Pursuant to the visit of Sharon Entin Roth, Bureau of Parks Quality
Assurance Manager, to our match on Saturday, I called the parks
department to ask about the lottery and field-reservation procedure.

There is a "lottery" scheduled for 10 a.m. on April 16 in the eighth-
floor conference room at the parks department office at City Hall
East. I assume that this is for the summer season. In order to be
eligible, we have to submit a reservations application beforehand
(form available in the "Files" section of our Yahoo site, or at
http://tinyurl.com/3csxf5). The parks Web site is
http://tinyurl.com/2pq2hn.

The person submitting the application must be an Atlanta resident,
because they copy your driver's license on making the application. I
don't think payment is due at that time, but the form does say
that "all fees must be submitted before we can confirm your dates and
issue a permit."

For the summer season, June-August, our fee would be $650. That is
for 13 Saturdays for two hours each time (@ $25/hour). If we were a
tax-exempt organization, that fee would be halved to $12/hour. But
that would require petitioning IRS for status as an amateur athletic
organization (http://tinyurl.com/3xx2xq), and I'm not sure we are
qualified. But I'll defer to the tax experts.

I think that, if we want to go this route, we would need at least 26
committed members who would pay $25 in advance of each season to make
the reservation. At $100/year, that's a pretty fair price,
considering the going rate for other leagues/health-club memberships,
etc.

I suggest we discuss our organization after soccer on April 5 and how
we want to manage this process. Do we have enough regular players? Do
we turn away people in the future looking for a pick-up game, unless
they pay an admissions fee? Do we want to do fund-raising or find
sponsorships?

Make sure you attend April 5 for this important FIFA-sanctioned
congress!