Woodinville Little League Board Meeting

October 1, 2002

 

 

Minutes for September reviewed and unanimously approved.

 

New Board Members Elected

 

Jay Byram         – Farm Player Agent

Paul Johnson     – Jamboree Coordinator

 

Jay and Paul were both nominated and unanimously approved for board positions.

 

 

New Divisions

 

Rob Schwend presented two proposals to the board based on a review of the league’s demographics done by Rob, Erik Mischke and Charlie Chase.

 

  • Both proposals recommend splitting the Farm division into two new divisions: AA and AAA.
  • The difference between the proposals is that one recommends adding a team at Majors and a team at Minors while the other does not.

 

Several questions/concerns were raised during the discussion:

·         How do we determine who is AA and AAA?

·         Is a player review appropriate?

·         What rules will each division play under?

·         Can a player at Rookie move directly to AAA?

·         Do parents get to overrule the coach’s and player agent recommendation

 

From the discussion, the following policies were adopted:

  • It was agreed that for a player to be eligible for AAA, he /she had to have played one year of AA.
  • It was also agreed that for a player to be eligible for AA, he/she had to have played one year of Rookie.
  • There will be no player review for AA or AAA. Placement will be based on a combination of player agent and coach recommendations with input from parents.
  • Parents cannot overrule these policies but can ask for their child to play at the next level provided that the child has already played one year at the prerequisite level.

 

 

After further discussion, the majority of the board voted to add a team at Major and Minor and split the Farm division into AA and AAA.

 

Rules for each of the two levels would be reviewed and posted to the league web site before registration.

 

 

 

 

 

Registration Fees

 

Charlie Chase shared three fee increase proposals for the 2003 season including comparisons to the other leagues (Woodinville West, North Bothell and Northshore). Two of the proposals were age based while the third was level based.

 

The following statements were made by the President based on his analyses of the budget and actual expenses from the 2002 season.

 

  • The league is spending more that it is taking in.
  • T-Ball and Rookie are subsidizing the upper levels.
  • Costs are going up for fields, insurance, district hosting of tournaments, etc.
  • Sponsorships are not guaranteed income given a weaker economy.

 

From the ensuing discussions, the consensus was that WLL offers the best price/value compared to other sports based on what other sports charge.

 

Both Softball and Junior/Senior levels carried higher costs due to umpire fees and field usage fees. It would be unreasonable to charge fees that completely covered all of those expenses since it would make it prohibitively expensive for those programs to exist.

 

A new proposal was offered by George Pavlos which modified one of the proposals by increasing the fees for 7-9 yr olds to $80 and 10-12 yr olds $90. This new proposal was discussed and then each proposal was voted on.

 

The board voted to raise fees for the 2003 season as follows:

 

Age                  Fee

5-6                                       $65

7-9                                       $80

10-12                                $90

13-16                $120

 

Registration

 

Dates, times and location are confirmed. November 15th from 5pm – 8pm and November 16th from 9am – 1pm at Cottage Lake Elementary.

 

New players will have the standard form to fill out.

 

All returning players will have a new process at registration that uses pre-printed forms based on what is in the league database. We will collect birth certificate information this year from all players to make certain we are accurate and in compliance with national LL policies.

 

Layout is the same as last year. One entrance and one exit. Boundaries checked on entry.

 

Action Items

Registration Forms –                  Irene, Bill (PostNet)

Weekly Ad –                             Cheryl

Volunteer Forms –                     Irene (PostNet)

Pre-printed Forms –                   Charlie (PostNet)

School Flyers –                         Deb, Mike Surber

Player Review Card –                 Deb , Mike Surber

Player Registration Card –          Bill, Irene (PostNet)

Road Signs –                             Paul Johnson

Interior Signs –                          Dave Kummerlowe

 

Umpires

 

Umpire pool needs to be funded by parents- this is a fair expectation and needs to be communicated through the teams.

 

High School kids could be a resource to get community service credits.

 

Clinics are available for incoming umpires.

 

 

Refund Policy

 

Refund policy needs to be firmer.

 

We issued $1500 in refunds last season and many were for people just deciding not to play after teams were formed. This creates too many problems because too many parents are registering their children without a real commitment to play.

 

New refund policy proposal is as follows:

  • Refund up 50% of fee paid allowed until January 31st.
  • No refunds allowed after January 31st.

 

Policy was voted on and unanimously approved.

 

Meeting was adjourned.