Minutes of November 20, 1997 Board Meeting

Present: Jeff Abrams, Dennis Ackerman, Bob Babich, Steve Brand, Bill Christopher Chet DeVore, Carole Eigner, Kevin McGarry, Jerry Ralph, Jerry Ringer, Brian Sexton, Steve Smith.

Absent: Andy Anderson, George Bralla, Allen Brown, George Brown, Dan Dole, Brian Fogarty, Sid Gillman, Spike Harvey, Barry Humphrey, Don Macek, Dennis McKnight, Mark Osman, Ted Tollner, Walt Zable

1) The board was welcomed by chair Jerry Ringer. Minutes from the Oct. 2, 1997 meeting were reviewed and approved.

2) The awards banquet was the next topic.

a) Will be held at the Town and Country Convention Center on Friday, March 13, 1998, event co-chair Carole Eigner reported. Cost will be $40 for chapter members and $30 for parents and school officials. Upon taking reservations, Carole will make a decision on an individual case basis if the $30 per dinner is too much for some families. If so, she can reduce price to $25 per meal.

b) Committee assignments were reviewed.

3) Nomination forms were sent today to all area CIF high school football coaches and principals by the NFF office.

4) Trophies and plaques will be ordered and handled by Carole and Jerry out of the NFF office. Bob Babich also suggested that we award Rich de Filippi an outstanding achievement trophy for his work on our 21st annual golf tournament.

5) The selection committee, headed by Chet DeVore, consists of the following: Jeff Abrams, Steve Brand, Allen C. Brown, and Bill Christopher. The selection committee will meet to pick 1998 banquet winners on Tues., Jan. 13, 1998, at noon in the NFF office at Cubic.

Aside from scholar-leader-athletes, the committee needs also to select 1997 coach of the year, 1997 meritorious coach of the year , and Willie Jones Jr. most inspirational award.

Jerry Ringer brought up the subject of the $1,000 Valley Foundation scholarship which the chapter has received. He asked the board if the money should be given to last year’s two outstanding scholar-leader-athletes, Jerod Fenton and Matt Friedrichs, or if it should be given to the 1998 winner of the Willie Jones award. Jerry pointed out that in past years, this scholarship from National has been given to the Most Inspirational award recipient. The board referred the matter to the selection committee.

6) Nominations for the Tom Hamilton, Distinguished American, and President’s Award were requested. The following names were suggested: John Lynch, John Kurtar, Dean Spanos, Wayne Debate, John Morres, Dennis Wise, Nick Canapa or Wayne Lockwood.

7) Jerry asked if we should invite a past year winner as our guest to the banquet. Board agreed and suggested Hank Bauer and Mark Malone.

8) The board agreed we should ask Ron Reina if he would be M.C. again at the banquet, and suggested that we provide him with a nice gift for his services.

9) Amy White donations - Jerry told the board the chapter sent a flower wreath to Amy’s memorial at Julian High, plus a framed memorial to Ed White at SDSU on behalf of the board of directors. Through a letter from the NFF office, chapter members donated $490 to the Challenge Center in Amy White’s name. The board elected to donate $510 for a combined contribution of $1000 from the chapter.

The board asked that we send the money via a letter from the foundation listing the names of the members who sent in money.

10) The chapter newsletter was the next topic. Jerry asked if anyone had any story suggestions for the coming issue. He also told the board that a new video made for TV on the life of Willie Jones has been produced and is available. He suggested doing a story in the newsletter on the video telling members and all school officials that the video is available to them from the NFF office. Jerry listed the other stories for the coming issue.

11) Jeff Abrams recapped the MVP program for 1997 and thanked everyone for taking part. He said there were 10 games of the week and 20 awards given.

12) Jerry advised the board that the executive committee met on Oct. 15, 1997 to work on a plan to make the chapter self-sustaining if Cubic should ever have to discontinue its support.

No firm plans have been made to warrant their presentation to the board, but copies of the minutes from the executive session are available to board members at their request.

13) Bob Keropian responded to our Oct. 2, 1997 board meeting requesting that all NFF regions adopt the same selection formula and criteria for awards. Our board further asked Bob to please add four additional region chapter members to his region’s selection committee. Jerry reported that Bob sent a letter saying the matter would be brought up at the next meeting with the regions and NFF president.

The meeting adjourned at 1 p.m.