Fee increase over the five-month period and was discussed, explained and refined throughout the communication process with all Executive Members. You can find this information on the same website landing page as the Player Membership Fee increase information: http://www.aysovolunteers.org/important-announcement-playership-fee-increase-and-new-volunteer-membership-program-information/.

The rationale behind this decision was rooted in our desire to keep the safety of our children as the highest priority, we are raising our background checks to Level 2, which will increase the fee of the background check to $15.  The membership fee includes covering some of costs of insurance.  Training courses at AYSO U will become free to the volunteer members at the same time including the nationally recognized and accredited coaching curriculum.  This fee structure also covers the build out, transposition and the varying state fees that have to be covered for background checks.

Throughout the communication process, Regions were presented with several options on how to implement this new program and ultimately have been given the power to decide how they would like to manage this in their individual programs; from having the volunteers pay directly or subsidizing them within their Player Fees.   The conversations over time indicate latter as the path most will choose with a per player cost in the range of $4 to $6.

We apologize for the confusion recent events have created and hope the above provided a clear picture of the decisions, their rationale and implementations.

We thank you for being a member of the AYSO community. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us.