Derry Little League
Board of Directors Monthly Meeting

MeetingMinutes June 2, 2014

Attendees

Board Members
Ray Feoli / Jeff Kattar / Don Kirkland
David Zimmerle / Craig Santoro / Karen Simard
A.J. Giammichele / Doug Morin / John Blakie
Jim Kane / Brian Ernst / Glenn McGill
Tom Vallone / Dale Twomey / Tom Torres
Guests
Brian Sykes / Jennifer Connors / Michael Connors
Susan McGill

Guest Comments

Guests commented that they would like to see more representation for Girls’ softball. …Especially during events such as Opening Day ceremonies. There is a feeling among some in the DLL community, that Girls’ softball gets short-shrift.

Response is that Girls’ Softball is still a growing program, but moreover that Girls’ Softball is treated as part of Derry Little League and NOT a separate entity. Thus, while we will continue to promote for more participation in the Softball program, it will not be called out any differently than the other League Divisions (AA, AAA, Majors, and Seniors).

Question: what does it take to get scoreboard working at Veteran’s Park? Some discussion about whether it’s needed.

ACTION: Tom T. volunteered to look into it. Comment… town is a bit touchy about the field and there could be safety issues with regard to the electrical.

Question: Is there netting for 1st base side at Vet’s field.

Response: We will get someone to look into it.

Secretary’s Report

No Report this month.

Treasurer’s Report

  • Dale presents May report. Board and guests review. Dale comments that we’re getting close to paying off mortgage (9 more payments).
  • Motion to approve report. Seconded. APPROVED.

President’s report:

  • Ray reviews profit and loss statement from Quick Books… Just showing a sample of the kind of reporting we can get using real data.
  • Tom T. comments that concession revenue will be reported as separate line item.
  • Data can be used for our year-end financial reporting.

EVP report:

Playoff season is beginning… some teams in the state are complaining that they did not get all games in. Response is that those teams need to “get on it.” The consensus is that all towns experienced weather difficulties, and most managed to reschedule rained-out games and meet the number of games required.

Don recommends getting email out to announce Jimmy Fund League.

Reminder that someone is present for tournament meeting.

Suggestion (Sue McGill) about Jimmy Fund League: If we can come with fund raising schedule before league starts…. It will be easier to set expectations. Fund raising part should be at least as important as the ball playing. E.G. locations for canning need time to be arranged. Waiting to the last minute poses difficulty.

VP Division Report

AA – going well

AAA – going well….

Majors – going well

Seniors – going well

Softball – will have practice every Sunday at 09:00 for league age 11 -12… Some issue with commitment from players… otherwise all is well.

Old Business

Fall Ball Registration

Discussion about raising registration fee…. Has been $50 for past few years… Discussion on our costs… Last year we made approximately $2,800… Suggestion to include fund raiser…. Possibly offer raffle at All-Star game. Even if we raise it to $60, we’re still less expensive than surrounding towns. We offer 18 games….

Motion to keep at $50. Seconded. APPROVED.

Fund Raising / Soliciting Sponsors

Fund raising has not worked out the way we’d hoped.

We extended fund-raising because of rain…

Suggested that fund-raising should be an item that is brought up right in the beginning of the season, starting at team meeting

Intermediate for 2015

Discussion on merits of offering an Intermediate team for 2015.

Many Derry kids have gone to play AAU baseball.

DLL Intermediate team could offer an alternative to AAU

Question: Can we groom 11 – 12 year olds to be a tournament team?

Consensus is to move forward with 2015 Intermediate team.

Fund Raising / Soliciting Sponsors

Discussion: Possibly shifting sponsors to hats – rather than on shirts…
No conclusion.

End of Year Banquet

Discussion on whether to hold an end-of-season “banquet” or some kind of social…

  • Kohl’s does ice cream socials… with their volunteers… can we get them to staff a banquet event?
  • We do have a core team of our own volunteers from concession stand who might help.
  • We’d need a committee…
  • Agree to table it this year.

Other Old Business

All Star Uniforms …

Reminder to not take uniforms from equipment shack until teams and managers have been announced.

