Note provided by Kevin Spartz (all references to “I” are made in reference to Kevin)

1. We discussed the league bye date. We will have 15 weeks of league play. Starting May 5th. Bye week is July 7th. This can be used for any make up games needed. Tournament is August 20th. Vote passed.

2. We discussed that all issues that need a vote, the majority rule, 51%, will be used. If there is any issue w a deadlock, league president will have a vote that consists of 1 1/2 votes. This is for any league matter. Vote passed.

3. We discussed our ejection rule. In the past, the rule was if a player was ejected, they were subject to a fine of $25 and 2 game suspension. A higher monetary value was discussed. Settled on $50 fine and 2 game suspension. Vote passed.

4. We discussed the opportunity to purchase bases for the park district. Vote passed. I will speak with Lisa at the park district to confirm prices.

5. We discussed our current umpire situation. We spoke about self umpiring or having new umpires for this year. Vote was taken, new umpires won the vote. We will have new umpires for the this season. * We discussed that managers need to control/police their players/fans.

6. Jerry from AA has ordered the tickets already. We will have them for the first week of the season.

Please check out the attached rules (see banner at top of page). I cleaned up the format so its not as spaced out. If there are any issues, please email me. I made changes to rules.
Rule 21 – Ejection penalties.
Rule 29 – Removed the 2/3rds voting rule.
Rule 38 –  Added Majority rule.

UMPIRE UPDATE: I spoke w 4 umpires so far. 3 of them can not due to conflicts w other leagues. I have 1 umpire confirmed. He is looking at getting others interested. We have agreed to $25 a game and some type of shirt for the umpires. We will also have a meeting with umpires prior to the start of the league.

Attendance:
Frank -21 Balls
Kevin – Jokers
Justin – Team America
Compy – Elks
John – Hobhobber’s
Sully – Ski’s
Glen – World Famous
Alex – Alpha Dogs
Wayno – Cubbies
Brian – Coldwell Banker

1. Rule change.
Per my last email, we changed the rule on 8/9 players in a game. There are no automatic outs with 8/9 players. I will include the updated rules with this email. [New Rules Document can be found under the Rules Tab on This Site]

2. I ordered 12 dozen balls with Pro Player Sports. They shipped and charged me for 24 dozen balls. This was due to an error on their part. They did not want to ship them back. They made an offer to purchase the 12 dozen balls for $1,300.00. We voted to purchase the balls for $1,300. We do not have enough money to cover the amount. I will charge for the balls and repay myself after we have the funds.

3. We were able to get an umpire for field 3, the hill. Sean Varner. Let’s be easy on him please……

4. So far this year we have paid:

$580 – Insurance
$1,152 – Park Rental
$1,875 – 12 dozen balls
$200 – Ump fees for the first week.

Total – $3,807.00

We have collected fees from some teams. I will post the list after this game. Please get your money to me ASAP, I will be on the hill for the first week.

5. Bart from the Park District ordered a set of new bases. We spoke about it, however, I did not know he was ordering them at the beginning of the year. $414 for a set. I will pay the Park District after we collect league fees.

6. With the unexpected costs this year, we need to push the raffle sales. Please encourage your players/fans to purchase as many as they can. AA will be running the sales so I know they will do a great job.

Please call/text me with any questions. I plan to be at the park early on Thursday.

Thanks,

Kevin

Notes from the March 26th meeting.

Held at Ski’s
Teams present
Mike Compuzano – Fat Boyz        Jerry Metcalf – AA
Sean Haag – Cubbies                     Alex – Alpha Dogs
Greg Sullivan – Ski’s                       Scott Suchy – Coldwell Banker
Kevin Spartz – Jokers                     Chad Gautcher – MVP’s
Hobnobbers

– VOTE – We spoke about turning our league into a 503C charity. We voted to look into more to see if it would be useful for our league. We will look into it at further meetings. We took a vote, 9-yes, 0-no. Vote passed to look into the 503C.
Possible questions: do we have to give money back every year if we are a charity, per the 503C rules? Do we need to add more board members? Does it protect board members? Do we have to tax our umpires?
Addam Kahl will look into this at the bank he works at.

– VOTE – We discussed many options of the open week. We voted on no games on July 2nd due to the July 4th holiday. Vote was taken for playing on July 2nd. Vote failed, yes-1, no-8. Vote failed for playing on July 2nd. There will be no games on July 2nd. That can be used as a make up week if needed.

– VOTE – Due to the tournament being pushed back, we either have an open weekend OR 16 weeks of regular season play. Vote was taken for playing 15 games, 8-yes, 1-no. Vote passed for playing 15 games in 2015.

– VOTE – We spoke about the clear definition of the rule for 9/8 players. It was discussed that some team captains would allow no automatic outs for 9 players and some would. In the past, it  was a captains decision. We voted to change the rule: If a team has 9 players at the start of the game, no automatic out is given. If a team only has 8 players at the start of the game, 1 automatic out will be given to that team at the end of the batting order. Vote passed, 9-yes, 0-no. Vote passed for no automatic out if team only has 9 players at the start of the game.

