Meeting called to order 7:00pm
Tony DeCesare, President
Have all flyers gone out? Player agents need to contact the schools and make sure they have been distributed.
Discussion on possibly putting flyers into the newspaper next year as an insert. The schools do not seem to be getting the word out.
All player agents need to contact players from last year who have not signed up.
Also, further discussion will be held at player agent meeting on doing signups at schools and at sportsmart.
We need to be a friendlier board. There have been lots of complaints regarding last years administration and we want to be available and helpful to our members.
Greg Lisle brought up discussion that it is the same people doing everything. We have a general membership and as members they should get involved and help. To date we have no involvement or help from our general membership and that needs to change. We also need more involvement from the player agents.
Vice Presidents need to inform the managers that they need to be present at the Board of Directors meetings.
Tony needs player agents to submit their plans for tryouts.
Tony announced that effective immediately, Vicki Wood is being removed from the board for non-participation. Discussion was held as how that move could be made because she has not been detrimental to the league. How do you determine the value of a board member? Tony’s point was that Board members should give and have been asked to give him a courtesy call when they will not be present at a board meeting or function. Ralph May was the only board member to call Tony out of three board members not present. Vicki has been asked several times. Tony will give her one more courtesy call but we need her to fill her chosen responsibility. President has a right to remove the duties of any board member at any time at his discretion. The Board member then has to appeal to the Board of Directors and the board can either side with the President or reinstate the board members duties.
Mangers are a good resource to us. We need to get the managers approved so they can start showing up to the board meetings.
Mike Galindo brought up discussion that we are putting too much on our managers by asking them to do practices, games, etc. and then attend board meetings. Tony stated there is no reason that each team cannot have a representative at each board meeting. There are plenty of people on each team they can share the responsibility of going to a meeting and reporting back to the team.
Dan Murphy has reviewed the constitution received from Ernie Lewis, district 4 administrator. One change has occurred in the election committee….Currently it is comprised of individuals and Board members not planning on being re-elected. The new committee proposed would comprise of individuals and three active board of directors. Our constitution cannot be changed without the vote of the general membership. We need to respond to district four and advise them that our constitution will not be changed until the general membership meets again and most likely, it will remain the same as the membership changed it to its current status at last vote.
Shawn Stoops, Chief Umpire
There is a District 4 rules and regulations meeting March 4-5. Tickets are $15.00 each, motion made to purchase maximum allowed tickets. These ticket costs not to be out of umpire budget.
Rulebooks need to be ordered. Motion made for 50 T-Ball, 17 Jr.Sr. Baseball, 17 minor and major softball, 17 jr. sr. softball, 5 challenger, 15 umpires.
Need 20 operating manuals and 50 umpire books (The Right Call)
"L" League Western Umpire Clinic being held down south in February. $165 per person includes travel. Propose we send 5 people.
There is also a 2 day Jerry Davis Clinic up here for 6 umpires at $129 per person.
Tony suggested that due to our budget we could pay for the 5 to go but they would need to provide their own travel.
Proposed $924.00 to be split between 6 people and 2 seminars.
Proposed $400 equipment. Need 15 hats for umpires. Shirts and gear for new umpires.
Also $50 for raffle prize at District 4 clinic in March.
Tony suggested we amend budget to not include the airfare for clinics, maybe we can give .30 a mile for transportation. We can reserve spaces in clinics for $40 each and table transportation cost for future meeting.
Umpire budget approved at $1400.00, voted
and passed.
Jim Brophy, Interleague
After final signups, Jim will present his budget to the board.
Once budget has been done, Jim can give the league money from his challenger funds to pay league bills.
Jim has collected sponsor checks in the amount of $2500, $250, and $303.26.
Jim spoke to Jean Dolan at Dolan lumber and was told they would donate $500 in lumber but would like to see that as their sponsorship. Greg Lisle would prefer to see actual money paid and then we can buy lumber when we need it.
Craig Gietzen brought up that we do need wood for bleachers. If we cannot get wood at cost then we may need to pull out bleachers all together.
Jim will get information to Craig regarding
the maintenance supervisor, Guy Grace, from DVC.
Greg Lisle, Public Relations/Sponsors
We have received between 6-8 sponsors to date.
Main focus is on General Membership at this time to solicit sponsors. Greg is starting to call the general membership.
Hot sheets to chamber of commerce on 15th. They will go out around the 23rd.
We need to get 50 sponsors by February 2nd,
We are also looking for four $5000 sponsors.
If someone donates that much, they have their company name painted on the
back of the dugout.
