West Windsor Little League
Board Meeting minutes
September 9, 2008
In attendance: Executive Board Members – Andy Lupo, Holly Shemitz, Ron Russell, Ellen Vogt, Kevin Chapman. Absent: Chris Thornton, Ed O’Connor.
Also in attendance: .Jacqueline Stein, Dana Panson, Shawn Panson, Larry Charlip, Nick Schiera, Theresa Chao-Bergman, Jeff Weinberg, Suresh Jaswal, Steve Lichtenstein, Bill Kramer, Brian O’Leary, George Revock, Andrew Klein.
Meeting scheduled to start at 7:30.
Call to order 7:45 p.m. (By Andy Lupo)
Treasurer’s report – Ed O’Connor (none)
Softball Report. –..Ron Russell. Season ended 2nd place in Bordentown tournament (12s) Third place in 8-year-old tournament (we hosted). Hosting the tournament worked out well for us. Had some girls play on both 8 and 9-year-old teams and got lots of play. Bordentown tournament did not conflict with our playoffs.
Looking forward to winter clinics. May try to get some of the older girls to help with clinics, especially for the younger girls (pitching and catching).
Baseball Report –.Kevin Chapman.
Regular season ended well, exciting games and good crowds. Note concerns about season ending so late last year. Andy stated that the new Board will have to deal with that issue and balance the benefits of the extended season vs. the pressure it puts on the post-season teams.
Post season was very successful. 10s finished 2nd in District, then third the late district tournament. 8s won two tournaments. 11s won late district tournament. 12s did well in districts and won late district tournament. Had an 11/12 tournament team that played in three tournaments. Good summer.
Summer Rec Baseball. Had 80 kids registered for summer rec baseball. Had t-ball, 8/9, and 10/11. Had some problems getting managers. Bill Bethea handled duties for older age group, which worked out very well. (Thanks, Bill) Dana P described the program as quite successful.
Fall Ball- -Steve Lichtenstein. Working with managers. Teams are formed and already playing games. Two 10/12 teams. Three 8/9 teams. Two 6/7 teams. Some drain on Fall Ball registration due to travel fall teams.
Umpires – Kevin Chapman/George Revok. Last year had abundance of youth umpires. Looking forward to next year, would like to solicit a non-manager parent to handle the administrative duties of scheduling umpires.
Youth umps are being used for Fall Ball and we have enough to handle the program.
Equipment – still working on getting equipment back from post-season mangers.
Volunteer Bonds. Ellen V. All bonds have been refunded. (A few checks that were supposed to go out via Ed.) Any family that did not get bond back should contact Ellen Vogt. (Check credit card statement first to make sure there wasn’t a credit already)
Website: Andrew Klein. Web site will be having a make-over for next year. Will be working on improvements. Registration and ecommerce functions were much better on the new web site. Other elements can get better. Stay tuned for next month. Visit the web site to check things out.
League coordinators can send in blurbs describing the league for the web site.
Player Agent. Got a good turnout/response on manager/coach evaluations for regular season. Good for post-season. Nothing for rec. baseball. (responses are confidential)
Note that we need to have a better response each year for nominations for the memorial awards on Awards day. Need to get them in earlier so that the player agent can do the appropriate research in order to give out the awards to the most deserving kids.
Thought about breaking up awards ceremony on awards day. League-wide awards, then split up for league awards.
Election of Board of Directors.
Nominations for Board Seats: Slate of candidates has been nominated. Current Board in place except for: Jackie Stein (player Agent), Shawn Panson (Treasurer).
Approved by acclimation.
Player Development – Looking for leadership for the winter clinic and player development program. Volunteers are very welcome.
Indoor Facility –..Will be setting up winter programs. Will rent out to outside organizations as time/space permits (for a fee). See Andy for requests for space. Clinics should get going in December.
Have done some work on the floor in front of the t-cage area. (Much better) Will be looking at additional floor/turf work in the indoor. We are upgrading the key-card system that will allow us to have new cards so that all managers will have a key card. This will require all everyone to swap out old cards for new cards, including everyone who purchased a personal card.
Field Maintenance/Projects: .Working on paving the front of the parking lot. All fields have been worked on and are in very good shape. Bull pen for softball field is in, but a little too close to the infield.
Have permission to install lights at CP field. Will need to raise some funds or get some public support for that, so not likely for a while.
Ward Scoreboards have been refurbished and are waiting to be re-installed.
Solicitation of Volunteers! Andy says that everyone can help recruit friends and neighbors. Need more volunteers.
Special thanks to Holly for dedicated service as Player Agent.
Comments/new issues
Brian O’Leary – needs reimbursement for summer tournament umpire fees!
Adjourn: 8:40
Next Board meeting is October 14 – 7:30 – WW Municipal Center.