**My 2 cents…as I’m typing this. It sounds kind of weird…9 players, no outs. 8 players, 1 out? Most of us stated, its already a disadvantage to play with 9, that’s why there is no automatic out. Soooo, why would we make a team that starts with 8 take an automatic out??!? Why dont we just do away with the automatic out? Lets discuss at the next meeting.

– We are going to ask every team to sell at a minimum of 150 tickets for the 50/50 raffle. Tickets are still $1. AA will be getting the tickets and in charge of selling them this year. This will go to another team every year.

– New tournament date. Aug 22nd due to a scheduling error by the park district. I had to secure the 22nd in case that date was taken.

– We spoke about trying to get new porta johns for the tournament. As a group, we understand that we will not be able to get one on the hill.

– Ski’s asked to play late games only this year as they have in the past.

– We spoke about using cones to define fair lines. Brian Suchy stated he could get 8 cones.

– We spoke about the possibility of purchasing a set of bases for the park district. We will speak with the park district about price and see if we purchase 2 sets, if they will purchase 2 sets.

** NEXT MEETING Thursday April 23th. 6:30p at Cub n Spanks. Sean, could you let them know we are meeting there?

Have a great weekend!!!

Just an update of our meeting on Feb 4th.

Managers in attendance:                        Missing teams:
Bo Johnson, Eric Jensen                                Hinks
John, Elburn COOP                                         Team America
Kevin and Addam Jokers                               MVP Erectors
Jerry Metcalf AA                                             Alpha/MVP’s II
Wayne, Sean Haag Cubbies                           Lundeens
Fat Boys                                                           Ski’s
Frank 21 Balls                                                 World Famous
Sean PJ’S
Chad, MVP’s

– Season to start May 7th. 15 weeks. Tournament is Aug 15th.

– July 4th is on a Saturday. Vote was taken to play on Thursday July 2nd. Vote passed. 9 yes, 0 no

– No need to raise fees for the 2015 season. $550 total. $400 for sponsor, $150 for team or however you break it down.

– We will be running our 50/50 raffle again at the tournament. Jerry from Anesthesia Assoc volunteered to take responsibility. They will pass out and collect tickets. They will also sell tickets at the tournament.
Each team will be responsible for 150 tickets. Please encourage each player on your team to purchase 10 tickets.  We will order more tickets than last year.
We will be awarding a $100 gift certificate for the team that raises the most money prior to the tournament.

– We spoke about a different way to run the tournament. I will get the information ready for the next meeting.

– Umps. We spoke about our umpiring situation. We talked about the possibility of umping our own games. Vote was taken on hiring umpires again, 9 yes, 0 no.
We will need 1-2 new umpires this year. We are always looking to improve. Frank had a name of two people. He will get back to me. Jerry mentioned Larry Pollack. I will contact Larry.

– We voted to change a rule. Rule 4: The rule applies if the existing manager DOES NOT  want to return and does not want to turn over the team to the existing players on the roster. Vote was taken 9 yes, 0 no.

“4. Team ownership: A team holds its place in the league from year to year. Any outgoing manager can transfer ownership to a player from the current/prior calendar year roster. If the outgoing manager does not want to cede manager responsibilities, a player(s) from the current/prior calendar year roster has first rights for management of the team. The league must be notified ASAP. If no one accepts the team, ownership will be given to the league president to find a replacement.

If there are team ownership issues, each team will be allowed one (1) representative for voting at league meetings although other players may attend and be recognized by the chair during any discussion. The league president will be 1-1/2 votes to break a tie should a vote be deadlocked.

Any team that has a league fee or fine not paid can be dropped from the league, per a league vote.”

Next schedule meetings: March 26 6:30p at Ski’s and April 23 6:30p at Cub and Spanks

See you at the next meeting. We will go over Umpires, a possible new way to run the tournament, etc.

Thanks!!!

Just a couple notes from the first meeting.

– Chad Walker was at the meeting. He stated that he would not be entering World Famous into the league. Per league rule #4, 4. A team holds its place in the league from year to year. The manager can release the ownership of the team to whomever he sees fit. If no one accepts the team, ownership will be given to the league president to find a replacement.

As a group, we discussed that if the manager releases ownership of the team, the members of the team should have first right for the available spot. Per our rules, it does not clearly state that. I feel we need to vote on this as a league at the next meeting.

– If there are teams out there that are not going to be playing in the 2015 season, we need to know asap. We would like to have 16 teams. Please contact Chad or Kevin to let us know.

– We discussed all games being played at the old park. This was up for discussion, mostly positive feedback for no games at the new park. Items mentioned: games would need to start ASAP, possibly 1/1 count during this time. This would need a vote at a later date.

– We discussed the possibility of no umpires during the regular season. We would hire umpires for the tournament. Items mentioned: teams that are playing provide the home and base umpires, the team before or after need to supply the umps. This would need a vote at a later date.

– 2015 Raffle. Stay at $1 a ticket or raise to $2 per ticket? We need a volunteer to see this thru. This would include getting tickets printed, handing out to managers, collections, tournament sat, etc. Please contact Chad or Kevin to volunteer. This would need a vote at a later date.

Again, if you know that your team is not coming back, please let us know ASAP. We would like to fill the teams to a total of 16.

Thanks!! Have a great holiday season!!