Craig Gietzen, Safety Officer
Safety Manual has been sent to Williamsport, it is printed and ready to go.
Safety meeting tentatively set for January 18th. Need to reserve the water district for that meeting.
First Aid Kits. We have approval from Tony’s company for $5.00 per kit. They need to contain gloves, bandages and necessary first aid material. We have to large kits, one in each snack shack. Tony to restock those. Discussion on possibly putting kits in the scorebooths.
Lease with the school district is signed.
Craig to get together with Dick Stoddard for availability dates for interleague play. Need 1 day a week.
Bleachers are still a major concern. In touch with purchasing department for school district. Also need 1000 linear feet of wood just to make bleachers safe.
The state of California will be mandating aluminum bleachers. If we can even get aluminum planks we can attach them to our frames. $1800 estimated price for 4 rows.
If we purchase aluminum bleachers we need to anchor them into the ground to prevent theft.
We need some heavy netting for bleachers for safety issues so kids don’t fall through. If we purchase aluminum bleachers they come with a cyclone fence around them.
We have 6 practice fields and pay $400 for three. Our bill was $1200.00. Mt. Diablo and Concord High we do not pay for. We do the maintenance. There is currently $900 due for cinder.
Ed McLaughlin is taking over as major fields representative.
Mike Dalhquist spraying all fields.
We have a serious gopher problem at Mt. Diablo. There is a company that will charge us $20 per gopher trapped, guaranteed. Will come back for free. Motion made to spend up to $150 on gopher problem. Voted and passed.
Shawn to collect all umpire gear in dugouts.
Opening day meetings still in progress.
Need to get hold of Tim Hovland regarding games, otherwise, all on track.
Dan Murphy, Treasurer
We have 300 kids signed up. We will be accepting signups at tryouts if need be.
$4000 in debt has been paid off.
We need three copies of the signup application.
One to the manager, the league and the player agent.
Dick Stoddard, Interleague Vice President
We are ahead of last year in signups for softball. Minor league coach from last year has left the league.
Tryouts for softball will be held on the 22nd of January.
Uniforms. Downsizing for girls.
Discussion had to possibly have returning players wear last years uniforms
to save money. Craig addressed, stating that could cause a problem
when other players are getting new uniforms, softball parents could ask
for lower registration fee.
Kathy Sheehan, Auxiliary Director
Golf Tournament committee has had their first meeting. Plans are under way.
Discussion held as to our commitment as far as the contract is concerned. Kathy to contact Sandy at the golf course to determine if we can cancel tournament without a fee if we have no response. Next committee meeting is January 10th, 6:30 at Kathy’s house.
December 18th at 9:00 is the clean-up party for the Mt. Diablo snack shack.
Need funds to stock snack shack prior to tryouts. Discussion held to have a limited menu for tryouts so we can keep costs down and besides, there will not be a high demand for a large variety of things.
Decided $300-500 should be plenty for tryouts. Voted and passed.
Need volunteers to run snack shack for tryouts. If anyone can help please let Kathy know.
Last date for newsletter insert December
28th.
Mike Galindo, Vice President
Managers. Based on the number of kids signed up we do not want to over commit to managers at this point. We need to balance teams then we have others to choose from. Right now, some managers exceed divisions.
T-Ball managers will be determined in January.
‘A’ – Two managers are being reviewed, Jim
Vouken – we have to make sure his son is 7 at time
of playing before approving. Tim Hovland, voted and passed.
‘AA’ – Four returning managers. Steve Ray, Mike Dahlquist, Wayne Horvot and Bill Perry. Bill needs to pay membership before appointment. Greg Lisle paid membership for him. All four voted and passed.
‘AAA’ – Bill Finn, Steve Madera, Greg Savage, George Goodrich. Voted and passed.
Major – We have five managers. Only
assigning managers to 4 teams with property players.
Giants team not full yet. Discussion held to disband Cardinals.
Only five returning
Players, least of all teams. Only if we do not pick up new players.
There is such a thing as property players but we do not have property managers.
Craig Gietzen, Mike Duckworth, Greg Lisle, Bob Lee and Brian Bristol.
Voted and
Passed.
We have a sixth manager waiting for appointment.
We have to stay aware of how many board members are managers. Make sure they do not exceed requirements.
Softball – coaches Mike Skinner and Mike Mederios. Conditional based on clearance through Police department. Voted and passed.
Challenger – need to hold interviews prior to appointments.
New Business:
Last signups are Monday night January 3rd.
Next Board meeting is January 6th at 7:00 in room #210 at Concord High.
Meeting adjourned 10:00
Submitted by:
Kathy Sheehan, Auxiliary Director