West Windsor Little League Board Meeting minutes November 13, 2007
In attendance: Executive Board Members – Andy Lupo, Chris Thornton , Ron Russell, Ellen Vogt, Kevin Chapman, Holly Shemitz, Ed O’Connor.
Also in attendance: Nick Schiera, Bob Sacco, Jeff Weinberg, Larry Charlip, Linda DeMilt, Andrew Klein, Steven Lichtenstein, Suresh Jaswal, Thomas Carroll, Frank Pilkiewicz, Robert Bacall, Mike Meduski, Brian O’Leary.
Meeting scheduled to start at .
Call to order [] (By Kevin Chapman)
Minutes of 10/16/07 meeting were approved.
Treasurer’s Report. Ed O’Connor. Discussion of on-line payment system on new web site. Ellen says it’s ready to go. Ed will shut down all the e-commerce links on the old web site. Ed confirmed that he will send out checks for umpires when received from Kevin Chapman.
Web Site/registration. Ellen and Andrew Klein report on progress on the new web site. Offers superior e-commerce options. Hope to have all functionality up and running, and to have registration link live very soon. Expect to have registration set up so that families can register multiple children easily.
Ellen and Ron Russell will work through the problem of softball registrations that came through the old web site, including some families who paid too much at the time of registration, and some who registered without paying and whose information needs to be migrated to the new system.
Coach evaluation forms. Discussion of how to get better return rates on coach/manager evaluation forms. Suggestions included requiring return of evaluation as a condition of receiving bond refund (generally rejected), providing a link during the registration process, handing out forms along with picture forms, and appointing a team parent to collect forms as an official “volunteer” activity. Some indication also of a need to slightly revise the form itself. Holly will coordinate that effort.
Volunteer Bonds. Ellen is working on the stragglers. Bond for 2008 will be $75 per child with a $150 per family max. Refunds for families over the max., as well as refunds for Board members, will be processed immediately after registration.
Softball Report (Ron Russell). Ron Reports that softball clinics are going well, but are less well attended than we would like, except for the pitching clinics, which the families are paying for. Jeff Weinberg will be named Asst. VP-Softball to help Ron. Ron is seeking a volunteer to take over administrative responsibility for the clinics.
Baseball Report (Chris Thornton). Chris is working on getting updated descriptions for the league divisions for the web site. (Anyone having comments on the descriptions on the web site should send to Ellen Vogt or Tom O’Connor.) Tom reported that the league has recommended to bat the entire order in Majors next year. Brian O’Leary suggested that we should make minimum defensive playing time 3 innings this year, since there will be free substitutions. This was generally agreed. Tom and Chris described that District 12 is trying to organize a ‘tournament of champions’ for the end of the season in which one team from each league (not an all-star team, but a regular season team) would play in a district-wide tournament. Tom will present a proposal to the Board about how we might choose which Majors team plays in that tournament, and how that team would be worked back into the WW playoffs after the district tournament finishes up.
Brian O’Leary reported on Minors, AAA, and Rookie ball. Expectations are about the same this year about age break-downs. Some discussion about whether to have kid pitching in AA or not, and whether to institute some kind of coach-pitch option for AAA if the pitchers are having trouble throwing strikes.
Indoor Facility/Clinics. Comments about the need to keep one batting cage free all the time for “walk-in” business by parents – don’t want the clinics and team practices to monopolize the facility. Andy will consider putting up a sign reserving the farthest Iron Mike cage for walk-in use. We’re still waiting for the new turf in the indoor, pending the availability of the installer.
Ron Russell noted a problem with the cleanliness of the facility, particularly between Thursday nights and Sunday mornings.
Note: Al & Al clinic for district 12 will be held at HS South on March 15th. Mark the date! The league will pay the $10 fee for anyone who attends from WW.
Equipment. Motion to mandate use of face-guards for all girls softball. PASSED.
Rob Bacall reports that he has faceguards for any players who have their own helmets and want to add faceguards.
Discussion about whether to use double-base at first base for baseball. Some concerns expressed about not being able to mandate them on all WW fields that we don’t control, and whether other leagues will be doing the same. Andy and Chris will take the matter up at the District meeting.
Projects. USAF is working on the practice pitching mounds behind the indoor facility, and expect to have them ready to go soon.
Looking into some kind of ground cover for the entrances to the dugouts at Ward.
Looking into new tarps for Ward.
Chris Thornton recognized and thanked Frank P and Steve L for coordinating Fall Ball.
League needs a new EQUIPMENT COORDINATOR volunteer to take over for Rob Bacall. (Discussion of possible recruitment sources)
Adjourn: []
Note that Ward Field year-end cleanup day is Saturday, November 4 to .
Next Board meeting is December 11th – – WW Municipal Center (Council Room)
