Executive Board Members Present: Kevin Chapman, Andy Lupo, Jackie Stein, Ellen Vogt, Chris Thornton; Shawn Panson. Absent: Ron Russell.

 

Others in attendance: Ted Phelan, Brian O’Leary, Linda DeMilt, Dan Weber, Steve Lichtenstein, Mike Curran, Henry Chun, Fred Maresca, Suresh Jaswal, Jeff Weinberg

 

 

Minutes. Approved.

 

Treasurer’s Report (Shawn)  Finances are in good shape, of course this is the point in the season when we have collected most of our money and have not spent much yet. Shawn is working on putting together an annual budget to capture all recurring costs and anticipated revenue. Expect to have that put together in months ahead. Have some outstanding bills coming in (uniforms) and Shawn is going to get a good handle on all these recurring expenses. May want to list bond payments as liabilities rather than assets – since we need to repay the money and don’t want to overstate our assets. We have a PNC line of credit available if we need it. Consideration for investment of money, but for now looking to stay with PNC.

 

Registration (Linda).  Look just about the same this year as last year at the same time. This is pretty good. Softball younger levels up slightly and older levels down slightly, but only 4-6 numbers. Baseball about the same as last year. Still 13 players “pending” (not paid). So only 1-2 variance from last year. Very positive. In better shape than we thought we might be. Fewer than 50 players who have not yet submitted birth certificates. Well ahead of the pace we need to be. Linda is willing to keep track of lists from safety clinics. Discussion of whether it is possible to upload information about coaches who have gone to safety clinics on the web site. Discussion of whether the numbers on registration for T-ball are meshing with the number of teams formed so far. Seem to be more kids signed up than the numbers on the registration. 

 

        League coordinators need to send lists of all teams (w/ team names) to Linda ASAP so that she can formulate the master list for Williamsport.

 

Softball report (Jeff).   Teams are all formed and practicing. Majors schedule is posted but not published. Minors schedule is almost done. Games will start on April 4. Need to get equipment for softball rookies. Minors and Majors have equipment bags. Managers are asking about indoor cards and shed keys. (Chris has shed keys tonight.) Andy reports that indoor cards are intended for now to be just managers using personal cards when possible – new system still in the works . . . If there are managers who need a card, Ellen can work with them to get a card.

 

        Discussion of keeping Kelly field fully occupied during the day every day, particularly on Saturdays.

 

 

Baseball Report (Chris) Majors up and running. Minors draft is completed (8 teams). All are practicing and getting ready. Managers are in place.

 

        Majors (Brian). Schedule is nearly done. Should have by tomorrow. Have advised Greg Zak re: umpire assignments. Need to plug in sponsor names. Will be loading into web site shortly. Playoffs will start on May 30. Will have a team in the district 12 Tournament of Champions, but the T of C team will also play in our playoffs with only a schedule modification – no bye. Will have to double up with the T of C as needed. Will have 3-game pool play breaking out into semi-finals, then championship game on June 13.  Andy advises that Community Park and Conover are officially “open” for practice play.

        Ron Rumack’s team is down one player. We have one open slot if we have anybody show up who deserves to be placed in minors.

 

        Minors (Scott/Randy). 

 

        AAA (Shawn) Teams have been assigned. Practice schedules are out. Season schedule is tentatively out. Will rotate AAA teams into Ward Field at 8:30 on Saturdays and on Wednesdays (if there is no rain-out make-up game for Majors/Minors). 

 

        Rookies (Sharash/Susan/Fred/Scott) Need to coordinate the games at Conover field and the games at Wasco field on Saturdays to keep Ward fully occupied and also to make sure that all games have fields.

 

        T-ball.   Teams are formed.

 

Player Agent (Jackie)   Names of coaches and managers are trickling in. Background checks are being done. Each person is being informed about whether people need to have new background checks done. People should not have the background check unless they are needed.

        Memorial awards are being discussed and there will be flyers going out. Still thinking about giving out wards other than on Championship week. There will be a NEW award this year, for a volunteer – volunteer of the year – named after a long-time WWLL volunteer.

 

 

Schedules Are all being worked on. Season will start May 30.

 

 

Big Brother/Sister (Larry) – Larry has 25+ kids, expect more as season gets closer. Good shape so far.

