West Windsor Little League
Board Meeting Minutes
May 4, 2010
In attendance: Executive Board: Andy Lupo, Ellen Vogt, Jacqui Stein, Ron Russell, Shawn Panson, Kim Strype
Others in attendance: Larry Charlip, Ted Phelan, Bill Kramer, Brian O’Leary, Steve Lichtenstein, Chris Siegler, Randy Kertes, Randy Kullman.
Minutes
March and April minutes were approved.
Softball (Ron)
There are no softball games scheduled for this Friday, May 7. It is the North/South softball game to be held at Ward. In Rookie, the pitching sessions have started. We have 34 girls signed up for the clinic. We will send out an email blast to see if there is any interest in the U8 Tournament. So far only have 4/5 responses. It doesn’t look like it will happen.
Baseball (Larry)
The majors are what we thought it would be. They are relatively competitive games and now trying to finalize the playoff schedule. The Tournament of Champions team will get a bye in the first round. In the Minors, the format for the playoff is set up. Just looking into the dates. AAA everything is fine. Ellen and Jacqui have been checking to make sure an adult is on the field or reminding them if not. In Rookie and T-ball everything is going well.
Registration
We are up 5 players from last year.
Player Evaluations
We will be giving player evaluations to the coordinators to handout to the managers.
Player Agent ( Jacqui)
Still waiting on some volunteer forms and background checks. If this is not taken care of parents will not get credit for volunteering.
Big Brother/Big Sister
There was a discussion on exactly where a Big Brother or Big Sister could help in the field. From now on, a Big Brother can coach 1st base but we strongly advise against using them on 3rd base. They are not allowed to go out to the mound. They must wear a helmet when on the field. Depending on the circumstances, a Big Sister may go out to the mound. The reasoning behind this is that she may have been a pitcher and can help advise the player better than a manager can.
Website ( Bill)
There is now a lost and found feature on the website. Also, information for post season is posted. The estimated time for the new linked photo site which will be able to have parents post their WWLL-related photos is June in time for post season. We have found a photo coordinator for the website, Bob Bellotti. He will be responsible for reviewing the photos that are submitted and then approving them to be published for public view.
Bill has found an alternative to Demosphere called League Athletics. Among the benefits:
· It may be able to cut our website cost in half from approximately $9,825 to $5,395 per year. The biggest difference is that League Athletics will not charge us $2.50 per registration per season like Demosphere currently does.
· Improved functionality for parents for scheduling. It has an option to be able select several teams and create a customized view of the schedules for any number of teams. It also gives the option to create a feed for those teams’ schedules into iPhones and Outlook.
· We would be able to distribute more administrative tasks to other people because this system will allow us to give more flexibility in creating limited administrative access only to certain parts of the website, while our current one does not offer as much flexibility.
· The new one appears to have a better system for managing umpires.
· Through the League Athletics site, we’ve found several local baseball or softball organizations that are using them, and we’ve reached out for recommendations based on their experience.
We will begin testing the new system in earnest, and if we’re satisfied with the results, we can have it up and running for Fall Ball, but we may have to pay a small amount ($450 for an extra quarter at Demosphere) to make sure we don’t have any gaps in our web presence.
It was motioned and approved to move forward on League Athletics.
Umpires
There has been some problems with double scheduling and will be reaching out to Mike Curran to look into this.
Safety Report
Reminder to fill out an accident report if something does happen at the game.
High School Scholarships
The league gives out $500 scholarships to a baseball and softball player from HSS and HSN. We had 14 applications this year. The students’ names are not on the applications. The Executive Board votes by using codes that are assigned to each application.
Raffles
The packets are being put together on May 8 and will be handed out soon after that. The proceeds from the raffle will pay for batting cages at Community Park.
Post Season Registration
Flyers were handed out on Picture Day. Baseball is set to close registration on May 25 and softball to close June 1.
Post Season Tournaments at Ward Field.
We will be passing on the Softball 8’s Tournament. We will be hosting the finals for the Baseball 10’s Tournament. We will be posting the Districts Tournaments dates on the website.
Summer Baseball Recreation Program
We will send out an email to see if anyone is interested in running it.
Memorial Awards
We will remind coordinators to let parents know. We will send out an email to all managers.
Trenton Thunder Night
It is to be held on May 15 and we have sold 60 tickets so far.
Aquafina Pitch, Hit and Run
We have a coordinator and two volunteers to help run this.
Memorial Day Parade
It will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday May 31. Jeffrey Bloom is coordinating and more information will be coming out.
Movie Night
Movie night will be held on June 4 and we will be showing "Rookie of the Year". Flyers were handed out to notify everyone.
Tournament of Champions
Tournament of Champions will be held on 6/11-6/12.
Indoor Facility
Nothing new to report.
Concessions
Everything is moving. There are no issues at this time.
Equipment
There are no problems at this time. Please notify Dan Weber if any problems arise.
Meeting adjourned: 9:30