Tom Torres Offering Thanks to:

  • David Clark to get banners done and hung
  • Sue McGill for getting people to sign up to work in the concession stand
  • Also thanking Nancy Jean and Patty for opening concession stand
  • Thanks to all that have been involved in staffing the concession stand so far this season. It is a huge benefit to the league and all of its members to have it open for every game. It helps with the mortgage on the stand, buying equipment and many other things like keeping the league fees low. When it is closed we lose out quite a bit. This past Saturday we opened for 1 game only.
  • Thank you -- Nancy Jean and Patti for keeping the day from being a total loss. The revenue lost for Saturday was around $450 - $500 dollars.
  • Thanks Nancy Jean for opening the stand for Sunday’s game. I am sure it was appreciated by many.

Safety

We have had injuries…. Coaches keep closer tabs on teams… Remember:

  • No more than 3 no less than 1 coach in dugouts at all times
  • Check all equipment for safe and legal use
  • Throat guards are a must… some have not been using…
  • No flip flops for managers…
  • Keep players from hanging on fence – especially with fingers through the fence.

Tom T. to be on vacation …. Needs volunteer to collect money and receipts for concession… and make deposits… … Has a sign for Convenient MD that needs to be hung… (committed $1000 / year for five years).

New Business

Tournament Managers
Need to identify tournament managers for:

  • 12 year oldsJimmy Fund Competitive and Non-competitive.
  • 11 year olds Jimmy Fund Competitive and Non-competitive.

Sue wants to know what to order for shirts….. don’t know teams yet… Only ordering shirts and hats…. Suggestion is to order several sizes for each team.

All Star Voting

Majors – first place team gets to pick only 3 players… Because of odd number of teams… Seems unfair to first place team.

Ray suggests we need to amend local rules to minimize confusion… have well-defined agreed-upon strategy.

e.g. manager cannot select his own kid… Issue is do we want 12 kids on a team or 14 kids on a team.

Motion that 4 kids from each major team and first. 14 kids on each team…. Split first place team… Majors only… Seconded. APPROVED.

VP’s Need to Know Their League

Discussion about VP needing to be experienced and familiar with the rules for their division.…

If VPs move up to the next level (perhaps to keep at the same level as their child) we need to make sure they are well-prepared and able to manage that division.

…Need to avoid conflicts related to being a division VP and having a child on a team

Kids pitching in AA

Need to cultivate more kid pitching… One resolution is to make sure that we communicate clearly to coaches… e.g… some coaches say they don’t have kids that can pitch… we need to enforce rule that kids pitch.

Question about date for AA tournament? No date picked yet… June 21st and 22nd is proposed…

Suggestion – have tourney (round robin) at Bastek and Smith on Saturday… and championship game on Sunday at O’hara.

Question about Sr. Playoffs….

How to structure tournament… suggested double elimination… four teams… six games max… need 12 games completed…. So even if we can’t make up all 18 games, as long as 12 are done, team can compete.

Motion to go with standard double elimination format. Seconded. APPROVED.

Survey community

Tabled

Feedback --

Comments that community is not getting enough inormation. Ray asks for volunteer to help communicate… Jim will help out Dave… need to be more active on FB….

Playoff Schedule

9:00 -- AA

12:00 – AAA

Major SB 3:00

Major boys 6:00

Sr. boys on Sunday at 4:00

9:00 – Sunday AA

All hands on Deck on Saturday! And Sunday…. Help in Concession stand….

Meeting Adjournment and Move to Closed Session

Move to meet two weeks from tonight. Next BoD meeting is July 7, at MGCC at 8:00. APPROVED.

Move to Adjourn Public meeting and go to Closed Session at 9:30. APPROVED

Move to adjourn closed session at 10:00– APPROVED

Action Items
Closed
In progress with no issues or dependencies or ongoing
Open, in progress, issues being resolved, action(s) being worked
Risk, issue, or critical deadline
AI / Date Opened / Action Item / Who / Due Date / Status
- / Nov 4 / Put out call for coach volunteers – Board Members, Managers, Coaches, Committees, etc. / All / Ongoing / Ongoing
1 / Jun 2 / Find out about getting scoreboard working at Veteran’s Park? / Tom T. / Aug 15 / Open

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