 

 

Equipment   (Dan) – working on getting catching gear for all majors and minors teams. Looking at getting new bats for softball teams, and also t-ball. Need team bats for younger ages, but not for Minors and Majors. A and AA teams also getting catchers’ gear, but only one set per team. Working on getting a few more catcher’s masks. Will make sure that there are shin guards for umpires. Most of the equipment bags have been handed out. Dan will be at Ward on Sunday this week to hand out more bags. (Discussion about whether to use the Wilson or the Pro Sport softballs for regular season play.)

 

        Dan will send out emails to the coordinators regarding the handing out of bags.

 

Umpires:  Linda needs to get the schedules so that umpires can be assigned. (Andy reminds that we want all the fields at Ward to be finishing up about the same time each night, particularly on Saturdays.) Mike reports that we have 28 new youth umps in the training program along with 16 returning umps. Mike and Linda will start scheduling the umps as soon as he gets the schedules. Umps will be working softball also this year. We will be using different adult ump coordinator for Softball. We will be using different adult umps for Softball, along with youth umps, and minors games will have two youth umps. Still plan to use adult umps for Majors plate assignments and youth umps for bases. Will be sending out procedures for payment for all umps.

 

 

Sponsorships:      Andy reports that Ellen has been calling sponsors and working on getting a few. Need 2 T-ball sponsors and 3 softball rookies. Thanks to Ellen!

 

 

Indoor Facility   Working well moving teams in and out. Have had t-ball clinics. Teams need to pick up after themselves and clean up the facility. Coordinators need to encourage all managers to make sure they leave the place clean. Kevin suggests that we need to have a clean-up day to clean up some of the big items that need to be fixed or cleaned up.

        Have ordered some new L-screens. Will replace those, but need more help. Will have clean-up date on March 28^th, so will send some people over to the indoor to help with that effort. Discussion of signage or sign-out sheet for managers. Should encourage following managers to report when the place is left a mess and consider revoking/docking indoor time for teams that leave the place messy.

        Still considering replacing the flooring/turf for the facility, but at this point not in the budget. Are considering some other options for less expensive material. Discussion of potential fundraising or funding sources for this effort. 

 

 

Clinics Have wrapped up. Ended well. Had decent turnout/attendance. Had some discussion of a catcher’s clinic. Bill Bethea volunteered to run the clinic if we set a day and let him know. There are some indoor slots available in which to schedule clinics. 

 

 

Upcoming Dates/Events :

 

 

Concessions:       Andy is looking to get up the schedule of volunteer assignments for the concession stand as soon as possible. Andy is looking for Juniors and Seniors in High School to work the concession for adults who want to buy out.

 

 

Movie Night; Looking at a few potential Friday Night days for movie night. May 1, 8, or 15 work best for the movie coordinator. May 29^th is probably the best night. 

 

 

Web Site:   Bill is looking to get any rules changes for posting on the web site. Need to update the 2008 information.

 

 

Memorial Day Parade (and game schedule)    Jeff Blum will be coordinating Parade. Coordinators should encourage players to come and march in the parade on Memorial Day.

 

 

Comments/additional issues. 

 

        Field maintenance issues. Ted Phelan remarked that sometimes when younger kids play early games at Assist America and Wasco, they can come in and cause problems on the field when it’s wet by dumping too much quick dry on the fields and creating mud. League needs to instruct the managers who are on those fields early on Saturday about how to take care of the fields. Andy will try to get out some emails to the managers and distribute out to the parents with proper instruction for how to take care of the field. Will post some signage for proper procedures and also will try to have some maintenance clinics.

 

        Discussion about moving early Minors game on Wasco to 8:30 so that instead of a AA game at 8:30, it’s a minors game so we have more experienced managers there first thing in the morning. For AAA games on Assist America, the managers are reasonably experienced, and if those early games get cancelled, there are two open nights each week for those games to be made up, or game can be moved to 4:00 at CP (which is otherwise open)

 

 

Awards Day – need to have some discussion about schedule for Awards Day. To be tabled for now but needs to be discussed soon.

 

 

Spring Clean-up Day March 28^th (9:00 to 12:00) @ Ward Field!

 

 

[adjourned 9:10 p.m.]