Most of you are aware of the occasional difficulties associated with securing permits for practice fields in Montgomery County, as our finite supply of ball fields continues to have increased demand for use. In response to requests for help in improving the process, MSI has agreed to work with CUPF (one of the two field permitting organizations in Montgomery County) to manage what is referred to as “block permitting”, whereby a large block of fields (with specific days and times) is permitted directly to MSI for distribution to MSI teams. This is an extraordinarily challenging process for MSI, and we will do our best to provide the best support we can to all of you.
We post the inventory of available fields and a request form on our website. However, all of our coaches should be familiar with the range of opportunities for obtaining practice field permits for fields in Montgomery County. As most of you know, permits are issued by two different organizations in Montgomery County:
- M-NCPPC (which permits all Park fields and some school fields), and
- CUPF (which permits most school fields).
It is important to highlight that MSI’s block permitting program relates primarily to fields permitted by CUPF. A handful of school fields that were formerly permitted by CUPF are now permitted by M-NCPPC and will be included on the list of available fields from MSI. All other fields permitted by M-NCPPC are handled the same way they always have been, with no change to the procedures (i.e., you submit your requests directly to M-NCPPC). If you are interested in a school field, you should first check the MSI list and, if it is not listed, go to the Montgomery County web page to determine whether a specific field is permitted by M-NCPPC or CUPF. The web addresses for permit info from both organizations is listed above.
The remainder of this information relates strictly to the MSI block permitting process for CUPF-permitted fields.
1. Thursday, July 22, 2010 (est): MSI posts a listing of all CUPF fields for which we hold Fall permits, along with exact days of the week and practice times available. At the same time, we post a “Practice Permit Request Form” for coaches to complete and submit via regular mail. All MSI teams (Recreational, Classic, and Premier) will be allowed to submit requests. The permit fee for MSI teams will be $30.
2. Wednesday, August 4: This will be the “on-time” deadline for submittal of practice permit requests, and MSI will work feverishly to quickly sort through the five hundred requests we expect to receive and make the best assignments that we can possibly make.
3. Monday, August 16 (est.): MSI will post a list of practice permit assignments on the MSI website, along with an updated listing of remaining available permits. Coaches should print that report, and consider that report to be their “official permit” and keep it accessible when running practices. Remember that you may be sharing a field with another MSI team (e.g., two 2nd grade teams might share a field that alternatively might be permitted to a single HS-aged team).
There are certain limitations associated with block permitting of practice fields. Block permitting works very well when you have a critical mass of teams in a given geographic area, along with a critical mass of co-located practice fields, and therefore can reasonably predict that your permit block will enable individual teams to find a convenient field that is available on a convenient day and time. This does not work very well in areas where this mass of both supply and demand does not co-exist, and certain adjustments are being made to avoid problems where possible. Additionally, we have very few teams asking to practice during the weekend, therefore CUPF will accept and process permit requests for Saturday/Sunday fields directly from MSI teams (you can use the same link listed above to submit your request).
In summary, CUPF is giving blocks of permits to MSI for schools located in the High School Clusters listed below. If you are interested in obtaining a permit for a school that is not located within one of these clusters, you need to submit your permit request directly to CUPF as soon as possible (and CUPF will deal directly with you). If you are interested in a permit for a school that is located within these clusters, you will need to permit through MSI. If you are uncertain as to which High School cluster a school falls in, you may find out that information via the MCPS website at the following link:
http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/departments/clusteradmin/
MSI block permits will be available for various school fields within the following High School clusters:
- Whitman
- BCC
- Walter Johnson
- Churchill
- Wootton
- Richard Montgomery
- Rockville
- Quince Orchard
(A handful of fields outside of the above HS clusters are also available on the list.)