Management Team - Part 3 Lisa Stevenson

This is the 3rd of three articles that I have written about the CASL Management team. I have been blessed with a great staff and I want to share that with the members of CASL.

                                                     Charlie Slagle

WHAT A YEAR-Thank you CASL Management Team

Part 3: Lisa Stevenson-CASL Business Manager

By Charlie Slagle-CASL CEO

About one year ago Jay Howell, CASL’s excellent Director of Coaching, left CASL to become the Executive Director of Birmingham United in Alabama. Jay is doing well and we all wish him continued success with his club! I had been with CASL for nine years then and worked closely with Jay on the direction of the club and his departure meant that CASL’s organizational chart needed to change. I did this quickly as CASL, I thought, already had the personnel in place to make a seamless transition for the years to come.  CASL added and/or changed a few job descriptions and titles and the “new” management team was devised. This management team consists of Business Manager, Lisa Stevenson, Chief Operating Officer (COO), Michael Milazzo and Director of Coaching (DOC), Rusty Scarborough. I, as CEO, am the fourth member of this group. Michael also serves as CASL’s marketing director.

The transition to the “new” management team has gone, in my opinion, even better than my “pie in the sky” expectations. The last year has been a wonderful year for CASL, on the fields, in the office and with improvements to CASL’s infrastructure. Some of these accomplishments are more visible to a member’s eyes than others. It is easy to see the success on the field and it is easy to see the improvements to WRAL Soccer Center but the differences in the way CASL operates is a little more difficult to see.

Over the last couple of weeks, in two separate articles, I have commented on the contributions of two CASL management team members, DOC, Rusty Scarborough and COO, Michael Milazzo. Today, I am writing Part 3 of 3 and will highlight CASL Business Manager, Lisa Stevenson. For “semi” bios on these three, please refer to my CASL blog, which is accessible from the CASL home page. Each of these three was highlighted in a blog entry earlier this year and these articles have also been posted on the Charlie CASL blog.

Lisa Stevenson has been working for CASL for more than a decade focusing on the financial end of the business. She inherited me as the CEO almost 10 years ago and had to train a college soccer coach in the art of being an administrator. In the early days of my CASL tenure, the budget procedure was shaky, at best. There was a deficit and CASL was in the process of building what is now WakeMed Soccer Park. The money to build the soccer park came from interlocal tax funds due to the success of CASL’s Shootouts and Showcases (now the CASL visitraleigh.com National Soccer Series presented by Chelsea Football Club). Construction stayed within budget but CASL had to maintain a new park with no outside operating budget. The soccer park was a drain to the CASL budget above and beyond the deficit that was already in place. With Lisa’s guidance, CASL stemmed the tide of this until the Town of Cary took over the management of the soccer park. After Cary took over the park, CASL eliminated the deficit in just over one year. Since that day, CASL has been in the black, yearly. Lisa Stevenson was instrumental in my early years of keeping the budget on track and eventually eliminating the deficit and keeping it away.

CASL is a 501-c-3 non-profit corporation. Non-profit means that CASL can not make a profit but it doesn’t mean that CASL cannot incur a loss….therefore it could be a “loss” corporation. Lisa has been a gentle “bulldog” in making sure that employees do not overspend their budget and that, as a whole, CASL’s financial end runs smoothly. Lisa and I are the architects of the CASL yearly budget which has a revenue and expense of close to 5 million dollars.

She is instrumental in this process!

Lisa Stevenson acts as CASL’s HR person, as well. Lisa has had to learn this side of the business and has done so through classes and various seminars etc. She does a wonderful job in regards to employee benefits and the various laws and rules that govern businesses.

Lisa is now in the process of over-hauling CASL’s budget structure. This new program-based budget has been two years in the making and Lisa has led the way in this endeavor. There will be differences in the recording of transactions and more individual employee responsibility in regards to their part of the budget. I am sure, that due to Lisa’s work on this that the process will continue to move forward and that when full implementation of this process is complete, it will improve CASL.

As valuable as the other two members of the CASL Management Team are, Lisa may be the most valuable to the organization. Lisa knows what is happening in all realms of the organization, in regards to revenue and expenses. She is well versed in all the nuances of employee rules and laws and keeps the staff informed of anything that they need to know. Lisa handles all her duties in a professional manner. She does this humbly and has garnered the respect of all that work for CASL and all the outside entities which she has to deal with.

Lisa Stevenson has helped guide me in my first 10 years on the job here at CASL and she continues to guide me to this day. I look forward to many more years of working with Lisa as everyone’s job (including mine) is a little easier due to Lisa being CASL’s Business Manager!