.Open letter to Seffner Seahawks Parents

September 29,2022

Dear Parents of the Seffner Seahawk Organization,

It is with mixed emotions that I write this open letter. I am the vendor for the Seffner Seahawks Swag store, uniforms, and pregame sets. I am a parent, community member and prior to this week I was also a Board Member. As a Board Member I wanted to remain in integrity with that position. Which meant even though other Board Members were giving misinformation and attempting personal attacks against my company, reputation, and family, I did not retaliate, publicly defend, or otherwise tarnish the reputation of the organization. The only communication I provided publicly was my name and phone number in my son’s group me after members of the board told parents, what team my son played for demonstrated by a parent posting in the teams Groupme and asking to be contacted regarding information given to her by board members.

Unfortunately, this all stems from an early on altercation (June 2022) with a fellow board member regarding the lack of appropriate communication from the board to parents, which she felt was a personal attack against her- the nature of the relationship turned to be tragic.

Many of you were informed that your child pregame uniforms and football uniforms were delayed due to the vendor among other lies told. This is simply untrue. While there are so many things that took place, words that were spoken I will only focus on information regarding the pregame, uniforms and funds.

The Seffner Seahawk organization did not place orders for players in a timely fashion. Board member and coach uniforms were the only ones ordered and paid for prior to the beginning of the season. Coaches and Board members paid $25.00 of their cost; parent payments covered the rest. The reason given to me by the organization for not paying for uniforms and pregame packages was that parents were not paying registration fees. They were simply signing up but not paying. I know for a fact many parents were paying fees and paid in full prior to the season beginning. In my opinion the organization is in desperate need of an external audit.

In full transparency part of the issue outside of payment was it was an absolute struggle getting sizes for players as this is the responsibility of the Athletic Director, in an open to the public board meeting the registrar stated she would collect the information during the registration process, after the verbal altercation this ceased and became a part of the issue I am speaking out about today. If only they would have collected sizes for the season as aggressively as they asked for payment and sizes for the pink jerseys …. I digress. Not only did I and other board members who positions do not require anything to do with uniforms, attempt to get sizes we received NO assistance from those whose responsibility it was to obtain sizes after said altercation. In May it was agreed upon that the organization would have everything ordered by July 1, 2022. This date came and went without the final order being placed.

They placed an order for 76 pregame (shirt, shorts, slides, bags, and socks) on August 20th during the game against the East Bay Bucs via a photocopied paper(s). They were advised in June and reminded in July, and August) that completion would take approximately 3 weeks. The order began processing that Monday August 22,2022. When I questioned them regarding payment. They stated they had to wait for the home game to generate funds from the door and concession stand. Could I please begin to make the items and they would ensure payment after the next home game “because as a Board Member I should understand the struggles”. I proceeded to work on the order.

Late August they placed an order for 40 jerseys and 31 pants via an image sent via text with a torn of piece of paper with nothing more than sizes and number of each size needed. When I brought it to the VP attention of the miscount, that 9 additional pants sizes were needed, she reduced the number of uniform jerseys to 31. This is important because at the time of order they knew they needed a minimum of 40 uniform sets ordered. In a board meeting the President told them to order the 40 needed, for whatever reason only 31 was ordered unbeknown to the President. (For those of you wondering why your child did not or still don’t have a proper uniform) NO NUMBERS WERE GIVEN and/or SPECIFIED FOR JERSEYS OR ANY INDICATION WHICH PLAYERS NEEDED A UNIFORM. AD & VP were asked for this information repeatedly. When no numbers were provided, we used numbers we knew no one had. If two players on the same team have the same number, they cannot be on the field at the same time which is obviously problematic.

On September 15 ,2022 the Athletic Director stated that the final outstanding payment would be paid, and he would come and pick up the remaining items from the order placed on September 16,2022@ 10:30 AM.

On September 16th (as with so many times before) the organization, not only did not make the payment they provided no communication as to why.

Later that afternoon(9/16) a husband-and-wife duo on the board paid the funds out of their own pocket and picked up the remaining items from the warehouse. The organization was given until September 23, 2022, to communicate any issues and discrepancies. This was submitted in writing and orally. They did not do so by this date. Meaning no communication about supposedly missing items happened via the board, only from parents communicating what board members told them.

Uniforms and pre-games were never ordered for every youth, it was brought to there attention multiple times and was the reason for changing picture date. They are attempting to fix this by having parents help pay for new jerseys (pink) to fix this issue. This could have been avoided if everyone did their job appropriately.

I was informed on September 26, 2022, that the organization had refunded some parents registration fees who did not receive their items, you may want to reach out to them for a refund as well if this includes you.

Regarding the Seffner Swag store, during the 20-21 season (prior to becoming a board member) I created an online store with 100% of the profit going to the Seffner Seahawks. In fact, all funds from the website went to the organization and I billed them at cost the end of each month for the preceding months sales. I did this because from a distance you could see the financial struggle of the organization. My child was apart of this organization therefor I was invested in there success. After realizing the high level of miscommunication and flat-out misinformation given, I decided to no longer give my profits away. Since I own the rights to the store, etc. I felt it was unfair to keep the website on the organization’s website and it does not benefit them directly. I removed the website on 9/15/22. Based on advice of our legal team, I won’t say anything else other than the website is Seffnerswag.com is up and running. You may visit the site directly and purchase.

By the way, please note paying to see your child play is strictly by donation you are NOT required to pay as stated in some of the Groupme text, this includes home games per Hillsborough County rules. As a taxpayer you pay for the park. While I do think we should continue to support the organizations our youth are involved in by paying an entrance fee, it’s important that the same organizations communicate openly and honestly.

In summary we pay to be a board member, giving of our time, money, and resources unselfishly. I believe each member of this organization have a genuine love for our youth, myself included. There are members on this board who operate with the utmost integrity there are just a few in key roles that seem to feel invincible and unfortunately, as humans allowed personal feelings to muddy the waters and become a distraction from focusing on our youth.

This organization in my humble opinion is in desperate need of true leadership. Someone that understands an organization is a business with knowledge of how to run it effectively and efficiently to serve our youth. There are bylaws, rules, and regulations in place for a reason. That while being friends is great it should have no bearing on how this organization is ran. This organization has no checks and balances. Lacks effective communication across the entire program from Board members on down to parents. Until they are reformed, address issues and follow rules, it will continue to be more of the same. It will always be someone else’s fault, lack integrity and constant giving out excuses. Our youth deserve better, we are parents and community leaders must require better. Seffner Seahawks is capable of better hold them accountable.

Respectfully Submitted,

Patricia S.

Open letter to Seffner Seahawks Parents

Open letter to Seffner Seahawks Parents

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