Lacombe Baseball

Meeting August 27, 2012 – 7:00

Attendance: Lisa Otto, Crystal Zens, Heather Fischer, Brian Zens, Sonja Dykslag, Deb Sissons, Dave Braun, Gary Sinclair,

Meeting called to order at 7:15

Approval of the Minutes from the last meeting – motion by Heather, seconded and passed

President’s Report – Crystal reported the advertising signs went well, but they blew off in a storm. Bryan has fixed them up. Bryan and Crystal suggested that they might need to be smaller and they need to be put on puck board not on the corrugated plastic. Crystal took some time to look over some evaluations online and she liked the fact that they asked some overall league questions not just coach evaluation questions. Crystal submitted the samples of questions that she found. The discussion evolved around whether or not make the survey’s anonymous, plus other ideas in regards of how to improve the evaluations. Crystal will take the suggestions and make the revisions to improve the sample that she provided. Lisa will post the coach evaluations on the website. Dave will remind players to do the evaluations when he sends out the player receipts.

It was suggested that the evaluation summary include a statistic on the number of surveys returned and a note to let the coach know they can request to see all the evaluations in their entirety, not just the summary report.

Crystal suggested that we send a letter of appreciation to all volunteers that supported the Minor Ball Association. This year we will put a big thank you to all coaches and volunteers on the website but next year we will collect mailing addresses for the coaches so that we can send a personal thank you to all the coaches for their effort.

Crystal submitted that we need to start considering executive positions for next year and encouraging people to join the executive.

Treasurer’s Report – Submitted

Laurie motioned to approve the treasurer’s report as presented, seconded and passed

Registrar’s Report – Dave will send out the tax receipts.

Old Business

2012 Season Update - Pee Wee level had very strong numbers. A concern was the number of parents needed to help make the younger levels a positive experience. We need to delegate parent helpers better, but it is tough. Too many parents just expected the coaches to control the little kids and run a practice in a field. The coaches had a lot on their plate and they needed more hands to help make the practice/games efficient and a good learning experience. It was suggested that we call the rally cap coaches to see what they thought went well and what needed improvement. Gary agreed to call the coaches. We also needed to do another evaluation at the end of the year to ensure the kids progressed with their rally caps. That did not get done, and we need to make sure that happens in the future. We need to strike a committee to do the front end and the yearend evaluation. Gary Sinclair will call the Rally Cap coaches and get feedback on what went well and what needs to improve.

Update on Raffle – Suggestion that next year we have all families pay in advance for their tickets and then they will keep the money as they sell their tickets and if you don’t sell them then you fill them out for yourself. It needs to be added to the registration form.
Year End Windup Report – Went awesome, great volunteers, lots of people attended
Receipts for Income Taxes – Dave will submit
Advertising Signage Update – addressed in the president’s report
Coach Evaluation Process – addressed in the president’s report
Feedback From Families – addressed in president’s report
Equipment – Bryan reported that maybe we could have spent more on equipment, but we will need to do more purchasing next year because of the bat rule change.
Jersey Purchase Plan – We replaced thecompetitive mosquito and peewee competitive jerseys. We will need one more set for Bantam and Midget Competitive teams. We have 25 jerseys so we have the Bantams covered and we will need to pick up some more larges and a few extra larges for the Midgets and coaches. So likely we will just need to buy about a dozen larges and ex-larges and then we can get them crested. The order and cresting will get done right after our next meeting. The other concern is that we will have more Bantam teams next year and we need get more jerseys because we have so many Bantam kids. The other concern is having diamond space for potentially three teams. Bryan needs to track down outstanding keys, and equipment.

New Business

Baseball Fundraiser –Lisa suggested that we improve our raffle program, continue to focus on our signage program, and then see how things go, we alsoneed to look into considering a casino application.
How do we make the 2013 Season even better?
Need more volunteers
Need to improve the Rally Cap Program
Need to improve the Raffle program process of ticket distribution
Need to designate a baseball diamond allocator
Need to designate a Rally Cap Director
We need to get more people for our AGM and consider having an incentive to attend the AGM – we will discuss that at the next meeting
We need to consider inviting all our stakeholders for the AGM – i.e. City Recreation Director
Bantam Program 2013 – outlook? Numbers look good; we will just need to see how many players try out for AAA programs and who plays next year. We could have as many as three teams, but it will likely be two teams.
Who wants to go to the Baseball Alberta AGM? – Dean Otto will attend on our behalf.
Umpire Fees for next season – put on the agenda for next meeting

Adjournment – 9:10

Next Meeting November 5th, 2011 7:00 at Neighborhood Place

Things to Do:

Identify open executive positions for next ball season.
Let Crystal know if you are interested in attending the Baseball Alberta AGM in November
Once the invoice has been submitted for the diamonds we need to look at that bill and then determine how to make sure we are being charged a reasonable amount. We need to consider negotiating a flat rate with the City for the diamonds. Need to consider possibly have a diamonds allocator to take care of booking, tracking and charging out the diamonds.
Gary will contact the Rally Cap coaches and determine what went well and what needs to improve for next year.
Lisa will post on the website a thank you to the league sponsor and the sponsors for the
Lisa will post some pictures from the season on the website
For next year we need to include the payment for raffle tickets with the registration fee payment
Lisa will post a request for all outstanding equipment and keys.
Need to put on the agenda for the next meeting – Umpire Fees for 2013 Season and how do we get more umps.
Crystal will get the evaluations posted
Dave will get the tax receipts submitted.

Items for the next agenda:

Ump Fees for 2013
New bats for 2013
Executive Positions for 2013
Submit Rally Cap Feedback
Plans for AGM – consider incentive to get people to the meeting