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History of the Castro
Valley Sports Foundation, Inc.
In the summer of 2002 a group of
concerned citizens got together to complain about the condition of the
High School Sports Stadium. It is, we all agreed, a disgrace, and the
community of Castro Valley deserves better. Rather then wring our hands in
despair, we decided to do something about it. Thus was born the Campaign
for a new Stadium at Castro Valley High School.
We called the school district to arrange a
meeting and after much rescheduling we managed to get an appointment on
August 21st, 2002. Present were Jim Fitzpatrick, Jim
O’Conner, George Granger, Leslie Roswell, George Pacheco, Julie Rosecran
and myself. It was generally agreed upon that we needed to rebuild the
CV High Sports Facility. The district identified two (2) road blocks to
getting this done: 1.) The District has no money for this sort of thing
and floating another Bond Measure was unthinkable for at least eight (8)
years, and 2.) There is currently a $2 million dollar campaign to raise
money to complete the Performing Arts Center (PAC), a $7 million dollar
project funded by of Measure C. We assured the District that our goal was
to raise the money to rebuild the stadium and that our goal is compatible
with the PAC goals of improving school facilities. Jim O’Conner agreed
to ask the School Board at its September meeting for a small amount of
money to pay for “request for proposals” from a selection of Architects,
which Jim did and was successful in obtaining.
We, the citizen committee, proceeded to do
three (3) things: 1.) Lay low until after the November 5th
election – with its controversial incorporation issue, 2.) Create a
“Specification List” for the Architects, and 3.) After a lengthy
discussion, decided that our best option was to “collaborate” with an
existing non-profit and so we began our search for a 501©(3) Non-Profit
through which to run our campaign. We needed non-profit status so that,
among a host of other reasons, donations could be make on a
tax-deductible basis.
After November 5th, we began to actively meet
and plan. We completed the “Specification List” and on October 15th
we meet with Jim O’Conner. Jim pledged to send our “Specification List”
as a Request for Proposal for Architectural Services to eight (8)
mutually agreed upon Architectural firms. These Requests were to be return
to Jim by December 2nd and we planned to meet shortly
thereafter for review.
The most difficult decision to make was
whether or not to create our own 501(c)(3) or hook up with an existing one
(i.e. Rotary, Ed Foundation, Boosters). We initially felt that joining
with an established non-profit would reduce our start-up time, save money,
and provide a reputable organization to market. We contacted the Rotary
Clubs, the Ed Foundation, and the CVHS Boosters and although we were
warmly received, after thoughtful considerable and time-consuming
deliberation, we decided that our best option was to become our own
non-profit. To make a short story longer, the final determination to go it
"on our own" was made mid-January 2003. We were at the stage where we
needed a formal entity, without one it was impossible to establish a
organizational structure, in other words we couldn’t ask someone to be on
a Board that didn’t exist. On January 21st 2003 Jim Phillips
and I met with Jim Gulseth, a highly recommended Corporate Attorney, to
begin the process of creating our non-profit corporation. We completed the
prerequisite “mission statement” and held another meeting with Jim Gulseth
on February 25th to draft the Articles of Incorporation. On
March 6th we held of first Board meeting and approved our
Bylaws, nominated officers, approved the project and started the whole
process of raising fund for the new facility. |
